The words are so similar.  The impact is so different. 

Domineering is generally negative.  Dominating, in the right situation, can be positive – a leader taking charge. 

According to the dictionary, to domineer is to rule arbitrarily or despotically; tyrannize.  

Dominate is to rule over; govern; control, to predominate, permeate, or characterize, to occupy a commanding or elevated position.  

There are of course people who do not appreciate being either domineered over or dominated. These are usually the people who like to do one or the other themselves!  Or those who like to be independent and free to do their own thing. 

The domineering person will write with down slanted t-bars, which end in a tapered point – the line getting lighter and lighter till it feathers out to nothing. This can be the nag, the whine, the ineffective leader, who nevertheless likes to be in charge. 

If the t-bar is down slanted and ends abruptly, still as heavy as it started, this is the dominating person. Someone with both the ability and the desire to take charge. 

Of course, no personality trait can be evaluated totally on its own.  Our personalities are a result of how the individual traits combine. 

Think for example, if either of the dominating or domineering writer has a blasting temper (heavy t-bar, to the right of the t-stem, not crossing it).   

Or the either of them are overly blunt and direct (otherwise known as “foot in the mouth” disease) as shown in writing that has no lead in strokes when the pen first hits the paper, but go directly into the actual letter formation. 

Or on the positive side, if either writer has a great sense of humor, as shown in a wavy, curvy initial stroke in M or N….  In the domineering writing this humor is often delivered as sarcasm. 

Everything in the personality is affected by everything else, but it is still a bonus when you can identify even just a few things ahead of time by a quick glance at someone’s writing.  So if you’re hiring a supervisor, watch out for the down slanted, tapering t-bars – and if you’re hiring someone as your assistant to do what you say, when you say it you’d be well advised to avoid down slanted t-bars at all in your new employee.