Forensic linguists are the Sherlocks of the language world.
They analyse the way people use slang, dialect words, vocabulary and punctuation to establish a linguistic ‘fingerprint’.
As a forensic linguist, you could be called upon to identify a criminal through the examination of his or her writing style, or determine if a person is lying through linguistic analysis of speech.
Take a look at the importance it plays in the world of crime....
During the Autumn of Terror hundreds of letters were sent to the police and local press purporting to be written by the Whitechapel fiend. Most of them were deemed to be fakes written by either newspaper men trying to start a story or fools trying to incite more terror. Many Ripperologists believe them all to be hoaxes. Other experts believe some (specifically the Dear Boss letter, Saucy Jacky postcard, and From Hell letter) are genuine. A select few have been reproduced below:
Dear Boss' letter
Received on September 27th, 1888 at the Central News Agency, this letter was originally believed to be just another hoax. Three days later, the double murder of Stride and Eddowes made them reconsider, especially once they learned a portion of the latter's earlobe was found cut off from the body, eerily reminiscent of a promise made within the letter. The police deemed the "Dear Boss" letter important enough to reproduce in newspapers and postbills of the time, hoping someone would recognize the handwriting.
A postcard received at the Central News Agency on October 1st, making direct reference to both the murders and the "Dear Boss" letter, is believed to have been written by the same hand. It is reproduced below.
https://www.casebook.org/ripper_letters/
Whether or not the letter is a hoax, it is the first written reference which uses the name "Jack the Ripper" in reference to the Whitechapel murderer. Considering that we know very little about who Jack the Ripper was, can you identify any language features that suggest this was written by someone with very with poor reading and writing skills?