Some letters, like “c” and “q”, are totally absent from Gregg; there’s no sound for “c” besides those already represented by “k” and “s”. Having said that, you will find typical phonemes in English—“sh”, “th”, “ch”—that need a mixture of letters into the Roman alphabet, but can each be written with a solitary letter in Gregg. “Though,” which, in longhand, requires six complex symbols strung as well as seven brief ligatures, is rendered with two quick shots in Gregg: “th-o.” But Gregg goes further, eliding unstressed vowels and unvoiced consonants to get at the nugget that is phonetic of word: “bed” is created as “b-d”; “act” as “a-k”; “done” as “d-n”. This economy of spelling saves another 10 % associated with the time that is note-taker’s.
Nevertheless the impact that is biggest from Gregg shorthand arises from its systematic way of abbreviation. By way of example, virtually every page in Gregg, compiled by it self, represents a typical term. Most are useful for several various terms, with regards to the context. Our Gregg friend “b” can mean “be”, “by”, or “but”. The Gregg letter “r” can suggest “are”, “our”, or “hour.” The Gregg letter “t” can indicate “it” or “at.” In this manner, almost 100 of the very most typical terms in English may be rendered in a stroke that is single. Likewise, most frequent English terms have actually a spelling that is abbreviated of or two shots. The elegant Gregg form of “b-r,” for example, is brief for “bring” and it is written in an instantaneous. right Here it really is once more:
And, since 60 per cent of talked English is composed of about 600 of those typical terms, brief forms play a role that is huge accelerating Gregg. “Brief type” is clearly a technical term in Gregg. Anybody can discover the Gregg alphabet in time and most likely increase their composing speed; but in order to become undoubtedly fast—like the residual a small number of Gregg-powered court reporters within the federal courts whom remove testimony at significantly more than 200 terms per minute—you need to memorize dozens or a huge selection of typical abbreviations.
That sounds hard until such time you understand that your mind is chock-a-block with common English abbreviations, nearly all of that you discovered naturally while you required them. Gregg is not any different. While the Gregg variations are in minimum more systematic, so that they accrue quickly.
Nevertheless the brief type is significantly more than a straightforward abbreviation, it is the distillation regarding the fundamental premise of shorthand: never ever compose significantly more than is essential to know it later. Applying this concept, numerous of long, Latinate words are reduced to 3 or four letters in Gregg: “a-b-a-nd” for “abandon,” “h-u-nd” for hundred, “n-a-sh” for “nation.” Quick types had been particularly crucial in the polysyllabic lexicons of medicine and law—fields that, not coincidentally, had been additionally epicenters of shorthand in Gregg’s heyday.
One approach that is especially fertile abbreviation in Gregg may be the utilization of solitary letters as stand-ins for common prefixes or suffixes, according to whether they’re written before or following the terms they modify. As prefixes, these letters could be either attached with or detached through the term. As an example, a detached “g,” written right before and above a word represents “grand,” as in “grandmother,” but in addition as with “grandiloquent,” as well as “granular” (that could be written “g” above “l-r.”)
An attached “k” at the beginning of a word can be the prefixes “con,” “com,” or “count;” so “k-g” is pronounced “cong,” and is the short form for Congress on the other hand. But a detached “k” written above a term could be the prefix “counter” or “contra”; therefore “k” written over a “b”, for instance, is read “contrib” and it is the brief kind for “contribute” or “contribution.”
It’s much exactly the same with suffixes. A detached “g” at the termination of a term is short for “gram,” as with “program.” A“k that is detached is short for “ical,” like in “medical.” And a“o” that is detached the spot of “ology,” as in “biology.”
These types also can be added together to produce longer terms.
“Biological” is created “b-i” followed closely by a detached “o-k.” In this manner, very long, complex terms are paid down to 2 or 3 fast flicks associated with pen, yet stay totally legible to anybody who understands the Gregg system. Combined, the forms that are brief the abbreviation concept account fully for about 50 % of Gregg’s benefit over longhand. Not merely will be the letters simple and simply joined up with, you can find less of these to publish.
The element that is final makes Gregg so blazingly fast is just a technique called “phrasing.” Using this method, numerous expressions that are common be dashed down in some shots without ever lifting the pen through the page. Each of and this can be written individually with just one letter: “i,” written with a quick, right, upward swing that slopes off to the right, represents “it;” “l,” a lengthy, horizontal, upward-facing bend, represents “will;” and, as we’ve seen, “b,” the long, downward curving swing, represents “be. for instance, the expression “it will be” consists of three common words” Phrasing lets you join all three of those letters within one elegant, continuous form—“i-l-b”—that takes less than a quarter-second to publish.
Here is “it will soon be” in the line that is first with “we have actually been” below it:
And you can find literally a huge number of these expressions in Gregg shorthand. First and foremost, unlike brief kinds, they don’t need much memorization; they’re the item of a few simple guidelines.
By the time he passed away, in 1949, Gregg presided over an empire that reached from their head office on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan into virtually every college, company and courthouse in the united kingdom. As he had been fundamentally a publishing magnate—Gregg Publishing put away hundreds of textbooks, dictionaries, research guides, mags, and shorthand variations of traditional literature—John Robert Gregg additionally oversaw a nationwide infrastructure of official official certification agencies, company schools, and testing facilities that endorsed the abilities of most professional shorthand article writers. In the event that you desired to be an professional secretary, you required a certification from Gregg saying you qualified at 150 terms each and every minute. In the event that you desired to be described as a court reporter, you had to demonstrate you can compose an astonishing 225 terms each minute with much better than 98 % precision. Entirely, huge numbers of people passed away through Gregg training plus the Gregg official certification system.
For almost a century, Gregg had been a crucial element of us culture. Since recently as the 1970s, nearly every twelfth grade in the nation taught Gregg. Undoubtedly, every company school & most colleges offered Gregg-certified shorthand courses. But Gregg’s decrease started whenever McGraw-Hill purchased Gregg Publishing, soon after John Robert Gregg’s death. The rise of stenography devices within the 1940s and 1950s steadily drove shorthand through the courtroom (though there are a small number of “pen article writers” into the federal court system). The Dictaphone as well as other recording devices made note that is verbatim less much less essential in work. Plus some social individuals state improvements in women’s rights additionally played a task into the decrease of Gregg. In a period once they had been rejected professions in areas such as the legislation or medication, the smartest, most skilled females usually wound up as secretaries or professional assistants and became gifted shorthand professionals. Within the 1960s and 1970s, as they females started to proceed to better possibilities, 123helpme those put aside never ever became quite because fast or skilled during the complexities of Gregg.
The death that is real for Gregg, though, ended up being the arrival regarding the laptop or computer within the 1980s. Also high-level professionals no much much longer dictated letters with their secretaries; they composed them on their very own on the desktop computers. Businesses which used to own ratings of skilled shorthand authors eliminated their pools that are steno. Today, i am perhaps perhaps not conscious of any school that is high teaches Gregg. It’s nearly impossible to get it taught in colleges—with two exceptions in Kingsborough and Queensborough community colleges in new york, where Gregg authors remain prized by some white glove legislation businesses. The only guide nevertheless posted because of the Gregg Division of McGraw-Hill could be the Gregg handbook, a workplace guide which has no reference to shorthand.
But, as a technology for composing fast with pen and paper—still significant ability for reporters like me—Gregg shorthand never been surpassed. Nowadays, you may need to purchase a vintage Gregg manual on e-Bay and show yourself, but even although you simply discover the rules, Gregg will most likely increase your note speed that is taking. A minute or more with practice and daily use, it’s not uncommon to reach speeds of 100 words. And, paradoxically, shorthand is the perfect complement to the twenty-first Century technology associated with the smartpen.
In the end, shorthand—at minimum my shorthand—isn’t foolproof. Despite the fact that, for brief stretches, i could compose 120 terms each minute, the normal United states now talks at significantly more than 150 terms one minute, therefore one thing is inevitably lost within the interpretation. With my trusty Sky smartpen, however, we don’t need to worry. More often than not, whenever I circumvent to writing the storyline, i could depend on my notes that are handwritten brief quotes and history information. However when we need a lengthier, verbatim estimate, i could utilize my notes as a type of index to obtain the right an element of the meeting, and touch there with my pen to listen to the playback. Forget about regarding the forward/reverse party with a electronic recorder when it’s time for you to transcribe. It is a system that is almost flawless.
