There you've got it: a quick program in the technology that made the Irishman John Robert Gregg A american tycoon in the 1st half the twentieth Century.

There you’ve got it: a quick program in the technology that made the Irishman John Robert Gregg A american tycoon in the 1st half the twentieth Century.

Posted 23 October 2019

There you’ve got it: a quick program in the technology that made the Irishman John Robert Gregg A american tycoon in the 1st half the twentieth Century.

Some letters, like“q” and“c”, are entirely missing from Gregg; there isn’t any sound for “c” besides those currently represented by “k” and “s”. Having said that, you will find typical phonemes in English—“sh”, “th”, “ch”—that need a variety of letters within the Roman alphabet, but can each be written having a solitary page in Gregg. “Though,” which, in longhand, requires six complex symbols strung along with seven quick ligatures, is rendered with two quick shots in Gregg: “th-o.” But Gregg goes further, eliding unstressed vowels and unvoiced consonants to make the journey to the nugget that is phonetic of word: “bed” is written as “b-d”; “act” as “a-k”; “done” as “d-n”. This economy of spelling saves another ten percent associated with time that is note-taker’s.

However the impact that is biggest from Gregg shorthand originates from its systematic method of abbreviation. As an example, nearly every page in Gregg, published by it self, represents a typical term. Most are employed for several various terms, with regards to the context. Our Gregg friend “b” can suggest “be”, “by”, or “but”. The Gregg letter “r” can suggest “are”, “our”, or “hour.” The Gregg letter “t” can indicate “it“at or”.” This way, almost 100 of the very typical terms in English could be rendered in a solitary swing. Likewise, most typical English terms have actually an abbreviated spelling of 1 or two shots. The elegant Gregg type of “b-r,” for example, stands for “bring” and it is printed in an instant. right Here it’s once again:

And, since 60 % of talked English is composed of about 600 among these typical terms, brief forms play a role that is huge accelerating Gregg. “Brief type” is really a term that is technical Gregg. Everyone can learn the Gregg alphabet in a day and most likely increase their speed that is writing in order to become certainly fast—like the residual couple of Gregg-powered court reporters within the federal courts who remove testimony at significantly more than 200 words per minute—you need certainly to memorize dozens or a huge selection of typical abbreviations.

That sounds difficult as you needed them until you remember that your head is chock-a-block with common English abbreviations, most of which you learned organically. Gregg is not any various. Plus the Gregg variations have reached minimum more systematic, so that they accrue quickly.

However the form that is brief significantly more than a straightforward abbreviation, it is the distillation associated with fundamental premise of shorthand: Never write significantly more than is essential to know it later on. Utilizing this concept, lots and lots of long, Latinate terms 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 specially essential in the polysyllabic lexicons of medicine and law—fields that, not coincidentally, had been additionally epicenters of shorthand in Gregg’s heyday.

One particularly fertile way of abbreviation in Gregg may be the utilization of solitary letters as stand-ins for typical prefixes or suffixes, dependent on whether they’re written before or following the terms they modify. As prefixes, these letters could be either attached with or detached through the word. As an example, a detached “g,” written right before and above a word represents “grand,” as in “grandmother,” but additionally such as “grandiloquent,” as well as “granular” (which may 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“k that is detached written above a term may be the prefix “counter” or “contra”; therefore “k” written more than a “b”, for instance, is read “contrib” and it is the short kind for “contribute” or “contribution.”

It’s much the exact same with suffixes. A detached “g” at the conclusion of a term represents “gram,” as in “program.” A detached “k” is short for “ical,” like in “medical.” And a“o” that is detached the spot of “ology,” as with “biology.”

These types may also be added together to produce longer terms.

“Biological” is written “b-i” accompanied by a detached “o-k.” This way, very long, complex terms are paid off to 2 or 3 quick flicks associated with the pen, yet stay entirely legible to anybody who understands the Gregg system. Combined, the forms that are brief the abbreviation concept take into account about 50 % of Gregg’s benefit over longhand. Not just would be the letters simple and simply joined up with, you can find fewer of those to create.

The element that is final makes Gregg therefore blazingly fast is a technique called “phrasing.” Like this, numerous expressions that are common be dashed down in some shots without ever raising the pen through the web page. As an example, the expression “it will be” consists of three typical terms, all of and this can be written individually with an individual letter: “i,” written with a brief, right, upward swing that slopes to your right, represents “it;” “l,” an extended, horizontal, upward-facing curve, represents “will;” and, as we’ve seen, “b,” the long, downward curving swing, represents “be.” Phrasing enables you to join all three among these letters in a single elegant, continuous form—“i-l-b”—that takes significantly less than a quarter-second to publish.

Listed here is “it are going to be” regarding the line that is first with “We have been” below it:

And you can find literally 1000s of these expressions in Gregg shorthand. Most of all, unlike quick types, they don’t need much memorization; they’re the item of some simple guidelines.

By the right 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 states. As he ended up being fundamentally a publishing magnate—Gregg Publishing put away hundreds of textbooks, dictionaries, research guides, publications, and shorthand variations of traditional literature—John Robert Gregg additionally oversaw a nationwide infrastructure of official official certification agencies, business schools, and testing facilities that endorsed the abilities of most professional shorthand authors. In the event that you wished to be an administrator secretary, you needed a certification from Gregg saying you qualified at 150 terms each and every minute. You had to demonstrate you could write an astonishing 225 words per minute with better than 98 percent accuracy if you wanted to be a court reporter. Entirely, thousands of people passed away through Gregg training additionally the Gregg official official certification system.

For pretty much a hundred years, Gregg had been a part that is essential of culture. Because recently as the 1970s, virtually every senior high school in the united states taught Gregg. Definitely, every company school & most universities offered Gregg-certified shorthand courses. But Gregg’s decrease started whenever McGraw-Hill purchased Gregg Publishing, right 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 still a few “pen article writers” within the federal court system). The Dictaphone as well as other recording products made verbatim note using less and less crucial in work. Plus some social individuals state improvements in women’s rights additionally played a task within the decline of Gregg. The smartest, most talented women often ended up as secretaries or executive assistants and became gifted shorthand practitioners in a time when they were denied careers in fields like the law or medicine. Those left behind never became quite as fast or skilled at the complexities of Gregg in the 1960s and 1970s, as these women began to move on to better opportunities.

The death that is real for Gregg, though, ended up being the arrival of this computer within the 1980s. Also high-level professionals no much much much longer dictated letters for their secretaries; they had written them by themselves on the desktop computers. Organizations which used to own ratings of skilled shorthand writers eliminated their pools that are steno. Today, i am not alert to any school that is high teaches Gregg. It is extremely difficult to get it taught in colleges—with two exceptions in Kingsborough and Queensborough community universities in nyc, where Gregg article writers continue to be prized by some white glove legislation businesses. The only guide nevertheless posted because of the Gregg Division of McGraw-Hill may be the Gregg handbook, an office guide which pay for college paper has no reference to shorthand.

But, as being a technology for composing fast with pen and paper—still significant ability for reporters like me—Gregg shorthand has not been surpassed. Nowadays, you may need to purchase a classic Gregg manual on e-Bay and show your self, but even though you simply discover the essentials, Gregg will most likely increase your note using rate. A minute or more with practice and daily use, it’s not uncommon to reach speeds of 100 words. And, paradoxically, shorthand is the complement that is perfect the twenty-first Century technology regarding the smartpen.

In the end, shorthand—at minimum my shorthand—isn’t foolproof. Despite the fact that, for quick stretches, i will compose 120 terms each minute, the American that is average now at a lot more than 150 terms one minute, so one thing is inevitably lost when you look at the interpretation. With my trusty Sky smartpen, however, I don’t need certainly to worry. More often than not, once I get around to writing the storyline, i will count on my notes that are handwritten brief quotes and back ground information. Nevertheless when we need an extended, verbatim estimate, I’m able to utilize my records as a type of index to obtain the right area of the meeting, and touch there with my pen to listen to the playback. No longer regarding the forward/reverse party with a digital recorder when it is time to transcribe. It is a system that is almost flawless.

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