There you've got it: a quick course in the technology that made the Irishman John Robert Gregg A us tycoon in the 1st 1 / 2 of the twentieth Century.

There you’ve got it: a quick course in the technology that made the Irishman John Robert Gregg A us tycoon in the 1st 1 / 2 of the twentieth Century.

Posted 24 October 2019

There you’ve got it: a quick course in the technology that made the Irishman John Robert Gregg A us tycoon in the 1st 1 / 2 of the twentieth Century.

Some letters, like “c” and “q”, 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 mixture of letters within the Roman alphabet, but could each be written having a solitary page in Gregg. “Though,” which, in longhand, requires six symbols that are complex as well as seven brief ligatures, is rendered with two quick strokes in Gregg: “th-o.” But Gregg goes even more, eliding unstressed vowels and unvoiced consonants to make it to 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 ten percent for the time that is note-taker’s.

Nevertheless the biggest effect from Gregg shorthand arises from its systematic method of abbreviation. By way of example, nearly every page in Gregg, published by it self, represents a word that is common. Most are utilized for a few various terms, with respect 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” or “at.” In this manner, almost 100 of the very typical terms in English could be rendered in a stroke that is single. Likewise, most frequent English terms have actually an abbreviated spelling of 1 or two shots. The elegant Gregg form of “b-r,” for example, is quick for “bring” and it is written in an immediate. Right right right Here it’s once again:

And, since 60 per cent of talked English is composed of about 600 of those typical terms, brief forms play an enormous part is accelerating Gregg. “Brief type” is in fact a term that is technical Gregg. Anybody can learn the Gregg alphabet in a day and most likely increase their composing speed; but in order to become undoubtedly fast—like the residual couple of Gregg-powered court reporters within the federal courts whom remove testimony at a lot more than 200 terms per minute—you need to memorize dozens or a huge selection of typical abbreviations.

That sounds hard 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. Together with Gregg variations are in minimum more systematic, so that they accrue quickly.

Nevertheless the form that is brief a lot more than a straightforward abbreviation, it is the distillation of this basic premise of shorthand: Never compose a lot more than is important to know it later on. Utilizing this concept, huge number of long, Latinate terms are reduced to three 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 essential 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 usage 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 may 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 in addition such as “grandiloquent,” and even “granular” (and that can be written “g” above “l-r.”)

Having said that, an attached “k” at the start of a term could be the prefixes “con,” “com,” or “count;” therefore “k-g” is pronounced “cong,” and it is the brief kind for Congress. But a“k that is detached written above a term may be the prefix “counter” or “contra”; therefore “k” written over a “b”, as an example, is read “contrib” and it is the quick type for “contribute” or “contribution.”

It’s much the exact same with suffixes. A“g that is detached at the conclusion of a term is short for “gram,” as with “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 together be added to create longer terms.

“Biological” is written “b-i” accompanied by a detached “o-k.” This way, very very long, complex terms are reduced to 2 or 3 fast flicks of this pen, yet stay entirely legible to anybody who understands the Gregg system. Combined, the brief kinds and the abbreviation principle take into account approximately half of Gregg’s benefit over longhand. Not merely would be the letters simple and simply joined up with, you can find less of these to publish.

The last element that makes Gregg therefore blazingly fast is just a technique called “phrasing.” Like this, numerous common expressions can be dashed off in some shots without ever lifting the pen through the web web page. For instance, the expression “it will be” consists of three typical terms, all of and that can be written individually with just one letter: “i,” written with a brief, right, upward swing that slopes to your right, represents “it;” “l,” an extended, horizontal, upward-facing bend, represents “will;” and, as we’ve seen, “b,” the long, downward curving swing, represents “be.” 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 first line, with “We have been” below it:

And you can find literally 1000s of these expressions in Gregg shorthand. Above all, unlike quick kinds, they don’t need memorization that is much they’re the merchandise of the few easy 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 school, company and courthouse in the united kingdom. While 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 certification agencies, company schools, and testing facilities that endorsed the relevant skills of all of the shorthand that is professional. You needed a certificate from Gregg saying you qualified at 150 words per minute if you wanted to be an executive secretary. 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. essay help Entirely, thousands of people passed away through Gregg training and also the Gregg official official certification system.

For pretty much a century, Gregg was a part that is essential of culture. Since recently as the 1970s, virtually every school that is high the nation taught Gregg. Truly, every company school & most universities offered shorthand that is gregg-certified. But Gregg’s decrease began 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 from the courtroom (though you can still find a number of “pen authors” within the federal court system). The Dictaphone along with other recording products made verbatim note using less much less crucial in any office. Plus some individuals state improvements in women’s rights additionally played a job within the decrease of Gregg. In a period once they had been denied professions in industries just like the legislation or medication, the smartest, many skilled women usually finished up as secretaries or administrator assistants and became gifted shorthand professionals. 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 genuine death knell for Gregg, though, had been the arrival for the laptop or computer when you look at the 1980s. Also high-level executives no much much much longer dictated letters for their secretaries; they composed them on their own on the desktop computers. Organizations which used to possess ratings of skilled shorthand article writers eliminated their pools that are steno. Today, i am perhaps maybe not alert to any school that is high teaches Gregg. It really is nearly impossible to get it taught in colleges—with two exceptions in Kingsborough and Queensborough community universities in new york, where Gregg article writers continue to be prized by some glove that is white organizations. The book that is only posted by the Gregg Division of McGraw-Hill may be the Gregg Manual, an workplace guide which contains no reference to shorthand.

But, as a technology for composing fast with pen and paper—still a skill that is fundamental reporters like me—Gregg shorthand never 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 rules, Gregg will most likely double 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 for the smartpen.

In the end, shorthand—at minimum my shorthand—isn’t foolproof. And even though, for brief stretches, i will compose 120 terms each and every minute, the American that is average now at significantly more than 150 terms one minute, therefore one thing is inevitably lost when you look at the interpretation. With my trusty Sky smartpen, however, we don’t need to worry. More often than not, once I circumvent to writing the storyline, i will depend on my handwritten records for brief quotes and history information. But once we need a lengthier, verbatim estimate, I am able to utilize my records as some sort of index to obtain the right area of the meeting, and touch there with my pen to listen to the playback. You can forget for the dance that is forward/reverse an electronic recorder when it is time for you to transcribe. It is a system that is almost flawless.

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