Blanchard's Pyramid Plan

Clyde Blanchard devised a method to increase dictation speed, which is helpful if you are in the 60-120 wpm range, and want to increase your speed at least 20 wpm more of where you are now.  The method is called the “Pyramid Plan”, and it is based on taking additional short dictation set at a…

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Errors in Anniversary Manual

The first printing of the Anniversary Manual (1929) was delayed and had numerous errors.  For that reason, a second printing with revisions was made.  Unfortunately, if you buy the Manual from eBay, there is no way to tell from the date whether you have the original first printing, or a subsequent printing (unless you buy…

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DIAMOND NECKLACE in Gregg Shorthand

Gregg Publishing Company produced a number of shorthand versions of literature, among them this story by de Maupassant. “Alice in Wonderland” was published in hard back, as was “The Sign of the Four” by Arthur Conan Doyle and “Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to His Son”. One series was published boxed as “American Readings in…

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F and V

 You’re all such smart people…here’s my dilemma: no matter how hard i try, I can’t write the stroke for F and V. For some reason I can’t get the deepest part of the curve at the top, it always wants to be in the middle, which makes FR and FL impossible to write and F and…

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Gregg Notehand on E-Bay

A copy of Gregg Notehand (the first edition) is being offered on e-bay.  This book doesn’t come up very often, either for auction or in the used-book trade. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=2228&item=2495770247&rd=1 Alex (by alex for everyone)  

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Random musings about words

Here’s a word I like the look of.  I think the word “snowflakes” looks beautiful in Gregg.  It takes a while to write, though! It occured to me today that, in theory, you could write the word “transit” using two t strokes only: the first for the word-beginning “trans”, the second for the short form “it”. …

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Reference for speed building: Diamond Jubilee

There’s a book in the Diamond Jubilee series that those of you who are interested in maximum speed might be interested in looking at.  I’ve had a copy on my shelf for some time, but only recently took a really detailed look at it. The title is “Gregg Expert Speed Building”, by Charles Zoubek.  The Diamond…

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Work my way backwards?

Hi, I just found and joined your group today. Wanting to learn shorthand to write the old fashioned way (no keyboard), without having to wait for so long for my pen to catch up with my thoughts, I first looked at Pitman. My mother had a little old ‘Teach Yourself Pitman’ book and I started…

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Penmanship booklet on E-Bay

George McClure’s booklet “Practical Drills in Shorthand Penmanship” (1909) is listed on E-Bay with a starting bid of $2.50: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=2228&item=2495127957&rd=1 Remember this is a small booklet–about the size of a 3X5 index card.  I would bid up to a price of $8-10, but not more.  Definitely worth having, if you can get it for a…

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