Texts on Diamond Jubilee Series

Hello all,
I am very new to learning Gregg shorthand and am thrilled to have learned the basic outlines. I currently own GREGG SHORTHAND, GREGG DICTATION, GREGG SHORTHAND DICTIONARY, and both volumes of GREGG SHORTHAND FOR COLLEGES all in the Diamond Jubilee Series. Are there other workbooks or textbooks that would be good to find and purchase? If so, where is the best place online to look for Gregg books on shorthand? I am wanting to complete set for the DJ Series and I don’t know what I’m missing. Please advise. Thank you very much, Mark

(by shorthandmark for everyone)


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  1. Welcome to the group, Mark.  I see that you have almost one year of studying in the amount of books you purchased!   The books below refer to the Diamond Jubilee Series, published by McGraw-Hill.  There are other books by other publishers, but I'm going to refer only to the ones by MGH.  McGraw-Hill used to publish two sets of books of shorthand, one for high school and another for college.  The books intended for college education say it clearly on the title.  The material in both sets of books is essentially the same.  The other consideration is that two editions were published of each of the books: one in 1963 and another in 1971.  The material in the two editions is slightly different, but the principles are the same.   Below is a correspondence among the books (= means essentially the same).   1.  Gregg Shorthand = Gregg Shorthand for Colleges Volume 1 = Gregg Shorthand, Functional Method   2.  Gregg Dictation = Gregg Shorthand for Colleges Volume 2   3.  Gregg Transcription = Gregg Shorthand for Colleges: Transcription   4.  Gregg Speed Building = Gregg Speed Building for Colleges   Each book has a student workbook and a student's transcript:   1.  Workbook for Gregg Shorthand = Workbook for Gregg Shorthand for Colleges Volume 1 2.  Transcription Workbook for Gregg Dictation = Workbook for Gregg Shorthand for Colleges Volume 2 3.  Workbook for Gregg Transcription = Workbook for Gregg Shorthand for Colleges: Transcription 4.  Workbook for Gregg Speed Building = Workbook for Speed Building for Colleges   Typically, the study series is the Basic Principles, then Dictation, and then Transcription & Speed Building.  This is typically about 3-4 semesters, but this can vary depending on the person.  After these, there is another book titled is "Gregg Expert Speed Building", by Charles Zoubek, which is intended for advanced study.   There are also miscellaneous books which help in the development of speed.  These consist of carefully selected material for dictation: letters, speeches, etc.  Very little shorthand is actually included in these books.  There are other sources of dictation material for speed, but I only listed the ones specifically for published for DJS:   1.  Speed Dictation (DJS) by Zoubek – this book contains 180 five-min takes counted for dictation from 50 to 140 wpm. 2.  Dictation for Transcription, DJS, by Zoubek – this one contains 490 letters for dictation at any speed 3.  College Dictation for Transcription DJS, by Leslie 4.  Short Business Letters for Dictation and Transcription, by Zoubek   The dictionaries are:   1.  Gregg Shorthand Dictionary, DJS: both in regular and pocket sized editions 2.  Most-Used Words and Phrases, DJS   (There is also a group of books by Louis A. Leslie, Charles E. Zoubek, Oleen M. Henson.with the label "Individual Progress Method", which cover basics, dictation, and transcription.  Again, same principles, slightly different material:   1.  Gregg shorthand : individual progress method. [kit] 2.  Gregg dictation and transcription : individual progress method [kit]   There are also Adult Education kits, which contain disks, workbooks, and transcript.)   Where can you find these?  Good sources are eBay, Abebooks, Barnes and Noble, and other used book stores.

  2. Thank you so much, Chuck, for the wealth of information that you shared with me. I get sort of trigger happy when I become interested in a new thing and shorthand has become my new "thing" to learn and become profficient. Do you have any pointers on a self-study approach to shorthand? I try to practice every day and put words and simple phrases on paper in longhand to then write in shorthand. I know that nothing beats a classroom session with a teacher but there are none available to me in my area (Des Moines, Iowa). I know that all the books say practice, practice, practice but would appreciate any additional pointers you could provide. Thanks again so much for your time and information.

  3. ShorthandMark,  Chuck has provided you with a wealth of resources. I recommend that in purchasing any of these that you look for them on ABE.com. The prices are usually quite low since these books are relatively easy to obtain. Only do Ebay auctions after you have checked Buy It Now  on Ebay. Otherwise you might get involved in a bidding contest that leads to outrageous prices. If you do bid on something you really want you need to check in on the item about six minutes prior to the end of the auction because there are vultures out there who watch an item, enter no bid for days and then swoop in during those final minutes and attempt to outbid you! ABE allows you to buy the item immediately and relatively cheaply. DOC

  4. I'm glad I was of help.   In terms of pointers, I recommend you going to Marc Semler's wonderful website:   http://www.geocities.com/shorthandshorthandshorthand   It gives you pointers on how to study, and what are some tried and true approaches.  Marc is also a member of this group and he posts often.   One of the things to remember in studying shorthand is to know the lesson very well before advancing (master before speed), so that the outlines are impressed in memory.  That is how you achieve speed — outlines flowing automatically.   If you have questions, post them here.  Someone will definitely answer.

  5. I think I'm the other Marc to whom Marc is referring. . . .

    Personally, I don't think one edition is "better" than another, especially by the time DJ rolled around. The controls for avoiding errors in the shorthand, for avoiding errors in the transcript, etc., were well developed and quite tight.

    Sure, there were occasional errors where a word is used before the theory is taught or there's an error in grammar or spelling which went unnoticed, but that happened in almost every edition. If an error was caught, the plates were corrected for subsequent printings but, due to the expense and time needed to make such a change, all known errors were not corrected!

    My thoughts on Series 90 are well known so I'll spare you all.

    Marc

  6. Chuck   Can you let us in on the other publishers of DJ materials? SouthWestern publishers, or something like that? I've seen some "shorthand" books published around the right time, but no mention in the listing whether it's Gregg or whatever. I'm looking for a little more material.

  7. South-Western Publishing Company, in Cincinnati (I don't know if they're still in business) published a book entitled "Shorthand Dictation Studies" by Bowman (later editions by Bowman and Oliverio).  I have editions from 1939, 1950, 1961, and 1966.  The last one uses the Diamond Jubilee theory.  I don't think they add a great deal of value to the books published by Gregg, and I don't have any idea how widely used they were (or what the arrangement was that allowed another publisher to use the Gregg system this way).  The shorthand plates were written by Grace Bowman.   I also have a book called "Shorthand Reading and Dictation Exercises" by Eldridge, Stickney, and Stickney, published by American Book Company in 1939.  In the introduction they mention an Isaac Pitman edition, as well as this Gregg edition.    It seems like I might have one or two other "non-Gregg Gregg" books, but I can't locate them on the shelf . . . maybe my memory's fuzzy about that.   Alex

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