New and need help with finding appropriate book

Hi there,
I am looking into learning shorthand. Actually this is something that I need and want to do in order to excel in my career. I have done quite a bit of research on here today and have decided that Greggs Shorthand Diamond Jubilee is the one for me. Now I need to buy a book to start teaching myself and know I need an introductory book. I have looked on Ebay however it doesn’t specify introductory versus advanced. Are any of those books okay for me to buy? Is there a particular year of publication that I should be looking for? I saw 1971 and 1973. Any help on this is much appreciated.
Thanks!

(by bikegirl92 for everyone)


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  1. Thanks so much for your response.   I have been on ebay again to see if I can find the right book. The problem is that I cannot tell if they are a Functional Method Manual or Regular Manual. I would obviously love to have the Functional Method Manual so I have asked them. Fingers crossed one of them is it. 🙂   Thanks again

  2. I'm about 6 months ahead of you, learning DJS, too. Based on my experience, I'd say there's so little difference between the DJS versions that it's not worrying about. I've got both and use the regular text since it's easy to have the key open beside the book when reading. As Chuck pointed out, the student key is included in the back of the Functional version but not the other. For that, you have to find the separate key. I'll send you a copy of mine if you need it.

    Two things I found helpful:
    1. The DJS dictionary. If you work in an office setting, get a second copy for the office. You'll start to use shorthand for personal notes, forming outlines for words you haven't studied, and you'll wonder, "Is that right?" Also, if you don't have the student key to the text book, you can usually find the occasional puzzler in the dictionary. Somewhat tedious, but it works.

    2. Then there's the Gregg Shorthand I and Gregg Shorthand II "Text-kits." This is Gregg's Continuing Education series. It comes in a little cardboard box that includes a paperback book that duplicates, in condensed form, the school books, a student key, a half-dozen funky little 33 1/3 records of graded dictation and a pad of Self Checks to test yourself with.

    The hang up is the record player. Only us terribly out-dated people still have one. Some later versions had cassette tapes. (Sure be nice if one of the young hot shots on this site could burn these records on a CD.)

    When these kits pop up on Ebay, the Self Check pad is usually described as having only the first few pages filled in, evidence that shorthand is no small undertaking.

    From what I've seen, the mature learner might get by with these materials alone. The first covers the same ground as the beginning textbook in the DJS series; the second duplicates the advanced book. And the recorded dictation really pushes you!

    However, I'd say buy a complete set of high school and college DJS books, mainly so you'll have a lot of DJS shorthand to read. As far as I know, there's no literature in DJS, so there isn't much reading practice outside the school books.

    Everything eventually appears on Ebay. Or Abebooks.com ( which I learned about on this site). I found the student key to the college text books and one of the text kits there. Very useful.

    Warning: Some of the text kits are missing the records which is the only reason to buy them.

    Good Luck!
    Clark

  3. Check the file "gregg-shorthand-comparison.pdf" in the Documents section of this site. It lists the books for DJS. FYI, McGraw Hill used to publish three versions of the shorthand books, two for high schools (regular manual and the functional method manual) and one for college. In addition, there were two editions, one in 1963 and another in 1971. So, if my math serves me correctly, you can learn DJS from six books!

    (FYI, the regular manual and the functional method manual are the same, except that the functional method manual contains the key to the exercises, whereas with the regular manual, you need to get a separate book for the key.)

    If you need more help, let us know.

  4. Here are the covers for the six DJS books.  Any one of those would suffice.  When you finish your introductory study and are ready for a little more advanced stuff, I would recommend to stick to a specific edition if possible to assure continuity.   Gregg Shorthand – 1st Ed     Gregg Shorthand: Functional Method – 1st Ed       Gregg Shorthand for Colleges Vol 1 – 1st Ed       Gregg Shorthand – 2d Edition       Gregg Shorthand: Functional Method – 2d Edition       Gregg Shorthand for Colleges Vol 1 – 2d Ed (also pictured is Vol 2, which you don't need now)       I hope this helps.

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