Gregg listed as half-geometric on this list

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/9593/hist.htm#Gregg%20(1888)

Ran across this today.  Interesting to see how someone thought these ought to be categorized.
I’m sorry, I do not know why the links often post as “unclickable”.

(by Shorthand-learner
for everyone)

 


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6 comments Add yours
  1. ROF! You have to take anything a Swede writes with a dash of the Muppet chef's rock salt!

    Did you recognize the Gregg sample is pre-Anniversary? It employs the prefix+TR principle as well as writing the next word in the "ing" position omitting the "ing" dot.

    Here's a transcription:

    Mr. D. C. Harper, 25 Market Street, Memphis
    Dear Mr. Harper,
    I trust you will pardon the delay in writing you about the article I received from you some weeks ago. A prominent literary agency is willing to handle it on a commission basis. Mr. Preston seemed to be very favorably impressed with the literature.

    Note how beautifully written the sample is. The pre-Anniversary text used to scan the sample must have been in very excellent condition, probably well preserved in that dry Nordic climate. (chuckling while exiting)

  2. Piqueroi, thanks for your post. Nice to have experts here. I did not know that it was Pre-Anniversary, just that it looks beautiful.

    I thought the Gabelsberger sample quite lovely, too.

  3. Thanks for calling me "expert" .. not so, but since high school I've always enjoyed using Gregg and it served me well at university lectures and then being called upon to take minutes of meetings. Although it's been a couple of decades since I used Gregg professionally, I've continued to use it personally for meeting notes. Now that I'm "retired", I have the time to slowly work my way through the Swem and Blanchard "expert" books for my personal enjoyment. I make it a point to spend a quarter hour or so to study, read, or practice. Dr. Gregg's system is truly a miracle of creativity IMHO after looking at other shorthand methods … and of the various versons, Anniversary is my favorite, although I confess I've added slowly some of the "expert" briefs (which aren't difficult to remember if you've practiced them frequently). I've also added a few pre-Anniversary tricks to my writing which had been discarded in 1929. But as Blanchard advises in his introduction, you are best off using only shortcuts and briefs which you encounter often so they become automatic, otherwise simply write the outline in full as given in the Manual. (chuckle) Of course a Simplified or DJS writer might take umbridge at "write in full" where the Anniversary guidelines are followed. The site that sparked this topic initially is interesting. I suppose the creators got the idea of geometric because of some of the consonant strokes because to make transcription and reading of another's writing the proportions must remain consistent. Actually I admire the self-discipline of members of this group who are independently learning Gregg on their own rather than in a structured classroom environment. Daily repetition and theory reinforcement are so important to initial study … and several of the site newbies have skimmed through the meterial jumping ahead without properly working on reinforcement. Remember that when Gregg was taught in schools it would normally take a couple of semesters to get through the Manual and various "beginning" dictation books and readers. That's 9 months! Hope I've not been too effusive or boring in this missive. ROF!

  4. I like reading your posts. I find them interesting.

    I'm at the opposite end of the autodidactic spectrum. I've been concentrating on the handwriting style which makes the ellipses, slants, motions, etc., so obvious in Gregg.

    Ex: http://www.iampeth.com/books/champion/the_champion_method_index.php

    And working on the Penmanship Pointers, and going over Chapter One in Anniversary and Pre-Anniversary, again and again.

    The slant, the motion, the proportions, the curves, are fascinating.

    It took me years to be fluent in German. Fluency in Gregg will take just as long.

  5. I should add that when Gregg was taught in high schools nationwide, it was set out as a 2-year course. If memory does not fail me, to receive an A at the end of 2 semesters you had to take dictation at 80 wpm and on completion of 2 years (4 semesters), at least 120wpm. Good students could usually do between 120 and 140 on 5-minute takes. We're talking about an 18-month investment of exercise and practice over a 2-year period. So anyone in 2009 doing self-study should be quite happy after completing the Manual to do between 60 and 80 wpm. The Speed Building books from 1945 on, including the "Simplified" editions are excellent because they provide a wealth of graded dictation in texts marked for word-count, giving the students advance previews of words or phrases in outline form which might cause hesitation due to unfamiliarity. Anyone interested in increasing speed has a wealth of material available. (You might receive some very strange looks from members of a Congregation, but why not follow the example of so many 19th and 20th century students by going to a church and trying to take the sermon?)

  6. Nice to know more about Gregg courses. I chuckled at your mentioning writing down the sermon. When I was in college, a girlfriend and I used to write down the harmonic analysis of the hymns as we were singing them. It was great fun. We considered it putting our music studies to good use. Not all members of the congregation were as thrilled with our work as we were.

    I do still see someone writing during a sermon or lecture occasionally.

    I've an aunt who learned Simplified. She says she tries to take down the sermon sometimes, just to stay in practice.

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