A Course of Study for Anniversary

As I said in my earlier post, I spent yesterday reading all of the posts — back to 2004 — in the Learners Aids/Learners Corner section of the site.   My eyes are tired, but I learned a lot.

One major effect was to make me decide to study Anniversary instead of Simplified.  I am only 3 days into Simplified, so now is the time to make the switch.

To that end, I went on a used book buying spree.   I know from reading the older posts, that using the Anniversary 2-volume Functional Method is the way to go and that other books that correspond to the chapters in the Anniversary Edition can be used as supplementary reading materials while working my way to Assignment 21 and the start of writing practice.   I also learned that when I get to that point, that I should go back to the earlier chapters to use them for initial writing practice.

So.. my question is this….. with the following books, in what order should I use them?   Which correspond to the chapters in the lessons and can be used for supplementary readings?   Which should be studied separately after the 2 volumes of Functional Method have been completed?

Here is what I have bought (all for Anniversary)

Anniversary – Functional Method Part !
Anniversary – Functional Method Part 2

Gregg Shorthand – Anniversary Edition (for reference)

Graded Readings in Gregg Shorthand (1930) by Alice Hunter
Fundamental Drills in Gregg Shorthand for Reading, Writing and Transcription
Functional Method Dictation
Gregg Speed Studies – 3rd edition
Shorthand Dictation Studies by Wallace Bowman

and… Progressive  Exercises with Key (1929) that was one of the pdf files I found here yesterday.

5,000 Most Used Shorthand Forms
Gregg Shorthand Dictionary

Thanks in advance.


Previous post:
Next post:
14 comments Add yours
  1. Shorthand Dictation Studies and Functional Method Dictation are meant to be studied after the basic manual is completed.

    For learning Anniversary, the FM manual (parts 1 & 2) should be main book because of the amount of practice material and the inclusion of the key. The other books are correlated with the lessons of the manual, so they can be studied along for additional practice. The 5000 forms book is also correlated and contains additional words. The Anniversary dictionary is a reference.

    Good luck!

  2. Could someone say what is unique about the Wallace Bowman book? I'm wondering how many and which Anniversary and Pre-Anni books are useful to make a well-rounded course of study.

    Thanks very much!

    1. For a well-rounded course of study, if you want to continue to improve after you finish the manual, you need a second semester to reinforce the concepts and get introduced to dictation. At the time Bowman's book was published, the teaching of dictation was relying on books with very little shorthand and a lot of printed text. Bowman's book contains approximately an equal amount of shorthand reading material and printed text. It also presents vocabulary that is not in the regular manual, and it contains an index with all the words. It's a very good book. Two Anniversary editions (1939 and 1947), three simplified editions (1950, 1961, and 1966) and a DJS edition (1966) were published.

      Louis Leslie published "Functional Method Dictation" since they found from their research that having a dictation book written in shorthand is much more useful than one that relies on printed text, because of the added reading practice (that's why in the later series, all dictation books are written entirely in shorthand). Using either one of those books for a second shorthand course is perfectly fine.

    2. Carlos, thank you very much! I have the Functional Method Dictation, and will get the Bowman book. I want to have the books on hand, when I am ready for them. Thank you for your kind help. 🙂

  3. Interesting. I had no idea there was a "Functional Method Dictation" book.

    On a side note I apologize for being so quiet on here. Life has been upside down lately and haven't had much time.

    I hope everyone is well 🙂

    1. The Functional Method Dictation book is only in Anniversary. The subsequent series just have a single dictation book ("Gregg Dictation" for Simplified and DJS, "Gregg Dictation and Introductory Transcription" for S90, "Gregg Shorthand: Dictation and Transcription" for Centennial, and "Gregg Shorthand for Colleges Vol. 2" for Simplified, DJS, S90, and Centennial)..

  4. If it wouldn't be too much trouble, would someone mind listing out all the anniversary books from Carlos' book covers PDF in order of use? I've gathered some can be used in parallel or as alternatives, so maybe a "tree" structure would make the most sense? I saw orderings for other editions of Gregg in another post, but I can't seem to find a complete list for anniversary.  

    As a related question, which anniversary speed building book should I get? Is it worth it to get multiple editions? 

    1. A visual of the book progression is a good idea, although there are so many variations possible! I would need to think about how to do this. If you think of Gregg Shorthand training as having 4 blocks to be studied in order, the first block can be the base manuals and supplemental books, the second block would be a dictation book (FM Dictation, Shorthand Dictation Studies, or both, or some other dictation book), the third block would be an advanced dictation book (such as Gregg Speed Building, Gregg Dictation and Transcription, Speed Drills in Gregg Shorthand, or the like), and the last block would be if you intend to pursue high reporting speeds (Expert Shorthand Speed Course or Gregg Shorthand Reporting Course).

      With respect to the GSB books, they are essentially equivalent, save for the amount of material and who wrote the shorthand. I'm partial to the first and last editions, the first because the shorthand was written by Mrs. Richmond and because it has an outline index, the last (Gregg Speed Building for Colleges, 1943) only because it has a lot of practice material (I think Mr. Zoubek was in a hurry writing those plates!). Unfortunately, Mrs. Richmond only wrote the shorthand for the first edition of the book.

      In the meantime, these posts should help and give you a gist of the order:

      1. Course of Study – Anniversary

      2. A Course of Study in Gregg Shorthand for High Schools

      3. Review of Shorthand Dictation Studies

      4. Seeking Information on Book

      5. Expert Reporting Books

      1. Thanks for the detailed reply! So, it sounds like I already have enough books to do each tier. I'm currently rereading the functional method books (I lost a lot of what I learned after a long break). Along the way, I can use the graded readings/speed studies combined book. Then I can move onto functional dictation for the 2nd tier and finish with speed drills for the 3rd tier. Sound good?

        1. Sounds fine, although I think you should add Gregg Speed Building to the third tier, because of its pyramid speed-building drills. Since you're already planning to do the Speed Drills book, the first (1932) or second edition of GSB (1938) should be fine. That should give you plenty to work with.

          Incidentally, for Simplified, DJS, and S90, the tiers were standardized to 5: basic manual in the first one, dictation/introductory transcription in the second one, transcription in the third one, speed building in the fourth one, and the fifth one being the expert shorthand. In Centennial, the tiers were reduced to 3 (basic manual, dictation/introductory transcription, transcription/speed building).

Leave a Reply