Highlights of Shorthand Penmanship

If you want to improve and develop your shorthand penmanship, these series of articles from The Gregg Writer by Florence Ulrich, serialized from the October 1942 to March 1943, will show you how.

Attachment: highlights-of-shorthand-penmanship.pdf


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  1. This is a really helpful compilation, and it's going straight into my “Gregg essentials” folder!

    One thing though: I don’t understand what point the writer is trying to illustrate with the dotted oblique lines through the words “lair” and “leer” on page 75, second column. What would this be?

  2. Those dotted lines are simply indications of the angle/slope of the penmanship within that particular outline. Handwriting (penmanship) texts of the same era did the same kind of indication of slope . . . there was an "ideal" that the writer should strive for. It's interesting that in shorthand, because of the varying shapes, sizes, and ways of connecting the letters, the slope varies, whereas in longhand (handwriting) the goal was always for a consistent, unvarying slope.

    1. This is true with most facets of the longhand ideal. Another example would be the goal of terminating each outline close to the line of writing. Since shorthand outlines have to be constructed vertically as well as horizontally, it's not possible always to "land" as closely as cursive–a few outlines/phrases here and there practically touch the ceiling or reach the basement.

      But for the most part, the goal is generally reached. How well it is reached can only be assessed by considering overall percentages. By making cursive the basis for his system, Dr. Gregg was much more successful at solving these ancient problems than prior inventors.

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