With the introduction of the Diamond Jubilee Series (DJS) in 1963, Louis Leslie expanded on the simplifications that were introduced by him in 1949 in the Simplified Series (discussed here and in my comment here), based on analysis obtained from actual notes written from dictation by students and stenographers. The addition of more simplifications to the system had the purpose of eliminating hesitation in the creation of outlines and facilitating the learning of the system. Further, since pen shorthand was almost exclusively limited to the business office and since the language in business correspondence was rapidly changing with less reliance on stereotypical business phrases, additional speed expedients present in previous series were no longer necessary.
Following DJS, two additional series were published by McGraw-Hill in the US. Series 90 (S90) in 1978 and the Centennial Series in 1988 continued the refinements in the system that were introduced with DJS. For that reason, shorthand plates from these three series are virtually identical, and a writer of any of these series should have very little problems in transcribing texts from any of these. However, there are some differences. This post addresses the distinctions between the three series.
Series 90
The most noticeable change introduced in S90 relates to a reduction in the total number of brief forms. DJS contained 129 brief forms representing 148 words (contrast this to Simplified Gregg, which had 184 brief forms representing 227 words, and the Anniversary Series with 319 brief forms representing over 600 words, not counting words written according to the Abbreviating Principle). In contrast, S90 contains 115 brief forms representing 132 words.
1. The following brief forms were eliminated: put, why, great, those, use, big, how, gone, during, upon, merchant, merchandise, between, railroad, situation, shall, must, such, purpose, year, yet.
2. The following brief forms were added: usual (e-oo hook-sh), Ms. (m-left s), doctor (d-r), executive (e-right s-e-k-v), any (n-e). Notice that “doctor” and “any” were brief forms in Simplified and previous series of Gregg.
3. The following brief forms were modified: work (r-k), experience (e-left s-p), throughout (under th-r-a-oo hook). The brief form for “work” was restored “by popular demand” (as noted by the editors) to its previous form, given that the r-k form had been in use since the 1893 manual and was well-known to shorthand teachers. The outline for “throughout” brings the second part of the compound word to match the outline for “out.” The outline for “experience” was simplified because the previous DJS outline (e-left s-p-e-r) was often confused with “expert” (e-left s-p-r-t).
Additionally, the following changes were made in S90 theory:
1. The dot for wh- was eliminated, since most people pronounce words with wh- with the oo sound, rather than with the h-oo sound – this explains the elimination of the brief form for “why”, since it is now written according to rule.
2. The combination “mem” (and “mum”) is no longer represented by the men-blend. Hence, words like “remember” and “maximum” are written with the e and the oo-hook, respectively.
3. The word beginning “post” is written in full.
4. The word ending “-sume” was eliminated and the oo-hook is added. (However, the oo-hook is eliminated in “-sumption”, because of the omission of short u before m principle.)
5. Two changes to the Abbreviating Principle were added. First, the analogical ending “-graph” was added and represented by a g, and second, the word “statistic” is abbreviated through the second t (right s-t-a-t).
6. The combinations “ye-” and “ya-” are written with the corresponding circle vowel. As such, then “year” and “yet” are now written according to rule.
7. The phrases “more than” (m-over th-m) and “let me” (l-e-m-e) were reintroduced after being dropped in DJS.
Centennial
More refinements were introduced in the Centennial series. In this series, there are 139 brief forms representing 172 words. While this represents more forms than S90, words that were written according to the Abbreviating Principle in DJS and S90 (such as “anniversary”, “equivalent”, and others) were reclassified as brief forms in Centennial Gregg.
1. The following brief forms were added: appropriate (a-p-r-o hook-p), between (b-ten blend), communicate (k-k-a-t), direct (d-r-k), during (d-r), equip (e-k-p), include (over e-d), incorporate (e-nk blend), insure (n-sh), office (o hook-f), product (p-r-o hook-d), program (p-r-o hook-g), property (p-r-o hook-t-e), recommend (r-e-k). Of these, “between” returns to its original outline (changed in S90); “direct”, “during”, and “include” restore the outlines used in Simplified and earlier series; while “insure” uses the outline from the Anniversary (and earlier) series, which is also a reporting shortcut in the Simplified, DJS, and S90 Expert Speed books. Similarly, the new outline for “communicate” was a reporting shortcut introduced in the DJS and S90 Expert Speed books.
2. The following words are now brief forms, even though their outlines did not change: anniversary, circumstance, convenience (convenient), electric (written as the prefix over the line), equivalent, however, memorandum, privilege, reluctance (reluctant), significance (significant), statistic.
No brief forms that were present in S90 were eliminated in Centennial Gregg.
Further, the following changes were made in Centennial theory:
1. The analogical endings presented in the Abbreviating Principle section in S90 (“Abbreviated Words – in Families”) were added to the list of joined suffixes: “-quent”, “-tribute”, “-quire”, “-titute”/”-titude”, -“graph”.
2. The word endings “-ology” and “-iety” were added to the book, even though their writing was not changed. (Previously, they had been removed from the Simplified, DJS, and S90 books, although they were in the dictionary.)
3. Phrases with “ago” and “want” were eliminated.
4. The intersection principle was eliminated from the book discussion, even though it is still used (for example, “A.M”, “P.M.”, the brief form “quantity”, the outline for “New Jersey”).
5. Outlines for the states of the US now follow the USPS abbreviations, instead of using the previous special shorthand outlines.
Some of the principles that were eliminated in DJS and S90 (and present in earlier series of Gregg) were reintroduced in the “Expert” shorthand books and in special dictation vocabulary for medical, legal, and government fields presented in some of the Gregg Speed Building books, as they would considerably help in the attainment of higher dictation speeds.
I hope this post clarifies the distinctions between these three remarkably similar Gregg series.