I am planning to start writing as soon as I have free time for Gregg. A couple years ago, one of my motivations for learning shorthand was to use it for taking notes during (competitive) debate rounds. As I was writing “peace” over and over, I had the idea to use shorthand. (And I figured out the outline during the round!) I have two questions about that:
- Is it beneficial or non-harmful to intersperse single words of shorthand in with other notes? I won’t be writing on lined paper or paying special attention to my penmanship. Is that okay?
- Should I or should I not trace these particular words out of rounds? When children first learn to write, they start by tracing outlines – literally – of the letters. Should I do the same for shorthand? Should I print the pages from the book and trace them or is it better to write them without tracing? Or should I trace only those words that I plan to use over and over in rounds? Is it harmful?
Is it helpful or harmful? Or not?