Hello,
As a beginner, my intention is not to question everything but rather to understand the rationale I have observed so far concerning abbreviations and brief forms in Gregg. My question is: why is it so important to stick to them, and why have a predetermined set for each Gregg iteration?
My understanding is that nowadays, people may want to use Gregg in myriad fields and subjects. Thus the legal and/or business focus that warranted coming up with a large number of brief forms pertaining to that jargon may no longer be adapted to our use of Gregg today. My own manual is replete with a host of brief forms I would never use in writing, because they stand for very outdated words and phrases.
More generally, everybody uses brief forms in longhand, and it has been so for as long as writing has existed, yet I don’t know of any language that has established, standardized and imposed the use of certain brief forms. Rather, the norm is to write words in full to ensure optimal communication, and those wishing to write faster are free to use brief forms in their personal notes as they see fit.
So why do we have those determined lists of brief forms to learn? why not let each learner, with experience, come up with their own shortcuts just as they did with longhand?
Another question: originally, when you learned Gregg at school in the 60’s and 70’s (or earlier), was it a mistake to not use a specific brief form?
Thanks.