Gregg Speed Studies/Speed Study 16

by John Robert Gregg

Layout 2

SPEED STUDY XVI
SIXTEENTH LESSON

"Less" and "Ness."—These suffixes are written in full after a vowel, or where the use of the suffix-form would suggest a different word:

Drill 1

Key: formless, tireless, rayless, grayness, correctness.

If written with the suffix, the forms for these words might suggest formal, tile, rail, grain, crown.

It is sometimes necessary to disjoin the suffix after word signs in order to secure distinctive outlines:

Drill 2

Key: clearness, likeness, lightness, nearness, regardless, speechless.

Review Practice.—Speed in shorthand is simply familiarity with the shorthand characters, and fast writing is not remarkable if shorthand is learned as well as longhand. The student of shorthand should be careful to learn the shorthand principles thoroughly. He can observe the thoroughness of his knowledge of the principles when he writes from dictation. He should not allow any error to go uncorrected when reading his notes.

In reviewing his notes he should see that the characters are well formed, and that they are of proper relative length. A short exercise should be written from dictation at a rate which will not crowd or hurry the writer, and which will allow him to make good notes. The student should then read the notes, correcting the mistakes in execution or application of the principle. He should write the exercise over and over again, until he can write it at a high rate of speed.

If the student cannot think of the outline given by the author of his system, or the one that is in his textbook, let him understand the principles so well that he can immediately construct the outline according to principle.

The student, in reading his notes, should seldom ask for assistance when puzzled, and the reader should not help him out too soon.―Thomas P. Wilson.

Off-Hand Word-Writing.—As a means of averting sluggish habits of mind and hand, and a most important discipline in other respects, nothing can be more beneficial to the student than to write off-hand, from dictation, words upon which he has had no previous practice but which can be correctly written in accordance with the principles he is learning or is supposed to have mastered. These exercises cannot be too copious, if the words be properly chosen.—David Wolfe Brown.

Drill and Review on Off-Hand Word-Writing

The following words are intended as a review of principles and to afford practice in off-hand word-writing. They should first be dictated, then compared with the shorthand outlines, corrections made and re-dictated:

Key: (1) electric, fashioned, coal, perquisite, art, uneasy, magnificent, intellect, retributive, slowness, (2) curtain, leisure, abstract, self-interest, restraint, commonly, detract, simple, divide, (3) expire, ounce, altogether, alternate, deflection, oppose, supreme, Farnsworth, thyself, exult, patron, (4) lawful, adjure, McLean, bequest, acute, material, central, friendliness, incline, (5) instruction, contract, basis, themselves, share, exclamation, esquire, announce, fuse, further, susceptible, (6) literary, inflection, over-done, circular, imposition, agriculture, heated, ascribe, treasure, (7) silk, cheers, subway, foreman, depend, improvise, surprise, inner, almost, (8) concern, finally, decision, assert, quick, crush, near, passage, agitation, instances, tendency, (9) useless, manners, someone, signed, etiquette, ulterior, genuine, defense, (10) funny, intention, adventure, yon, easily, swear, ground, earth, perhaps, rank.

BUSINESS LETTERS

Estimates, at-any-time, woodwork, require, established, Wentworth, has-taken, territory, if-you-want, flour, treatment, replying-to-your-inquiry, we-have-not-yet, Hubert, Osborne, we-have-not-been-able, railroad-company, on-account-of-the, embargo, safeguard, thoughtfully.

To-your-inquiry, Hamilton, Kingston, one-hundred-dollars, entire-satisfaction, deposited, three-thousand-dollars, Alfred, Ward, cashier-of-the-bank, assigned, this-note, for-that-reason, Farnsworth, supply, we-expect, Decatur, under-contract, rosin, requirements, shortly.

Next-year's, consumption, we-are-in-a-position, to-quote, concentrating, yards, to-make, prompt, Simpson, I-wish, delightful, Current, Club, who-asked, orchestra, indication, in-the-near-future, we-have-your, indorsement, in-which-you-state, for-one-year, as-the-rate, reduction.

THE YOUNG MAN IN BUSINESS

George B. Cortelyou

It-seems-to-me, young-man, emphasized, honesty, broadest, fullest, significance, possesses, achieved, men, scrupulous, standards, conduct, unfortunately, methods, primary, virtues, little-or-no, hardened, shriveled, struggle, no-one, fearful, cost, human, social, betterment.