Gregg Speed Studies/Speed Study 9

by John Robert Gregg

Layout 2

SPEED STUDY IX
NINTH LESSON

Methods of Learning Wordsigns.—When we consider that more than half the words used in spoken and written language are made up of the words we know in shorthand as "wordsigns," their importance is emphasized. Mr. David Wolfe Brown, the famous Congressional reporter, says:

"It is highly important that whatever the student undertakes to memorize should be memorized thoroughly. From half-recollection comes hesitation; and from hesitation comes loss of speed. Especially in the study of the wordsigns, most students undertake to learn too many at once. It cannot be too often repeated that in shorthand whatever needs to be memorized at all needs to be so mastered that it may come instantly to the mind and fingers whenever wanted."

As the best method of learning the wordsigns, Mr. Bernard De Bear, the well-known English reporter and teacher, has suggested the following:

"Take a double sheet of foolscap and fold it over into folds which will give about twelve divisions in all. Copy from the textbook neatly and carefully the signs you are about to learn, one on each line. Having thus filled the first column, close the book, and endeavor at once from memory to transcribe into longhand in column two. The words having only just been copied, this should prove no difficult task; but any blanks should be filled in from the key and underlined, to denote that the signs were not remembered. This done, fold under column one, so as to leave only the longhand words in column two visible, and transcribe those into shorthand in column three, so nearly as the memory will allow. Gaps can now be filled in from column one, which, however, should not be resorted to until the attempt has been made to work through the entire list. Then retranscribe the shorthand lines on column four. And so on to the end—shorthand into longhand, and vice versa. It may be guaranteed that by the time the twelve columns have all been filled in the manner indicated, that particular set of words or phrases will have been almost thoroughly mastered."

A point to be emphasized in learning the wordsigns is the necessity for plenty of dictation and reading practice. Because of the simplicity of most of the wordsigns, they are apt to be written more hurriedly, and consequently more carelessly, than other characters and thus lose their identity in many cases. The technique of execution should be perfect.

The presentation of the wordsigns in the Ninth Lesson of the Manual is particularly useful for study both in reading and in writing. The "Review Exercise on Wordsigns" gives the forms for all the wordsigns up to this point, and the "key" furnishes the student the means of having someone dictate the wordsigns to him for practice and comparison. The student can make up a list of the additional wordsigns in the same way. The two lists should be written and rewritten, read and reread until complete mastery is secured. The skill in execution—the habit of writing quickly—acquired by the repetition practice on the simple wordsigns, will increase the speed in writing other words. Thus all the work done on a certain type of joining is cumulative in value.

Words of High Frequency.—Someone has wisely paraphrased and adapted the old saying "take care of the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves" into "take care of the monosyllables and the polysyllables will take care of themselves." This is literally true, for the monosyllables make up a very large proportion of all written and spoken language. Mr. Leonard B. Ayres, in his book "A Measuring Scale for Ability in Spelling," published by the Russell Sage Foundation, presents a list of the one thousand most frequently recurring words, from which the following are quoted:

Drill 1.—The fifty most common words

The, and, of, to, I, a, in, that, you, for, it, was, is, will, as, have, not, with, be, your, at, we, on, he, by, but, my, this, his, which, dear, from, are, all, me, so, one, if, they, had, has, very, were, been, would, she, or, there, her, an.

Drill 2.—The next fifty most common words

When, time, go, some, any, can, what, send, out, them, him, more, about, no, please, week, night, their, other, up, our, good, say, could, who, may, letter, make, write, thing, think, should, truly, now, its, two, take, thank, do, after, than, sir, last, house, just, over, then, work, day, here.

Note: The words "some," "night," "last," "just," and "over" are written according to advanced principles. "Truly" and "been" usually occur in phrases and are then abbreviated to "T" and "B".

BUSINESS LETTERS

We-regret, owing, guides, files, delivery, on-the-date, in-your-letter, planning, to-send-the, of-next-month, I-regret, have-not-yct, kindly, cash, office, for-next-year, we-should-like, we-have-had, to-curtail, later, publication, combs, we-wish.

If-you-can, duplicate, thirty, dozen, mortgage, on-your, tenants, roof, leaks, every-time, do-so, if-you-will, leased, if-you-are-not, we-shall-have, to-ask, to-take-care, through, of-your-city, Lithia, water, we-trust-that, agents, blank, which-will, in-making, please-write-us.