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
