"SPEED-WRITING"

Evening Star, Issue 19456, 14 January 1927, Page 13

"SPEED-WRITING"

A NEW SKOnTfJAHD FROM AMERICA It seems impossible to deny the claims of a new shorthand which is written by means of the letters of the alphabet, and thereby avoids the whole difficulty of learning new curves to represent sounds (says a writer in the ‘ Observer ’). It is so very much easier to employ the alphabet ingrained in one’s memory since childhood. When you find also that a shorthand which you can write in letters of tho alphabet is very easy to learn, you are not unduly surprised; there is no new way of expression in writing to take in. The claim of this new shorthand is that we use the forms to which we are accustomed, and therefore can write them easily from the beginning.. When we write, in our ordinary handwriting, very rapidly wo abbreviate by putting “wh ” for ivhich and “wd ’ for would. This new system follows the same principle, but follows it. out completely and scientifically. It is a method by which we can abbreviate any word in English, without confusing it with any other word. After studying many different system of shorthand for many years, the writer. has investigated this new system (it is called ‘‘speed writing”’) in New York, and is convinced that wo have hero an end to the long and often unfruitful drudgery of“ learning shorthand ” on a system of curves, or outlines, which many fail to draw accurately, and still more fail to interpret after they have. written them. This new shorthand is written on the basic principles of the old shorthands, but simply by means of the letters of the alphabet; and. the results of tlio method arc surprising. It seems possible to learn this shorthand in a few weeks, because. people know their alphabet to start with, and have not to learn new forms. Then this shorthand can bo written on a typewriter. Written with pen or pencil, it can bo read again by the writer, or by anybody else who knows the code, at aiiv time afterwards provided the handwriting is clear; for one does not forget the letters, of tho alphabet, whereas one docs forget what one meant to say by a given “ outline.” This new system does not appear to compete with tho oulline shorthands, for extremely rapid and expert reporting, where every shorthand writer i.s a law unto himself,’and can write for his own reading much more quickly than most people care to speak; but it is, undoubtedly, a most interesting system for those who require to take ordinary rapid notes as students, in tho professions, or in business. The effect of this system upon education nlnno is worth considering; the multitudes of pages of longhand notes that might pc saved, and replaced by a few brief legible lines in the new writing—this gives a student, and a lecturer also, something to think about. . For doctors with their case notes, solicitors interviewing clients, and so on, the boon is obvious, and it seems that for ordinary commercial purposes a hoy or girl can acquire this craft in six or eight weeks, so ns to he up to the standard of the ordinary reliable stenographer. It is a very remarkable discovery, due to a Miss Dearborn, an American lady who, like the present writer, struggled for years to find a really learnnhle shorthand. The system which she has worked out seems to be not only easy, but certain. The extraordinary thing is that no one thought of it before. But this comment applies to all discoveries.