4.1 Introduction
In this module we are going to put pen to paper and start crafting some shorthand! Like touch typing the art is in mastering the theory and practical skills and your degree of competence reflects the effort you put into the learning the shorthand style(s) most suited to your needs.
Complete the exercises with an open mind (understanding that all new physical and mental skills feel odd at first as it is new neural connections in the brain). By the end of this module you will have a good understanding of how the two main styles, Pitman and Teeline, operate and you can choose how you wish to progress with learning them or a personal derivation most suited to your needs and preferences.
4.2 Pitman Strokes
A stroke (single movement and mark of the pen/pencil) represents a SOUND. A stroke does NOT represent a letter (even if it looks like one!). The size and thickness of the stroke is important. The angle and position (in relation to the lines on the paper) are also important. It is critical you are accurate with your strokes. There is NO room for personal interpretation, preferences or embellishments of your strokes! There are 26 strokes and they have specific names (so you can talk about them, a bit like IKEA furniture!). A couple of the sounds have multiple strokes for use in different circumstances.
Stroke Direction
The individual strokes have a direction (up, down, horizontal). Curves are also strokes with a 'main' or 'general' direction too. Some strokes have extra bits (hooks/circles) at one end. The MAIN part of the stroke dictates its direction. A couple of the strokes can be written up or down (let's not worry about that for now!). Some sounds have two strokes to help them join other sounds.
Stroke Size
Lined paper is usually about 8mm, so each stoke length fits within that, about 5mm. Adapt your stroke size, for drawing word outlines, to personal preferences, paper and eyesight. You may find it easier to start with bigger strokes and then shrink to fit as you get better.
Stroke Thickness
Thick and thin strokes denote different sounds. Thick strokes are for voiced or vibrated sounds (simply touching your throat you can feel the vibration). The use of thick and thins halves the number of strokes you need to learn! Writing the thin strokes VERY lightly makes it easier to differentiate from thick strokes (especially at high speed!). Curved thick strokes need to be thick in the middle but light at the ends to join others stroke. The upstroke is never thick, as pushing uphill with a heavy hand is not possible.
Stroke Practice
The first step is to learn the various strokes, then you can start to combine them in outlines (words) with marks for vowels and other additions. By simply copying and memorising the outlines you will gradually get to grips with the 'grammar' of the language. As you practise repetitions are key and, within reason, you should ignore your mistakes as they slow you down. Simply circle the erroneous outline and try it again, keep moving forward to increase confidence and speed.
4.3 Pitman Vowels
Vowels are added with dot, dashes and other small signs placed near the strokes. Like strokes their thickness, and also shape, are critical to meaning. They represent non- colloquial (Queens) English and are not dropped with regional variation. Long vowels are in general heavier dots or dashes than shorter or softer sounds.
Vowels Reference Diagram
These are the various vowel sounds denoted with either heavy or light dots and dashes:
-Position
-Type
-Dot/Dash
-1st place(above line)
-2nd place(on the line)
-3rd place(through/below)
Short
Light dot a (like that) e (like pen) i (like is)
Light dash o (like not) u (like much) oo (like good)
Long
Thick dot(lingual)
Thick dash(labial)
ah (like path) a (like May) e (like we)
oo (like too)
aw (like all) o (like go)
Vowel Placement
Vowel signs are placed at the beginning, middle or end of the stroke (described as 1st, 2nd or 3rd place vowels).
Vowels are on the left of up and down strokes and at the side of horizontal strokes.
Pitman Outlines
An outline is like a word, collection of strokes and marks to represent the sound of the word. The angle of the stroke, within the geometric form it creates is critical for the outline to be read correctly. The outline consists of a single line with attached vowels and additional hooks/ circles, plus non- attached vowels. Outlines can be written close together to denote a joined word like 'con-fident' and strokes can intersect outlines to create abbreviations and vowels can be missed if they are not needed. The writing speed is increased by only lifting the pen off the page when outlines need
separation. There are additional more complex rules for some outlines which do not naturally appear legible.
Activity: Pitman Abbreviations
Estimated time: 5 minutes
In addition to the strokes to represent sound there are also short forms, also called logograms which represent very common words. The simplest place to start is with the simple abbreviations that are easily incorporated into your day to day work.
Copy out this table of abbreviations at least 20 times to get familiar.
Activity: Simple Outline Practice
Estimated time: 15 minutes
The Pitman method is complex and detailed. It is much easier to focus on learning and memorising a few key outlines which will help you immediately before you get into the complexities and depth of the language.
Create your own reference word list of the top 20 words you think would help you in your work
Use this Pitman converter to work out how they would look (type the word then press the -> Pitman button)
Now practise writing them over and over again (at least 20 times each) until you have mastered them.
4.4 Teeline Theory
Unlike Pitman, Teeline is a spelling based system involving simplification which makes it much easier to learn although the top speeds are not quite as dramatic as Pitman. The Teeline alphabet is the starting point and then the merging of letters and abbreviation of words is what allows it to get much faster. The system relies on the use of consonants and pretty much ignores vowels as they add very little to the identification of the word, unless they are at the beginning.
4.5 Activity: Try the Teeline Alphabet
Estimated time: 10 minutes+
Using the image of the alphabet copy it out, at least 20 times until you are familiar withthe letter shapes
Now copy it out backwards (starting with Z) 20 times
Now randomly write out letters or words to increase your comfort with the new letter shapes
Since Teeline is based on the Roman alphabet it is much easier to get started with it and feel like you are making progress.
Activity: Cut out the Vowels
Estimated time: 10 minutes+
Take the following text and copy it out WITHOUT the vowels in your usual writing style (simply miss them out unless you think they are critical to the word meaning. A fortnight later, by excellent good fortune, the doctor gave one of his pleasant dinners to some five or six old cronies, all intelligent, reputable men and all judges of good wine; and Mr. Utterson so contrived that he remained behind after the others had departed. This was no new arrangement, but a thing that had befallen many scores of times. Where Utterson was liked, he was liked well.
Hosts loved to detain the dry lawyer, when the light-hearted and the loose-tongued had already their foot on the threshold; they liked to sit a while in his unobtrusive company, practising for solitude, sobering their minds in the man's rich silence after the expense and strain of gaiety. To this rule, Dr. Jekyll was no exception; and as he now sat on the opposite side of the fire — a large, well-made, smooth-faced man of fifty, with something of a stylish cast perhaps, but every mark of capacity and kindness — you could see by his looks that he cherished for Mr. Utterson a sincere and warm affection. 'I have been wanting to speak to you, Jekyll,' began the latter. 'You know that will of yours?' A close observer might have gathered that the topic was distasteful; but the doctor carried it off gaily. Now read the text out loud, how easy was it to read the words you had written in their abbreviated, without vowel form?
Activity: Teeline Text
Estimated time: 10 minutes
Now translate the following text into Teeline, cut out the vowels and convert it to the Teeline Alphabet
The little steamer was already flapping her way eastward of the big crescent of shipping, and the low Essex coast was growing blue and hazy, when a Martian appeared, small and faint in the remote distance, advancing along the muddy coast from the direction of Foulness. At that the captain on the bridge swore at the top of his voice with fear and anger at his own delay, and the paddles seemed infected with his terror. Every soul aboard stood at the bulwarks or on the seats of the steamer and stared at that distant shape, higher than the trees or church towers inland, and advancing with a leisurely parody of a human stride. Now read the text out loud, how easy was it to read the words you had written in their Teeline form?
Abbreviations
Another benefit of the Teeline system is the use of abbreviations. These can be personalised to suit your requirements.
For example
Legal and medical work have some very specific common words which can be easily abbreviated.
Abbreviations are also in context: 'D' at the beginning of a letter would obviously mean Dear, but in a chemistry report it could mean dangerous.
Standard Teeline Abbreviations
Here is a list of some of the more common abbreviations, some of which may be more suitable for your work.
Here they are listed with the standard alphabet, they would of course be written in Teeline:
A- auto, after, able, able to, ability
B- bee, beC Local, locals, because, (if below the line)
D-Do, Day
E- Electricity
F- From
G- Go, Gentleman
H- He
I- I (singular), Eye
J- None
K- Kilo, Kind, Like
L- Letter, Lady, a lot, a lot of
M- Me, May
N- Non, Nation, National, Begin, Beyond
O- Blood, bloodspot, pint of blood, or
P- Page, Pence, Police
Q- Queen, question, equal
R- Are, authority
S- South
T- to, too
U- You
U- Very, Evidence, evidently
X- Accident, accidentally
Y- Your, Why
Z- Zoo
SH- shall, shell
CH- Chair(man/woman)
TH- The, Thousand(s)
4.6 Using and Learning Abbreviations
Abbreviating words with Teeline, Pitman or special symbols is the fastest way you can increase your writing speed, and with the most minimal practice. Depending on the reasons why you want to learn shorthand (assessed in Module 3) this is an excellent way to begin improving without the pressure of taking exams. You can create your own resource book where you gradually add abbreviations, symbols and references which work for you from what you have learned. You can also copy out outline, Teeline words or other shortcuts repeatedly in an exercise book until you feel you have learned it. Much like typing drills all you need is to force feed the new knowledge into your brain - which will be happy to accept it!
Fact
With application and repetition you can learn 100 new words a day when learning a new language. So, with just 10% effort that's over 3,500 new shorthand words, abbreviations or outlines per year!
Source: thestudentroom.co.uk
Abbreviation Methods
In addition to the Teeline method of removing vowels you can also abbreviate and shorten words in other ways.
Simply cut the end off words you use often:
gov - government
subj - subject
info - information
intro - introduction
Or miss some letters out (and apostrophise if you want):
govt - government
gov't - government
interl – international
inter'l - international
ckg - checking
ckng - checking
ck'g - checking
The key is to work out how YOU will abbreviate it, and remember it a few days later, which is why a resource book is needed!
Symbolic Abbreviations
We often use specific symbols, from maths, science and elsewhere to convey specific words or meanings.
This list covers some useful writing shortcuts:
→ leads to, causes (indicating it creates a result)
← caused by, because of (the reason something happened)
↑ increase, more, go up, up, better
↓ decrease, less, go down, down, worse = equal to, is, are
≡ Identical to, equivalent, exactly the same as (more than equals, it is defined as the same)
≠ not equal to, is not, are not, can mean opposite
≈ Approximately
> greater than
>> much greater than
< less than
□ Therefore
□ Because
-′′- ditto, same as above (extend the line to indicate what is the
same) & And
# Number
@ At (for example time) ′ minutes/feet ′′ seconds/inches
♂ man, men, male
♀ woman, women, female
e.g. for example
i.e. that is
etc. etcetera, and so on
C century, e.g. C20: 20th
century max Maximum
min Minimum
1o first (use the degrees symbol to represent cardinality, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc.)
UK United Kingdom (each country has a standard letter code and many cities do
too) Q Question
A Answer
v Very
w/ With
w/o Without
Activity: Your Own Abbreviations
Estimated time: 20 minutes+
Create your own resource book (paper or digital) of the abbreviations most useful to your line of work. You will create consistency and make it easier on yourself by producing a standardised list.
If for example you create a lot of 'Actions' notes for meetings how would this be best represented? Would a star in a circle in the margin help you find actions more easily - abbreviations can also improve efficiency and access of information and speed of writing.
-Review some of your work documents, emails or other text and see what you write most often
-Search online for common abbreviations in your field (e.g. medical, scientific, food etc.)
-Write a list (or better still get a nice new note book that fits in your pocket!) of 100 useful abbreviations.
Maintaining your own advanced abbreviation list utilising concepts from Pitman, Teeline and any other abbreviation method will rapidly speed up your note taking.
Module Summary
In this module you were introduced to the theory of Pitman shorthand and had the opportunity to practise some useful outlines and abbreviations. Like learning a new language mastering Pitman shorthand takes a lot of time and initially can be overwhelming. This rule based system relies on strokes to capture and record words phonetically.
The stroke direction, thickness and angle are key to accurately capturing the information about the sound of the word. The vowels are less important but are still captured using dots and dashes which convey open and closed and vibrating vowel sounds which can be important for the word meaning. Instead of words Pitman creates outlines, a single line of curves and straight segments which reproduces a word or collection of critical sounds. Writing and practising outlines, by simply copying them out repeatedly is an effective way of feeding the new symbolic language into your brain.
This module also introduced Teeline, which is a spelling based shorthand style that relies on simplification. It is easier to learn but also takes time and practice to master. Teeline relies on removing word complexity by virtually ignoring vowels and other non-necessary parts of words and uses a version of the standard alphabet which is quicker to write.
Finally, this module introduced you to abbreviations which in many ways are the quickest way to speed up your shorthand note taking and can quickly increase your effectiveness and confidence in capturing information, especially when you produce your own standardised set to frequently use.
.svg)
