r/shorthand • • 1d ago

Quote of the Week How soon will time cover all things, and how many it has covered already. Marcus Aurelius — QOTW 2026W43 Oct 19-Oct 25

7 Upvotes

r/shorthand • • Jun 04 '26

Note-taking vs shorthand

20 Upvotes

tl;dr Shorthand for quotes, note-taking systems for notes

Shorthand is a great and rewarding discipline:

  • For recording verbatim speech in particular professional contexts,

  • As a long-term hobby or skill investment, and

  • For keeping alive the meaning of old texts written in shorthand.

But shorthand takes a lot of practice.

If you just want to take notes quickly & easily, starting ASAP, you're not looking for shorthand; you're looking for a note-taking system, which can teach you in only a few hours how to get down all the important points from a lecture, meeting or phone call.

You could practice both of course, but if you only care about taking notes and you're already doing so at practical speeds then you're likely to drop shorthand practice before seeing the benefits.

(I will give my personal recommendation for note-taking systems below, and I encourage others to comment with their own, listing reasons/benefits. I've asked that this post be stickied so we can refer new people to it.)


r/shorthand • • 1h ago

Please help with this outline

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• Upvotes

Hi! I'm learning teeline shorthand in class, and we've been given this passage (i've cropped a bunch of it out) does anyone know what the highlighted outline is? The words following it are 'own safety'


r/shorthand • • 7h ago

What shothand is the best to learn for daily use?

4 Upvotes

I recentky stumbled upon shorthand (did not know a writing system like this existed) and immidiatly wanted to learn it! After doing some research I found that what I stumbled upon was gregg shorthand and aparrantly difficult to learn.

I do wish to learn a form of shorthand for notetaking which I do a lot, but I would not need a system for above 100~ wpm. I can deticate arround an hour a day to learning.

What system would be best fit for me do you think? And if you have personal tips and experiences for beginners I would love to hear it!

Thank you for reading, sorry for/if any grammar mistakes.


r/shorthand • • 2h ago

Size and Propositions in Gregg

0 Upvotes

Defining Gregg Stroke Sizes by Range, Not Static Size

It is better to define the characters in terms of RANGE instead of STATIC SIZE. One must set a threshold, a limit for the possible range.

The 3 major sizes in Gregg

  • Small *: S, O, U, E, T, SH, Th, This, P, FK, R, N
  • Big: CH, D, A, TN-ND, B, V, J, L, M, Dt
  • Full size: B, V, J, MN, DD, DIV/PENT, TM

The range rule

Instead of saying:

Small is 1/3, Big is 2/3, and Full is 3/3

It is better to define the sizes in terms of range. When writing at speed, the size of characters easily becomes distorted. Thus:

Size Definition
Small Less than 1/2
Big More than 1/2
Full The stroke touches both the top and bottom of the line (i.e., it occupies the full width)

This also makes reading far easier.

* Yes, I have grouped strokes such as P, Th, O etc., which have progressively smaller sizes.

Why: Keep It Stupid Simple

  • Speed comes from automation.
  • Automation means dumping the work of the mind onto the hand as much as possible.
  • If the representation in the mind is complicated, hesitation shows in the hands.

I am only advocating keeping this mental framework so that you do not confuse the major stroke pairs (P/B, T/D, etc.).

The smaller strokes like O, E, S etc. must be understood to be in the Small category. It is true that these have a smaller size than others in the category, like P, Th, etc. That must be seen as part of the stroke itself.

Analogy

You know that the T stroke is a slant line, and that the K stroke has a bump at the end. Similarly, the smaller size of S is also a characteristic of the stroke, and must not be seen as a sizing rule.


r/shorthand • • 23h ago

Experience Report Shady business - Dansk Stenografi (Worms' system)

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8 Upvotes

So, even though I was confident that I was just going to avoid shading by underlining, I could not resist getting a dip pen and some nibs, and then - not having luck with that - ordering a Kanwrite Heritage with an extra fine ultra flex nib, I seriously found a shady rabbit hole to jump into!

I didn't know that you were supposed to sweet talk the nib for about 15 sessions, but I am happy to discover that it is increasingly willing to flex.

I am still having problems with curved shading, but I guess practice makes perfect 😊🖋️

What we are looking at is a row of briefs, followed by (part of) a reading exercise.

I wonder if me getting one of those fountain pens that fits a Zebra-G nib would make it faster (easier to flex)?

No, I can't get along with using a pencil ✏️ unfortunately 😅😆


r/shorthand • • 1d ago

Struggling in dictation

10 Upvotes

I have been redoing my shorthand again for 2nd time all over again. Cause i got a year break and forgot it all. I didn't practice well too initially. Now that i am doing vowels, i completed exercises and was able to do well in dictation. But not so great so moved to next exercises. Now that i came back and do vowels exercises cause i struggled in later on, i sucked. I can make strokes but it is taking time. What to do?? I have been practicing alot for a week, yet i sucked. Beryl any advice? Or others too. I am unable to get these first place vowels correctly. Can those simple words help me get to the place i want in dictation?? Like i am starting to doubt the book. Btw i use pitman


r/shorthand • • 1d ago

Transcription Request J’ai besoin de votre aide

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8 Upvotes

Après des années à chercher, j’ai enfin trouvé la solution. Merci aux membres pour votre aide.


r/shorthand • • 2d ago

Transcription Request Grandmothers Recipe?

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6 Upvotes

Can anyone decipher what this says, found it in my deceased grandmothers recipe book.


r/shorthand • • 3d ago

Time period to reach 80 wpm in shorthand using pitaman

3 Upvotes

Hello sir, just now I have started my shorthand course, I'm practising 3 to 4 hrs per day with Regular breaks, how Many months will it take to finish theory first and reach 80 wpm speed, my exam is on August of 2027. Kindly please reply


r/shorthand • • 4d ago

SH, CH, and J character sizes (complaint)

3 Upvotes

In most of the other stroke families—F+V, P+B, N+M, T+D, K+G—the length of the stroke corresponds to the letter's length on your palette. Shorter strokes are more percussive, and the longer strokes are softer.

Not so with SH+CH+J. For some inscrutable reason, the rear-palette consonants break this pattern. The softer SH is the shorter stroke, and the more percussive CH is the medium stroke.

Grouping similarly pronounced consonants into similar strokes, and the concordance between their stroke length and percussiveness, is plainly deliberate in the Gregg system. To wit, it's possible—even likely—that breaking this pattern turned out to be more efficient in practice. But I haven't found any explanation in my literature yet. I hope it will make more sense with experience. But in the meantime, it just bothers me.

(Granted, R+L are also exceptions, but they're pronounced completely differently).

Thanks for listening!


r/shorthand • • 5d ago

For Critique in the process of learning forkner, is my writing legible?

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9 Upvotes

the main issue with legibility that i’ve noticed is probably from the fact that i never properly learned how to write in cursive, so idk how to make letters like “r” and “n” look more distinct from each other. also let me know if im using shortened versions works incorrectly 🙏


r/shorthand • • 5d ago

Day 28 - Of Learning Pitman Shorthand From Basics

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26 Upvotes

r/shorthand • • 5d ago

Community-Created Shorthand My school notes in shorthand/Mis apuntes de la escuela en taquigrafía

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16 Upvotes

I'm using rodell to take my notes at school. It works well for me. I took these notes while watching a history video.

Estoy usando rodell para tomar apuntes en la escuela. Funciona bien para mí. Tomé este apunte mientras veíq un video de historia


r/shorthand • • 5d ago

Can someone tell me if this is readable? Court reporting, Pitman?

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6 Upvotes

This is for genealogy research. A divorce court case in Idaho in 1951. Thanks!


r/shorthand • • 6d ago

Can anyone identify this shorthand? American writer, around 1800

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13 Upvotes

These marks come from a private letter written around 1800-1810 by an American official abroad. The writer was born in the 1750s and was schooled in the American colonies in the 1770s.

The marks stand in short runs, a few signs each, mixed with other material on the page. I suspect they are the short common words of the text (“and”, “of”, “the”, “that”), but I am not sure.

The sheet shows the commonest signs and some runs as they stand. A few facts that may help:

  • The signs stand apart, with almost no joins.
  • The commonest are a low wave of one to three cups, a “3”-like sign with a tail below the line, and a rising slash with a dot.
  • About a quarter of the waves have a dot above.

Three questions:

  1. Is this a known system (Byrom, Weston, Mason/Gurney, Annet, a Taylor variant), or a private one?
  2. Can you read any single sign?
  3. Or is it not shorthand at all?

r/shorthand • • 6d ago

Community-Created Shorthand I write shorthand with a pencil. But sometimes my pencil breaks, and I'm afraid it might happen during exams.Which pen should I use to write good shorthand?

5 Upvotes

r/shorthand • • 6d ago

Help Me Choose a Shorthand No videos for Gregg notehand?

6 Upvotes

I have the manual but I’d much prefer videos. When I look on YouTube everything I find is either simplified or anniversary. I was interested in notehand just because I wanted something for my own personal writing and notes that would not be readable to most people. Speed is not really that important as long as it’s not slower than normal writing. Should I do simplified instead?


r/shorthand • • 6d ago

Help Me Choose a Shorthand Looking for advice on which shorthand to learn on my own

2 Upvotes

Hi!- im looking for advice on which shorthand i should learn as i would like to learn a shorthand, any kind as long as it is in english, im very new at this, and i wanted to know if you had any websites to learn said shorthand while you were at it. I would like one that is both clear to read and one of the faster ones while being simple to memorize. Thanks a lot!-


r/shorthand • • 6d ago

Transcription Request Translate into Pitman Help

3 Upvotes

Can anyone help with translating “A chair sits empty, quiet now.” into Pitman. My grandma died recently and i want to get this as a tattoo. It’s a line from a poem i read at her funeral, in the shorthand language she tried to teach me as a young child. Thanks.


r/shorthand • • 7d ago

Spanish Shorthand

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5 Upvotes

Hi I inherited a recipe and I would like to know it's contents but I Struggle with Spanish Shorthand


r/shorthand • • 7d ago

How do I start learning

9 Upvotes

It looks like it would help a lot in school with taking notes. Where should I start learning that is free?


r/shorthand • • 7d ago

Meta I need help [NOT HOMEWORK]

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0 Upvotes

r/shorthand • • 8d ago

Translation?

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10 Upvotes

Can anyone decipher what this note says? Found it in this record sleeve, we’re guessing it was written by my partners late great aunt


r/shorthand • • 8d ago

Quote of the Week "Sometimes, a lie is told in kindness. I don't believe it ever works kindly. The quick pain of truth can pass away, but the slow, eating agony of a lie is never lost." - John Steinbeck — QOTW 2026W42 Oct 12-Oct 18

6 Upvotes