If you acquire a shorthand book written before
then, the version will be Twentieth Century (1900) or Centenary (1913, centenary of Isaac Pitman's
birth) and some of the rules and outlines are different. An even older 19th
century book published by Pitman may describe it as just Phonography, which Isaac Pitman
first introduced in 1837. Versions of the system published in the United States during the 19th
century may also have differences, as some of Isaac Pitman's later amendments were
not adopted by his brothers Benn and Fred Pitman. During the 19th century many
other shorthand writers made their own minor amendments to Pitman's Shorthand
and named their version after themselves e.g. Graham, Munson, so these
do appear very similar and quite often they do not acknowledge or mention that they
did not invent the system, or give credit to Isaac Pitman.
Books - Ebay UK will have more Pitman's Shorthand books than other Ebays. It occurs
to me that the same amount of money would buy a well-used older second-hand
book plus a new Noodler's flex pen, or alternatively a smart newly-published
shorthand book plus an indifferent pencil! It all depends whether you are
teaching yourself, or following a course where you have to use a certain book.
The older books lie flat on the desk, as they are stitched not glued, and this
makes a huge difference to your learning comfort. You cannot learn from a book
that is constantly trying to close itself! It would be better to break it
apart, introduce holes and keep it in a ring binder.
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My own original 99-year-old Centenary dictionary |
Please
be aware that some "newly printed" books offered in various places
seem to be simply brand new paper versions produced from the PDFs of very old
pre-New Era shorthand books that are freely downloadable from the Internet
Archive at archive.org. This especially
applies to the dictionary, which is likely to be the Centenary version, please
look closely at any picture of the title page that the seller provides. You might want to
compare the cost of printing the PDF at home, versus the cost of buying from
others. New Era versions of books are unlikely to be out of copyright at
present, although the New Era Shorthand Instructor PDF is now available as download:
https://archive.org/details/pitmansshorthand00pitm
To my knowledge there is no New Era book that does not have those words on the cover, spine or title page, and if your copy does not have them, then it is unlikely to be the New Era version.
https://archive.org/details/pitmansshorthand00pitm
To my knowledge there is no New Era book that does not have those words on the cover, spine or title page, and if your copy does not have them, then it is unlikely to be the New Era version.
Pitman 2000 was introduced in the 1970's, aimed at office workers
who did not need to attain high speeds, with simplified rules and fewer
short forms and contractions. The aim was easier learning, at the cost of some
outlines being longer or slightly more awkward to write, but it was felt that
this was not an issue at slower speeds. It was not created to replace New Era, but as an alternative for office workers who do not need such high speeds as verbatim writers. New Era writers can read it without any
difficulty, but the reverse is not so. If you have learned Pitman 2000, there
is no reason why you should not adopt any New Era outline that you feel is more
convenient, as long as the change does not produce hesitation instead of the
desired increase in speed. As you would not then be writing pure Pitman 2000,
you should check the rules for any speed exams that you might wish to take, where
you have to state the system you are using. This would also be an issue if you
wished to become a shorthand teacher, when you would have to backtrack on your
adopted outlines. It would be helpful to keep a record of any non-P2000
outlines you are using, to cover all eventualities and to use for your own
further drilling to remove any hesitations.
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Sample of Teeline from the original 1969 manual |
Teeline is an alphabet-based system created and published in 1968 (trial handbook) and 1969 (first manual) by James Hill (a Pitman's writer) and consists of streamlined versions of the normal Roman alphabet with
omission of most vowels. The similarity of the shapes with letters of the
alphabet is helpful in overcoming unfamiliarity in the early stages. This
produces outlines a fair bit longer than either Pitman's or Gregg, and
therefore a much lower speed ceiling. It is the system presently taught in
the UK to journalists. It is
ideal for taking journalist-type notes rather than prolonged and fast verbatim
work.
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Sample of Gregg Simplified from a 1959 manual |
Gregg is the system popular
in the USA , created and published in 1893 by John Robert Gregg. It is equal to
Pitman's in speed capability. It does not use thick/thin lines and so does not
need a flexible nib. It does not use position writing but includes vowels
within the outline, therefore lined paper is not essential but useful in
encouraging a consistent outline size, which is important as the line length in outlines is
meaningful. It is sometimes referred to as Lightline
Phonography.
There are several versions of Gregg of
differing simplicity, and you should be aware that here Anniversary is indeed a
version name, often called just Anni by devotees. Ebay US will have the most books on offer.
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Sample of PitmanScript from manual "Basic Text" |
PitmanScript This is a method created by high-speed Pitman's writer and author Emily D Smith in the 1970's. It replaces the most common letters of the alphabet with simple strokes, but retains the other normal letters of the alphabet. The aim was similar to Teeline, to enable the average officer worker to speed up their writing without having to learn a complete new system. PitmanScript never seems to have taken off, being superseded by the concurrent Teeline, which had similar aims but is able to reach reasonable shorthand speeds as well as being simpler.
