I'm completely new to shorthand, but I'd like to learn it to help in taking business notes, both personal and from meetings. I've had a look at the table at http://tinyurl.com/prweew which is really helpful, but I still have some questions. I've already started practicing reading from "The GREGG Shorthand Manual Simplified". So:
1. If I want the option of achieving the highest speeds, I'm assuming I should be using Pre-Anniversary, Anniversary, or Simplified (the one I'm reading). Is that correct?
2. In terms of speed, how much faster is Pre-Anni or Anniversary, versus Simplified?
3. How about speed differences between Pre-Anni and Anniversary?
4. How would one choose between Pre-Anni and Anniversary?
5. I understand the memory load is lower for Simplified. How much lower? How much easier does it feel to learn?
6. From my reading around, I'd gotten the impression that Simplified was the best supported of the three fast systems. The fact that the textbook is still available new on Amazon seemed to confirm that. But then the link I posted earlier seems to imply that Simplified is not as well documented. What is the actual case?
7. If I want a "safety in numbers" approach - i.e. if I want to study the one of the three fast systems (Pre-Ann, Ann, or Simplified), is any one of them head and shoulders over the others in terms of popularity, training materials, books, etc.
And now a couple of general questions (but still pertaining to one of the three systems I mentioned)
8. If I wanted to, is it realistic for me to replace handwriting with shorthand completely (assuming that I'm the only one ever to read what I write)?
And - related to that I guess:
9. I read somewhere that Gregg was really intended to be transcribed into typing as soon as possible. The implication was that after a while, you may forget what you wrote. Not sure why - maybe it's because Gregg writing can carry ambiguity. What do you think?
Thanks *very* much for your help. --
(by thomsk for everyone)
Labels: anniversary, general, howto, simplified