This very nicely printed book, "
The GREGG Shorthand Manual Simplified
", is a pure delight to have and hold. Even if the subject matter wasn't so well presented, it would still be a great little possession to have on the shelf.
Concerning the content, there's a very useful comparison of the various editions of this book since 1888 on the wikipedia page about Gregg shorthand. As they say there, the fastest version of Gregg was the 1916 edition, with which stenographers could reach 280 words per minute. With this "Simplified" version, people could get to 150 words per minute. Then with the later Jubilee edition (which I bought myself some time in the 1970s), people could get less speed than that. It seems that what happened was that every time the brief forms were reduced in number, the system got easier to learn, but slower to use.
I did a side-by-side comparison of all of the theory paragraphs of this Simplified second edition (1955) and the later Jubilee second edition (1971). Almost everything was essentially the same, although the order of presentation in these two editions is utterly different. I don't think they could have scrambled the order of the paragraphs more thoroughly than they did.
One really obvious difference that I found between the theory in the Simplified and Jubilee editions was the absence of the disjoined word-endings in the Jubilee second edition. In this Simplified second edition, disjoined word-endings are in paragraphs 61, 305 and 309.
Also missing in the later Jubilee edition are Ow before N, N-N and Moun (paragraphs 202, 203, 204), Jent, Jend, Pend, Pent (paras 233, 234), word-beginnings After-, Short-, Ship-, Incl- (paras 225, 249, 323), Is Not, Was Not in phrases (para 256), word-endings -ify, -use, -cate, -gate, -ntic, -ology, -pose, -position, -less, -field, -port, -ford, -ton, -town (paras 266, 363, 370, 418, 419, 451, 459, 466), various consonant Omissions (paras 304, 306, 307, 308, 317), compound word beginnings (para 357), Understand, Understood, Misunderstand, Misunderstood (paras 391, 392). These are all bonuses that you get in this Simplified edition, which were apparently dropped from the later Jubilee edition.
By contrast, I found almost nothing in the later Jubilee edition which was not in this Simplified edition. The only later edition additions which I found were the word-endings -quent and -titute (para 364).
In my opinion, this Simplified edition is probably better than the later editions. If you wanted to, you could just ignore the extra stuff which I have indicated, in order to be consistent with later editions. The detached/disjoined word-endings are a particular difference which you will notice if you read "
Alice in Wonderland in Gregg Shorthand
", for example, which is written in the older style including these detached/disjoined word-endings, and using short forms which are absent from later editions.
Conclusion:
I can't imagine a better book than this one for learning Gregg shorthand.
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183 reviews
Alan U. Kennington
Excellent presentation, design, printing and binding.
18 May 2014 -
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Zack
Wouldn't recommend
13 December 2014 -
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Eron
Easy and fun to learn, if outdated text
19 June 2019 -
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C. Fry
Love it! Easy to use and understand. Good for beginners.
1 February 2016 -
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Karen Koon
The use of shorthand has become a lost art. ...
27 July 2014 -
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