Speedwriting

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Speedwriting was developed in 1924 by Emma Dearborn, an instructor at the University of Chicago. It uses alphabetic characters and was originally designed for typewriters. EasyScript’s ComputerScript is a computer programme available today that performs automatic translation.

Speedwriting is phonetic with a ‘k’ used for a hard c, ‘C’ for ‘ch’, ‘j’ for ‘g’ in ‘age’. It condenses words by omitting silent letters and only writing long vowels, (and initial short vowels), and using around 100 abreviations for common words and suffixes. In 1942 a stylized script was invented for faster handwriting in which the ‘t’ is uncrossed (l is looped to distinguish them), ‘i’ is undotted and ‘m’ is simple curve like a stretched ‘n’. Sentences are ended with ‘\’ and a ‘/’ is used for omitted syllables.

Common Abbreviations:

. = the
+ = and
v = of
f = for
r = are
u = you
s = is
underline last letter = -ing
overline last letter = -ed
- = -ment
a = -ate.

Speedwriting is more than twice as fast as longhand, due to using half the letters, but it is nowhere near as fast as symbolic shorthand systems. It is more useful for someone wanting a simple system to speed up handwritten note taking rather than for dictation.

The following line is written in speedwriting.</br> . flo lin s wrtn n spedwrit \