2 Rooms 4 Finally Winter 7 Had Do Did - long-live-pitmans ... piano and the Noah’s Ark toys on ......

Images & Text © Beryl L Pratt www.long-live-pitmans-shorthand-reading.org.uk

2016 January p1 A of 17Blog Archive Pitman’s New Era Shorthand


2016 January p1 B of 17Blog Archive Pitman’s New Era Shorthand

2 Rooms

4 Finally Winter

7 Had Do Did

15 Just Checking

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www.long-live-pitmans-shorthand.org.uk

PDF Date: 3 May 2016

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Rooms

We have been making efforts to visit someof the museums and exhibitions in Londonover recent months. They are all only atrain or bus ride away, so they make agood day out and a break from thecomputer screen and other indoor duties. Ifind the journey equally interesting, seeing

various other districts from the top deck ofthe bus or zooming past in the train, all themore pleasant at this time of year becauseof the hot air emanating from under thetrain seats. This does have thedisadvantage of the shock of the cold airwhen we get off at the terminus.

Rooms

After Christmas we visited the GeffryeMuseum of the Home in Shoreditch, whichhas been on our list for some time, whichdisplays rooms as they were furnishedduring various centuries. The roomexhibitions were decorated for theChristmas season, so that made us hurryup and visit before it all changed. Theearliest room was from the sixteenhundreds, and then on through eachcentury, up to the beginning of this century.The older rooms were quite sparse and myfirst thought was how cold and bare eachone looked. It was not the norm then tohave lots* of soft furniture as we do today,but just wooden tables and chairs. Theserooms looked cold, draughty and difficult to

heat, so keeping warm was more a matterof dressing oneself appropriately*, ratherthan following our relatively recent customof insulating and heating the whole house,or at least as much of it as we can*manage on the household budget.

* “lots” and “masses” Insert vowel as theseare similar in outline and meaning

* “appropriately” and “properly” Insertvowel as these are similar in outline andmeaning

* “As we can” SW circle used for “as we”





Rooms

With chilly rooms on my mind, I wasrelieved when we came to the Victoriandrawing room, with its thick curtains,carpet, and heavy velvet tablecloth, and atlast* I felt this was somewhere that wouldkeep the winter cold out and enable thefamily to enjoy Christmas in front of thefire. It was in this era* that houses beganto have decorated Christmas trees,popularised by Queen Victoria and PrinceAlbert, so this was the first room to showthe beginnings of this tradition. Cleaning upthe dust and the crumbs from afternoontea would not have been so easy, without

the convenience of a hand-held vac tospeed things along, but it did have a cosyand friendly atmosphere and one couldimagine songs being sung around theupright piano and the Noah’s Ark toys onthe table making their way to the floor inorder to play out their stories andadventures.

* “at last” and “at least” Always insert thevowel

* “era” Insert vowels to prevent misreadingas "year"

Rooms

The rooms from the nineteen thirtiesonwards were much simpler and plainer,with fewer pieces and a general absence ofdecoration. They were certainly tidy andeasy to keep clean, with light and space astheir primary aims. Moving on to the fiftiesand sixties, I realised that our own roomsfrom past years had eventually made it intoa museum exhibition. All the rooms wereset up alongside one long corridor, sovisitors just walked past each one, not intothem. I felt like a time traveller going back

to visit houses I had never seen and thenhouses I had indeed seen, and finally onesI had lived in, with the same furniture,furnishings, Christmas decorations andwrapping paper that was so new andexciting at the time. Although theexperience was interesting, I would notwish to return to the style of those eras*.

* "eras" Insert vowels to preventmisreading as "years"





Rooms

Now that we have such a wide variety ofstyles to choose from, and considering theease with which we can re-create paststyles according* to our own taste, it isdifficult to know what a future museummight exhibit to typify our currentpossessions. I am sure they are at this verymoment acquiring items for future displays,as once a style goes out of fashion, it isgenerally shunned for a while, resulting inloss and destruction, until it is far enoughback in time to become someone’s excitingretro find, a fond reminiscence or item of

nostalgia. The few remaining piecessuddenly gain in desirability and value,because the majority have been disposedof as outdated and unwanted. I like to seethese historical re-creations, using realpieces from the past, but I am glad to beable to return to convenient, clean, warmmodernity. (721 words)

* “according to” Write both outlines.Compare with the omission phrase

“according (to) the”

Finally Winter

At last the winter weather has arrived thatdeserves the name. Here in the south eastof England our autumn and winter monthshave been very mild, with barely a frost tobe seen. Last October was the only timethat I have ever managed to put thegarden to bed absolutely perfectly, withnew trees, rose bushes and bulbs planted,fences repaired and painted, and pathspressure cleaned. What spurred me on tothese efforts was the prolonged* mild andmostly dry weather, accompanied bynagging memories of smarting frozen*fingers and numb toes, and regrets for not

getting those last few jobs done earlier.October was my “any moment now” month,when it could turn cold, wet and windywithout the slightest warning - but itdidn’t*.)

* "prolonged" Stroke Ing cannot be halved

* "frozen” and “freezing" Insert vowel toprevent misreading

* "didn't" Inserting the vowel is necessary.Without the vowel it is "did not"





Finally Winter

My devotion to all things green and floweryevaporates in an instant once the air startsto bite my fingertips. I make up for it bygetting some replacement floral decorationonto my computer screen wallpaper andfind ways of persuading the column of hotair from the radiator to waft a little closerto my computer seat. I did manage thisrecently, when I came home on a coldnight, by tucking the edge of a smallblanket behind the corner of the radiatorand then draping the rest of it over myshoulders, making a perfect little hot housefor the few minutes needed. The glove

supply is checked over and plans areconsidered (although not always carriedout*) for knitting some decorative lacywrist warmers so that I can keep my handsgoing for the typing and pen writingwithout looking like a fishwife fromcenturies ago with their cloth-wrappedfingers. No such niceties for the feet,though, which at present resembleshapeless teddy bear’s legs, with layers ofsocks and leg warmers.

* "carried out”" Halving to represent the T

Finally Winter

Unresponsive fingers means typos on everyline and, having been brought up on atypewriter, I always appreciate thatwonderful indispensable backspace key.Screen typing is a million miles from typingon a real mechanical typewriter. The mostimportant* thing was to hit the correctkeys all the time, as it was ink on paper,not pixels on screen. Speeding up beyondwhat one could do accurately (through skilllevel or hand flexibility) was a completeand frustrating waste of time*, because ittook so long to make the corrections,erasing with a gritty typewriter rubber onthe top copy and all the carbon copies

underneath as well. Fortunately the firm’sglossy headed paper helped, but erasureswere rarely* invisible, despite a judicioussmear of white chalk before typing thecorrect replacement letters or numbers.Sometimes starting again with a freshsheet was the only answer but I did not likethis wasted time and it was an incentive toimprove first-time accuracy.

* Omission phrases "mos(t) important""was(te of) time"

* "rarely" Vowel advisable, as it is similarto "really"





Finally Winter

Many years later, I have finally had toadmit that the best way* of keepingextremities warm is exercise, warmingfrom within. Maybe I should stop typingthis paragraph and walk briskly up anddown the stairs for a while, but that mightend up being an excuse to extend* theexercise to the kitchen and its store ofsnacks, if done too often! In past centuries,some of the old country mansions had longgalleries running the length of the house,so that the occupants could walk up anddown and get some exercise withoutventuring out into the cold. Many of these

originated from open walkways that werelater enclosed, as their use changed fromaccess to exercise. No doubt the houseitself was very draughty and chilly anyway,and the only warmth was to be foundimmediately in front of the fireplaces.

* Omission phrase "bes(t) way"

* "extend" Keep the T vertical, so it doesnot look like "expand" which has a similarmeaning

Finally Winter

Activity to improve the circulation is mostneeded in winter but if it is snowy or icy,then picking one’s way over the slipperysurfaces hardly counts as sufficient exercise.Maybe the best place to stretch themuscles properly is in the local shoppingmall, walking up and down the gallerieswhere the only falls are those into thetemptation to buy a big fleecy scarf, a wellpadded hat with added earmuffs, or cosyfaux fur lined mukluk boots. Backdropsand posters around the shop showingwintry landscapes add to the sense ofurgency*, despite the fact that the* snowoutside is really only a dusting and mayeven be rained away by the time I emerge

from the mall. This is all to the good interms of being able to stride energetically(especially if the bus is just coming aroundthe corner), but my little triumphs overadverse weather will have to wait untilanother day. (772 words)

* "urgency" Optional contraction. Fulloutline has N stroke, not a hook

* Omission phrase "despite the (f)act thatthe". Keep the "fact" part very closeunderneath, so it is clear that it is not anoutline from the line below.





Had Do Did

This article practises all the following: had,do, did - had not, do not, did not - hadn’t,don’t, didn’t

I had some notes from him. I do like toread them. I did get them in time.

You had a good week. You do the work verywell*. You did everything you could.

He had a report to write. What should hedo? He did get some help.

She had to go to town. There were* thingsshe must do. She did it yesterday.

We had an email* from them. We do replyto everything. We did send a reply.

They had a nice day. They do like it whenthat happens. They did enjoy themselves.

* Omission phrases "very (w)ell" "there(w)ere"

* "email” and “mail” Always insert the firstvowel

Had Do Did

In a phrase “had” may need a dot vowel todifferentiate it from “do”. It would bequicker to just not phrase the “had” butyou might have already written the phrase

before realising there is a clash. Somebooks show two dots i.e. dot hay and thevowel. In the following sentences, the dotis essential.

Had Do Did

We had let many people visit the office. Wedo let many people visit the office.

We had many emails and letters. We domany emails and letters.

We had loads of work every week. We doloads of work every week.

They had come to see us quite often. Theydo come to see us quite often.

They had a lot of crime in the area. They doa lot of crime in the area.

They had a very good meal at the cafe.They do a very good meal at the cafe.

We had expected some mail. We do expectsome mail.

We had believed his report. We do believehis report.

We had informed the foreman. We doinform the foreman.

They had remembered my name. They doremember my name.





Had Do Did

The tense of the verb tells you whether thephrase should read “had” or “do” butsometimes the verb is the same in bothtenses e.g. put, let, come. Short forms andcontractions like “believe” “expect” “inform”are identical for present and past tenses,but you can write a short dash through thelast stroke to indicate the past tense, tofurther help out with reading back correctly.There is no time to consider* possibleclashes during a dictation, and indeed theymight only be noticed later on whentranscribing*. For this reason it is helpful to

always write them in such a way that theycould be read correctly even if standingalone without any context.*

* Omission phrase "to (con)sider"

* "transcribing" This and its derivativesomit the second R, so it does not look like

”describe”

* "context" Always use the Con Dot for thisoutline, never proximity, to preventmisreading as "text"

Had Do Did

NEGATIVES - “had not, do not, did not”.The first two are identical, and once again“had not”* can be vocalised with the dot ifnecessary. “Did not” omits the second Dsound and would more accurately bedescribed as an omission phrase. It mustalways be written on the line. Sometimesthis is possible in the phrase, other timesyou have to write it separately. It cannot

be helped out with a dot vowel, becausethat would turn it into the apostropheversion “didn’t” described below. Theexamples show the optional dot and thesecond paragraph gives instances wherethe dot is essential.

* “had not” Showing the two dots





Had Do Did

I had not received it. I do not receivevisitors. I did not receive the gift.

I had thought of a good answer and hadnot written it down.

I will be meeting a customer and do notknow his first name.

I lost my keys and did not know where tolook.

You had not received a reply. You do nothave the time. You did not get an answer.

He had not seen the man. He did not getthe email.

She had not been there* long. She did notgo to the house.

We had not expected them to come and sowe did not have everything ready.

We do not believe him. We did not believehim.

We did not get his message and did not goto the meeting.

* "been there" Doubling for "there"

Had Do Did

We had not given it to them. We do notgive it to them.

We had not believed it. We do not believe it.

We had not inspected these items. We donot inspect these items.

They had not manufactured them. They donot manufacture them.

They had not put any effort into it. They donot put any effort into it.

They had not let us in. They do not let us in.

They had not come to town and had notgiven us the letters. They do not come totown and do not give us the letters.





Had Do Did

APOSTROPHES - The versions withapostrophes do not use the short forms,they are all full normal outlines, treatingthe phrase as if it were just one word, likethe longhand does. These are best alwaysvocalised, so that there is no possibility* ofmisreading. “Don’t” must always bevocalised and is written above the line tomatch with the unvocalised “do not”. Theirposition above the line is simply to makethem different from “did not” and “didn’t”.

“Didn’t” omits the second D sound and musthave its dot. My personal preference is toavoid* the official “didn’t” outline because

it adds to confusion with the other threeand instead write it as a full outline, aformation similar to “trident”. This means Ican use the dot for “did not” if necessary,thus keeping that set of three all distinctfrom each other whether they are phrasedor not. However, the official version of

“didn’t” is shown in the blogs.

* "possibility" Optional contraction

* "avoid" and “evade” Always insert thesecond vowel, as these have similaroutlines and meanings

Had Do Did

I hadn’t seen the person before. I don’tknow his name. I didn’t meet himyesterday.

We hadn’t any idea of the cost. We don’tknow what it was. We didn’t ask them.

You hadn’t been there* before. You don’trecognise the town. You didn’t look at themap.

He hadn’t written his report. He didn’t givehimself enough time.

She hadn’t passed the test. She didn’t readall the books.

They hadn’t seen the group. They don’tknow their names. They didn’t want toknow.

* "been there" Doubling for "there"





Had Do Did

UNPHRASED “NOT” - If the two words donot naturally belong together, or if the “not”(or any other word) is being emphasised,then phrasing is not appropriate*. Theymust be* written as separate outlines sothat the meaning is clear. Constructionslike this are best set off with dashes in theshorthand. The accuracy of yourtranscription relies on getting this right.The first set of examples have oppositemeanings, depending* on where youindicate the pauses. Pauses can make adifference to many other* types ofsentence as well, and using the dash in theshorthand notes will help you read it back,get the correct meaning and thenpunctuate the transcript to reflect thatmeaning, using dashes, commas orparentheses. A comma in shorthand isunsafe, being too much like an outline,although you might see them and othermarks typeset in old shorthand books andmagazines within a story that hasconversations, but these are readingpractice and not dictation pieces. The first

paragraph below shows how the meaningcan change according to the* punctuation.

* “appropriate” and “proper” Insert vowelas these are similar in outline and meaning

* Omission phrases "they mus(t) be""many oth(er)" "accord(ing to) the"

* "depending" Keep the Ing clearly fulllength, to prevent misreading as

"dependent"

● dependent = adjective, hanging down,or relying on for support

● independent = adjective, not relyingon anything or anyone

● independence = noun, freedom ofaction

● dependant = noun, a person whodepends on another

Had Do Did

Because of the difficulties that they had,not many of them returned the next day.

They are pleased with the success they had,not the work that led to it.

This is the work our staff do, not every daybut at least* three days a week.

If you do as I do, not as the others do, youmight* finish it earlier.

I want you to copy what I do, not what theothers may tell you.

Do you send emails? Yes, I do, not everyday though.

* "at least" and “at last” Always insert thesecond vowel

* "might" is best not phrased, to preventmisreading as "may"

Had Do Did

They do, not surprisingly, know his address.They do not, surprisingly, know his address.

We had, not unusually, received a call. Wehad not, unusually, received a call.

Did you finish the work? If you did, notmany people noticed it.

Did you finish the work? If you did not,many people noticed it.





Had Do Did

Despite the work that the staff did, notmuch improvement was seen.

This happened because of what he did, notwhat he said.

Whatever he did, not many peopleappreciated his efforts.

It was clear what they did, not to say thatthey will admit to it.

There is a lot of unseen work that I do, notto mention replying to all the letters.

We had, not without some suspicion,watched everything they were doing.

They had, not to put too fine a point on it,made a great number of errors.

Had Do Did

We do NOT wish to know all about whathappened there.

I do NOT appreciate this extra work thathas come in.

He said very loudly that he had NOT seenthem for a week.

The children did NOT hand in their work ontime.

Most assuredly we did NOT give ourpermission for this.

Visitors do NOT have permission to enterthis door.

I DO like ice cream and I do NOT like boiledcabbage.

I had NOT been told about this and I doNOT want to hear any excuses.





Had Do Did

Miscellaneous practice:

I had arrived in town, I had not taken long,and I hadn’t experienced any delays.

We had eaten the meal, we had notreceived the bill and we hadn’t seen ourfriends.

Mr Smith had come to the office but hadnot seen the staff and hadn’t noticed myabsence.

They had come a long way, they had notbrought any cases and they hadn’t foundthe hotel.

I do like this house but I do not like thegarden, and I don’t think I will buy it.

We do have the staff, we do not haveenough customers and we don’t know whenthis will* change.

The people do want to come, they do notwant to be left out and they don’t mindsaying so.

* "this will" Downward L in order to join inthis phrase, likewise "this letter"

Had Do Did

They do as they want, they do not followthe rules and they don’t get good results.

I did want to travel, but I did not want togo very far and I didn’t really have anyplans.

We did receive his letter, we did not agreewith him and we didn’t reply until later.

They did enjoy the evening although theydid not stay long and they didn’t meet him.

Mr Brown did the work, he did not complainand he didn’t leave the office until late.

They do not like this town and they don’twant to come here again.

I do not wish to go to the house and I don’thave any plans to do so.





Had Do Did

If you do not see the staff this morning,they might think you don’t care about them.

If you do not understand, then don’thesitate to ask me and don’t forget to writeit down.

We do not have to come to the officetomorrow and we don’t think it will benecessary.

Do not lose any time and don’t forget totake your books.

We do not have a lot of time and I don’tbelieve we should stay too long.

The people do not speak the language andthey don’t know what is being said.

The men do not want to work there and wedon’t know what we should do about it.

Had Do Did

The children do not like to eat that foodbecause they don’t know what it is.

I do not understand at all why I did not seehim at the office yesterday.

I do not work in that town and so I did notget to see him.

Be very careful* that you do not upset him,as he did not get his exam pass.

You do not have to write the report becauseyou did not attend the meeting.

Do not write in the report that he did notagree with the others.

Do not worry about what we did not do, butremember what we did do. (1990 words)

* "careful" Optional contraction





Just Checking

A little while ago I watched a televisionprogramme about the Hubble SpaceTelescope, going through the history of itsdesign, construction and launch, but themost memorable part of the programmewas the discovery of the fault with theprimary mirror. I saw the looks ofpuzzlement on the faces of those gatheredaround the monitor, way back in 1990, whowere waiting for a wonderfully* crisp viewof the stars, when the picture showed upfuzzy and indistinct, and then theincredulity and realisation that somethingsomewhere was very wrong. The pressconferences were polite but strained, andthe voices of those explaining were thinand subdued, attempting to speak inunemotional flat tones to cover their

dismay, which had completely replaced theformer bubbly enthusiasm. After the blamefinding and blame shifting had died downsomewhat, ideas for correcting thedistortion were invited, discussed anddecided upon. Three years later, correctingmirrors and other optical instruments wereinstalled and the scientists finally had theirlong-awaited sharp focus pictures of deepspace in all its glorious detail.

* "wonderfully" The short form covers both"wonderful" and "wonderfully" but as bothmake sense here, the L stroke needs to beadded. When an adjective comes after the

"wonderfully" then it will always needclarifying in this way.

Just Checking

What reminded me of this was an article Ifound today about the new telescope thatwill replace the 25-year-old Hubble,showing lots of pictures of engineers hardat work, assembling parts and running theirtests. I am quite certain that at the top oftheir list are the tests and checking, thistime with more than just one instrumentand with absolutely no assumptions beingmade about the accuracy of the results.This will be the most checked and tested

piece of space equipment there ever wasand there will be no repeat of the previousblunders and embarrassment. The newtelescope is called the James Webb SpaceTelescope, or JWST as the scientiststhemselves are calling it, at least in print,like they do with all the other instruments.I have a suspicion that the names of someof the instruments are tweaked slightly tomake them into pronounceable acronyms.





Just Checking

You may not have any interest in science orastronomy, but all shorthand writers*,whether experienced or just starting, willempathise with the unpleasant results thatfailing to check properly* can have. Theamount of checking that a person doesseems to be* related to the severity of theresults that might ensue. Checking youhave enough bread or milk in the kitchen isfairly minor, but checking you have shutthe windows and locked the door before

going on your way is higher up the prioritylist, and done even more diligently whengoing away on holiday.

* Omission phrase "short(hand) writers""seems (to) be"

* “properly” and “appropriately” Alwaysinsert vowel as these are similar in outlineand meaning

Just Checking

In our school exams we were allowed toleave the room if we finished before theallotted time was up, but I never did this. Ichecked for the general sense of myanswers, I checked for spelling andgrammar, and then checked again for anybits of handwriting that were not crystalclear for the examiner to read, with all theI’s dotted and all the T’s crossed. Some

subjects gave me a reasonable amount oftime in hand, others were barely finished intime, but a quick read through in the lastfew minutes was always attempted, withextra facts that had come to mind at thelast moment squeezed in between the linesof handwriting, which might give me onemore point and bump up my final scoreinto the next higher grading.





Just Checking

Making a transcription* has one extradanger that ordinary exams do not have. Itis so easy to skip a line of shorthand asyour eyes go back and forth* between thenotepad and the screen or paper. The idealwould be to type on screen from the noteswithout taking your eyes off them. Igenerally have a marker on the pad,usually just a flat sided pencil, and I placeit just above where I am reading, so that Ido not need to move it for every line. Ihave to do the reverse of transcription*when making the blogs, moving my pencildown the printed text and looking back andforth* to the paper to write the shorthand.

The method is the same, although theconsequences for me (wasted time) areminor compared to an error goingunnoticed and uncorrected in an exam orjob assignment. This seemingly trivial littleprecaution can prevent major errors anddamage to your shorthand reputation oryour exam pass.

* "transcription" This and derivatives omitthe second R, to prevent misreading as

“describe/descriptions” and derivatives

* Omission phrase "back (and) forth"

Just Checking

Of equal importance is the checking of myown outlines and so dictionary delving istop priority for the blogs. Checking yourown outlines is essential and you will getthe best results if you write down all yourlookups in a notebook dedicated* to thatpurpose, so you can review and practiseregularly until they are totally familiar. Asyour vocabulary of outlines increases, yourspeed will increase as well. It’s all down tochecking, testing, inspecting, examining,assessing and investigating*, so that your

shorthand speed and accuracy can shootoff into gravity-defying orbit, without theneed for major correction of errors, andrequiring only regular adjustments andmaintenance to keep it on track andperforming well. (855 words)

* "dedicated" “deducted” Insert vowels asthese have the same outline, also thesimilar “educated”

* "investigating" omits the first T

2 Rooms 4 Finally Winter 7 Had Do Did - long-live-pitmans ... piano and the Noah’s Ark toys on ......

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