SHORT FORMS & PUNCTUATION

Short Forms

Short forms are very short outlines for the most common words. They use only one or two of the sounds of the word, either a single stroke or a single vowel mark, and so their shape and position have to be learned. This is similar to longhand, where one might use "m" for mile, minute or metre, "s" for second, "p" for page, etc.

Short forms do not have vowel signs. There will be several short forms added into each lesson, to match the item of theory being presented. The majority are written in second position (resting on the line) without regard to the vowel sound of the word.

Stroke short forms:

be it do which have

think them was shall usual-ly

Vowel sign short forms.

a/an the to two/too but who

Although Ish is sometimes written upwards, the short form using that stroke is always written downwards.

Some short forms represent more than one variation of the word, as in "usual/usually". These are always different parts of grammatical speech, so they cannot be mistaken for each other.

Phrasing

Phrasing is the joining together of outlines without lifting the pen. It is generally not necessary to insert any vowels in a phrase, but can be written in if necessary. The first outline stays in its proper position and the second one follows on:
 

to it, to do, to which, to have, to think, to them, but they, but which

do they, they do, it was, was it

for it, for them/they, have them/they, they think

A phrase in shorthand should match how the words are spoken, only joining words that naturally belong together. There must be an angle between them, so you cannot phrase "do it". The outline of the whole phrase is sometimes called a "phraseogram" in the older instruction books.

Tick The

"The" can also be written as a small tick at the end of an outline, written at the same angle as Chay. It is generally written downwards, but upwards if that makes a sharper join. The angle of slope is always the same:
 

pay the, tape the, dub the, both the, bathe the,

paid the, bait the, bet the, touch the

judge the, fed the, fetch the, show the,

have the, think the, was the, do the

which the, to which the, to the, but the*, who the

* This phrase is written sloping slightly to the right, to prevent it looking like another vowel sign which will be introduced later

The tick is not used after a pause or as part of a name, it is only used where "the" runs straight on from the previous word, in order to make a readable phrase.

Punctuation

Normal longhand punctuation marks look too much like shorthand outlines, so shorthand has its own versions:
 

full stop, question mark, exclamation, hyphen

dash, parentheses, new paragraph

The cross sign for the full stop is the one generally given in shorthand instruction books, the joined up version is faster to use and will not clash with any outline as long as it is kept small.

The hyphen sign is used for words that would normally be hyphenated in longhand but whose shorthand outlines do not join well together. If the outlines join well, or there is no hyphen in the longhand, there is no need to put in a hyphen sign. In any case, there is often not a fixed rule in longhand as regards hyphenation:

edge-tape, boat-shape, photo-show

The capitals sign is a hyphen written underneath an outline to signify that the longhand word starts with a capital letter:

Fay Page, Ted Pope, Ed Judge

Longhand letters are best written in lower case, as that is faster. A wavy line underneath an outline is used to draw your attention to any other feature, such as emphasis, unusual word, longhand letters or numerals that might be mistaken for an outline.
 

Ed Page JP, page 8C, photo 2F

All these are sufficient for shorthand writing and fuller longhand punctuation should be saved for the transcription to match the sense more accurately, for example comma, colon, semicolon, quotation marks.

If it is necessary to indicate the pause, leave a larger gap between the outlines or use the dash sign, as the longhand comma is too much like a shorthand mark to be used safely.

Historical Note

In some older books, a short form is called a logogram and the longhand word it represents is called a grammalog (or grammalogue):

Stroke B representing "be" would be a logogram
The longhand word "be" would be a grammalog
The longhand word "bee" and its normal vocalised outline are neither of the above

SUMMARY

• Short Forms are a single stroke or vowel sign for very common words

• Outlines can be joined in phrases

• Tick The is written at the end of an outline, making the sharpest join

• Only very simple punctuation is included in shorthand writing

• Short Forms used to be called logograms

• An English word represented by a Short Form used to be called a grammalog

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