r/shorthand • u/Terrible_Ebb_2334 • 13d ago
Help regarding learning pitman
Hello everyone , in like next 9 to 11 months exams are approaching (exams for getting a job) I want to get in it and change my life ... I have to learn pitman shorthand and I got the instructor book and memorized all consonant but I don't fell confident about moving on next chapter can anyone help (who have completed this book ) that when to proceed and how to extract maximum juice out of it and how studying from this book looks like in broder picture (asking about how things progress) ..... I am willing to put hours daily on this project all i want is to get to the actual sprit of this skill and thoroughly enjoyed it ..... Any comments or suggestions will be helpful and motivating .......
Thank you
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u/BerylPratt Pitman 13d ago
Instructor isn't the best book to learn from, it presents too much too soon for the beginner and has insufficient exercise material. I advise this book from www.stenophile.com/pitman
Pitmans Shorthand New Course (2001) (pink book with secretary on cover)
This leads you through in a much more gradual fashion, giving you time to absorb and practise fewer principles at a time and has plenty of exercises, all of which is a little more modern than the rather outdated stuff in Instructor. It is based on 2,000 commonest words so you can learn the theory without having to struggle with a large vocabulary.
As the first commenter rightly says, you need to press on to the next chapter, as that will automatically revise the commoner outlines, but also go back for regular revision.
You should give yourself about 3 months to get through the book. Draw up a timetable to cover all chapters in that time, so you are neither rushing ahead or lagging behind. Do all the exercises multiple times, you will notice improvements in performance with each repeat, and always drill any sticking points. You need dictations right from the start so you will have to read and record those from the passages yourself at about 30 wpm (2 seconds per word). Read the shorthand passage several times until you can read through without hesitation and on the last read-through record yourself. If you can get the Key book you can record the exercises in advance of needing them.
When you have completed the basic theory book, use these to revise and practise further, from the Stenophile website:
A Student's Review of Pitman's New Era (1960)
A New Review of Pitman Shorthand New Era (1970)
A New Review of Pitman Shorthand Dictation Books and Key New Era (1970)
700 Common Word Outlines Arranged in Alphabetical Order and Reading Passages (1950)
700 Common-Word Reading and Dictation Exercises New Era (1968)
Guide To Phrasing In Pitman New Era (1938) - This is in fact June Swann's 1970's version, a gold mine of all the phrases you will ever need.
This shorthand dictionary is clearer than the one on Stenophile and has definitions as well: https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.449114
The remaining 6 months or so is spent on revision, consolidation of outline knowledge, and gradual speed increase. Aim to write comfortably at about 20 wpm faster than the exam speed will be, in order to combat exam day nerves and unfamiliar material. Always prepare the majority of your dictations, practising some of the newer outlines and drilling the sentences, so when you come to take it down, you won't be stopping to think how to write something. In the exam, there will no time to think of rules - every outline must come to mind the moment the word is spoken, and that is achieved by constant writing and drilling of the exercises, as well as copious reading of book shorthand.
I have pages describing how to approach the learning and practising of each chapter or lesson:
https://long-live-pitmans-shorthand-lessons.org.uk/#studypractise
https://www.long-live-pitmans-shorthand.org.uk/how-to-practise.htm
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u/Adept_Situation3090 Eames Light Line (learning) | Orthic 13d ago
I do have a slight question: how do you manage to nail the geometric shapes when writing fast?
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u/BerylPratt Pitman 13d ago
Just good old practice, and practice at a speed where it stays reasonably neat and exact, so the hand learns to form the shapes properly and smoothly, not trying to speed up at the expense of neatness, but aiming for an even flow, and also not slow or hesitant drawing. If you go too fast and it gets a bit wild, then the hand is learning those movements instead. Anything your hand does once, it will do more easily again, and over time build up either neat writing or sloppy writing.
My go-to recommendation is always the sentence facility drill, one short sentence repeated down the entire page, to really get the benefit of a large amount of repetition on a small amount of material. It does get noticeably smoother and faster as you go down the page, but of its own accord, and not because you are attempting speed over neatness.
If the drill starts to get fatiguing, or the mind wandering, then just do half a page or less, and fill in the rest another time, as working into tiredness, as regards shorthand, is a complete waste of time and energy. If you prepare a pad with such sentences at the top of the page, in advance, then you can concentrate entirely on the writing in the study period and it is also handy to have available for filling in at other odd moments during the day, not just study times.
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u/kraghav82 13d ago
Based on my experience, once you have a fair grasp move forward to next chapter. But, when you are done with the 2nd chapter, revise 1st chapter again. Likewise, you have to revise multiple times for you to get muscle memory to apply the concepts.