Shorthand

Lecture notes take time to write down if you do not have a shorthand system. For instance, instead of writing 'the', you might write t' because your pen can do that a lot quicker.

Some people use the first 4 letters of a word but remove vowels from the rest of it; they hope to write their notes out neatly later but, in the meantime, this way, they can write notes at the speed that the lecturer is giving notes.

Beyond those techniques is the idea of learning several shorthand ways of writing common grammatical words which frequently occur in sentences. I set out to do that also. I tried to use letter pairs and letter-digit codes to represent common grammatical words. In this way, my writing time could be reduced. Also, I have developed a memory system for actually memorising paragraph text: using images from my AA-ZZ alphabet pair library, etc.. [see the 'Memorising Text' article]

The NakedScience.com Shorthand System by Michael Curtis

The shorthand system was adjusted in August 2007 to allow images which represent 2 words. This was done by considering that the images for 00, 01, 02, ... 98, 99 [00 to 99] could all represent a pair of words if the first digit occurs in a list of 10 words and the second digit occurs in another list of 10 words:

First digit represents these possibilities:

0 you

1 he

2 she

3 we

4 they

5 it

6 I

7 this / which

8 that / what

9 there / where

Second digit represents these possibilities:

0 is / are

1 has / have

2 want

3 had

4 can

5 could

6 will

7 should

8 would

9 were

So, 23 is 'she' followed by 'had': 'she had'.

94 is 'there / where' followed by 'can': 'there can' or 'where can' [deduced from the context].

Another adaption is to allow a digit and a letter to represent 2 words; the intention is to create an image library to represent 0A, 3D, and so on [a digit followed by a letter].

First digit represents these possibilities:

0 or / through

1 what

2 to

3 why / from

4 when / on / in

5 where

6 how

7 if / of / by

8 and

9 because / with

The letter represents these possibilities:

A a / an

B so / such

C she / her

D these

E they / them

F this

G something

H he / her

I I / me

J that

K your / you're

L his

M those

N no / not

O other

P its / it's

Q any

R another

S some

T it

U our

V the

W we / us

X their / there/ they are

Y you

Z to / too

7R is 'if / of / by' followed by 'another':

'if another'; or

'of another'; or

'by another'

[deduced from the context]

By coincidence, in April 2007, I learned of the Gardiner system for representing hieroglyphs. It uses codes like A1 and A2. So, I resolved to build an image system for representing such codes by using images inspired by Egyptian hieroglyphs. I do not include my images here because it will interrupt the flow of this quick course.

Note for people who have read the course before: In 2008-2009, the 52x52 card memory system's foreign language words may be used as 4-letter length short-hand words.

Lexical Necklace

Imagine stringing a necklace with beads where different bead types represent shorthand words or alphabet letters. By reading the beads across the string, you can reconstruct a message - and may have been a popular device before the popularity of portable paper.

Later in the course, you will learn the 'peg' method of memorising images in sequence. In that way, you can make a string of ideas and reproduce sentences from memory.

Further Reading

Inca quipu - An article about necklaces containing meaning.