Modern Shorthand

A helpful guide full of simple and easy to follow exercises, perfect for anybody wishing to learn the art of writing shorthand.

In Timothie Bright and the Origins of Early Modern Shorthand, J.D. Fleming brings together two areas of sixteenth-century intellectual history. One is the period emergence of artificial systems for verbatim shorthand notation—a crucial episode in the history of information. The other is the ancient medical discourse of melancholy humour, or black bile. Timothie Bright (1550–1615), physician and priest, prompts the juxtaposition. For he was the author, not only of the period’s original shorthand manual—Characterie (1588)—but also of the first book in English on the dark humour: The Treatise of Melancholy (1586). Bright’s account of melancholy involves a cybernetic phenomenology of the human. Essentially, we are psyches (souls or minds). We are sealed off from our bodies, operating them as automata across an interface. Psychological presence, for Bright, is illusion and pathology. Engrossing performances or representations therefore bring great danger, and so does the doctrine of predestination—less for its content than its typical delivery. Painful preaching was indispensable in sixteenth-century English Protestantism. But it falls foul of Bright’s proscriptions. These are followed by his publication of the first known system for verbatim shorthand notation since antiquity, its technique heavily inflected toward a vocabulary of the pulpit. The passionate, oral performance of the inspired preacher receives an unprecedented textual preservative—and prophylactic. Bright’s technology of information serves his phenomenology of alienation. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of the early modern period, the tradition of melancholy, and the history of information—as theory, and technology.

Speed Writing - Modern Shorthand An easy to learn tried and tested alternative to shorthand. Are you puzzled by all the squiggles when you see shorthand? Did you know that it can take years to become proficient at shorthand? Here's your solution. A simple and easy to learn system that can be mastered in just a few weeks. BakerWrite speed writing enables you to learn a new hand writing system in a matter of hours and become really quick in just a few weeks. It relies on using normal letters and easy to learn principles to speed up your writing. Join over 25 000 people from all over the world who have already studied this course. We also have a UK spelling edition just search for the unique ISBN number 9781537566603. This book has a short dictionary to help you learn the new forms of the words. We also publish an extended speed writing dictionary of over 5800 words, including all 1000 of the most common words in written English (ISBN 9781534683204). This book is laid out in 6 easy to follow lessons, that take about an hour each Practical guided exercises, with example answers Save time and become efficient at taking dictation, in meetings, on the telephone and in lectures No strange squiggles to learn - just different ways to use the letters you already know Your notes will be easy to read and transcribe Adapt the system to suit your needs Free downloadable dictionary and workbook A terrific opportunity to save time and become more efficient and professional! Heather Baker Heather is a very experienced PA, who worked at boardroom level for high profile companies. She is now an acclaimed international trainer presenting in the Middle and Far East, Australia and South Africa, as well as webinars for the USA. She created the BakerWriteTM speed writing system to help people take notes using techniques that can be learned in just a few weeks. She thoroughly tested it and has been teaching it for over eleven years. Quotes about BakerWrite "I will use this system all the time." "This is so easy to learn and use." "I am thoroughly enjoying learning a new skill from a book that is so simple to understand and I have already started to implement it." "BakerWrite is the easiest shorthand system I have come across. Having studied all the major shorthand systems and even other speed writing courses, I find BakerWrite a sheer delight." "I will recommend this course to anyone who takes notes."

The year 2008 marks the four hundredth anniversary of the first publication of King Lear, and for four centuries the play has remained a consummate bibliographical mystery. Winner of the 2007 Jay L. Halio prize for best manuscript in Shakespeare studies, Shakespeare in Shorthand demonstrates that many textual anomalies derive from the play's transcription in Elizabethan shorthand. The shorthand system of John Willis, Stenographie (1602), shows a high correlation with the unusual textual features found in the first quarto of Lear (1608). The patterns of variants in the quarto conform to Willis' rules regarding the reduction of diphthongs and digraphs and the omission of aspirated, doubled, or unsounded letters. In the past two decades the textual interrelation of quarto and folio (1623) Lear has proven one of the most contested issues in Shakespearean studies, and an examination of Stenographie reveals that some of these textual differences result not from authorial revision, but from transmission in abbreviated writing. Bibliographical evidence also indicates that some textual omissions from the folio version are neither authorial nor theatrical, but derive from the printing house.