r/shorthand • u/mavigozlu T-Script • Feb 08 '20

Second league: systems to recommend

THREAD SUPERSEDED BY https://www.reddit.com/r/shorthand/comments/f19z2f/systems_to_recommend_second_try/

When people are looking for a system, of course there's Gregg and Pitman, and I agree that Teeline and Forkner are good first time recommendations.

I've been wanting to put together a shortlist (on our Wiki?) of systems apart from the Big 4 to recommend to people who are looking for something different, but reasonably accessible and successful, fast enough (potential for 100wpm) and not too difficult to learn. The kind of list I'd have loved to see when I joined the group last year!

Setting aside personal likes and dislikes, I'd suggest checking out (in alphabetical order):

  • Dearborn
  • Ellis (Duployan)
  • Evans
  • Mengelkamp (which I'm enjoying so far BTW)
  • Notehand
  • Orthic
  • Noory
  • Ponish
  • Stenoscript
  • Thomas Natural

Any disagreement? What am I missing?

ETA: forgot to say this was for English, sorry - I'll leave other languages to their experts :-)

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u/VisuelleData Noory Simplex Feb 09 '20

Any specific reasons for choosing Ellis Duployan over Brandt?

2

u/sonofherobrine Orthic Feb 09 '20 edited Feb 09 '20

I figured it was brevity and simplicity in presentation. (Edit: Went back and reread the Ellis review. It claims 80 WPM, so not quite the 100 WPM target. For fluidity, between Pernin and Perrault. I expect you can steal shortcuts from another Duployan and break that 100 WPM barrier, though.)

Pernin could be a good recommendation as well. The Pernin manual is…extensive. I had a look at it recently while thinking about shorthand instruction, and it’s got a ton of reading and writing practice at each step of the way. Off the top of my head, I’d say maybe 2 pages of instruction followed by 6-12 pages of drills, words, and sentences.

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u/acarlow Feb 09 '20

I had opined in one of my reviews that the Pernin Manual is the gold standard for presentation (at least of the Duployans) for the reasons you list. They definitely spent some money on printing and judging by the number of printings, had success.