This document provides shorthand symbols and their meanings for various punctuation marks and text formatting. It includes symbols for full stops, question marks, exclamation marks, initial capitals, brackets, dashes, hyphens, paragraph marks, emphasis, humour, errors, corrections, and accented syllables. Guidance is given for how to form each symbol neatly and clearly.
Original Description:
Easiest way to learn and understand Pitmans shorthand
This document provides shorthand symbols and their meanings for various punctuation marks and text formatting. It includes symbols for full stops, question marks, exclamation marks, initial capitals, brackets, dashes, hyphens, paragraph marks, emphasis, humour, errors, corrections, and accented syllables. Guidance is given for how to form each symbol neatly and clearly.
This document provides shorthand symbols and their meanings for various punctuation marks and text formatting. It includes symbols for full stops, question marks, exclamation marks, initial capitals, brackets, dashes, hyphens, paragraph marks, emphasis, humour, errors, corrections, and accented syllables. Guidance is given for how to form each symbol neatly and clearly.
Period stop. The joined cross is much quicker than a normal cross and does not clash with anything, so long as you keep it small. When writing longhand numerals, use the full stop as normal within them.
Question ? Some questions are only
mark indicated by the tone of Interrogation voice, so always insert the mark question mark.
Exclamation ! The tone of voice lets you
mark know whether this is needed. Imagine someone saying: No – No? – No!
Initial capital None Write it upwards,
underneath the line. Place it underneath the rightmost part of the outline, so that your pen does not travel any farther backwards than it has to. All initial None Instead of going back over capitals the last 2 or 3 words to indicate initial capitals for each of them, use this to save time. This is a personal suggestion and is NOT part of normal New Era theory.
Brackets [] Make the strike-through
Parentheses ( ) quite small, so it does not look like an intersection on an outline. Brackets are square and parentheses are curved, but the terms are often used interchangeably.
En dash – Dashes are used to separate
Em dash sentences or parts of — sentences. The longer you draw the dash, the less likely it is that it will look like an outline. In longhand, an En dash (Alt+0150) has a space either side. The longer Em dash (Alt+0151) looks better without the spaces.
Hyphen - Write the marks upwards.
Hyphens are used to join two words, or two numerals showing a range. The shorthand mark is the same as the initial capital mark, but used above the line instead of under it. There is no need to use it slavishly, only use it where it serves your purpose. Words that have part of the outline disjoined do not need a hyphen to join them, they are merely written close together. A hyphen in longhand transcription does not have a space either side.
Paragraph // may be Write the marks downwards.
mark used when Paragraph marks help with New correcting reading back or locating paragraph drafts by information, as they break New line hand the page into meaningful sections. You can drop down to the next line instead of writing the paragraph mark, but this will lose you a line of the page each time, causing an increase in the frequency of page turns. The white space on the page may help you to keep your place when transcribing or searching your notes. When pushed for time, do not indulge in paragraph marks, getting all the words is far more important. The double slash and the pilcrow ¶ symbol have a long history as paragraph markers, continuing to the present day on your screen to show that the Enter key has been pressed. To type a pilcrow that will print, type Alt+0182.
Emphasis or None Wavy or zigzag line draws
caution your attention to the word – for emphasis, an unusual, foreign or nonsense word, a word used out of context, longhand numerals to show they are not outlines, doubt over the outline, or something you need to check or look up.
Humour None Vertical squiggle indicates
that the preceding word(s) should be taken humorously. In transcription you would need to set it within quotation marks, use italics, or whatever is appropriate to convey the meaning and avoid ambiguity. Some people make "quote mark" gestures with their fingers as they are saying such things, but you will have to rely on tone of voice to identify the way that the words should be taken.
Error Scribble! Draw a large circle around
the error and then write the correct outline. When you transcribe, you will be ignoring anything in the circle. Do this in preference to scribbling over an outline or trying to correct it. In one-to-one dictation, you would do this when the speaker changes their mind over their choice of words. If you are using a pencil, never use a rubber. If your pencil has a rubber on the end, cut it off and sharpen the second end, which will be much more useful. If you are marking up outlines afterwards for future looking up in the dictionary, then use a red pencil or draw a square around it – unless the shorthand must be kept for archive purposes, then you should note the items on a separate pad.
Correction of If you write an outline in the
position wrong position, correct it by inserting some dots or dashes where the ruled line ought to be. This is especially useful for short forms and contractions where there is no vowel that can be inserted. It is often quicker than writing in the first vowel for any outline, as it takes less thought and hesitation. Useful also for notes made on unlined paper.
Accented Dictionaries Write the cross against (or in
syllable use an place of*) the accented apostroph, vowel. This helps distinguish dot or desert pairs of words. similar desert (*It is not normal theory to mark after replace the vowel the syllable