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GEO. M. COGHLAN, PRINTER, CAMBERWELL ROAD.

ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL.

1882.

PRICE 2s. 6d

KC7698

HARVARD UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

PREFACE.

THIS work is founded on the well-known system of Samuel Taylor, who in 1786 published his "Essay intended to establish a standard for an universal system of Stenography or Short-hand Writing." The simplicity and regularity of Taylor's alphabetical characters have made his system popular ever since its appearance, and at the present time it is written by a multitude of newspaper reporters and shorthand writers. The inventor, however, left his system scarcely more than a bare alphabet, and though this may be useful to the amateur, it is not sufficient to satisfy the demands of modern reporting. A writer of "Taylor" has therefore had to devise abbreviations, and to undertake an amount of constructive labour for which he may not in all cases have felt himself to be qualified, and which at all events has been a long and irksome task. The author of this work has "gone through the mill," and in now publishing the result of many years' experience on the newspaper press, he does so im the hope, both of lightening the burden for those who may desire to learn shorthand for professional purposes, and of being useful to those who already write Taylor's system in a form less advanced or less systematic than that which is here set forth.

The alphabet is the same as Taylor's with the following exceptions :-q, the second form of y, ng, and tion are new characters. Taylor's th is here used for j, which was wanting in the original; and the hook is placed on the other side of the stroke for th. The alphabetical characters are in this work placed in

different positions in order to obtain further power of representation, and greater clearness of definition; and the author, has, for like reasons, made them serve for many syllables. He has supplied a large number of contractions of words and phrases, so that the learner will find many hundreds of abbreviations ready to his hand.

A number of "arbitraries" is given, in the conviction that brief and well-defined arbitrary forms, while not strictly necessary, are useful, and that they promote legibility.

LONDON, FEBRUARY, 1882.

*This work is to be had of the author, post free, for 2s. 6d. Address, ALFRED Janes, 5, Crofton Road, Camberwell, London, S.E.

Shorthand Taught. Terms on Application.

PLAN OF THE CONTRACTIONS.

The abbreviations are represented in this work by ordinary letters, which are used on the following plan : :

When the letters are close together, the corresponding shorthand characters are to be joined (except where a vowel has been necessarily included, in which case it is to be written according to the rules for vowels).

When a letter is followed by a space, a break is to be made in the shorthand writing.

When a letter is followed by an asterisk, the second form of the corresponding shorthand character is to be used.

When a letter is a capital, the corresponding shorthand character is to be made double-length.

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When the word "under or through" follows a letter, it means that the corresponding character is to be written under or through the preceding character. Thus, " x n under means that the n is to be written under x; "km f through" means that f is to be struck through m.

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When two or more letters are in italics, they are to be represented by one shorthand character. Sometimes two groups of italic letters will come together, as shtion," but the meaning and th are not in italics, "Ch" always means the

will be readily perceived. When sh
s and h, t and h must be written.
character for ch as in " much "; there is no shorthand c.

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