![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
This is a curious image of a reporter writing in shorthand, found by
dougo.
My whole life I understood the word "shorthand" as a synonym for "abbreviation", not a complete and formal writing system that looks like alien script to the uninitiated. But the commenters on that photograph say it's so, and Wikipedia agrees, with yet more graphic evidence. Very interesting!
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
My whole life I understood the word "shorthand" as a synonym for "abbreviation", not a complete and formal writing system that looks like alien script to the uninitiated. But the commenters on that photograph say it's so, and Wikipedia agrees, with yet more graphic evidence. Very interesting!
no subject
Date: 2009-04-29 11:39 pm (UTC)didn't teach it to us, but I know I had heard it mentioned. I thought of it as a highly
modified cursive-like script for fast transcription. I think portable typewriters and
later laptop computers have made it almost completely obsolete.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-30 03:39 am (UTC)But shorthand has certainly become a specialty skill rather than a common one. What's really disappeared is the notion that managers and other professionals dictate all their documents to secretaries, who then type them up or hand the transcripts off to someone who types them up. Once there was a computer on every desk, with screen editing and spell check so that even bad typists could produce good-looking output, things changed rapidly.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-30 12:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-30 02:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-30 12:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-30 01:23 am (UTC)Whereas I learned about shorthand as a little kid, most probably from my mom showing me examples that she had done (in school? at some previous job?), so I've (foolishly) always assumed everyone knew it was a real writing system.
I shouldn't keep being surprised by these realizations.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-30 01:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-30 01:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-30 02:21 am (UTC)I never had sufficient need to make the time investment required to learn it properly, and today ubiquitous and compact recording devices largely make it obsolete.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-30 02:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-30 04:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-30 10:19 am (UTC)And the other thing this brings to mind is The Westing Game, where the person takes notes in shorthand, but the other people can't read them because they're in Polish.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-30 01:09 pm (UTC)BTW, when I was a girl I read one* of those stories for girls featuring spunky, adventurous career-women. In this one the protagonist's shorthand skills helps her figure out some mystery and catch (or point the finger at) the culprit. I totally forget what the plot was, but I remember that bit about the shorthand and that it took place at Cape Canaveral and that is all.
*Actually I read several, but I'm talking about this particular one. I don't remember any others featuring shorthand as a key part of the story.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-30 04:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-01 02:20 am (UTC)Er, wait, are D'ni aliens? Is "D'ni" a race or a civilization?
no subject
Date: 2009-05-01 05:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-01 02:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-01 02:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-01 02:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-01 02:10 pm (UTC)Woodstock says
Date: 2009-05-01 02:35 pm (UTC)