''Personal Shorthand'', originally known as ''Briefhand'' in the 1950s, is a completely

alphabetic An alphabet is a standardized set of basic written graphemes (called letters) that represent the phonemes of certain spoken languages. Not all writing systems represent language in this way; in a syllabary, each character represents a syllab ...

shorthand Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed and brevity of writing as compared to longhand, a more common method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Greek ''ste ...

. There are three basic categories of written shorthand. Best known are pure ''symbol'' (stenographic) shorthand systems (e.g., Gregg,

Pitman Pitman may refer to: * A coal miner, particularly in Northern England * Pitman (surname) * Pitman, New Jersey, United States * Pitman, Pennsylvania, United States * Pitman, Saskatchewan, Canada * Pitman Shorthand, a system of shorthand * Pitman ar ...

). Because the complexity of symbol shorthands made them time-consuming to learn, a variety of newer, ''alphabetic'' shorthands were created, with the goal of being easier to learn– e.g.,

Speedwriting Speedwriting is the trademark under which three versions of a shorthand system were marketed during the 20th century. The original version was designed so that it could be written with a pen or typed on a typewriter. At the peak of its popularity ...

Stenoscript Stenoscript or ''Stenoscript ABC Shorthand'' is a shorthand system invented by Manuel C. Avancena (1923–1987) and first published in 1950. ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', perhaps erroneously, claims it was based on a system published in London in 16 ...

, Stenospeed, and

Forkner shorthand Forkner Shorthand is an alphabetic shorthand created by Hamden L. Forkner and first published in 1955. Its popularity grew through the 1980s as those who needed shorthand every day (such as secretaries) began to favor the easier learning curve of ...

. These systems used normally written letters of the alphabet, but also some number of symbols, alphabetic characters changed in shape or position, or special marks for punctuation; and so they are more accurately described as ''hybrid'' shorthand systems. In contrast, Personal Shorthand uses only the 26 letters of the alphabet, without any special symbols, positioning, or punctuation, and it can therefore be written cursively, printed, typed, or even entered in a computer without special typefaces or graphics. Given years of practice, symbol shorthand writers could sometimes acquire skills of 150 or even 200 words per minute, which might have qualified them for demanding positions such as court reporting, typically dominated today by machine shorthands. Due to the extensive time necessary, few achieved such a level. Most symbol shorthand writers in secretarial positions wrote between 80 and 140 words per minute. Hybrid shorthand systems with higher symbol content generally could be written faster than those with fewer symbols. In common with most hybrid shorthands, Personal Shorthand cannot be written as fast as symbol shorthands. However, like some hybrids, learning time is drastically reduced. Students of Personal Shorthand can acquire a useful shorthand skill (50 to 60 wpm) in a single school term, compared to the year or more for symbol system students to reach that same level. Without the complexity of symbols to memorize and practice writing, Personal Shorthand theory is relatively simple. There are six Theory Rules. Slightly more than a hundred high-frequency business vocabulary words are represented by a single written letter known as a Brief Form ("a" for "about", "t" for "time", "v" for "very", etc.). High-frequency letter groupings within words ("g" for "-ing", "s" for "-tion", etc.), known as Phonetic Abbreviations, are also written with a single letter. In most Personal Shorthand textbooks, the entire Theory is presented in just ten lessons, after which review and practice can lead to writing speeds of 60 to 100 words per minute. Authors of the contemporary version of Personal Shorthand are Carl W. Salser, C. Theo Yerian, and Mark R. Salser.

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Publisher, ERA Learning/National Book Co
Shorthand systems Transcription (linguistics) Writing systems introduced in the 1950s {{writingsystem-stub