Anyone here know Gregg shorthand? A question.

[raccoon]

If you're writing shorthand and you write a number, say "16".

How do you indicate this is a number and not shorthand symbols?
(And it isn't Dollars, that's a / after the number. Say it's 16 cats.)

[Lochloosa]

1. Kick just to see if anyone knows what raccoon is talkng about

I do. My mom was proficient with Gregg.

[CurtEastPoint]

2. Go here and click download in the top right. A book from 1917!

I remember my sister studying Gregg in the late 50s. It always mystified me!
http://cdm15457.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15457coll1/id/74

[PoliticAverse]

4. Here's an excerpt from another book that discusses the issue...

https://books.google.com/books?id=r-sYAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA65&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false

[LiberalElite]

9. I studied it in h.s. and also an adult ed course -

Shorthand is very exacting. I could never be bothered to make the symbols the correct size, e.g., the "e" smaller than the "a" and that presented a problem...

[woodsprite]

3. We were taught to put a circle around it. n/t

[Hepburn]

7. My first legal secretary did Gregg...

...and I do believe that is what she did, used a circle around numbers. Then typed out my dictation on an IBM Selectric! Boy, was THAT a long time ago!

[NJCher]

5. I'll ask my 91-year-old auntie

Will be talking to her sometime today. She knows Gregg shorthand.


Cher

[Glorfindel]

6. An interesting question. I used to be very good at Gregg shorthand

It's what I did in the Army (take dictation and transcribe it). I don't remember ever having a problem distinguishing between numbers and words. Using your example, the way I write shorthand "16" would be something like "which pay" - just nonsense. Thanks for posting this. I'll keep checking back to see what answers are provided. It's a shame that shorthand is a dying skill. I'll always be grateful to it for keeping me out of combat - shorthand, typing, and a pre-existing Top Secret clearance, that is.

[onethatcares]

10. you and me both

80 wpm made me a morning report clerk. What a gig in the early years of VOLAR. (72-75) USARAL.

I didn't remember the two years of shorthand and still don't but sometimes this old mind thinks it would be neat to remember.

[malthaussen]

8. According to my mother...

... it should be clear from context. The only symbol she remembers using that might be confused with a number is "1." and if the "6" is right next to it, it should be clear what is meant.

-- Mal

[hunter]

11. My mom does it more the phonetic way.

She was also able to type on her IBM Selectric faster than most people speak, before the family curse of arthritis. Her shorthand was for the fast talkers and live radio and television.

I'm certain my mom was one of the fastest English language typists on the planet in her prime, and she made some good money transcribing radio and television tapes, rarely hitting the pause pedal, and with the keen eye of an editor too.

For me writing any sort of "cursive" acceptable to teachers seemed to be impossible. I was tortured from the fifth grade on by teachers who demanded it. Typing was easier for me. I can type as fast as I think, and computer word processing has been my salvation. Papers I wrote by hand were first in my own chicken-scratch penmanship. My university exams were like that too. I'd buy three blue books for an exam most people could complete with one.

In my short experience with high school (just two years before I quit for college) my mom would hear me typing term papers late at night, turning my chicken scratch into something readable, and this would drive her crazy.

Tickity tickity, thump, thump... cuss, cuss, liquid paper...

Eventually my mom would appear past midnight in her night clothes, grab my chicken scrawls which she'd long learned to decipher, and with a mechanical BRRRRRRRpppppp, a six page term paper would be done in minutes, quality or crap just as I'd written it, and then everyone in the house could sleep.

[KMOD]

12. I was a stenographer.

Its been nearly 30 years though since I've taken any dictation. I think I've forgotten more than I've retained at this point. I think it's one of those things were you have to use it or lose it.

[raccoon]

13. Thank you, everyone who responded. I think I'll go with circles, which one

poster mentioned and one link mentioned.

[Laffy Kat]

14. You just write the number out.

Numbers don't look like shorthand brief forms. I taught myself years ago because it was so cool and I still have all my reference books! I still use it from time to time, usually at work due to HIPAA regulations--no one can read it but me!