Arthaey's Log

[arthaey]

I'm a beginner teaching myself Anniversary. I'm hoping that more experienced folks here on the board can give me some feedback on my outlines as I'm learning. I'll post photos along with what I was trying to write.

All feedback or criticism is welcome; there are too few of us for me to be picky.

[arthaey]

What I tried to write:

- semantics
- recursive
- big step
- small step
- intermediate
- iterative
- recursive
- tail recursion.
- tail calls
- Ruby
- Github

[Deb]

First, in case you didn't know, there is a dictionary on Andrew Owen's, the Angelfishy site here gregg.angelfishy.net/ for Anniversary.

It's not bad. I think you're shorthand writing is good. Next time put the key below, this can help us with trying to read the outlines (I'm a cheater and look at the longhand quickly).

For some, it looks like you're trying to get all the letters from longhand in. Remember that shorthand, at least Gregg shorthand, is by sound.

For example, the work "big" has a short vowel 'i'. So you would not write it. It's just the letter "b-g". It's hard to do, I know. I write out as much as possible that with words I don't know, once I learn them, I use the outlines without the vowels that aren't needed. It will take a while to hear or not hear some vowels and letters.

Also you're trying to write outlines with theory you haven't learned. I'd suggest sticking to ones you know, unless you want to look them up in the dictionary. This can be done if you need to know the outline.
However, you may not understand which ones are written certain ways.

For example, "small" is written with the 'ah' sound in a the 'o' symbol and no "ll" letters after. It's a brief form, I believe (sorry it's been a while since I've been through the manual and I just know some of these outlines and I did double check with the dictionary).

Another example, "intermediate" has a theory that isn't learned yet. "Inter" is written above the rest of the outline to distinguish it from the other words with similar beginnings. There's a few other similar ones like that. I'm thinking it's also a brief form because the last part of the word is not written. It is written "inter" above the line separate, then "m-e-d" with the remaining not written.

Some names are given in shorthand, but mostly you can write them how you see fit. I prefer to write them out as much in full as possible the first time I write them in shorthand.

---

Besides those items, keep learning. You are learning the outlines very well. You're writing is almost perfect. You're large circles are large and your lengths are perfect. The "r" is short and your "l" is long like it's supposed to be. I can tell an 'e' from an 'a'.

[Deb]

Just a note, "small" and "call" have the same "ah" sound, which means they both have the 'o' symbols, but kind on the side, at least for the word 'call'. Neither have the last double 'll' at the end.

Here's a sample of mine. I do like your 's' better then mine.

[arthaey]

First off, thank you for such a quick and detailed reply! It's nice to see the forum isn't dead.

Jul 26, 2016 17:15:55 GMT -5 Deb said:

First, in case you didn't know, there is a dictionary on Andrew Owen's, the Angelfishy site here gregg.angelfishy.net/ for Anniversary.

Awesome, thank you!

Deb said:

Next time put the key below, this can help us with trying to read the outlines (I'm a cheater and look at the longhand quickly).

I wrote the longhand "key" for myself, before thinking to post it here on the forum for feedback. Next time, I won't do that.

Deb said:

For example, the work "big" has a short vowel 'i'. So you would not write it. It's just the letter "b-g". It's hard to do, I know. I write out as much as possible that with words I don't know, once I learn them, I use the outlines without the vowels that aren't needed. It will take a while to hear or not hear some vowels and letters.

I studied linguistics in college and am totally cool with transcribing just the sounds, ignoring traditional English spelling. Dropping sounds that do exist will be more challenging.

But I suppose I can always try dropping "too many" vowels and seeing if I can still recover the meaning when I read. That would probably teach me which vowels I can drop and which really are necessary. (Also, I'm sure that will change as I get more practice.)

Deb said:

Also you're trying to write outlines with theory you haven't learned. I'd suggest sticking to ones you know, unless you want to look them up in the dictionary.

Why do you recommend this? To prevent bad habits, perhaps?

Deb said:

For example, "small" is written with the 'ah' sound in a the 'o' symbol and no "ll" letters after. It's a brief form, I believe

While I want to avoid bad habits in my writing, I'm less worried about brief vs non-brief forms. I figure I'll learn those shortcuts as I go. If I write a longer, but still "correct", form as a beginner, that's okay by me. If it's a word I use a lot, I'll either learn the official Anniversary brief or make up my own.

Deb said:

You are learning the outlines very well. You're writing is almost perfect. You're large circles are large and your lengths are perfect. The "r" is short and your "l" is long like it's supposed to be. I can tell an 'e' from an 'a'.

Thank you! Encouragement & validation are always nice.

[arthaey]

Jul 26, 2016 17:25:01 GMT -5 Deb said:

Just a note, "small" and "call" have the same "ah" sound, which means they both have the 'o' symbols, but kind on the side, at least for the word 'call'. Neither have the last double 'll' at the end.

How important is it to use the "correct" vowel symbol? Vowels are what vary the most between English dialects, after all.

For example, I pronounce "cot" and "caught" the same. I'd be inclined to write them identically in shorthand.

I do understand that I'd need to be flexible in reading other people's shorthand,not course.

[Deb]

This is where context comes into play. As well as grammar knowledge.

I was reading a shorthand book and it had "cot" and "coat" as the same outline. Confused me. The word "cot " was used previously in a letter about camping supplies. Next letter I knew wasn't about "fur cots" (this was a 1930s book). Once I realized that I started the letter over and it made more sense.

You would do the same. You're not going to take a caught on your camping trip. But you might take a cot. And you won't get cot texting in a meeting, you'd get caught.

[Deb]

Now you're post above I missed. (Sorry)

Learning as you go is recommended. Not just to prevent bad habits, but so you understand better. If you write "intermediate" like you did, when you come upon "entertain" or "interview" the principle of the disjoined beginning won't be as automatic. You will struggle with trying to remember if it is joined our not. Plus you may not be able to read your notes. For example, "She showed us her intermediate skills during the interview. " May be read inaccurately if one is joined and one disjoined.

[arthaey]

@deb: Can you please move this thread to the Assignment Lesson Logs board and rename it to "Arthaey's Log" ? Thanks!

[Deb]

Here's a discussion on similar outlines. I knew I had mentored my cot/coat confusing somewhere.
greggshorthand.proboards.com/thread/513/

[arthaey]

Based on your comments, I realized that I didn't have a plan in place for reading practice outside of whatever each chapter of the manual included. To remedy that, I've put the "Graded Reader" book onto my Kindle.

[arthaey]

My friend and I have a question about a couple things that seem easily confused:



The first outline seems like it could be any of sheath, ship, or *thet (pretend that's a word, for argument's sake right now).

The second outline seems like it could be either *shoth or pith (if you dropped the short i from that word).

[Deb]

"Ship" is a brief form and ending for words. It is not a "th" outline, the last is a 'p' outline, so your "ship" would be closer.

"Ship" is just the "sh". For the word endings it's disjoined.
"thet" would be "th-t" outline (if it was a word).

The second looks more like "show".

Here's the outlines. Ignore the "thet" first outline, put a line through it. I didn't feel the final 't' was long enough, tried to correct it, didn't like so I rewrote it. Also not sure of the word "pith" on pronunciation. I added an 'i' although I left it obscure because if it isn't heard, you can leave it out and write it similar. Just checked the dictionary, "pith" does have the 'i' in it.



Sheath from the dictionary:

[arthaey]

I thought TH could curve in either direction, thus one of them looks very similar to P?

The brief forms are a little bit of a red herring here, aren't they? These confusing outlines could happen with other similar words that don't happen to have briefs, or they could be part of a longer word.

My question was really more about the general case of downward-line + vowel + downward-curve ("sheath", "ship") looking the same as upward-curve + vowel + upward-line.

Similarly, the general case of downward-line + O-hook + upward-curve looking the same as downward-curve + omitted-vowel + upward-curve.

The above examples were what I came up with, but there are probably others that would be better examples but I can't think of them right now.

[arthaey]

Jul 29, 2016 11:43:13 GMT -5 arthaey said:

I thought TH could curve in either direction, thus one of them looks very similar to P?

Oh! But TH is a forward outline, so it wouldn't have been written below like that, it would have to turn back up! Got it.