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, Speedwriting was taught in more than 400 vocational schools and its advertisements were ubiquitous in popular American magazines. 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, Speedwriting was taught in more than 400 vocational schools and its advertisements were ubiquitous in popular American magazines. The original version of Speedwriting uses letters of the alphabet and a few punctuation marks to represent the sounds of English. There are abbreviations for common prefixes and suffixes; for example, uppercase N represents enter- or inter- so 'entertainment' is written as Ntn- and 'interrogation' is reduced to Ngj. Vowels are omitted from many words and arbitrary abbreviations are provided for the most common words. Specimen: ltus vaqt ll p/, aspz rNb otfm. Let us have a quiet little party and surprise our neighbor on the farm. By reducing the use of spaces between words a high level of brevity can be achieved: “laugh and the world laughs with you” can be written as “lfatwolfs wu.”