GREGG SHORTHAND PRACTICE CARDS

by

GRACE KERNS McCOPPIN

B. S., Kansas State Agricultural College, 1926

A THESIS

submitted in partial fulfillment of the.

requirements for the degree of

MASTER OF SCIENCE

KANSAS STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE

1930
 2

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction 3

The Problem 4

Construction of the Shorthand Practice Cards 9

Trials and Standardization 15

Summary of Special Features of the Practice Cards . . 24

Conclusions 25

Recommendations 26

Acknowledgments 26

Appendix 27

Copy of Letter Explaining Use of the Shorthand

Practice Cards 27

Requisition Form and Agreement 29

Instructions to Teachers Using the Shorthand

Practice Cards 30

Questionnaire (Sent at End of School Year) . . . 32

Instructions on Cover of Tissue Pads 33

Copy of Information Pasted in the Lid of Each

Cabinet 34

Bibliography 35
 INTRODUCTION

Gregg shorthand is written by sound. Words are made by

joining symbols, or characters, according to regular and

fixed rules; for example, circles are written on the inside

of curves and on the outside of angles.

= g

= e

/ = t

= get (inside of curves)

= M

0 = a

/= d

mad (outside of angles)

It is claimed by Mr. Gregg that more than fifty per

cent of all ordinary dictated matter is made up of about

two hundred relatively simple words; for these he has pro-

vided what he calls nwordsigns. A wordsign is one or more

characters used to represent a complete word; as,

(m) = am or more

(bf) = before or behalf

J/
9 (af) = after
 4

THE PROBI,EM

11t is claimed that when the thousand commonest words

as given in the Ayres Spelling Scale are arranged in the

descending order of their frequency, the first fifty (or

the fifty commonest) words constitute nearly fifty per cent

of common written discourse; the first three hundred, more

than seventy-five per cent; and the entire thousand, more

than ninety per cent. These claims, together with 4r.

Gregg's claim that two hundred wordsigns constitute more

than fifty per cent of all ordinary dictated matter, make

it seem logical that a shorthand pupil should have special

practice or drill on those particular words and wordsigns,

for even though he has learned the principles involved in

the writing of those forms, he will not have a maximum

skill and facility in writing them until he has practiced

making the outlines over and over again.

The Gregg Shorthand Manual was written in 1888, and

revised in 1893, 1901 and 1916. No comment is needed on

the fact that not only has pedagogy changed radically in

1Leonard P. Ayres, A Measuring Scale for Ability in

Spelling (New York City, Division of Education, Russell
Sage Foundation, 1915), p. 11.
 5

the last fourteen years, but that subject matter in text

books has changed as radically. A good deal of the drill

work in the Manual is on uncommon words, such as antedilu-

vian, interminable, gastritis, perambulate, pneumatic,

ornithology, garrulity, analogically, litigation, etc.,

rather than on the commonest words. This was done, evident-

ly, on the theory that if a student learned to handle hard

words he would be able to handle any words.

As a part of this study, the author alphabetized the

2,838 words in the Gregg Shorthand Manual, and checked the

thousand commonest words as given in the Ayres Spelling

Scale with this list; it was found that 176 (or 17.6%) of

the thousand commonest words are not given in the Manual,

and, of course, will not receive special practice in the

average classroom, as most teachers use the Manual as the

one source of drill material.

1
Book says, "The connection between a particular stim-

ulus and a given response is strengthened by the exercise

of the particular stimulus-response mechanism practiced.

Such exercise normally results in a lowering of the thresh-

old of stimulation, in a decrease in the time required to

1William Frederick Book, 1_,earning to Typewrite (New

York, Gregg Publishing Company, 1925), pp. 13-14, 19-20.
 6

make the response, in an increased resistance to distrac-

tion, and in an increase in the vigor and ease with which

the response is made." Thus the use of shorthand material,

arranged in such a way that there could be much meaningful

and interesting repetition or drill on the words most com-

monly used, and on others whose forms must be memorized (as

must wordsigns), seems to be justified.

The author has attempted such an arrangement in the

construction of Gregg Shorthand Practice Cards, to be used

with tissue pads similar to the pads for the Courtis Prac-

tice Tests in Arithmetic. Each card is arranged with col-

umns of printed words on one side, so that when a card is

placed under a tissue sheet of the pad, the student may

write on the tissue sheet the shorthand forms of the words

which show through, in the columns and blanks provided for

that purpose; afterward, the card is reversed, and the cor-

rect key shows through the tissue sheet, each correct form

beside the pupil's shorthand form, making correction easy

and quick.

These cards will eliminate some of the undesirable

features of the ordinary practice nad--each card can be used

over and over again (only the tissue pads, which are inex-

pensive, need to be renewed), thus making for less expense,

 7

and also making the card really a practice card, which it

can not be if it can be used only once, as is the case with

the ordinary practice pad.

1
The old saying, "Practice makes perfect," is only a

half-truth. Only practice with zeal and effort, and when

error and success are evident, is likely to bring improve-

ment. The traditional practice method with teachers of

shorthand has been--and still is--to have the pupil write

five to ten or twenty-five times each word or phrase in a

shorthand lesson. What happens? The emphasis is on number,

and after the combination has been repeated once or twice

the student will be thinking no longer about the form he is

writing, but writes automatically until he has reached the

required number. Either the idea of getting through, or

some other idea which has been hovering on the "fringe" of

consciousness usurps the place of the shorthand form. With

attention gone, further practice becomes wasteful, and, if

persisted in, positively harmful.

However, in the use of the Shorthand Practice Cards,

each of which contains exactly one hundred shorthand strokes

and must be finished correctly within a constant specified

1Daniel Starch, Educational Psychology (New York, The

Macmillan Company, 1923), pp. 158-9.
 8

time, three desirable things happen. First, the time factor

makes it necessary that the student watch the card carefully,

so that no time shall be lost in completing the card. Con-

centration is thus forced--compelled. He will want to ad-

vance to the next card as soon as possible, so his practice

is attended with zeal and effort. Any forms missed are

studied, and the card is tried again. Instead of the empha-

sis being on number, it is on correct forms made quickly and

with a minimum of effort--where it should be. Second, er-

rors are made evident a minute or two after they are made.

Immediate comparison of the form missed with the correct

form makes a much more vivid and lasting impression than

would be if the work were handed in to the teacher for cor-

rection and returned the following day, or later. Third,

there is a close connection (both in time and relationship)

1 Thorndike says, "When
between error and the law of effect.

a modifiable connection between a situation and a response

is made and is accompanied or followed by a satisfying state

of affairs, that connection's strength is increased; when

made and accompanied or followed by an annoying state of

affairs its strength is decreased.'" In connection with this

1E. L. Thorndike, Educational Psychology, Briefer

Course, p. 1
 9

law of learning as stated by Thorndike, 1Book says, "In the

acquisition of skill this principle operated chiefly in

originating a correct response and in definitely joining it

to the appropriate stimulus. One of the most important ad-

vances which a learner can make as skill is acquired, is to

become more and more dissatisfied with his failures and

meager attainments in success. The failure to improve in a

given instance of learning is often due to the fact that the

learner is not enough interested in his own improvement to

do the things which bring success and not violently enough

dissatisfied with his failures and the slow progress he is

making to eliminate his mistakes." When the Shorthand Prac-

tice Cards are used, the fact that a student must repeat a

card until he can do it perfectly within a specified time,

serves as an annoyer, if he makes errors or is too slow,

and makes him dissatisfied enough to really try to advance.

CONSTRUCTION OF THE SHORTHAND PRACTICE CARDS

As a first step in the actual construction of these

Shorthand Practice Cards, the author classified each of the

1William Frederick Book, Learning to Typewrite (New

York, Gregg Publishing Company, 1925), p. 49.
 10

thousand commonest words in the Ayres Spelling Scale under

one of the twenty lessons given in the Gregg Shorthand Man-

ual, according to the principles involved in the writing of

that word. For example, the word "ticket" could be written

after learning the rules and studying the principles set

forth in the first lesson, so it was classified under lesson

one; the word "almost" could not be written without an un-

derstanding of the principles involved in the thirteenth

lesson, so it was classified under that lesson.

There is a total of about six hundred wordsigns given

in the Gregg Shorthand Manual. One hundred sixty-eight of

these are not listed in the thousand commonest words, but it

seems that the fact that they are wordsigns (and therefore

must be memorized before one is able to write them) warrants

their inclusion On the Shorthand Practice Cards. In addi-

tion, seventy-five type phrases in which the words are mod-

ified, and which must be learned just as wordsigns are

learned, are included.

It was found expedient, a few years ago, to change the

unit of measure of typewriting speed to the stroke instead

of the word, every five strokes now being counted as one

word, according to International Typewriting Rules. It has

been definitely established in typewriting that the speed,

 11

whether over matter containing long or short, hard or easy

words will remain practically constant when counted in

strokes. It seems logical that the same should hold true in

shorthand. This statement is borne out by 1-2a study made

in 1926, by Frances Nies Schrampfer, of the University of

Iowa, under the direction of Doctor E. G. Blackstone, in

which tests were taken by two hundred seventy pupils from

high schools in three cities in Iowa, which brings out the

fact that the character or stroke unit is a much better unit

of measure of speed in shorthand than the word unit now

used. The pupils' speed over different kinds of dictation

of average difficulty varied many words per minute, although

at the same time the speed, measured by shorthand strokes,

remained fairly constant.

Because of the conclusions drawn from Mrs. Schrampferts

study, the author arranged each of the Shorthand Practice

Cards so that it contains exactly one hundred shorthand

strokes. This makes the time element remain constant, which

is a big advantage, in that individual differences may be

1Research Studies in Commercial Education (University

of Iowa Monographs in Education, First Series, No. 7; July,
1926), pp. 122-9.

2Ibid., (First Series, No. 8, January, 1928), pp. 122-

127.
 12

taken into consideration--different students may have

reached varying stages of advancement, and be working on

different cards at the same time and yet be timed for the

same amount of time.

In counting strokes, where there are two strokes of the

pen with a pen lift in between, the pen lift is counted the

same as one stroke.

The strokes in Gregg shorthand are counted, in this

study, as shown in Table I.

-Table I. Stroke Count in Gregg Shorthand

One-Stroke Two-Stroke Three-Stroke

Characters Characters Characters
t / s , dev- 0 paragraph mark) quotation marks °

d / x ) -pent 0 dash --

P ( o a -ted / hyphen z,,

b ( -6;. /, -ses i question mark x

f -) e 0 -xes 5 parentheses I)
v ) a 0 -men

r T. 0 th ---

1 . \ ent _../

k sh / ten /-
g ---, ch / emt ----/

m j 7 tem/
n _
 13

The question may be raised as to how it came about

that, of the words and phrases to be used on the Shorthand

Practice Cards, those classified under each lesson of the

Gregg Shorthand Manual always contained exactly one hundred,

or a multiple of one hundred, shorthand strokes. The actual

number of strokes in the lists of words under each lesson is

given in Table II.

Table II. Stroke Count of Words to be Used in the

Shorthand Practice Cards, Classified by Lessons
in the Gregg Shorthand Manual

Lesson No. Strokes Lesson No. Strokes

1 182 10 446
2 272 11 200
3 167 12 359
4 140 13 154
5 474 14-15 91
6 164 16 81
7 246 17-18 33
8 188 19 100
9 433

Note: Read, "The words to be used in the

Shorthand Practice Cards which were classified un-
der Lesson 1 in the Gregg Shorthand manual, con-
tain 182 strokes," etc.

In each case, enough phrases were used to finish out

the exact hundred or multiple of one hundred strokes.

(Phrases are combinations of two or more words, usually

written without lifting the pen or pencil from the paper.)

 14

These phrases were chosen at random from a long list of pos-

sible phrases, all easily written and containing the common-

est words used under the particular lesson involved.

The next step was the arrangement, in equal-length col-

umns, of words totaling one hundred shorthand strokes, on

the front of each card, with the key, properly spaced, on

the back of the card in corresponding columns. Forty-three

cards were necessary to make a complete set for one student.

The cards were numbered consecutively, from 1 to 43, to

make filing easy. Each card also has the number of the les-

son involved in writing the words on that card. This aids

the student in determining which lessons in the Manual he

needs to study more, and is also useful to the teacher by

aiding in the quick selection of cards for review and exam-

ination purposes.

To make the recording of scores easy and uniform, each

card gives on the back the total number of words or out-

lines, and has space for the scorer to put the number tried

within the time limit, and the number right. Similar in-

formation is on the Courtis Practice Cards in Arithmetic,

but there it is placed on the front of the card, which makes

it necessary for the scorer to turn the card over again aft-

er the scoring has been done, in order to put this informa-

 15

tion on the tissue sheet. With the information on the back

of the card, instead, the card need not be turned over after

scoring. Although this does not take long, the elimination

of unnecessary motion thus secured will render the practice

testing time a little more productive, and is accordingly

worth while.

TRIALS AND STANDARDIZATION

The last week in August, 1928, letters explaining the

Shorthand Practice Cards were sent to the superintendents or

commercial teachers in the high schools at Norton, Emporia,

Lawrence, Marysville and Milford, asking if they would care

to participate in the experimental phase of this study.

Each school answered favorably. Phillipsburg High also used

the sets. An unsolicited request was received from the

principal of Solomon Rural High for the Shorthand Practice

Cards.

Soon after the beginning of school, durable cabinets

were constructed of binder's board, covered with brown

gummed cloth. Forty-three guide cards were made for each

cabinet. A cabinet, guide cards and enough cards to cover

the first few lessons in the Gregg Shorthand Manual were

 16

sent to each of the seven schools mentioned above. The rest

of the cards were sent at various intervale during the school

year, as soon as they could be made. It proved to be a tre-

mendous task to make the number of cards required -- almost

6,000. One side was printed on the multigraph, but the

shorthand forms making the key on the other side had to be

written by hand, in ink.

The total cost to the author, in labor, (printing and

writing the cards), was more than four hundred hours. The

actual cost in money, in round figures, was distributed as

follows:

6,000 cards (material) $12.00

7 cabinets (material) 5.00

450 tissue pads 45.00

express charges 10.00

Total $72.00

The materials were bought at wholesale from the Western

Newspaper Union, Wichita.

The Shorthand Practice Cards were classified according

to the twenty chapters or lessons in the Gregg Shorthand

Manual as shown in Table III. The twentieth chapter in the

Manual is a review chapter, and all the words had been cov-

ered before that lesson was reached, so no cards were nec-

 17

essary for it.

Table III. Classification of Shorthand Practice Cards

According to Chapters in the Gregg Shorthand Manual

Lesson No. Card No. Lesson No. Card No.

1 1-2 10 27-28-29-30-31
2 3-4-5 11 32-33
3 6-7 12 34-35-36-37
4 8-9 13 38-39
5 10-11-12-13-14 14-15 40
6 15-16 16 41
7 17-18-19 17-18 42
8 20-21 19 43
9 22-23-24-25-26

',Instructions to the Teacher, were printed on cards the

same size as the Shorthand Practice Cards, and filed in the

cabinets, in front of the first guide card, so they could be

referred to easily. A copy of these instructions is given

in the Appendix.

On the inside of the cover of each cabinet was oasted

a sheet giving the numbers of the cards going with each les-

son or chapter in the Manual, and telling how many cards of

each number were contained in the cabinet. A sample of this

sheet is also given in the Appendix.

The fall enrollments in beginning and advanced short-

hand classes of the schools which agreed to try out the

Shorthand Practice Cards are shown in Table IV.

 18

Table IV. Enrollments

SII=1.1=1

Enrollment Enrollment
Beginning Advanced
School Class Class

Phillipsburg High 18 4
Norton Community High 25 13
Liberty Memorial High, Lawrence 32
Emporia Senior High 78 13
Milford Rural High 13
Solomon Rural High 25
Marysville High 49 16
240 46

At the end of the school year, all the schools were re-

quested to return the cards and used pads, so the necessary

tabulations could be made. It turned out that Milford and

Marysville had made little use of the cards, and Solomon

none, so no data could be obtained from those schools.

It was found that the number from whom data could be

obtained dwindled still more, because there were a number of

drops and failures before the end of the first semester, as

shown in TableV. Emporia High offered advanced work for

one semester only; it was thought that, even counting Em-

poria, the total remaining in the advanced classes (26) was

not large enough to draw reliable conclusions from, so all

data were taken from the 111 beginning students which were

left at the end of the second semester.

 19

Table V. Enrollments at End of Second. Semester

Beginning Class Advanced Class

Enroll- Remain- Enroll- Remain-
School ment Drops ing ment Drops 'ing

Phillipsburg 16 4 14 4 0 4
Norton 25 11 14 13 4 9
Lawrence 32 9 23 0 0 0
Emporia 78 18 60 13 0 13

153 42 111 30 4 26

Note: Read, "Out of an initial enrollment of 16 in the

beginning shorthand class at Phillipsburg, there were 4
students who dropped or failed before the end of the first
semester, leaving 14 enrolled at the end of the second se-
mester."

/ 23 4- S6 7 8 f /2 /3/¢ /S /6 /7 /8 /%,20 2122 Z3 2¢.2526,272829 ,3o3/ 3235.3455 3637383f to 4/ 4243

bn

8
7
6

4-
3
2

Figure 1. Showing the Average Number of Trials Lade on

Each Card by the Beginning Class of Each of the Four
.Schools from Which Data Could be Taken
 20

Note: The horizontal numbers represent card numbers,

and the vertical numbers represent average number of trials
on a card. Read: "The members of the beginning shorthand
class in Phillipsburg High School averaged 10 trials apiece
on Card No. 1, before it was done perfectly."

A frequency polygon (Figure 1) showing the average num-

ber of trials made on each card by the beginning shorthand

classes in each of the four schools from which data could be

taken, showed that Cards No. 6, 8, 14, 18, 25 and 38 had de-

cided "peaks," or must have proved harder for students than

the other cards, and that Cards No. 5, 7, 9, 13, 20, 22 and

26 were low, and must have been decidedly easier for the

students. It was thought that this might have been due to

one of two causes: either that the cards in the first group

mentioned were actually harder in some phase of their con-

struction, and the second easier, although they each had ex-

actly one hundred strokes, or that the lessons containing

the particular points of instruction involved in the writing

of the words on those cards had not been as well developed

or learned in the first group as in the second.

In order that a tentative conclusion in the matter

might be drawn, four stenographers from the Department of

Education at K. S. A. C. were asked to take these cards as

tests. It was found that there was practically no differ-

ence in time or number of trials required by these girls on

 21

the "easy" and on the "hard" cards, so it was decided that

probably the difficulty was not one of performance, but of

learning. Anyone who has studied shorthand will admit that

a great many of the principles involved are not learned with

the same degree of ease--some are much harder to learn than

others--but the experiment with the stenographers who have

passed the learning stage and have reached the place where

all shorthand (that which contains hard as well as that

which contains easy principles) is automatic, seems to indi-

cate that one hundred strokes are written as quickly and

easily from a "hard" as from an "easy" card.

As stated before, the number of Shorthand Practice Cards

corresponding to each chapter in the Gregg Shorthand manual

varies from one to five. It is certainly permissible to

consider one of the two cards which go with Chapter 1 as

Form A and the other as Form B. Five cards (Nos. 10, 11,

12, 13 and 14) go with Chapter 5; of these, cards No. 10 and

12 were considered as Form A and No. 11 and 13 as Form B.

After proceeding in this manner all the way through the

cards, the reliability coefficient was found, using the av-

erage number of trials spent on each card in Form A and

Form B by the 111 beginning shorthand students as a basis of

comparison. The reliability coefficient turned out to be

 22

.9173 f .01083. This is doubtless high enough that one can

say the Shorthand Practice Cards are reliable--or that they

consistently drill on what they purport to drill on.

Correlations between grades of the members of the be-

ginning classes for the year and the average number of tri-

als required on each card by each of the members of the

classes, in the four schools using the cards, ranged from

.3082 to .7645. The enrollments of the classes in three of

these four schools seemed too small to give reliable corre-

lations, so percentile ranks were found for each )upil in

each class; the correlation between the percentile ranks and

the grades of tie entire 111 students was found to be .37

.055. This low correlation would seem to indicate that

there is little or no causal relationship between the grade

a student makes and the number of times he must drill on a

card to get it perfectly. This does not mean that the va-

lidity of the Shorthand Practice Cards is low; as it is not

necessarily the quickest student who will get the best

grade. The cards are practice cards--not test cards--and

grades given at the end of a year, after all the students

have had drill enough to get the cards perfectly, can not be

used as a criterion. Enough other factors enter in that one

can not say that the student who requires least drill is the
 23

best, or vice versa.

It was suggested to each teacher frying the cards that

a time limit be made for each card, to range somewhere be-

tween a minute and a minute and a half, and that the time,

once fixed to.suit the ability of the class, should not be

changed, but should remain constant for all cards during the

whole year. Norton used one minute, and Phillipsburg, Law-

rence and Emporia each used one and a half minutes for each

card, for beginning classes. Contrary to what one might ex-

pect, Norton did not require more practices per card than

did the other three schools. This may have been due to dif-

ferences in ability, or in amount and quality of study pre-

ceding the practices.

At the end of the year, the questionnaire found in the

Appendix was sent to each teacher using the Shorthand Prac-

tice Cards. Each teacher reported that the use of the cards

helped (1) to make drill work easier for the teacher, (2) to

develop speed on the part of the pupils, (3) to develop a

better working vocabulary on the part of the pupils, and (4)

in review; they all also reported that the pupils greatly

enjoyed their use. The one unfavorable report, received

from three of the four teachers, was that the cards did not

help the pupils to make better forms, but, if anything,

 24

tended to produce poorer forms, as a sacrifice to speed.

SUMMARY OF SPECIAL FEATURES OF THE PRACTICE CARDS

The Shorthand Practice Cards are made up of the thou-

sand commonest words (taken from Ayres), the one hundred

sixty-eight Gregg wordsigns not listed under the thousand

commonest words, and seventy-five type phrases containing

modified words. The cards are designed to decrease the

amount of a teacher's routine drudgery and to improve the

efficiency of his teaching; to develop, on the part of the

student, ability that will transfer to regular dictation,

and to all situations in which the shorthand forms of these

words are used.

Each card contains exactly one hundred shorthand

strokes; pupils may work individually, each pupil staying on

a card until it is done perfectly within the time allowed,

and yet all pupils be timed the same.

The scoring and the recording of scores is very easily

and quickly done.

The cards are numbered consecutively from 1 to 43, in-

clusive, and are made in such a way that they correspond

with the chapters in the Gregg Shorthand Manual containing

 25

the principles involved, and may be used right along with

the Manual.

CONCLUSIONS

The reliability coefficient (.9173 i .01083) shows that

the Shorthand Practice Cards consistently drill on what they

purport to drill on.

Emphasis on speed tends to produce poor forms.

The conclusion drawn from Mrs. Schrampferls study--that

the stroke is a better and fairer unit of measurement in

shorthand than the word--is borne out by the fact that the

number of words on the Shorthand Practice Cards ranged from

27 to 74, yet each measured exactly one hundred shorthand

strokes and the pupils were able to write each card within

the time allowed, one as easily as the other.

A short period (probably ten minutes) a day, day after

day, spent in intense, purposeful snappy practice should

prove adequate to develop proper habits of speed and ac-

curacy. This should carry over into general dictation, as

the words and phrases contained on the cards make up more

than 90% of all common written discourse.

The use of the cards lessens the drudgery, both for

 26

teacher and pupils, which is necessary in methods of prac-

tice now commonly in use.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The teacher should refuse to advance a student to the

next card if his work shows poor or sloppy forms, even

though the forms have the correct letters in them; this

would probably tend to lessen the one objection raised to th

the use of the Shorthand Practice Cards.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author wishes to acknowledge her indebtedness to

Doctor V. L. Strickland, Department of Education, K. S. A.

C., who has supervised this study throughout, and who has

given many helpful suggestions and much constructive criti-

cism; to Miss Helen C. Kahn, Emporia Senior High School;

Miss Pauline Statton, Norton Community High School; Mr. C.

E. Birch, Miss Marie Hay and Mrs. W. L. Stringham, Liberty

Memorial High School, Lawrence; and Miss Harriet Scott,

Phillipsburg High School, for their cooperation in using the

Shorthand Practice Cards and reporting grades and results.

Without their assistance the study could not have been made.
 27

APPENDIX

Copy of Letter Explaining Use of the Shorthand Practice Cards

Phillipsburg, Kansas
August 27, 1930

Mr. W. C. Nystrom
Principal, Norton Community High School
Norton, Kansas

Dear Mr. Nystrom:

In Seminar
work out a series of Gregg Shorthand Practice Cards, similar
in their physical construction to the Courtis Arithmetic
Practice Cards.

These cards are based on the thousand commonest

words, all Gregg wordsigns not included in the thousand com-
monest words, (because since these are wordsigns, they re-
quire memorizing, and consequently more drill), and a number
of common phrases. Following are the main points of inter-
est about the cards:

1. The cards are classified according to the chap-

ters in the Gregg Shorthand Manual, and may be
used along with each chapter as it is finished.

2. The cards are used with tissue pads. Each card

has the shorthand key on the back, so that when
the card is turned over, after the pupil has
written on the tissue sheet the shorthand forms
for the words which show through, the pupil's
work may be corrected with a minimum of time and
effort.

3. It has been proved that a pupil's shorthand speed

will remain constant, when measured by shorthand
 28

strokes instead of words. Each of the 43 cards

in the set contains exactly 100 shorthand strokes.
The fact that there are the same number of
strokes on each card makes it possible for pu-
pils to be working on different cards at the same
time, and yet be timed the same.

4. The time for each card will be one and a half

minutes or less, and the card should be completed
correctly within the time specified before a pu-
pil goes on to the next card.

5. We think the teacher may obtain splendid results

with as little as five or ten minutes of the
class period devoted to the work each day.

6. The work on these cards is drill work that must

be done in some way; the use of the cards fur-
nishes an easier, more interesting and more ef-
fective way.

I am planning to have the cards go through an exper-

imental stage this year, and am wondering if your school
would be interested in using them.

If you care to qse them, I shall send you enough

cards for all your classes (both first and second year
shorthand), with a pad for every pupil, by express prepaid.
You understand there is no charge of any kind, of course. I
shall ask, however, that the pads be used for nothing but
this work, that no sheets be destroyed in them, and that
both the cards and the pads be returned to me at the end of
the year, at my expense.

Will you please fill out and return the enclosed

blank to me, so that I shall know whether or not to reserve
cards for your school? If you want the cards, and enroll-
ment is not yet complete, please return the blank as soon as
you have the data on enrollment.

Yours very truly,

 29

Requisition Form and Agreement

Miss Grace McCoppin

Phillipsburg High School
Phillipsburg, Kansas

Dear Miss McCoppin:

do not care)
We would like ) to use your Shorthand Practice Cards
in our school this year. I am listing below the enrollment
in each shorthand class, so you may send me enough material
for all pupils:

We have classes of first year shorthand, the en-

rollment of the classes, each taken separately, be-
ing ,

We have classes of second year shorthand, the

enrollment of the classes, each taken separately,
being

I understand that we are to be at no expense what-

ever, and that the material will be shipped to us by prepaid
express.

I agree to use the pads for nothing but this work,

to see that no sheets are torn out or destroyed, and to re-
turn all the cards and pads to you at the end of the school
year at your expense.

(Name)

(Position)

(School)
 30

Instructions to Teachers Using the Shorthand Practice Cards

Whenever a chapter or lesson is completed in the Gregg

Manual, the cards for that lesson may be given. Most of the
lessons have more than one card; for example, there are two
cards, No. 1 and No. 2, that go with the first lesson in the
Manual. It does not matter which of these cards a pupil
finishes first. Part of the class may be working on Card No.
1 while the others are working on Card No. 2, and then they
may change around.

You will find one or two pads in the set with the card
numbers 1 to 43 on the cover. Each pupil should number the
cover of his pad similarly, preferably with ink, then when
he has completed a card perfectly within the allotted time,
he should put the number of trials he has had to take to
complete the card, beside its number on the cover of his
pad, so he or the teacher may see at a glance which cards he
has finished and how many trials he has had on each.

No marks of any kind go on the card itself; all work is

done on the tissue sheet under which the card is placed.

Whenever the teacher times a class on the cards, the

pupils should be given instructions to place the card under
the first clean tissue sheet, put their names and the date
at the top of the sheet, and the Card No., Lesson No., and
the number of trials a pupil has had on that particular card.
Each time a pupil tries a new card, it will be "Trial No. 1."
Then when all are ready, the teacher should give the signal
to "Start," and time first year pupils for exactly one min-
ute, or second year pupils for exactly 45 seconds. At the
end of the allotted time, pads should be exchanged, cards
reversed so the shorthand key shows beside the pupil's work,
and the work corrected. Any pupil who gets all the work
on a card done correctly within the allotted time should
be given the next card. Any who fail to finish, or who
have incorrect forms, should work on the same card again.

In case the time mentioned above seems insufficient, it

may be lengthened. Probably 1=4 or 12 minutes will be enough
for any first year class, and one minute for second year pu-
pils. Whatever length of time is used, should be used con-
sistently throughout the entire set.

At the end of the timing period, the cards should be

collected and properly filed in the cabinet, and the pads
collected and left in the care of the teacher.

No sheets in the pad are to be destroyed. If a trial

is made and the work is incomplete or incorrect, a large
pencil cross should be made on the tissue sheet. This will
facilitate the teacher's checking the work the pupil thinks
is complete and correct, if she cares to do that.

The timing periods may be arranged to suit the teach-

er's convenience. She may take a whole class period after
the completion of a chapter or lesson in the Manual, or she
may give a few trials every day, from the time the first
chapter is completed, on.

It will be profitable for the pupils to use the cards

for a few minutes outside of class time, occasionally, for
study and practice, with no timing. At these times, the pu-
pils will use a second tissue pad, not the one used in
class where he is timed.

The tissue pads are to be saved with all the pupils'

work in them (no sheets destroyed) and returned to me at the
end of the school year, together with the cabinet of cards.
If you need more pads during the year, write for them and I
shall send them to you.

You will find only the first 14 cards in the cabinet

when you receive it; the others will be sent to you soon.
 3,2

Questionnaire (Sent at End of School Year)

(Date)

Did you find the use of the Gregg Shorthand Practice Cards
helped:

1. To make drill work easier for the teacher?

2. To develop speed on the part of the pupils?

3. To develop better shorthand forms on the

part of the pupils?

4. To develop a better working vocabulary on

the part of the pupils?

5. In review?

What length of time was used for each card in:

1. First year classes?

2. Second year classes?

(If the time used at the first of the year was

ever changed during the year, please indicate.
For example, one school used lt minutes for the
first year class the first time through the sets
of cards, and 1 minute the second time through
them.)

Did the pupils enjoy the use of the cards, or find them
tedious?

Did the pupils find any particular section of the cards hard-
er than any other? If so, which section?

Suggestions and criticisms:

(Teacher) (School)
Instructions on Cover of Tissue Pads

Check (v) the number of the Shorthand

Practice Card below, whenever you have
completed it without error within the
allotted time:

Check- Check-
Card ing No. of Card ing No. of
No. Column Trials No. Column Trials

1---- 22
2---- 23
3---- 24
4---- 25
5---- 26
6---- 27
7---- 28
8---- 29
9---- 30
10---- 31
11---- 32
12---- 33
13---- 34
14---- 35
15 36
16---- 37
17---- 38
18---- 39
19---- 40
20---- 41
21---- 42
43
 34

Copy of Information Pasted in the Lid of Each Cabinet

Lesson Card Total Lesson Card Total

No. No. Cards No. No. Cards

1 7 22 3
1
2 7 23 3
24 3
3 5 25 3
2 26
4 5 3
5 5
27
6 7 28
3
7 7 10 29
30
8 7
4
9 7
32 7
11
10 3 33 7
11 3
5 12 3 34 4
13 3 35 4
12
14 3 36 4
37 4
15 7
6
16 7 38 7
13
39 7
17 5
7 18 5 14-15 40 14
19 5
16 41 14
20 7
8
21 7 17-18 42 14

19 43 14

Note: This sheet was prepared for a

class of 14. The numbers in the
"Total Cards" column depended in each
case on the enrollment of the class
using the cards.
 35

BIBLIOGRAPHY

John Robert Gregg, Gregg Shorthand (New York, Gregg

Publishing Company, 1916)

Leonard P. Ayres, A Measuring Scale for Ability in

Spelling (New York, Division of Education, Russell Sage
Foundation, 1915)

William Frederick Book, Learning to Typewrite (New

York, Gregg Publishing Company, 1925)

Daniel Starch, Educational Psychology (New York, The

Macmillan Company, 1923)

E. L. Thorndike, Educational Psychology, Briefer

Course

Research Studies in Commercial Education (University of

Iowa Monographs in Education, First Series, No. 7, July,
1926)

Ibid., (First Series, No. 8, January, 1928)