Clickable dictation at various speeds is available at the bottom of this page. The transcript of the dictation appears here as well.
Happy New Year!
We continue with the review book: ""The ten letters in this booklet contain all the brief forms and other contractions in Gregg Shorthand as well as 400 of the most common words employing analogical word beginnings and word endings.
"Because of their high shorthand content value, these letters may be used again and again as repetition practice until students can write them at a rapid rate of speed."
This was published during the height of the Anniversary edition of Gregg. The memory load of this version of Gregg was heavy. There were hundreds of brief forms, tons of special forms, the abbreviating principle was applied to more words than you can shake a stick at, and then there were scores of word beginning and word endings, both joined and disjoined. Some of you may find the vocabularly a bit rich but it's well worth that repetion practice mentioned above. Hang in there!
Remember, the dictation pieces must be a minimum of three minutes to be a valid test. Anything under three minutes is therefore not acceptable for testing purposes. Keep in mind that before Diamond Jubilee Gregg, all shorthand tests were five minutes. If you go back far enough, tests were ten minutes or longer.
Gregg Shorthand Review Letters, The Gregg Publishing Company, 1940, Letter 8
Dear Mr. Jones: Your letter stating that our contract does not stipulate who is to pay for extras has been referred to me. According to the agreement you made with your contractor, we were to construct a brick showroom with two anterooms for the aggregate sum of $15,000. In your letter you have not contradicted the fact that we have been circumspect in following all the details, but you state you are not agreeable to the payment of the unanticipated expenses we incurred in finishing the building in antique style.
My belief is that you instructed us to put through automatically suggestions that gave the house more personality and dignity. I agree we did supplement the original design with an ornament here and there but our modifications were restricted to indispensable changes which contributed to the grandeur of the property, and that were not carried to any great extremity. We were constructively critical of every logical idea submitted and accepted nothing that did not blend with the classical lines of the building. When we consider the constructiveness of the internal and external improvements, the extra charges are in no sense monumental, but slight, indeed.
We hope you will not doubt the sincerely of our efforts to give you an artistic showroom and that you will decide to send your check in the enclosed, self-addressed envelope. However, we do not wish anything to interfere with our friendship, so if by reason of any circumstance you still feel our claim should be declined, please send us a telegram and we will cancel the change immediately. In that case, destroy our bill.
A few photographs of the new showroom are enclosed should you need them for advertising purposes. No critic will contradict the fact that the building is a picture of originality and that it bears no similarity whatever to other buildings in your locality.
You hve not speculated by building on the plot you did, but have acted intelligently. You chose a lot centrally located on a highway serving thousands of vehicles. You may be sure your idea will be emulated in other communities; but, of course, that will not detract from your business.
Your electric bill, which is enclosed, is not very high, since we caused a short circuit several weeks ago when we tried to electrify the display in the entrance to the building. Consequently, we were unable to use electricity for a time. This, however, is counterbalanced, by the bill for gas, which is also included here. We had to make frequent use of gas for preparing materials.
We apologize for not writing sooner and hope to have the pleasure of seeing you shortly. Very respectfully yours,
For more information on shorthand speed building, click here.
Instructions for Self-Dictation Practice:
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Dictation Practice:
Note that the material was counted and recorded for dictation at 100; all other speeds were copied from the 100 take and electronically adjusted and may therefore sound unusual.
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