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    Clickable dictation at various speeds is available at the bottom of this page. The transcript of the dictation appears here as well.

     Is it just me or are these letters repetitious and rather dull by today's standards? Then again, there are those who say ANY dictation is good.

     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.

200 Takes for Building Shorthand Speed, Zoubek, 1946, Letter 110

Dear Mr. Lee:  This letter announces the publication of our new book, “The Credit Manager’s Guide.”  It shows why some letters bring back the check while others meet only indifference.  Whether the account was large or small, whether it was one month in arrears or six, here are methods that brought back the money.  Not only are the methods given, but also the exact letters that were found successful in stirring up the most hardened debtors and obtaining their signatures at the bottom of their checks.

            If you could find among these 175 tested and proved letters a single one that would collect some account you had written off as hopeless, if you could learn just one new method that would hurry up your slow accounts, you would cheerfully pay several times the $5 that “The Credit Manager’s Guide” costs, wouldn’t you?  Well. here are the 175 letters that brought I the money most successfully for scores of other concerns, some of them in the same type of business as yours.  Here are the methods that work best in bringing debtors into line.  Isn’t it likely that among them you will find a few letters and methods you have not yet tried that will work as well for you as they have for others?

            For years, John Lake, the author, was credit manager for three large Chicago corporations.  He is now secretary and treasurer of a big corporation and has won wide recognition for his book review and articles in Chicago papers.  Now, from all these books and articles, from years of experience, and from his wide reading, he has gathered together the methods that have been most successful in getting debtors to pay.  Not only that, but he has analyzed the methods, taken the letters apart, and shown why they worked.  He points out the motives behind them and enables you to build up new letters.

            Many of the most successful credit men in this country have contributed their methods and their most effective letters to this book.  It is a collection of all that is tested and proved, all that is known to work in convincing the debtor that he should take care of his obligations.

            Will you try it if I send it to you at my own risk and expense for a week’s free examination?

            All that is necessary is that you fill out the enclosed card.  We are printing a small preliminary edition in order to determine how great a market there is for a work of this kind.  While this small edition lasts, you can get a copy at the publication price of $5.

            Send no money.  First put us to the test.  Let these successful credit letters collect enough of your slow accounts to pay for “The Credit Manager’s Guide” before you send us a cent.  In that way, you can’t lose.  The new methods and new letters will bring back the money.  Ver truly yours,

For more information on shorthand speed building, click here.

Instructions for Self-Dictation Practice:
    Copy and paste the above article into a word-processing document, using double or triple spacing and 12- or 14-pitch type.
    As always, be sure to check your shorthand dictionary for correct outlines before "drilling"!

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.

60 wpm 80 wpm 100 wpm 120 wpm 140 wpm

The dictation material above is copyrighted, all rights reserved.


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Gregg Shorthand Pitman Shorthand Speedwriting Shorthand