Assuming you've read through the previous pages, you now have enough Pitman characters at your disposal to write anything you want. The best thing to do at this point is to write material - either your own words, or something transcribed from a book, so you can remember the various symbols and write them without having to think about each one.

When you are completely comfortable with it, you can start learning additional characters. For example, instead of writing B-L, you can write a special BL character. Instead of S and Z, you can use a circle that stands for either. There are dozens of techniques which can be layered on the basic system. Each one reduces the writing time by a small percentage, but the cumulative effect is to make your writing a fraction of its current size. But unless you have a brain like a computer, it's hard to learn all these techniques at once. It's easier to learn the slow way first, then learn all the gr8 shortcuts LOL.

Spelling

Pitman is a phonetic language. That means there's no "correct" spelling of words. You don't need to know how to spell a word to write it - but you do need to know how to say it.

Words may be written differently depending on the accent of the speaker. I was born in Britain, so I pronounce the words "dawn" and "Don" quite differently - one has a drawn out "awww", and the other has a short "o". In Pitman, I'd write them differently, too - Don with an "o" dash, and "Dawn" with a heavier "aw" dash. But for many North Americans, words like "Dawn / Don" or "Lawn / Lon" sound identical. If that's you, no problem - write them both with a light "o" dash.

For other words, North Americans may make a distinction that the British ignore. Many Brits pronounce the name "Lorne" exactly like "lawn", and "Shaw" exactly like "shore". Again, write it the way you say it.

Speed

Don't try to go fast. Pitman may be designed for speed, and is capable of extraordinary speeds, but at first, writing anything will be very, very slow, and, even using this simplified version, surprisingly taxing for your brain. The most important thing is to make the characters legible, so you can easily reread your writing.

Read what you write

Come back to what you've written after a couple of days, and see if you can decode it. Again, no need to do it all from memory - use the guide.

That way, your writing practice also gives you reading practice.

I like to transcribe material from books. I write the title and page number (in regular text) at the top of the page, so I can look up any words I can't decode.

Memorizing the characters

If you want, you can try to memorize the characters. These handy dandy mnemonics may help. I'd suggest not trying too hard. You will pick it up automatically as you write more and more, and until then, racking your brains to remember a certain shape is tiring.

Write a guide to the letters on an index card, and keep it next to you. Look at it as often as you need to. You may find this less mentally tiring than struggling to remember each symbol.

As you write the letters more and more, you will remember them automatically, whether or not you make an effort to memorize them.

Exchange notes with a friend

If you learn shorthand with someone else, you can exchange notes. It's good practice for reading and writing.

Character size

It's weird, but many of the shorthand books don't tell you explicitly how large you should write shorthand.

Normally, Pitman is written in quite a small size - a character like a T or an M should be around 4 mm (1/6 inches) long. Using wide ruled paper ("Pitman ruled" pages have lines spaced about 9 mm or 3/8" apart), a T is a bit less than half the distance between lines. That sizing works well for

But, as with handwriting, you can write any size you like. The Pitman Gestapo were disbanded long ago, so nobody will come after you for shorthand crimes. At first, it may be easier to write large. The examples I've written here are big - a T takes up 3/4 of the space between two lines. If you write that way, you'll need to double space, occasionally writing around some of the longer words that wind down the page.

Here are a couple of size examples. They both say "paid". Although I guess the one on the right says paid less.

Reducing word sprawl

Longer words are going to sprawl across the page. Generally, words will tend to snake down and to the right. You can reduce your black ink's carbon footprint by thinking about the whole word before you start writing.

Say you're writing the word "mud". If you write the "M" on the line, the "D" will dip down below it. So instead, you raise the first letter, so that the first downstroke reaches the line.

The rule is that you do this for only one downstroke. Don't try to compensate for the second one too, or your words will sprout on the page like mad sunflowers, and it will be hard to read.

This looking ahead business is hard to do at first, when you're using all your mental energy just trying to remember which letter is a P and which is an R, but when you're more comfortable with the letters, it's an easy adjustment.

The frustrations

For a while, you're probably going to find you mix up letters, putting an R for an L, or a Sh for a F. It gives you some sympathy for children learning to read, who write their S's backwards, or confuse b's and d's. It's also surprising how mentally tiring the process is.

It gradually gets easier, of course, and you will find, after a few days or weeks, as your brain realizes you're serious about this stuff and decides to connect some new neurons so you can cope, you'll suddenly start writing some symbols without having to think consciously about them. Then you're on your way to becoming a SHORTHAND MACHINE!

Writing implements

I don't know how many times I've read, on various web sites, that PItman should be written with a special flexible pen. This is misleading.

The symbols in Pitman have to be written in two different weights - light (thin) and heavy (thick). When Pitman was designed, in the 1830s, most writing was done with a quill pen, usually with a flexible nib which suited the handwriting of the day. That made it easy to write light and heavy lines - although you'd have had the problem of having to dip the nib in an inkwell every few seconds.

I've played around with a few different ways of writing Pitman. Here's the key. Don't try to press hard to get heavy lines. Instead, press lightly to get the light lines, and draw a normal line for heavy lines. That way, you can write with quite a range of pens and pencils.

I've found that a regular ballpoint pen will work, and for slow-speed writing (which you do a lot of when you're starting), it works quite well, because you can stop after one consonant, while you're thinking about where the next one goes. Try that with a fountain pen resting on the paper and you'll probably end up with a blob of ink on the resting place.

Ballpoints don't always do such a great job with dots, so you might need to put more effort into those than you would with other types of pen.

A pencil also works well. This was the method of choice for court reporters in Victorian times. It's quite easy to get thick and thin lines from a pencil. Make sure the pencil isn't too sharp, though, or it makes the thick lines difficult to draw.

I've tried automatic pencils, as an alternative to the regular kind. I find that a wider lead (0.7 or 0.9) works better than a narrow one. Another step up in width is a "lead holder", like the Staetdler Mars 789, which holds a fairly thick lead, but, when pressing lightly, can still produce a thin line. These holders are fairly cheap, and available in most office stores. The advantage of the lead holder over a regular automatic pencil is that the lead is held more tightly and won't roll. In an automatic pencil, this rolling can cause lines to become suddenly thicker.

Fountain pens can work for shorthand. They do a nice job on the dots and dashes, but getting a good range of thin and thick lines seems to depend on the nib. I find that fine nibs work poorly - when you draw a line sideways, as you do for C or M, it's very difficult to get much variation in width, even with a fairly flexible nib. So far, I've had the best results with a medium Sheaffer nib. The type of ink also makes a difference. Parker Quink seems to spread out less than some brands, and again, this makes it easier to differentiate light and heavy lines.

Many professional shorthand writers seem to like gel and rollerball pens, which they say move faster over the paper than a ballpoint.

One new option for shorthand writers is a digitizing tablet, which I've used for many of the shorthand graphics on this site, drawing shorthand symbols into Microsoft OneNote. Your tablet must be pressure sensitive, so you can draw light or heavy lines. Most separate tablets are, but this isn't always the case with tablet computers.