The easy way to do it is to cheat. Take a piece of paper and write a-z on it and then write the shorthand versions next to it. Some of them you'll have to be different with like "h" is a dot over the next letter in the word, like the word "he" would be a dot over the symbol for "e" which is a small o. Then after "a" write all the shorthand versons of all variations of the "a" sound and do it to all vowels too. Then there's "ch" "sh" and all that nonsense you have to throw in there too. Then on a separate sheet write all the frequently used words like "the" "I" "am" "it" in" etc. This is where it can be confusing because some of the symbols for these words are VERY similar to markings for other sounds but when they're alone they mean just the short word or phrase. Here's where I cheat. I don't really use these. If you learn to write just using the symbols for the sounds alone you can start writing in one day. If you do it the right way you'll spend alot more time so you gotta pick what you want to do. Here's where I throw in "EasyScript." Easy script is a way of writing where you just use letters of the alphabet but you leave alot out. Like "storm" would be "strm." Big deal, I say but there's alot of ideas you can take that can make shorthand even easier. Using just the prefixes and suffixes from easyscript can make shorthand a little faster but I only use the simple ones. What I didn't like about Easyscript was you HAD to transcribe your notes while they were fresh in your memory. The word "well" would be "wl." No problem if I can remember that but what if I looked at the notes years later. For that word I'd write it in shorthand. For words like "appliance" I would write "a-p-l-i" using shorthand and "C" after it from easyscript which stands for "ance" or "ence." I'd be able to read it years later. Now I know that in shorthand it's just as fast as my way but my way is easier to learn. Names and big words I'm not familiar with I'll just write out normally. In shorthand you do EVERYTHING their funky way and it's just insane. Like a question mark is an "x" I mean, common! How hard is it to just write "?" ? I also use normal abreviations like @ for "at" and up arrow for "up" or "higher" and a down arrow for "down" or "lower." I did this and looked at my notes every night (guess you could say I PR'd them or superread them) and in no time I was writing this way. Photoread once and superread the book alot too. Just looking at the symbols in the book every night for a while really does something.
