Ford Improved Shorthand ™

Learn to write shorthand in 15 minutes using the

latest and best method for the modern user like you.
 Shorthand Made Easy
Do you want to learn shorthand in 15 minutes instead of taking weeks of
classes?
Do you want to write in your journal in an encrypted way so the meaning is
obfuscated?
Do you want to take notes or just write in a cool way?
Then the Ford Improved Shorthand™ is what you are looking for and it is free
too.
I developed Ford Improved Shorthand when I wanted a fast way to write in my
journal that kept my writing private.
I searched for various simple cipher systems including pig-pen encryption and
others, but they were hard to read and difficult to learn. I then looked into
shorthand. I quickly discovered that existing shorthand methods were outdated
and imprecise. That is when I decided to develop my own modernized and easy
to learn shorthand method.

Gregg is the most common type of shorthand and is the scrolling type most
people recognize as shorthand. This method is difficult to learn and very hard to
read. It was never meant to be used to record information for storage. It was
meant to be used for dictation that would then be immediately transcribed. If
someone were to write notes in Gregg shorthand and try to read them six
months later it would be very difficult. The writing method is also imprecise
because it uses sounds, not letters. Many of the symbols also vary in size so
one slash means one sound and a slightly longer slash another and an even
longer slash means yet something else. If you do not keep your writing scaled
the same it becomes hard to read. It also omits vowels. Try writing down a
password this way! Gregg was not going to meet my needs.

Gregg Shorthand Example

Pittman is another well known method. It is similar to Gregg in that it is a

scrolling style which omits vowels. It also requires the use of a fountain pen to
make thin and thick lines. Again, unusable today.
Teeline is a method that is still taught to journalists in the UK and widely used. It
has the advantage of using every letter, but that makes it a little slower. It is
easier to learn, however it is also confusing as I will cover later. Teeline was
invented by James Hill in 1968. It is actually a derivative of earlier versions.
When you compare it to Gregg you see many similar shapes such as the
sounds for O, T, M. Vowels are eliminated unless they are the first letter of the
word or the last letter. Ford Improved Shorthand looks similar to Teeline but that
is only because I used the same concept in my letter development. Teeline also
omits vowels and has some other tricks that are taught in the classes for this
method which make it complicated. That is something I did not like. When you
take out the vowels you speed up writing but you also take out precision and
readability.
 Teeline Shorthand Alphabet

Ford Improved Shorthand solves the problems of older systems. It is easy to

learn and write. The average person can learn the complete system in 15
minutes with no classes. It is also free for personal use. It is easy to read even
months or years after it is written. It uses every letter so there is never any
ambiguity about what is written.
Ford Improved Shorthand is effective for students. The other systems for
shorthand are not useful for students because you spend too much time trying
to figure out your notes and not learning. You are better off recording the class
while using Ford Improved Shorthand to write down highlights, lists, etc. The
Ford version is a modernized version which is redesigned to be easy to use,
easy to learn, easy to read, easy to write, accurate and fast.
The average speed most people write is around 20 words per minute. Your
speed when using the Ford Improved Shorthand method depends on you ability,
but 40 words per minute is pretty good and faster than many people type and
claims of 150 words are not uncommon. The average person speaks around
200 words per minute so this speed would allow a reasonable dictation rate.
The Ford Improved Shorthand method is meant as both shorthand and coding
for personal journals.
This method allows you to take rapidly written notes anywhere without the
average person being able to read what you have written.
Advantages of Ford Improved Shorthand
•50% faster than regular cursive writing on average
•no dependence on placement above or below center-line
•no additional marks are needed
•no special writing instruments are needed(such as thick or thin lines as in
the Pittman system)
•works with languages other than English
•every character is drawn as efficiently as possible
•not dependent on character spacing or scale
•easy to read even after time has passed
•easy to write
•easy to learn
•can be written with any pen or pencil
Ford Improved Shorthand Features
You may notice that Ford shorthand and Teeline are similar. This is because the
same methodology was used for both. Teeline is based on the idea of using the
first stroke or defining stroke to identify a character. The same idea was used for
some other earlier shorthand versions which are seen in the Teeline system too.
For example the Ford Improved Shorthand A is the outside stroke of the capital
A. The E symbol is the back and bottom stroke of the capital E. The I symbol is
the dot and line of the lower case “i” drawn in one stroke without lifting the pen.
W and M are simplified by omitting the middle strokes just as was done in Gregg
and other systems. F is the first stroke of the lower case "f". S can be written
either as shown or in mirror image, both ways are still S and are a faster way of
making a similar stroke. O is drawn as an alpha which is faster because the
ends do not have to connect. Q(the defining top and spine stroke with serif) is
differentiated from N(the second defining stroke of the lower case letter) by the
serif and straight top line. You can figure out an easy way to remember each of
them because almost every character is a representative stroke of the original
letter. Some characters are the same as the original because they were easy to
write quickly in one or two strokes so there was no reason to change those.
Teeline also used strokes from Pittman and Gregg methods. The method used
in the Ford Improved Shorthand system is similar which means many characters
are similar. The Ford method uses the first stroke, a defining stroke or motion, or
the character itself for the Ford Improved Shorthand character.
However, there are also many important differences between Ford Improved
Shorthand and other systems. There are almost no rules to remember for the
Ford Improved Shorthand method. With Teeline you have to remember to omit
vowels unless they are the first or last character and you combine some
characters and there are other methods taught with Teeline.
In my testing I found that these simply were not worth learning and were
unnecessary. The speed advantage was not that significant when compared to
the difficulty of reading what was written later. That is why the Ford system has
no similar rules. Teeline has some other issues, like using one character or
character-appearing-symbol to represent a different character or using a symbol
that is not related to the character.
For example, in Teeline the alternate __ for D is similar to T but depends on
placement relative to the baseline. The Teeline F looks like D or a deflated
balloon, O looked like U but so did U and Q, S looked like O(so why have O
looking like U and S looking like O?). In Teeline Q, O, U and Y look basically the
same with Q looking like a big U that had nothing to do with the form of Q.
These character choices meant that you could never use the actual letter if you
forgot when writing what the Teeline character was because it would look like
another letter. It also made it much harder to learn the alphabet because some
letters are replaced with other letters without rhyme or reason. If you forgot the
symbol for O and just wrote "o" it would look like S when you read it back in
Teeline. Teeline also combines characters even when there is no speed
advantage to doing this so a simple set of characters suddenly becomes
complex and hard to understand. There were a lot of problems with Teeline
which is why I set out to make my own alphabet.
In the Ford method you do not omit vowels. The Ford method speeds up writing
and allows you to keep your writing relatively private(as long as no one looking
over your shoulder knows this method). It is not meant to be as fast as Gregg. It
is meant to be easier to understand and write.
There is no difference between upper and lower case in the Ford system.
Punctuation and numbers are the same as in regular writing. You can combine
characters, but it is not necessary to do so. For example, THE would be three
marks combined and LIKE would be those shorthand marks combined into one
symbol, with the IK into one. Common words can be abbreviated. For common
words like and, the, you, you can use a simple line so write the first letter then
draw a line which symbolizes the word.
Write y-- for you. You can develop your own abbreviations and make a list of
them in your journal. This will make your writing even faster.
Speed Considerations
Let's not forget that we live in a modern world. Shorthand was developed to take
dictation. I guarantee you if they had dicta-phones or smartphones with
recording apps or even voice recognition software there would have been no
need for shorthand and it would have never been developed. If speed is really
that important and you need to capture every word use a pocket voice recorder.
Modern shorthand is not about taking down dictation, it is about making notes
quickly and keeping your writing private. You do not have to write as fast as
someone can speak anymore.

Learning Ford Improved Shorthand

You don’t need to take a course to learn the Ford Improved Shorthand system.
Just start using it.
1.Write the alphabet a couple of times and you will have it firmly
established in your head. It is really very simple. Look at how the
characters in the Ford alphabet are similar to, representative of, or strokes
from the original lower or upper-case letters. That will make it easy to
remember. Spend five minutes doing this.
2.Pick a random magazine article or page from a book and write it using
the Ford method. It must be something you have not memorized. At first it
will be a slow process.
3.When you have written a couple of paragraphs up to a page read it back.
Start at random places in the text and begin reading too. It will take some
practice to get good at reading it back. At first you will have to pronounce
the characters in your head and that will turn into words. Sound out the
words slowly. You will quickly develop confidence in your ability to read it
back, though it will take some time while you are learning. With practice
you will be able to read your writing back as fast as you can read regular
writing and write it as well. Spend 10 minutes practicing your reading. That
is all you need to learn to read and write this system. Beyond that it is a
matter of practice.
Congratulations! You have just learned the Ford Improved Shorthand method in
15 minutes or less.
If you would like a course in the Ford Improved Shorthand Method, then you just
got it. Re-read 1, 2 and 3. That is it. It really is that simple. For numbers, special
characters or punctuation use the regular shapes. If you would still like to take a
seven day intensive course in this method, repeat the above for seven days.
Really, that is all there is to it. This is a simple method and I am not selling
courses on how to do it.
 
Tips:
Be classy and use a fountain pen. This is not really related to shorthand, but it
looks cool to write with a fountain pen and it is a great way to differentiate your
writing from other's writings. Do some web surfing on fountain pens and you will
find lots of people enjoy using them over common ballpoint pens.

If you want to write languages other than English you can simply add
the pronunciation marks or use the actual character for non-standard
characters.

 
Tricks:
If you forget a letter, you can use the regular letter. You can figure out what you
wrote even if you don’t remember every letter because your mind will fill in the
blanks when you recognize most letters.

 
Obfuscation:
You may want to make your writing even harder to read if you are writing in a
diary or journal. There is something personal about writing with your own hand
rather than using a computer. Journals are still very popular, but no one wants
just anyone to read a private diary or journal. Writing in code is impractical and
difficult. Plus, what if you forget the code? The Ford method makes it easy.

The Ford method allows obfuscation, not encryption. It is not secure

and anyone who can read Ford Improved Shorthand can read what
you write. But, let's face it, how many people around you can read Ford
Improved Shorthand?
 If you want to obfuscate more, add pronunciation marks randomly or
other marks such as underlining or over-lining, umlaut or dots over a
character, or carets over a character, or circling a character. This has
no meaning but will make it harder to understand by the casual viewer.
When reading, you will know they are not actually part of the text but
those extra bits are just there to throw off anyone trying to read your
writing.

Move characters up or down on the line so they are not all aligned the
same.

Combine characters or place them close together.

Make up dummy characters and insert them between characters.

Insert pig-pen encryption characters to break up words.

Start each paragraph with dummy characters or a nonsense sentence.

Even if someone can ready Ford Improved Shorthand they will assume
they cannot read any more of your writing when they are confounded
by the first line.

You can make it harder to read even for someone who knows what the
letters mean by writing in Pig Latin or Carnie Talk.

Legal
The Ford Improved Shorthand method is free for personal or business use as
long as it is not sold and no money is charged for the system or materials. If you
teach this system or make any materials from it available as part of another
product or course then you must obtain permission. The image showing the
Ford Improved Shorthand characters may be used on other websites as long as
it is not altered or cropped. It may be resized as long as all text is readable.