These courses are designed for students not majoring in the sciences and present a range of foundational topics, from the grand principles governing the universe and understanding its beginning, to the formation and evolution of stars and galaxies, and the search for habitable extrasolar planets. All courses numbered in the s include labs for engaging in astronomical inquiry through classical experiments, opportunities for telescope observing, and data analysis.
The Study Abroad program in Paris is another option for completing the general education requirement in the physical sciences. Students seeking a more in-depth examination of selected astrophysical topics may take a course numbered in the s as a third course in the physical sciences or as a general elective. While the and courses are aimed at students not majoring in the sciences, quantitative analysis is an important part of all courses offered by the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics.
Any tools beyond pre-calculus algebra will be taught as needed. Students will gain broad knowledge of the universal, physical laws from the nuclear to cosmological; familiarity with computational methods and statistical data analysis; and experience with experimental and observational techniques through participation in research. Graduates of the Astrophysics program will be positioned to pursue advanced degrees in physics, astronomy, or similar fields, or enter government service, science education, or scientific journalism.
There are two tracks for students interested in the major. The program leading to a BA in Astrophysics consists of sixteen courses beyond the general education requirement. The program leading to a BS in Astrophysics consists of eighteen courses beyond the general education requirement.
T he BS track is recommended for students expecting to apply to graduate school in the physical sciences. Enrollment into a particular sequence is based on chemistry placement or AP score. The sample programs below illustrate different paths for fulfilling requirements for the Astrophysics major. In addition, students who are majoring in Astrophysics must receive a quality grade of at least C- in prerequisite courses offered by other departments.
Students who have completed the requirements for the BA or BS in Astrophysics are encouraged to prepare an honors thesis based on their work. To be considered for honors, a student must earn a GPA of 3. Eligible students who wish to be considered for honors will first meet with the academic affairs administrator to obtain guidelines and requirements for this option, followed by a meeting with their research mentor resulting in a plan for the supervision of the research.
A goal of the honors track is to mentor students through the process of preparing research and submitting it for publication. Along the way, students present their research to various groups, including Astronomy and Astrophysics faculty, for feedback and discussion. The grand narrative of astronomy holds wide popular appeal and lends itself to interdisciplinary study: there is a deep history and cultural context, the night sky is profoundly inspiring and accessible to everyone, and the spirit of exploration is communicated in daily media reports of new discoveries.
The minor in Astronomy and Astrophysics was designed for students not majoring in the sciences to cultivate understanding of science as a human endeavor across multiple social, historical, and cultural contexts, and to develop comprehension of the quantitative reasoning that supports a deep conceptual understanding of science.
Students are allowed flexibility in selecting five courses to compose a rigorous program of study according to individual interest. The selection must include at least two courses numbered in the s and at least one in the s. It is possible for a student pursuing the minor to substitute a course numbered in the s for one of the courses.
Students interested in exploring this option must meet with the academic affairs administrator to discuss course selection. Please note: courses taken to satisfy the general education requirement in the physical sciences may not be counted towards the minor.
Students who satisfy their general education requirement in the physical sciences in Astronomy and Astrophysics may pursue the minor through completing the remaining courses numbered in the s and at least one in the s. There are no Physics or Mathematics prerequisites for the minor. Students must meet with the academic affairs administrator before the end of Spring Quarter of their third year to declare their intention to complete the minor and fill out the College's Consent to Complete a Minor Program form.
Every Spring Quarter a three-course Astronomy program is offered in Paris, composed from the courses numbered in the s that are offered on campus. This sequence was designed for students not majoring in the sciences but may also be of interest to science majors who want to supplement their work in physics and chemistry with a quarter devoted to the cosmos.
The Astronomy program in Paris satisfies the general education requirement in the physical sciences. Students who have already completed their general education requirement in the physical sciences may count the three courses taken in Paris toward the five required to satisfy the minor in Astronomy and Astrophysics.
For details, see the Study Abroad page for Paris: Astronomy. ASTR Physics of Stars: An Introduction. Understanding how stars work - what makes them shine - is one of the great accomplishments of 20th-century science. The theory of stellar structure allows us to investigate the interiors of stars, even though what we observe is radiation from their outer atmospheres.
This theory also helps us determine how old stars are, how they create heavier nuclei from lighter nuclei in their centers, and how they evolve from birth to death, ending as a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole. This course introduces you to the concepts behind and applications of this crucial breakthrough.
We will review the physical principles - gravity, pressure, radiation, and how radiation interacts with matter - and apply these principles to further our understanding of stellar structure.
We will collect our own measurements of stellar properties, such as the temperatures and luminosities of stars, using robotic telescopes controlled via the internet. Using these and other data, we will test the theory of stellar structure and explore what it can tell us about the universe. While it is not required, students who have taken this course in the past have found it beneficial to bring their own laptops to class if they have them.
Terms Offered: Summer Prerequisite s : Open to high school students only. Matter, Energy, Space, and Time. A comprehensive survey of how the physical world works, and how matter, energy, space, and time evolved from the beginning to the present. A brief survey of the historical development of mathematics, physics, and astronomy leads to a conceptual survey of the modern theory of the physical universe: space and time in relativity; the quantum theory of matter and energy; and the evolution of cosmic structure and composition.
The major theme of this course is the understanding of all nature, from the prosaic to the exotic, using powerful quantitative theory grounded in precise experiments. Although quantitative analysis will be an important part of the course, students will not be expected to employ mathematics beyond algebra.
Black Holes are the most exotic, extreme and paradoxical systems in the universe. They are the densest concentrations of energy, yet they convert all matter that falls in to pure space-time curvature; they radiate more power than anything else, even though most of their radiation is not even made of light; they are mathematically the most perfectly understood of any physical structure, but their enigmatic behavior is still the subject of a violent disagreement among experts that highlights our ignorance of how quantum physics relates to gravity.
This course will survey the physics of space and time, the nature of black holes, their effects on surrounding matter and light, the astrophysical contexts in which they are observed, frontier areas of research as quantum gravity and gravitational waves, and the importance of space-time physics to everyday needs such as navigation and energy.
The modern theory of space and time, as well as black holes, will be placed in historical context, with special attention to the work of Albert Einstein. Experimental exercises will include direct measurement of the speed of light and gravitational mass, and experience with interferometry.
Quantitative analysis will be an important part of the course, but mathematics beyond algebra will not be required. Summer Quarter instructor is Fausto Cattaneo. Descriptions will build upon the basic physics of gravity, light, and atoms, and will be discussed in the context of the process of science as a robust and self-correcting way of learning and knowing that relies on making and testing predictions by gathering evidence.
The goal of this course is to cover most of the areas of modern astronomy at a level which requires only basic mathematics. The development of our modern understanding of the visible sky and planetary systems. During the semester, they will learn about the different observed motions of objects in our sky, how astronomical objects influence our concepts of time, the nature of light and spectra, how planetary systems are formed and comparative details about our solar system and other planetary systems.
These and other images will be used to convey the excitement of discovery and nature of astronomical study of the Solar System to our students. Overview of modern understanding of stars, galaxies, and cosmology.
ASTRO 6 is an introductory course for non-science majors. It provides a broad introduction to many areas of Astronomy with qualitative descriptions of the dazzling and varied contents of the universe including the Sun and other stars, red giants, white dwarfs, neutron stars, black holes, supernovae, galaxies, dark matter, and more. Students will learn the broad concepts of astronomy by playing an immersive video game, which allows them to 1 explore seasons, phases of the Moon, light, gravity, and telescopes from a virtual colony on Mars; 2 fly from planet to planet in the Solar System and learn about their properties and formation; 3 visit the Sun and other stars, learn how they produce energy, and about their life cycles; 4 fly through the cosmos and construct their own universe, particle by particle.
Students will also learn about the relationships and exchanges between arts and sciences, and explore inspiration and perspective on these topics by designing themed art projects using traditional and digital media. These projects include assembling a photo- journal of astronomically-relevant subjects, constructing their own video-game-like scene, interpreting data to inform a plausible depiction of an alien world, and producing three- color images using methods like those employed by astronomers to compose and display Hubble Space Telescope images.
ASTRO 10 is an introductory course for non-science majors. Selected experiments and explorations to illustrate major astronomical principles and techniques. Telescopic observations of planets, stars and nebulae. It covers material similar to the lecture component in ASTRO 10 , but the selected topics are covered in more depth and are focused on active learning components. Weekly two-hour labs may include investigating the habitable zone of a variety of stars, investigating the phases of the moon, analysis of the properties of stars in a color-magnitude diagram, analysis of the colorful spectra of different chemical elements, and exploration of one of the deepest images of space ever obtained.
In addition, students will complete a semester nighttime observing project that typically involves learning some constellations, tracing phases of the moon, and sketching images seen through telescopes or binoculars at the student observatory.
Being in the Universe" considers three fundamental questions of human existence from both humanistic and scientific perspectives: 1 What is the nature of our universe, and to what extent are creatures like ourselves a predictable consequence of it?
The course's three major units cover the following topics: 1 We discuss cosmology and religion as human enterprises, as well as the history of science; 2 We study the basic scientific theory of the Big Bang universe, and consider its implications for human life; 3 We address contemporary theories of the multiverse from scientific, philosophical, and literary perspectives; 4 We consider the thermodynamic and relativistic theories of time, and the basic philosophical approaches to time, and discuss the implications of these for our ordinary human experience of the past, present, and future; 5 We discuss the history of life in the universe, the possibility of life on other planets, and the social, religious, and imaginative reactions to those possibilities in literature and film.
Students will practice a variety of techniques on authentic astronomical data, which might include light curves from the Kepler mission, galaxy and stellar spectra from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, or pulsar data from the Green Bank or Arecibo telescopes. Students will be introduced to the common programming languages and environments used by astronomers at the time the course is offered, which currently includes Python and IDL.
Students will be given experience in calculating statistical information about a set of astronomical data using the R programming language and its built-in tools. Students will make plots to illustrate a pattern in their data using the tools in Python, IDL, or R, for example. Formal courses given infrequently to explore, in depth, a comparatively narrow subject which may be topical or of special interest.
This course is designed to engage students with the big ideas of astronomy in ways that will help them understand both the content of astronomy, as well as the practices of science as carried out by astronomers. The course is designed for prospective elementary and middle school teachers PK-4 and majors , although it is available to other non-science majors. Throughout the course, students engage in a series of investigations that lead towards the development of evidence-based explanations for patterns observed in the current Solar System.
Investigations will include computer-based simulations, night-sky observations, and use of simple laboratory equipment.
These investigations lead students towards an understanding of how observations of the current Solar System can be explained by the model of its formation.
The course is designed to build from students' own personal observations of the day and night sky towards developing increasingly sophisticated explanations for those phenomena and beyond.
Conducting these astronomy investigations will help students understand fundamental aspects of physics, thus broadly preparing them for future science teaching in these domains. The course models evidence-based pedagogy, thus helping to prepare students for future teaching careers as they learn effective strategies for teaching science. Astronomical observations made during the last 70 years, combined with mathematical physical theory Einstein's General Relativity , has led to a dramatic new view of the history of the Universe.
Ten to twenty billion years ago, all the material that is now contained in stars, planets, and galaxies was then compressed into a region, smaller than a pinhead, and so hot that atoms could not survive. This fiery cauldron cooled and expanded, forming hydrogen and helium, and eventually all the materials and structures that we know today.
This course will discuss the evidence, theories and controversies of this new scientific cosmology, commonly known as 'the Big Bang'. The great success of the Big Bang theory in explaining the expansion of the Universe, the synthesis of the chemical elements, and the relic radiation leftover from the first moments are reviewed. Some of the questions discussed are still debated in the scientific community. For example: Why do some galaxies have stunning spiral structures, while others are relatively featureless ellipticals?
What is the "dark matter" that may have emerged from the Big Bang, and seems to make a larger contribution to the mass of the universe than all of the material we are familiar with? The student knows our place in space. The student is expected to: A compare and contrast the scale, size, and distance of the Sun, Earth, and Moon system through the use of data and modeling; B compare and contrast the scale, size, and distance of objects in the solar system such as the Sun and planets through the use of data and modeling; C examine the scale, size, and distance of the stars, Milky Way, and other galaxies through the use of data and modeling; D relate apparent versus absolute magnitude to the distances of celestial objects; and E demonstrate the use of units of measurement in astronomy, including Astronomical Units and light years.
Scale Distances in our Solar System activity. The student knows the role of the Moon in the Sun, Earth, and Moon system. The student is expected to: A observe and record data about lunar phases and use that information to model the Sun, Earth, and Moon system; B illustrate the cause of lunar phases by showing positions of the Moon relative to Earth and the Sun for each phase, including new moon, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full moon, waning gibbous, third quarter, and waning crescent; C identify and differentiate the causes of lunar and solar eclipses, including differentiating between lunar phases and eclipses; and D identify the effects of the Moon on tides.
Observing the Moon activity. Students should draw the shape on a piece of paper, measure the angle of separation from the image of the sun to the image of the moon from their position in the room, and record their data. Real observations are better since students have ownership of their data, but this is a substitute. Always do observations prior to modeling the phases with balls and lights.
The student knows the reasons for the seasons. The student is expected to: A recognize that seasons are caused by the tilt of Earth's axis; B explain how latitudinal position affects the length of day and night throughout the year; C recognize that the angle of incidence of sunlight determines the concentration of solar energy received on Earth at a particular location; and D examine the relationship of the seasons to equinoxes, solstices, the tropics, and the equator.
Preview Full text. The reason they have attachments is that, as the system developed in its early days, more strokes were required than were available from the straight lines at various angles and segments of a circle. Therefore various unused combinations were made use of, e. Ray was given initial hooks to make Way and Yay, which were originally shown by the small semi-circle and the downstrokes that we now use for Rer and Ler; the combination S-CHR, not occurring in English, was used instead for downward Hay, the H sound originally being represented by only the aspirate dot and the upstroke that is now used for Yay.
Sometimes choice is made for vowel indication. Derivative words may retain separate En and Gay, where the resemblance to "ing" is coincidental. The dash is generally written from the stroke outwards and about a quarter of the length of a normal stroke; a dash should not be written straight up or straight backwards, in order to maintain smooth writing and avoiding catching the nib against the paper.
Against horizontal strokes the dash is always written downwards. The angle of a dash vowel is therefore not meaningful when used in an outline, but is only meaningful when used alone as a short form — See Short Forms List 4 page Short forms from vowel marks: toe gnaw know noose maw mow moon bought Some dash vowels end up being written with an upward slant and this is the only time that any thick mark is written upwards, as in the outline "bought" above.
The angle of the dash may be adjusted slightly in places where there is limited room between strokes: droll dhurrie roach Heavy dots and dashes must be written with one stroke of the pen, not moved around on to thicken them up. Students of phonetics will notice that in Queen's English "pay" "sew" and similar words are not simple vowels but diphthongs, despite all the shorthand books describing them otherwise.
They and the diphthongs below are, however, single phonemes meaningful units of sound in English, and generally found within one syllable, which is why they are perceived as one sound.
I suspect that such words are pronounced with simple vowels in English accents other than the present Queen's English standard. This is borne out by a teachers' textbook that I have which advises south of England teachers to place extra emphasis on the "pure long vowel" of "lake", which to southern English ears does sound more like an accent from further north of the country. There are no second place diphthong signs. No heavy versions.
The first three never change angle, the last may be rotated when joined. The angle is adjusted slightly but this does not clash with the third place vowel "owl" because of the outline's position. Rotated when joined finally to horizontal strokes or upward ell. Shown by extending the diphthong sign with a tick. A vowel sign is placed to the side of the stroke, at the beginning, middle or end. The vowels are therefore described as first, second and third place vowels.
With strokes that can be written in either direction, the vowel placement will vary, and care should be taken when the stroke stands alone, both in writing and in transcription.
Place outside of circle S, Sway, Stee and Ster loop: bees beast swan star stock stopper poster blister 3. SES circle is deemed to include the vowel in "pen"; if it is a different vowel, write it inside the circle: success masses bases plural of base , basis, bases pronounced baseez, plural of basis emphasise emphasis exercise Dash vowel inside the circle — Books vary in showing at what angle it is written: census Colossus exhaust 4.
Shun hook — vocalise the stroke just as you would if the shun hook were not there, with the following exceptions: a Third place dots written inside the shun hook: fashion fission vision revision mission permission lesion In most cases the dot inside the hook is the vowel immediately before the Shun, but sometimes it is the vowel before that: remission television compare initiation b Third place dashes, diphones and diphthongs are written outside the shun hook when the hook is final because they need more room and inside when the hook is medial to avoid the sign being read as belonging to the next stroke.
A third place vowel before the stroke should be placed a little way inwards from the hook. The following illustrates two vowels on the hook side of stroke: apposition opposition imposition 5. When Ell is written downwards, the vowels follow suit: like alike 6. After a halved stroke, the vowel should be written against the second stroke, as it is sounded after the T or D: cottage pottage bandage octopus potato written 8. All dots and dashes should be just far enough away to be distinguishable as separate marks, so that they do not interfere with the recognition of the strokes themselves.
This is because a third place vowel written after the first stroke could end up in an angle between strokes and therefore be ambiguous — you would not know whether it was a third place vowel after the first stroke, or a first place vowel against the next stroke: peel pull big beet book tick took deep jig cheap fig food video meal nil pip peep bib beep cook gig If the two strokes are separated by a circle S or S-plus-hook, then the vowel must remain with the first stroke, it cannot "jump" over the S, because it is sounded before.
The presence of the S or S-plus-hook enables the vowel to be written in its correct third place with less ambiguity: Dick disk, leap lisp, creep crisp, ping pinning A compound word is one that is made up of two other words.
In the outline for a compound word, the vowel often remains where it would be if the words were written separately, thus aiding legibility: headache book-end steam-engine Compound words are treated as one outline as regards to position unlike phrases where the first word is written in position and the others tag along.
Therefore the first up or down stroke might reside in the second of the two words, such as "steam-engine" above. The above does not apply to derivative words, where there is one word and one affix; these have the vowels placed normally according to the basic rules: unable inorganic inactive fewness steamer B coming between an initial hook and the stroke e.
Although the R and L hooks are primarily used to represent the two consonants together, sometimes the hooked form is used even though a vowel is present, in order to avoid an awkward outline or obtain a better outline for very common words. Most of such intervening vowels are only lightly or indistinctly sounded. If the vowel is "-er" as in "permit" it is not shown. It is however taken to be a second place light dot vowel and is in fact shown as such in other outlines that are not using a hook and so the outline takes second position, where this is the first vowel.
Where a second place dash vowel is written through the stroke, the following vowel has to be written against the next stroke, as in "courage" and "occurrence" below: tolerable correspondence church George shovelful fulfil courage occurrence A diphone or diphthong may also be written through, or at the end of, a hooked stroke: healthier junior direct 2 pronunciations temperature mixture capture captures capturing The above use of R or L hook plus intervening vowel is not generally used for words of one syllable: pale pair tall tore jeer mare Some short words use the intervening vowel to gain a brief outline, where clashes are unlikely: nurse dark gnarl barm course Turk NOTE: The prefixes "self-" and "self-con-" also use a circle in this case representing the S sound , and the outline is always in second position to match the vowel in "self".
It might therefore look identical to a 2nd position intervening vowel, but the rules state that the short E vowel between stroke and hook is not shown whether accented or not , although all other vowels may be shown. Therefore no clash occurs. Position writing combined with the various choices of abbreviating methods combine to make it clear which word is signified, without guesswork, when the vowels are eventually omitted.
Unlike omitting vowels, position writing is not optional and you should practise inserting vowels until you know their placement perfectly, for two reasons: you need to know what and where they go in order to write the outline in the correct position, and when you do need to insert them, you have to do it very rapidly.
Words beginning with the disjoined circle for "self-" or "selfcon-" are always written in second position, to accord with the vowel in the word "self". As the second and subsequent up or downstrokes in the outline simply follow on from the first one, their position with regard to the ruled line carries no meaning.
An outline that is written as part of a phrase may end up out of position and may need a vowel inserted to keep it readable. If the first up or downstroke is a doubled one, then the first half of it is placed in position: father curvature alter latter letter litter "Father" should be started at high up as possible, and the end of the stroke will probably run through the ruled line, unless your shorthand writing is very small.
With "latter" the end of the stroke may invade the ruled line above, but this is acceptable. You should not reduce the full double length in order to squeeze it within the ruled lines. You need the full length for clarity, so aim for longer rather than shorter. Inserting the vowel helps when there is only one stroke — the vowels are placed further apart on doubled strokes. Only a full up or downstroke can be written through the line, so if the first up or downstroke is halved, or there are only horizontal strokes in the outline, third position is also ON the line, sharing it with second position.
Although horizontal strokes and halved up or downstrokes have no third position, vowels still have a third place against the stroke.
Although the beginner will write fully vocalised outlines, this is a temporary state of affairs while the vowels are being learned. At some point your textbook will encourage you to omit writing all the but the most necessary vowels.
This does seem a great hurdle to the learner but once this step is taken, any perceived difficulties soon melt away. After a very short while this will become second nature, and you will recognise instantly when a vowel needs to be inserted. Omitting vowels is the very first step in writing at speed, which is why it is introduced at an early stage.
This transition resembles writing separate letters of the alphabet and then going on to "joined-up" writing — you write lightly, flowingly and speedily, rather than slow drawing and pressing into the paper. This is the point in your learning when you realise that shorthand can be written fast, and eagerness takes over from frustration.
The shorthand you read is generally what you have written yourself, therefore you are seeing it for the second time.
Reading matter provided by others tends to have more vowels inserted. Unusual words and names of people and places, at least on their first occurrence in the dictation, as context does not give you help with those. Words in phrases that end up out of position may need the help of a vowel. One or both of pairs of Distinguishing Outlines. If you know you have written an outline badly or wrongly, you may only have time to insert a vowel or two, rather than rewrite the outline.
All the horizontal and downstrokes are paired, thick and thin, to match the related sounds of voiced and unvoiced. No thick stroke is ever written upwards, Thick and thin refers to the width of the line and not the lightness or darkness of the colour, although the thick lines may end up being darker in colour because it takes pressure to form them.
The outlines here were written with blue ink in a shorthand pen with flexible nib, and therefore the thick strokes appear darker because of the pooling of the ink. Pencil outlines may also show variation between grey and black. Black ink should produce much less variation in shade.
Some older books refer to shading which should not be taken literally but is a description of the overall appearance of the marks. No basic stroke represents more than one sound. A stroke can have other consonants added to it by various means e. A vertical dash vowel, e. The only time the pen writes upwards is while completing a circle or hook. Some dash vowels may sometimes have an upward slant when written to curves. There is no stroke or sign that is written straight upwards in its basic form; however, the halved Ess is written upwards in certain situations being a halved stroke and therefore similar to writing half of a Circle Ses, part of which would necessarily have to be written upwards : educationist expressionist impressionist OUTLINE This is the shorthand form for a word, before the unattached vowel signs are added.
Write the strokes one after the other, joining them end to end, without stopping at the angles, lifting the pen or going back to thicken or correct any part. All the strokes must be completed before inserting any further dots, dashes, vowel signs or intersections. Each stroke must be written in its correct direction. A few strokes have alternative directions in which they may be written, in certain circumstances.
Advanced writers often find other uses for proximity in their phrases, enabling them to leave out obvious words: I am confident, in control Packing your shorthand outlines tightly together along the line is not a good idea, as proximity is meaningful in certain circumstances. The only time to do that is when you are running out of paper in an emergency or writing that time-honoured secret shorthand postcard that the postman cannot read!
Alternative methods are used in the following combinations: a Three similar straight strokes in succession — break up the outline, use the hyphen sign if it helps: pop-up cake-cutter Where a halved or doubled straight stroke would not make an angle with other strokes in the outline: popped Babette judged cooked dotted fact factor liked bonnet A succession of all up- or downstrokes: 3 is maximum, 4 should be avoided to prevent the outline invading the line below or above, causing delays and interference.
One might get away with 4 downstrokes if it started above the line, but these start already through the line.
I would suggest breaking the words up — this gives the advantage that you can place both parts in position to indicate the vowel. This is also relevant for many words where it is not settled in usage whether it is one word, hyphenated or two words. You should write a reliable and convenient outline, and make a separate decision on how it should be transcribed.
An outline without its vowels is not considered incomplete. Dictionaries always show all the vowels. Dot "con-", dot "-ing" and dash "-ings" are considered part of the outline, in the same way as joined diphthongs, and, unlike the unattached vowel signs, they should never be left out, except when using proximity for "con-".
Adding or omitting unattached vowels is a choice that is left to the writer. You should always include those vowels that you think will help you read the shorthand. If you always write in all the vowels, your speed will be severely hampered, and you should endeavour to omit all but the essential ones.
When dictation slows right down or there is a breathing space, it is tempting to go back and put in all the vowels. It is up to you how much to vocalise, and whether the extra time taken is working for or against you. If you think you might have to read back, having extra vowels in will reduce the stress. Putting them in at every opportunity is not a helpful habit if you wish to attain good shorthand speed — the two are incompatible.
However, it is a good exercise to undertake periodically, so that you revise and consolidate your knowledge of them. Position writing is dependent on knowing your vowels thoroughly and you should not leave them out because you do not know what they are or where they go.
You should make lists of such vocabularies in your line of work and decide where you need to consistently insert the vowels. Single outlines that have little or no context, such as headings or lists. Proper names i. Context does not help with proper names. Such outlines should also be as full as possible and not make use of short forms.
Clashing or very similar pairs see Distinguishing Outlines page. If the outlines are the same, you can generally omit the vowel in the common one and always put the vowel in the less common one, thus reducing your overall writing. Compile your own lists as you come across them, and let none escape, considering the damage or embarrassment they are capable of.
In the heat of rapid dictation, you may have to create an outline in an instant. You know it is not the dictionary outline, but you must write something. The vowels will help you read it back, but the offending outline should be looked up and drilled to prevent a recurrence — keep a notebook so that you can practise them.
Each pen lift approximates to writing a stroke, so avoiding a pen lift by phrasing saves time. Phrasing is generally for sets of words that are frequently found together, or is used to mirror the way words are naturally grouped in normal speech: Dear-Sirs Thank-you for-your-letter that-we-have- re ceived yest erday ev en ing yours-si n cerely Tick "the" is always joined and therefore it always makes a mini-phrase. Phrasing is an extremely useful tool, with endless possibilities for time saving and many of its own abbreviation methods.
The ink line forming the phrase was called a "phraseogram" in the early days of shorthand, out of a desire to give every new concept its own terminology, allowing the systems to be described and taught with exactitude. It is normal nowadays to just use the word "outline" to cover any shorthand ink line, and "phrase" covers either the outline or the set of words being represented by it. They are also necessary to insure the system against the inevitable distortion of handwritten outlines versus the drawn perfection on the textbook pages.
The system is geared to having the best possible outlines for high-speed writing and reliability. Producing the minimum number of rules or the slimmest possible textbook is not a priority in New Era. Incorporate any abbreviating devices available and suitable. Insert the vowel signs. If the resultant outline violates "facility, legibility, lineality" then decide on a better outline.
Some outlines depart from the normal rules because of the extreme convenience and brevity gained. The rules are really just a way of describing how the outline choices were made, thus helping the student understand what is going on. Understanding requires intelligence but no great effort and is infinitely better than memorising, which is inefficient, painful and discouraging. As long as the initial understanding is followed by lots of writing practice, memorising is totally unnecessary and redundant.
Seeing a page thick with rules can be very daunting, but if you learn the example outlines thoroughly, they themselves will speak volumes to you and in far less time and space than the lengthy chapter they were presented in. They enable you to spot a bad combination simply by instant mental comparison with known good outlines. Every shorthand writer does this when correcting a dubious outline that has been dashed off.
If you have an understanding of why the choices of outline were originally made, you will be better informed to make your own choices when you need to decide on the outline for a new word without recourse to a dictionary — either it is not in there, or you do not have access to the book.
Until the publishers see fit to reprint Pitman's Shorthand dictionaries and bring them up to date, being able to do this is becoming ever more important for shorthand writers. You do not need to know all the niceties of the theory when first learning, but the more you know, the better you will be able to write new words, either ones not in the dictionary or when no dictionary is available.
To aspiring high-speeders they are a never-ending toolbox for further creative abbreviation. Some textbooks advise knowing all the rules and applying them perfectly in order to write good and fast shorthand, but I disagree strongly with this. When writing shorthand, your outlines will of course embody the rules, but you will never be thinking of the rules — either the outline jumps to mind or it doesn't, and you must move on in the next fraction of a second.
If you need to make up an outline during dictation, you will still not be thinking of the rules, you will be basing your new outline on one you already know. Shorthand outlines are visual and further learning and consolidation should concentrate on that, writing and seeing them constantly on the page and associating the spoken sound with them. Perusing the rules is for when you are sitting in your armchair at home, correcting faulty outlines by consulting the shorthand dictionary or textbook, and wondering why the outline looks like it does.
For the learner, the outlines are the food, your understanding of the rules are the knife, fork and spoon that shape the meal and help it go down. When you are out and about using what you have assimilated, the cutlery stays at home!
There are no thick versions of circle or loops. They must be written in the correct circular motion i. They are read first and last in the outline, or that section of the outline, with the stroke and its various vowels, hooks, halving, etc coming in the middle. If the word starts or ends with a vowel, strokes must be used instead.
May be added to short forms and contractions. May form part of phrases. Ensure to close the circle or loop so that it does not look like a hook.
Ensure to take the circles right round so they do not look like loops. When used medially, circles will not always be exactly circular, they will take on distortions, see adjustment and chisel below as examples of this. When this occurs, do not mistake them for loops — medial loops are always followed by a sharp change of direction, see masterpiece in table above, something circles never do.
The outline gives no indication of this, unless vocalised. In this respect the Circle S differs from the R and L hooks which generally represent a compound consonant e. PL and PR. Theoretically, circle is extra small and the hook remains its normal size; in practice the hook generally needs to be ever so slightly larger to avoid ink blobbing, and the circle can be flattened into a tiny loop it is not a Stee loop which are never used inside hooks.
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