Free shorthand outlines for Pitman and Gregg systems.

Pitman Shorthand Outlines

• Basic consonant outlines
• Vowel indicators
• Common word outlines
• Phrase outlines

Gregg Shorthand Outlines

• Basic stroke outlines
• Vowel representations
• Common word outlines
• Brief forms

Word Categories

How to Actually Memorise Outlines

Looking at a printed outline is not the same as owning it. The conversion from recognition to recall happens only when you write from memory, so build every revision session around blank paper. Cover the printed column, take one word at a time, write its outline, then uncover and compare. Mark the ones you missed and put them back into the next session's pile. Keep doing this until the pile empties, which it will, faster than expected.

Group your study by word category rather than by page order. Drilling a batch of general words together lets you see the family resemblance between similar outlines, and repeating a legal batch on a separate day keeps the two vocabularies from blurring.

A Daily Twenty-Minute Outline Drill

1. Five minutes: rapid recall of yesterday's batch, written without any reference material.
2. Five minutes: learn the new batch, writing each outline slowly and checking it immediately.
3. Five minutes: phrase practice, joining the words you just learned into short combinations.
4. Five minutes: dictation at a comfortable pace using only words from the two batches above.

This loop is small enough to keep every day and complete enough to actually move your recall forward. The dictation step matters most: an outline that survives only on the drill sheet collapses the moment dictation begins.

Common Outline Mistakes

• Practising by tracing instead of writing freehand, which trains your eye and leaves your hand untrained.
• Ignoring outlines that look almost identical. The small differences are exactly where dictation errors breed.
• Skipping vowel indicators because they feel slow; they are what keep similar consonant forms readable later.
• Learning a hundred outlines and reviewing none, then wondering why the batch vanished by the weekend.
• Studying Pitman and Gregg side by side in one sitting when you only need one system for your target exam.

Self-Testing Without a Teacher

Take a short paragraph from a newspaper and translate it into outlines using only what you have revised so far. Time yourself, then read your own work back after an hour. Anything you cannot read is a word you never properly learned, and it goes straight onto the revision list. Repeat this exercise twice a week; it exposes gaps far more honestly than re-reading the printed sheets.

Keep a personal phrase sheet as well. Whenever you find three or four words that always appear together in dictation, write them as one combined form and drill that separately. Your own phrase list, built from your own mistakes, eventually outperforms any generic collection.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many outlines should I learn per day?

Choose a number you can revise tomorrow without skipping. A modest daily batch with reliable review always beats a huge one that is never revisited.

How long before outlines become automatic?

It varies with practice volume, but recall usually strengthens within a few weeks of daily drilling. Stop judging after a single day; the change shows across a fortnight.

Which system should I choose?

Pick the one your target examination expects, then commit fully. Half-learning two systems wastes the time that single-system focus would have returned.

Should I memorise outlines or read them from the sheet during dictation?

Always memorise. Reading during dictation costs seconds you do not have, and it hides how shallow your recall really is.

Final Tips

Outlines are a memory skill dressed up as handwriting. Treat them like vocabulary, revise them like vocabulary, and test yourself the way you would before any exam — from blank paper, under time, with no excuses waiting at the end.