Our Important Words- Part 1 post highlighted about 129 words on the New General Service List (NGSL), a collection of high-frequency words first discussed on our Teeline Resources page.
Since then, you may have noticed we have started to include text analysis using the NGSL studies on several of our mock exam material postings. See A Business Threatened By The Winter Season, Mother And Daughter Attempted To Steal High-End Beauty Products and Chair of Youth Group Gives Awards For Sporting Achievements.
Our purpose in doing so is straightforward: We want to convince you it is worth spending time learning the words on the NGSL. In this post, we'll expand on the NGSL's importance to your study of shorthand. Bear with us as we break this down.
To refresh, the NGSL is a (big) list of high-frequency words first published by Browne, Culligan and Phillips in 2013. High-frequency words are, simply put, the most "commonly used" words in a wide range of printed materials.
Although statistics vary, there are upwards of 600,000 word "families" in the Oxford English Dictionary. Keep in mind related words, such as "accept," "accepting," "acceptable" and "accepted" count as ONE word family, so in reality, there are literally millions of individual words.
To provide context, it has been said a native English speaker who makes it all the way through Uni typically has a vocabulary of about 25,000 to 30,000 words. While that's a large amount, it constitutes only about 5% of the total English language!
In 1953, a gentleman by the name of Michael West published a list of several thousand important vocabulary words which was known as the General Service List (GSL).
Fast forward to 2013, when Browne, Culligan and Phillips analysed about 273 million words made up of both spoken and written American and British English to figure out there were about 2,800 core foundational words that provided an incredible 90%+ coverage for most books, magazines and newspapers that students are likely to read (and an even higher coverage amount if you include television and/or movie dialog).
Let's repeat that: While these 2,800 words represent less than 1% of the total English language, they cover roughly 90% of the typical words people will likely meet and use in their daily lives.
So what implications might this have for studying shorthand? Perhaps plenty. Consider the following from the article "How many Words Do You Need To Speak A Language?"
Now, while there are differences between learning a foreign language and learning shorthand, there are, of course, similarities. And one of those similarities comes down to words. Either you know them or you don't. With shorthand, learning is ultimately about being able to recall and instantly produce the outlines for all the words you want (or need) to write.
Once you have absorbed the initial theory and are set to begin in earnest to acquire more "vocabulary," where would you rather start? Randomly learning hundreds of words which you may or may not use again or systematically approaching the 2,800 or so words you're virtually guaranteed to meet again (and soon)?
High-frequency words are called that for a reason. They are, statistically, more likely to show up before other words, so when it comes time to prioritising your studies, wouldn't it make sense to devote a portion of it to making sure you know the Top 2,800 words before other (perhaps random) words?
There's a piece of good news. During the initial learning phase, you most certainly will have picked up many words on the Top 2,800 list. They are not overly difficult words.
If you go to our Teeline Resources page, you will find a PDF of the Top 500 words on the NGSL List in descending order.
As mentioned above, to date we have presented the text analysis for three mock examinations in order to show how many of the words used in those passages are on the NGSL.
See A Business Threatened By The Winter Season, Mother And Daughter Attempted To Steal High-End Beauty Products and Chair of Youth Group Gives Awards For Sporting Achievements.
Although you can click through and see the data tables for yourself, here's a summary:
74.5% of the words (298 words) are in the NGSL Top 1000 list. Another 34 words were in the Top 2000 list, which brought the cumulative total up to 83% coverage. An additional 11 words were in the Top 3000, bringing the cumulative total of words contained in the mock up to almost 86%!
72% of the words (+- 101 words) were in the NGSL Top 1000 list. Another 12 words were in the Top 2000 list, which brought the cumulative total up to slightly more than 80%. An additional five words were in the Top 3000 NGSL list, bringing the cumulative total of words contained in that mock up to almost 85%!
There were 400 words in the NGSL's Top 1000 list, or 83% of the cumulative total. Another 28 words were in the Top 2000 list, bringing the cumulative total up to 89%. A final 16 words were in the Top 3000 list, which brought the final cumulative up to a whopping 92% of all the words in that mock exam!
Does this mean the NGSL is all you need to study? No, of course not. There are always going to be words in a dictation (or life) that you haven't run across before, particularly in any specialised writing (think: medical, legal, etc.).
That's not the point of this post. However, what it DOES mean is that the words on the NGSL list are high frequency, core foundational words that will show up again and again. You would be wise to make sure you know them well before moving on to other words. You WILL run into them repeatedly. The question is: Will you have had the foresight to study them beforehand?
While 2,801 sounds like a lot of words, you likely know more than you think you do. It then becomes a matter of prioritising some time to learning the Teeline shorthand equivalents for the ones you don't.
In summary:
Check out the list on our Teeline Resources page.
