Speedwriting is a shorthand writing system developed in 1924 by Emma Dearborn, an instructor at the University of Chicago. It uses alphabetic characters and was originally designed so that it could be written by pen, or on a typewriter. Speedwriting is phonetic with a 'k' used for a hard c, 'C' for 'ch', 'j' for 'g' in 'age'. It condenses words by omitting silent letters and only writing long vowels, and initial short vowels. Sentences are ended with '\' and a '/' is used for omitted syllables. There are other abbreviating devices, including capitalisation, and the use of punctuation marks to denote combinations of sounds. It uses around 100 abbreviations for common words and suffixes.