Phone Book Drill

Stephen Shastay

This drill is excellent for those who hesitate on numbers or those large Literary words. Names can be just as hard -- or harder -- than those big technical terms. If you pause and think about how to stroke an entire word, instead of jumping right in, then you are falling behind the dictation unnecessarily.

Open up the phone book. Pick any page. Start at the top and begin writing. Write the name of the person, the address, and the phone number.

Disregard any terms or names that you cannot easily pronounce. If you can’t pronounce them, you will have trouble writing them phonetically; so just ignore them for purposes of this drill.

Certainly there will be words that are harder to finger. These words will be written slower than others. The speed of your fingers will change from time to time depending on the actual strokes that you use. That is normal, and it is to be expected.

Your focus on this drill is to keep your hands moving at all times. Even if they are moving slower than normal, you will be improving as long as your hands do not pause.

When you open the phone book to a random page, you may find that the page is completely devoted to one common last name. Don't worry. You will get plenty of variation with the first names, and addresses.

Also please note that one of the listings for Martinez has a first name of “Osualdo” and that the next entry shows an entry for “Osvaldo.” Names can be tricky.

Here is a sample drill. When you get tired of it, you can find similar ones in any phone book.

Jones, Bob 376 Bayou Cove 88434 755 346 9932

Jones, Bob 1973 South Kernwood 88349 395 385 3864

Jones, Bobbie E 392 Berry Road Apt. 204 384 293 2837

Jones, Bobbie & Fred 9934 Chevy Chase 82774 693 453 8823

Jones Bobby J 39233 Musket Groves 78342 755 388 3711

Martinez, Oscar J 7452 Ashford Point 88342 395 771 6161

Martinez, Oscar & Olympia 81337 Old Bammel 79238 484 557 5843

Martinez Osualdo 3225 Airline 75590 88328 493 854 6602

Martinez Osvaldo 7345 Briar Glade 77420 823 529 9934

Martinez Otilia 3302 Tophill 77007 238 464 4857

Patridge, Jerome A 3153 Gustine 85239 323 544 3843