Welcome to Steno School

Your  goal is to become certified as a court reporter.

Your job is to do whatever it takes to achieve your goal.

You must be able to meet or surpass the standards of (1) your school, (2) your state certification examination, and possibly (3) a national certification examination.

The national guys want 95% on their tests.  The state guys usually want 95%.  The schools either meet or exceed the 95% standard.

Do you really know what 95% accuracy on a test entails?  It means that if you can't read 19 out of every 20 words, then you won't pass.

 It also means that if you can only read 19 out of 20, then you will only pass the test if you do not make any other mistakes in transcription, such as, leaving out a word, adding a word, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, misreading an outline. 

And finally, if you can only read 19 out of 20 words, then you will not be able to drop any of the words on the test.  You will have to write every single word.

Most of us can't do that.  We will drop a few words here and there, and we will have mistakes in punctuation and transcription. 

And we can pass plenty of tests with those mistakes. 

But we can't pass those tests if we can only read 19 out of 20 words.  That is too sloppy.

For those of us who do make mistakes, we have to set our standards much higher than simply reading our notes at 95%.  The true standard is really around 98 or 99%. 

If you were not able to read 19 out of 20 words on every readback today, then you had a bad day.

If you normally cannot read 19 out of 20 words on every readback, then you have had a lot of bad days.

If you can generally read 19 out of 20, then you are still a sloppy writer.  You need improvement.  19 out of 20 does not leave you any room for error.  (Warning: Stupid sports analogy)  You are still out in left field, but at least you are in the ballpark.

If you can read 49 out of 50, then you have achieved a 98% standard for reading your notes.  You can sleep easy.  Success is yours if you stay on the straight and narrow.

P.S.  The Tutor Ring drills were specifically designed to work on those problem areas that cause sloppy notes. The first Tutor Ring CD, the appropriately named Tutor Ring 1 CD, contains the 37 drills that were released several years ago in the now-defunct Tutor Ring weekly steno newsletter.  Find all of the Tutor Ring drills at BuySteno.com.

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Pros and Cons of Briefs

Cool Tip:  (by Anna Mae Tedley)  What are the benefits of briefs and phrases?  We all know that answer.  Briefs and phrases cut down the number of strokes.  Cutting down the number of strokes saves time.  If it takes us less time to get through a brief or phrase, then we have more time for the other words.  

Now for the hard part.  What are the drawbacks to using briefs and phrases?  There are quite a few.  They have to be memorized.  They have to be at your fingertips on demand.  They have to be written with a higher degree of accuracy.  They are harder to read than stroked-out words.  They look like Garbage with a Capital G when they are misstroked.  Newly memorized briefs and phrases induce hesitation because you pause to choose the new pattern of stroking.  Poorly memorized briefs and phrases induce hesitation because you pause to think of the outline of the stroke.

The only benefit to briefs and phrases is the time factor.  If you do not gain time, you have traded good easy-to-read strokes for hesitation-inducing, rhythm-breaking, hard-to-read strokes.  

In my class, you may use as many briefs and phrases as you wish.  But you must be able to write them accurately without hesitation at all times.  Do not tell me that you hesitate or write sloppy because you are "learning" the stroke.  During dictation, you must employ the strokes that you can write competently.  

When you have properly memorized the stroke, and when you can write that stroke correctly, and when you can recall it without hesitation, and when you can form the stroke and write it without hesitation, then you may use the stroke.  

And if, at the end of all of that, you do not save time by using the stroke, then you have unnecessarily complicated your writing by learning the stroke in the first place.

"Hear it, stroke it, forget it.  It's as simple as that."  
Joseph Kinaim

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