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BuySteno.com Download and use the Speed Teacher for free for 21 days. Try it. You'll like it. | Chapter FourThe Four Basic WritersBarb DeWitt, Anna Mae Tedley, Stephen ShastayWe could have easily named this chapter “The Four Immutable Rules of Stenography. Any student who (1) writes clear strokes, (2) minimizes hesitation, (3) does not carry words, and (4) does not edit while writing is assured of success. These rules must be hammered home day after day after day. Stenographers can be classified according to the four primary faults that afflict them. Every student belongs to one of these groups. The four categories are: clarity, hesitation, carrying, and editing. You fit into one of these categories. Diagnose your writing. You will find that one fault dominates the others. Master it, and your success is assured. Ignore it, and you will struggle. Please note that none of the rules mention speed. Lack of speed is the mythological boogeyman of stenography. Those who point their fingers at speedbuilding are misguided. Their problems can be traced to one of these four categories. All students in all classes have enough speed to graduate from their present classes, if not the next one or two. Once the writing habits have been correctly diagnosed, the problem with speed dissipates into thin air. And now, we present The Four Basic Writers. 1) Writers who need clarity A. Quality notes are more important than anything else. A student should concentrate on this aspect to the exclusion of all else until his or her steno notes are acceptably clear. Never work on any other facet of your writing unless your notes are superior. 1. If the dictation goes on too long, or if it is too fast, the student may lose clarity. This is unacceptable. Especially at high speed, clarity must be maintained at all costs. · If the student has clarity until falling behind the dictation, the problem is not clarity. · If the student loses clarity only on high-speed dictation, the problem is not clarity. It may be fatigue. 2. At a slow speed, the student must be able to write all words clearly. 3. At goal speed, the student should accept a small amount of misstrokes. These should be kept to an absolute minimum. 4. At high speed or push speed, more misstrokes will appear. The student must fight to maintain clarity, but if the dictation continues until the student is exhausted, several bad things will happen. · As the dictation continues or if the speed is increased, clarity will drop off. · As clarity drops off, the student will begin to hesitate. · As the student begins to hesitate, either all clarity will be lost or the student will carry words. B. Progress must be monitored continuously. Excluding all words that are dropped, 19 out of every 20 words stroked should be easily translated. 1. Drill notes and test notes should be translatable according to the same standards. Close is not good enough under any circumstances. 2. The standard of 19 out of 20 words (95%) is a minimum. The goal is 100%, but it must be recognized that if a student always achieves 100% readable strokes, then the student is probably not writing at top speed. 3. Do not count drops as untranslated words or errors. Count only words that are stroked. C. Absolute clarity is not recommended. Professional reporters do not have perfect notes. Students certainly do not. 1. Punctuation and Question and Answer symbols should be nearly perfect. 2. Briefs and phrases should always be readable. If they are not, they should be discarded. 3. Some words are more susceptible to mistranslation. · Some words can only be stroked one way, such as if/in, that/this, these/those. These should always be readable. If not readable, the student must slow down. · Some words can be stroked several ways. Easily mistranslated words such as consequent/subsequent, industry/city, or accident/incident can be stroked out normally or as briefs. If there is a problem, change the stroking pattern of one or both of the words to clear up the mistranslation. 4. Some words can easily be read even when they have misstrokes. · These words do not require the same degree of clarity to be read; however, the student should not accept misstrokes with these words. At slow speeds, these words should be written clearly. 5. Numbers and names require a high degree of clarity to be read and transcribed. Extra work should be given to this area. This skill is absolutely essential to a professional reporter. 6. Mastering soundalikes is an ongoing task that will last well past graduation. The student should always be learning the proper strokes for each word; however this is a function of the memory. · Memorize soundalikes at home by using a notebook, a theory book, or steno dictionary. · For clarity purposes, it is enough if the stroke is phonetically correct and easily transcribed. · Naturally, for realtime purposes, each soundalike must be memorized and stroked correctly. · Soundalikes should be mastered by starting with the most frequently appearing words.
2) Writers who have too much hesitation A. Hesitation is less important than clarity. B. Hesitation is equal in importance to carrying words. C. Hesitation may cause carrying or reduce clarity. It depends on what fault is manifested first. 1. If a student has clarity until the hesitation causes the student to fall behind, then work on the hesitation. 2. If the student does not carry words until hesitation forces the student to carry, then work on hesitation. 3. If the student hesitates only after falling behind on the dictation, then work on carrying. 4. If the student hesitates because of lack of clarity, work on clarity. It is important to differentiate between a student who hesitates because of lack of clarity and one who hesitates while attempting to write absolutely correct. · If the student hesitates because of attempting to remember the proper conflict stroke for words such as bear/bare or to/two/too, then the student should be instructed to write phonetically correct during dictation. Conflict strokes must be memorized, but they cannot be memorized during dictation. The student should learn these strokes at home without using a dictation tape. Use the theory book or a notebook of the strokes. · If the student hesitates while attempting to write with acceptable clarity, that is the ultimate sign that the student does not pay enough attention to clarity. The answer is more attention to clarity and less attention to the number of words stroked. · If the student hesitates because of strokes that have not yet been mastered, such as clump, branch, milk or sanction, then the hesitation is correct. In other words, the student should stroke some words slower than others. This is normal. It is not a true hesitation. As long as the student’s hands continue to move, albeit slowly, there is nothing wrong with the writing pattern. However, these strokes should not be ignored. Concentrated practice on them at slow speeds will increase finger speed.
3) Writers who carry too many words A. Carrying words is less important than clarity. B. Carrying words is equal in importance to hesitation. C. Carrying words may cause hesitation or reduce clarity. You must know which occurs first and then work on that problem. 1. If the student has clarity until the student is carrying five or more words, then work on reducing the amount of words being carried. 2. If the student does not hesitate until carrying five or more words, then work on carrying. 3. If the student carries words only after stumbling over the correct outline, such as for a conflict or soundalike, then work on the conflict or soundalike. 4. Students who regularly carry words are likely to describe themselves as needing more speed. This is a fallacy. Usually they are already writing 20 or more words above their goal speed. D. If the student carries words because hesitation causes the student to fall behind, work on hesitation.
4) Writers who edit while writing A. This is the strangest group of all. This group looks backward to check the accuracy of previous strokes. This is not conducive to learning. It must be stopped. 1. Usually these students have very strong clear strokes until they fall behind. 2. Once they fall behind, their writing may deteriorate into a total mess. 3. Heed the advice to stop editing. If you merely reduce the amount that you edit, then nothing will be changed. You will still be editing everything. B. Use the asterisk key sparingly, if at all. 1. Every time you correct a stroke, you are changing it from one stroke into three strokes. · This is wasting your speed. · This will fool you into thinking that you have trouble with carrying or hesitating. · Once you fall behind, you may lose all clarity. 2. Look at your drops. · Are they preceded by words that have been corrected? · Are they preceded by words that you checked for accuracy while you were writing? 3. Look at your sloppy outlines. · Are they preceded by words that have been corrected? · Are they preceded by words that you checked for accuracy while you were writing? C. Do not insist on writing perfect notes. 1. Readable notes are the standard. If your notes can be accurately translated, they are good enough for school, court, and depositions. 2. Phonetically-correct strokes are sufficient for all outlines that you have not memorized. D. Review your work after you have completed the drill. 1. Review your notes. If the strokes were too sloppy, slow down the next time. 2. If there are outlines that you didn’t know during the test, now is the time to learn them. E. Once a stroke has been written, forget about it. 1. Don’t try to remember which word or sentence you wrote poorly. You will forget exactly which one it was by the time you transcribe. 2. Don’t make mental notes of any kind. Concentrate on the next stroke to the exclusion of all else. We don’t expect you to diagnose your writing perfectly the first time. Analyzing your strokes is a skill. Work at it. The rewards are great. All you have to do is figure out what breaks down first. Do you lose clarity? Do you hesitate? Do you carry extra words? Or are you an editor? Are you slowing down your speed because you are checking each stroke as you write it? When you answer those questions, then you will know the solution. |
Harry S Truman and why you don't put a period after the middle initial. John F. Kennedy and why he is not a jelly doughnut. A harangue by Buzz Gadflie on those junky plastic paper trays. |
