Silly Sentences Saturday

I'm declaring today Silly Sentence Saturday for steno students. Practice these finger-twisters by sight.

Won't your friend Trent flaunt the trend?
won't WO*ENT

He was ordinarily very orderly in following local ordinances.
ordinarily OIRLD orderly ORLD ordinance OIRNS

Please grade the great flatbread according to taste.
according to KORGT

My sister's central interest was centering on interested parties in the center of the interesting room.
sister ST-R central STRAL interest TR- centering STR-G interested TR-D interesting TR-G

In terms of seconds, how long did they yell negative things weekly at people?
terms TERMZ seconds SEKDZ how long HOUNG negative NEG weekly WAOEBLG

So today Steve said to get just your best guess as to how many guests Bess had to do something for.
today TAID as to STO* how many HOUM to do TOD something SM-G

Was that one cycle or two cycles in the circumstance of that circle?
cycle SAOIBLG circumstance SIRK circle SIRBLG

Did one officer or all of the officers offer all of us any office space?
officer AUFRS all of the A*UFLT offer AUFR all of us A*UFLS office AUFS

Speed and Accuracy

I used to think that speed on the steno machine was solely the product of taking down notes at push speeds and getting used to fast dictation, but I've recognized as of late that it's not that simple.

Yes, you do need to get your brain used to processing audio faster than you currently can; however, a strong foundation in one's theory and clear notes will go a lot farther for a court reporting student than writing *passably* at blistering speed. I just passed my first 170 literary on Tuesday, but at what cost to my accuracy? I kind of had to "pull it" from my notes and don't want that to be my Achilles' Heel any longer.

This week I've been focusing on my accuracy and am starting to think that reviewing one theory chapter a day and less super fast dictation (20% of the time) is my plan for the next week or two. After that is when I start working on Stenograph's Performance Accelerators. Will keep you posted on how those programs work.

Ignore the part about the fountain pen. You can keep using your steno machines, don't worry.

From Shorthand Dictation Exercises 1918 (no longer under copyright)

Word Families

Another quick post today, as I'm doing takes this morning. I'm a big briefer and have been since the beginning. I can remember getting singled out in class for briefing words that kept coming up in dictation after dictation just because they weren't supplied by my teachers or our theory book.

These days I'm adding fewer single briefs unless they're really common or part of a word family. So make it your goal this week to focus on word families, and you'll become a better steno writer and court reporting student before you know it.

Check out the following link to see a free preview of 240 Word Families in Sentence Context which could be extremely helpful to a steno student trying to get a handle on specific word parts or structures.

perform P-FRM
platform PLAFRM
reform R-FRM
uniform YAOUFRM

carry KAER
marry MAER
vary VAER

imply KBLAOI
impose KBOEZ
improve KBRAO*UF

warfare WAFR
welfare WEFR

powerful P-FL
successful S-FL
wonderful W-FL

As a bonus, add in the asterisk to give these an -ly ending.

powerfully P*FL
successfully S*FL
wonderfully W*FL

Timeless Advice for Steno Students

This is a couple pages from the Gregg Shorthand Manual 1916 (no longer under copyright), slightly modified by me to apply to machine shorthand. It still holds true today!

So most steno students hate reading notes off paper, right? It's so cumbersome, and then the wind from your oscillating fan catches the paper and scatters it everywhere across your living room. At least that's my experience... To get around this and still get the benefit of reading raw steno, either read off your notebar in a realtime file or open up a previously written note file. Great for when your hands or forearms are too tired to continue!

Play the (Virtual) Piano With Your Steno Machine

Before court reporting school starts back up on Monday, I thought I'd share with you one last piece of CR fun as a tribute to the quickly disappearing summer. I think a lot of steno people are either musicians, have played instruments in the past, or can be deeply moved by a piece of music. That said, here's one way we can get in touch with our musical side while putting some time in on the steno machine.

For those of you running Eclipse, go into your user settings (ALT-U) under the Realtime tab and click "add" before starting a realtime file.  From there, select "Keyboard macro" in the output format drop-down box. Make sure under Comm device that the COM port coincides with the port your steno machine is plugged into. Use the setup button and click on device manager if you're not sure which port you're using. (Not running Eclipse? Check your help file to see how to activate the keyboard output.) For CaseCatalyst, it's called Stenokeys and DigitalCAT, it's CatNip.

Now here comes the fun part: Go to Virtual Piano and once it's loaded, click "Enter" to start it up. Click on the keyboard. By writing different words and/or letter combinations, you can hear chords and notes as you practice word lists, finger drills, etc. Experiment, have fun, and try out different alphabets and outlines!

Let it Be
(Use your small letter alphabet for this. For me, it's the left side letter plus the asterisk key.)
1wtu 1wtu 5wry 5wry 6etu 6etu 5wry
4eti 4eti 1wtu 1wtu 3wru 5wry 5wry
4eti 3wru 2etu 1wtu

6etu 6etu 5wry 5wry 4eti 4eti
1wtu 1wtu 1wtu 1wtu 5wry 5wry
4eti 3wru 2etu 1wtu


For more songs, including Fur Elise (that one's fun!) and A Whole New World, click on Main Menu and then Music Sheets. One could probably even create a separate dictionary file with strokes representing actual chords. Maybe someday steno music could even become a new kind of competition at state and national conventions! Hey, dream big, right? ;)

Consistency is Key in Steno

Just a quick post about one way to make your writing more consistent and thus hesitation-free, especially if you're using StenEd.

Instead of using a consonant on the second stroke of words that end in -y, like STIN/KI, FREN/ZI or KRUN/KHI, consider using the YI ending instead. Those words would become ST*ING/YI, FRENZ/YI, and KRUNCH/YI. For me, it's less to think about when I'm writing at high speeds and a little closer to how I actually hear the word.

Numbers and Words Steno Drill

Wow, it's been a whirlwind of a week, what with the wedding we're in on Saturday. It's amazing how much preparation can go into one single day.
And I'm not even the one getting married!

We as court reporting students need to start thinking of and planning for that single most important day of our lives: the day we take the RPR, of course!
(I kid, I kid. Sorry, the heat must be getting to me.)

So let's take it upon ourselves to write like the wind and let go of a little control in order to discover our weak spots and then work on those in preparation for that special day. Here's my gift to you for the occasion: a numbers and words practice steno drill. Like this post? Check out this link.

Free Steno Audio Drills & Dictation

Here's more free steno audio drills and dictation, believe it or not! Some of these are higher speeds, though most aren't labeled. Just when I thought I had found all the free steno dictation on the Internet... Quick tip: I use the "Subscribe with iTunes" buttons on the right hand side of these pages to easily see and download available podcasts.


PodOmatic | Podcast - Urareporter's podcast Lits, Q&A, Jury Charge, and drills.


PodOmatic | Podcast - Paulette Amsler's podcast
Q&A and Jury Charge with some 140-160s.


Links to my other posts on free audio dictation resources here, here, and here.

Setting Goals

As per a blog post I commented on, I'm putting my goals into print so that I may be held accountable for my progress through court reporting school and in the professional world. This image sums up the goal setting process perfectly so that you can set your own goals to ensure your success in all things steno.

Put your goals up on a piece of neon poster board with glitter glue or something and hang it up in front of where you usually practice. Get creative with it! This is a form of visualizing, a great tool in helping people reach their goals. Set daily, short-term, and long term goals and work from small to large. And then for goodness' sake get to work achieving them!

So without further ado, here are my goals. Drumroll, please!

1. Transcribe and edit at least one five-minute take during tomorrow's practice session.

2. Average three hours of practice time per day from now through next week Friday.

3. Pass two 190 Q&A takes during my first month back at school in the fall.

4. Reach internship speed (200 Q&A) by winter break.

5. Pass my 225s by the end of spring semester.

6. Obtain my RPR certification within a year of passing my 225s.

Did I mention aim high? "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you will land amongst the stars." -Les Brown