Free Steno Drills and Court Reporting Dictation

 
Finding free steno drills and court reporting dictation is better than having to buy speed tapes, right? Here are a few more audio practice resources for you aspiring stenographers and shorthand students out there. Get out your machine and enjoy!

Court Reporter Practice Dictation An excellent 45-minute podcast that starts off with a preview word list and retention sentences, and then continues with 5-minute takes of 200 wpm jury charge, 220 and 200 legal opinion, 180 literary, 200 and 225 Q&A, and then ends with untimed medical Q&A. Works best in iTunes. Windows media wouldn't play it for me. These are dictated from StenEd speedbuilding books, I believe.

AM Lesson 2 Rate of Speech A paragraph dictated at four different speed levels. 140, 150, 160, and 180 wpm. Located under heading First Step right near the top.

SRAA: For Reporters Speed Library Parliamentary, Jury Charge, and Q&A from 50 to 200 wpm. Some dead links, but others work like a charm. For Windows Media Player.

More steno drills and audio here, here, here, and here.

Have Confidence in Your Theory -- Raw Steno Notes

Never underestimate the tortoise.

There is always talk about in court reporting forums about how one steno theory is superior or inferior to the next and people blaming their lack of success on the theory they learned. It may be true that some are shorter than others, and some are rather stroke-intensive, but each has its merits and can be customized. But perhaps most importantly, each has graduated working reporters and CART/captioning providers. It all comes down to learning one's theory inside-out, backwards and frontwards, and anyone can succeed with any given theory.

This text is borrowed from Rutherford's Practical Shorthand, no longer under copyright. I've put it in both steno and English so you can see how I write each word and what a particular outline means, if you and I don't write it the same way.

Yep, I realize "The" needs to be capitalized, but I'm tired and am going to bed.

How to Slow Down or Speed Up YouTube or Other Videos for Steno Practice

I get so bored sometimes with typical school-assigned audio tracks, so when that happens, I usually change gears right away and do some song, video, or podcast practice. As alluded to in the previous post, there is a program you can use to speed up or slow down YouTube videos or other flash video.

It's called Enounce Myspeed. I personally use the regular $30 version of MySpeed for Windows, but there's a 7-day free trial of MySpeed Premier ($100) at that link, after which you'd need to register to continue using it. It's a good way to see if this is something you'd be interested in buying.

Staniel over on depoman.com has taken this concept to a new level and has created some videos of his song and podcast practice which can be found on here. Happy practicing, and keep changing up the practice routine to keep things spicy and fresh. (Hmm, I must be hungry.)

This is just a tool I find useful for practicing videos or other flash-based audio or video at multiple speed levels, like the practice tracks found on some web-based dictation libraries (like StenoU) or videos on YouTube. I'm not getting a thing for promoting this program, just think it's worthwhile to share.

Here are some video depositions that would be great to practice to:

Cindy Anthony Deposition Part 1
Joe Cruz Deposition
Bill Gates Deposition Part 1

And then I can't resist. Once you have your practice in, check out these nightmare/funny depositions for a laugh. Caution: some coarse language

Best Deposition Ever
What Not to Do During a Deposition
I Don't Recall

Theory Review, -shun Sound

A solid background in one's steno theory is essential to learning to write quickly. So without further ado, I'm going to bring you along on my journey to review my steno theory book, and hopefully we all will benefit.

Schoolhouse Rock was slightly before my time, but I still remember hearing about it.  Glancing at chapter 22 of my StenEd theory book reminded me of this video, so I might as well post this. Some of it's fast, but it's repetitive enough to be able to catch the chorus and the little words that so often get dropped when the dictation gets fast, like and, or, that, this, etc. To practice to this video, write only clear outlines, drop when you have to, and/or use a program to slow it down (click here to learn how).

So here are a few words that appear in this lesson and their outlines. Write them by sight and then write the letter below by sight. Better still, flip to the section in your theory book that covers this and write those by sight too. Some come up a lot in the judicial system, so that's why I've shortened them to one stroke.

deliberation DLIBGS, foundation FOUNGS, examination KPMGS, conjunction KWUNGS, junction JUNGS, function FUNGS, contemplation KPLAIGS, inebriation NAOEBGS, education EGS, enumeration NAOUMGS, termination TERMGS, variation VAIRGS, application PLI* BGS, qualification KWAUFGS, hesitation HEGS, signification SIG/F*BGS (F*BGS stroke can be used for -fication endings)

And  here are some more that are worth mentioning (MENGSDZ -- ha!)
But when in doubt, write it out!

medication MEFGS      celebration SPWRAIGS     completion PLEGS
admission DMIGS        location LAEGS              probation PROEBGS
confession KWEFGS       discretion SKREGS        expression SKPREGS
permission PERMGS     proposition PROPGS       explosion SKPLOEGS
promotion PROEMGS   conclusion K-GS              concussion  KUNGS
execution SKAOUGS   confusion KWAOUFGS      prosecution PR-GS
convention KWENGS   suspension SPENGS         description DRIPGS
perception PREPGS      conversion KWERGS        concession SKEGS
physician F-GS            discussion SKUGS