Interesting Article Alert

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Today is a good day to share an article, Practice Makes Possible, that I happened upon while cruising the Internet. Hope it inspires you too!

This article shares information debunking the "natural talent" myth and discusses how consistent, deliberate practice can help people grow their skills beyond their previous limits. That definitely sounds like it applies to someone interested in improving their stenography writing speed.

“Talent is a pursued interest. Anything that you’re willing to practice, you can do.” -- Bob Ross

At the end of the write-up, there's also a link to an excerpt of the book mentioned, Peak, in which a specific example is given of how to push through plateaus, perhaps. My to-read list just grew by one.

Work & (Game) Play

I used to think that work and play were mutually exclusive. Well, it turns out that they're not, so what would be better than combining the two? Not much. For that reason, I want to share with you an awesome way to practice steno while having fun. After all, time flies when the latter occurs.

Free Steno Practice Material

Just a quick postaroo here about a great YouTube channel that's been brought to my attention. It contains a bunch of free practice material and videos about court reporting technique. Check it out!

Breck225's YouTube channel

There's Method(s) to My Briefing Madness

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Briefing on the fly is a very important skill that any court reporter or steno student needs to learn to be good at. It's essential for keeping up with speech above your current speed level. I think even Mark Kislingbury is a proponent of briefing on the fly. It's how he gets through his 300+ dictations, by briefing "gold bullion" as TKPWOUBL or whatever brilliant nonsense he might come up with.

To start off, what is briefing on the fly? It means you're making up a brief or phrase as you're writing for something that keeps coming up over and over, like a three-word place name or technical term or just a common word that you never thought to shorten before. There's a few methods, I'm sure, but I'm going to spell out a couple for you that I've been noticing I've been doing lately when creating new briefs.

How to Gain/Maintain Speed as a Working Court Reporter

So how does one gain or maintain speed on the steno machine after they've graduated and start working as a freelance court reporter? I've been seeking answers to this question myself. As a freelancer, you're not necessarily writing on your machine every day, unlike someone that works within the court system. Granted, you probably do spend a fair amount of time on the computer keyboard while transcribing, so that at least exercises similar muscles, I would assume.

Right Brain/Left Brain and Steno

To be successful in anything, especially court reporting, CART, or captioning, one has to have both halves of their brain in on the deal. I found an excellent article online that explains the idea that we're really two different people coexisting in the same body. It says that because each half of the brain is wired to the opposite side of the body, one can actually express two emotions at the same time. That helps explain why when I force a smile occasionally, it comes out as a half-smile.

Another Brick in the Steno Wall (Frustration!)

No one's immune to experiencing frustration and a lack of focus, even steno students. I've been experiencing a bout of steno ADD and a string of unsuccessful takes lately, but I'm confident that this, too, will pass.

Just like most get-rich-quick schemes are too good to be true, there's no magic secret to success as a court reporting or captioning student other than physically putting in the practice hours. See my 10,000 hours post on the subject.

If you're just passing through, or if you have already read it and just need a quick refresher, here's the long and the short of it: Like learning an instrument, the most important factor that determines someone's success in steno is the amount of focused, practice-with-a-purpose time put in. No one that puts in the hours should not succeed in becoming a stenographer and passing their state CSR and/or RPR test.

I replied to a fellow student's frustrated message on twitter the other day saying, "... every practice hour is a brick in the wall of success."

Provided that you have a good foundation (solid knowledge of your theory), lay your bricks straight (practice with good technique, and don't accept slop), use the proper mix for the mortar (practicing drills in all categories), and check it with a level as you go (reading back from your notes, noticing patterns of mistakes, & working on those), you will eventually finish your wall and get out of steno school so you can start earning money.


If you're in the same boat as me, check out these inspiring links that should get you focused and back on track to steno success.

Distracted by Facebook/twitter updates, the internet, shiny things, and just about anything instead of practicing? Check out this article to kick the habit.

If your mind wants to get out of school but part of you is holding you back, listen to this excellent radio show that @StenYes shared on twitter.

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." -Lao-tzu

A Finger Drill

Here's a finger drill for steno students.

Put this on repeat and get those confused fingers set straight!

brig, fled, bro, flick, brat, flub

bran, fled, bra, floss, brute, flag

bris, flow, breed, flat, bribie, flask

brick, flail, bread, flu, Braille

clue, smug, clod, smog, clip, smut

club, smack, college, smile, class

smooch, clog, smash, cloak, smell

clot, snob, claim, somebody

Want more finger drills? Click here.

How to Practice Without your Steno Machine

Steno students and working professional court reporters, captioners, and CART providers usually lead very busy lives, complete with work, family, and other personal obligations. For that reason, time is precious and when life calls, we sometimes have to put steno on the back burner while we answer. Knowing how to get practice time in without your steno machine is key.

Many of us have a commute that we'd rather be shorter, but what could be looked at as a waste of time can easily be turned into a worthwhile mental exercise. Fill your iPod or whatever flavor MP3 player you like with fun podcasts, dictated lists, and other audios that are a bit above your speed range.

While the tracks are playing, try mentally stenoing the words as they're spoken. You may find that this increases your speed when you go back to your machine and start writing again. A variation on this method would be to tap out the words with your hand or hands (only if you're a passenger -- 10:00 and 2:00, people!) Lap-tap the alphabet, numbers -- whatever comes to mind.

Or say you're in a boring meeting. You may not be able to get full lap-steno action without your coworkers noticing and giving you the stink eye, but why not bring a notebook to the meeting and jot down the steno outlines of words that come up during breaks in conversation or take down some notes too. Hey, it may even cut down on coworkers' requests to get your notes photocopied for them because they weren't paying attention.

Another way of getting in good practice is to review well-written paper steno notes while on the go, as recommended in this blog post by Stenonerd. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, but reading steno really helps our brains associate a good steno outline with the word it represents. Happy mental steno, all!

Warming Up for Steno Practice or Tests

How appropriately titled this post is for the dead of winter... I also want to wish a happy New Year to everybody!

So to get down to the nitty gritty of it all, someone recently asked me on twitter what my process is for warming up. Any court reporting, CART, or captioning student or professional should warm up before a practice session on the steno machine or for speed tests. What I typically warm up with is the fingerspelled alphabet, numbers 1-100, pangrams such as "the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog," and then I usually jump in to the audio I was working on last from the day before, slowed down a little bit to start with.

Warming up is essential to prevent forearm muscle strain, like an athlete or musician starting slowly with stretches, and also to get the mind in sync with your fingers before starting on speedbuilding practice. Jumping into a too-fast dictation right away can sometimes be frustrating when you're not writing as fast as you thought you could, and this can lead to the steno blues.

A few months back, I posted a poll on this blog to find out what the magic length of time was for warming up for steno practice. I was pretty surprised to learn that the length of time people practiced was pretty much equally divided amongst all of the options I posted (0-10 minutes, 11-20 minutes, 21-30 minutes, 31-45 minutes, 45+ minutes, or something like that.). So there's no one right answer, in conclusion.

Experiment a little bit to find out what's the right length of warm-up time for you. Try erring on the shorter side before a round of speed tests so you don't tire out in the middle of the test, but don't skimp on the time either. When warming up before a practice session, you could probably err on the longer side. Any excess warm up can also be considered as accuracy practice before jumping into mind-blowing speedbuilding. Happy practicing, steno people!

Practice Technique -- Speed Charts Method

Here is a speedbuilding practice technique our teachers told us about in school, but I've turned it into chart form for easy comprehension.

In the first example, you'd practice the audio track at 100% the first time through, and for the second repetition, you slow it down to 90% with your variable speed player (I use the play speed settings in Windows Media Player. Click here to learn how. Or some fellow students use ExpressScribe.) Repetition #3 would be at 80%, etc.

Choose the appropriate speed chart to go along with the difficulty of the track and whether it's a trail speed, push speed, or goal speed. You can even print it off and check off each repetition as you go. Happy speedbuilding!

Taken from my response to a comment on this post, here's a breakdown of which chart would be good for which type of material.

The second one down would be a good one to push your limits. I think the ones that have a large range of speeds, like #3 and #4, if we're counting top to bottom and then over, would be good for less dense material and can therefore be practiced over a large number of speeds.

#1 and #5 might be good for more dense material, and then #6 would be a good one to practice control speeds on.

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!

More Free Steno Audio Drills and Dictation

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Any successful steno transcription, practice or otherwise, starts with being able to understand what is said. If it's an in-person situation, that means sitting close enough to the speakers to hear and see them clearly. If it's a recording, important factors are the quality of the audio file itself and also to isolate what you're trying to transcribe from outside noise or distractions.
One of the first investments I made as a new reporter -- after a writer and laptop -- was a pair of high-quality, noise-canceling Bose headphones. When it comes time to replace them, I want the newest wireless version here, but the QC 15s have been going strong with pretty much daily use since ~2011! The over-the-ear style is comfortable and great for tuning out noise right next to you and/or going on in the other room. In addition to amazing sound quality, I noticed with these I was able to hear things that I missed with regular earbuds, like when witnesses trailed off or said something under their breath. Bose has amazing quality products, customer service, and warranty department, so what are you waiting for?

Well, then, without further ado, here are more sources for free steno drills and dictation found since my last post on the subject, now that we've gotten the audio quality thing sorted out:

• Actual Business Letters Dictated at Various Speeds Ranges from 90-110 wpm. Click on the links underneath "VBR MP3" to download the individual files. Challenging stuff!

• 12th Week's Practice Podcast Excellent recordings and some good advice as well. I like the 70/30 rule that Candis Bradshaw recommends on page 1. Most files are labeled from 90 wpm to 200 wpm.

• Machine Speed Shorthand - Sydney Institute More good stuff with the added challenge of writing through Australian accents. Or here's another link to the same files, I think, hosted on iTunes. 70 wpm to 180 wpm.

• Court's Podcast Several months worth of steno drills and dictation!

• Shorthand - NCTJ 60 wpm through 120 wpm. More good practice with accents. See right side of page for audios and pdf transcripts.

• Teeline Shorthand Online Dictation One free sample/example shorthand lesson with some dictations.

• Shorthand Shorthand Shorthand  Audio files range from 60 wpm to 140 wpm and are available at the bottom of the page. The current audio is about insurance, and the site says it's updated monthly.

• Victation's Podcast Located on iTunes. Five files at 60 and 80 wpm only.

Want more free dictation? Click here, here, and here to see the rest of my free court reporting dictation list.