Phoenix Theory Speed-building Tips 11

QUICK TIP

Transcribe EVERY test, even if you don’t think you’ll get a passing grade.

One important reason for this advice is that I’ve seen far too many instances where students said with certainty, "I know I didn’t pass this one," but after urging them to type it up anyhow, and after grading it with an eagle eye, they did in fact pass the test with flying colors. The drop they "knew" must have been "h-u-g-e" turned out to be three words, or the area where they "totally screwed up" turned out to be two words reversed!

But the main reason for typing up every test is because you LEARN SO MUCH about your writing—and also about your reading, typing, and proofing abilities—when you transcribe your notes. You learn things that could make a difference between being successful or unsuccessful on the next tests: e.g., "Ouch, three of my errors were typing ‘that’ when my notes said ‘this,’ so I’ll really watch that in the future"; "I’m leaving out small words when I type"; "I’m misreading this brief form"; "Geez, look at the time I lost asterisking out false starts and rewriting"; "There’s only one way this word is pronounced, but I wrote it three different ways. It’s time to decide the best way for me to write it and add it to my hesitation list"; "I spent so long trying to decide how to write this word that I dropped two words after it; definitely add THAT word to my hesitation list"; "Oh, oh! I stroked PWHR- several times when it should have been TKHR-; better do some drills and nip that in the bud"; "I should have trusted my notes; I should have trusted my notes"; "I should have stuck to my notes and come up with a word closer to this botched outline rather than sticking in a word that made sense but had no relationship to the steno"; etc.

When proofreading, we have a tendency to see what we EXPECT to see. When you proofread, actually SAY each word to yourself, even put in inflection, so you’re actually seeing and reading EACH word and grasping the context. Obviously, you can’t have a room full of people all reading their transcripts out loud as they proof. You can SAY each word to yourself without actually making any sound, almost without even moving your lips. If you’ll do this, you can catch a lot of errors that you might otherwise overlook. It’s very disappointing to be unsuccessful in writing a test; but it’s heartbreaking to WRITE the test successfully and still get a failing grade because of transcribing errors and/or proofing oversights.

Let’s review the basic principles everyone has to observe in order to increase speed as quickly as possible and as far as possible:

Use correct keyboard/body position. It impacts your dexterity, your comfort, your endurance, and your SPEED.

Use correct stroking technique: Fingers slightly above the keys in home position, NOT resting on the keys; quick, light strokes and immediate release; no extraneous finger or hand movement such as a "push" at the bottom of the stroke, flexing (straightening) fingers between strokes, or upward movement of the hands, all of which significantly detract from your writing SPEED.

Make accuracy your FIRST priority. (1) Speed without accuracy has no value, it’s not a marketable skill; (2) Speed is a natural, logical result of accurate repetitions; accuracy is NOT the natural result of more speed.

Write far enough behind the speaker so you understand words in context BEFORE you stroke them.

Use finger drills to (1) solidify your mastery of the keyboard, (2) increase your finger strength, dexterity, and control; (3) create ACCURATE muscle memory and automatic responses; (4) increase SPEED.

Brief forms can either increase or decrease speed. Be selective in your use of brief forms and practice each brief form you adopt until it is so totally automatic you can recall and stroke it instantly even at 240 wpm.

Get rid of your intimidation and hesitation in writing "big" words. "Cut them down to size" by simplifying the hearing and reducing the number of strokes by: Reviewing, practicing, and using shortcuts for multi-syllable word endings; using the elision principle to omit unnecessary strokes; "compressing" sounds to eliminate strokes; making and following decisions on how it’s best for YOU to break sounds into shorthand strokes so you avoid the hesitation and lost speed of having to make decisions for each multi-syllable word you encounter; maximizing your stroking efficiency.

The next big question, and one of the questions asked most frequently by students, is: How much time should I spend practicing each day? The only realistic answer is: As much time as you can possibly make available for quality practice!

Ideally, I think a reasonable amount for day students would be two hours a day outside class; for night students, three hours a day. And I’d certainly recommend one hour a day as an absolute minimum for any student. HOWEVER, not too many people have "ideal" schedules. If the night student has a full-time day job, three hours a day isn’t even realistic. And everyone has days so hectic, even an hour might be almost an impossibility on those days. Each individual has to assess their own situation, their family/job/church/civic/social obligations. So I repeat: The only realistic answer to the question of how much time YOU should spend practicing is: As much time as YOU can possibly make available for quality practice.

Maybe you can only set aside 1 hour for practice today, but you have fewer commitments tomorrow and can squeeze in 3 hours. And you don’t have to cram all your practice for the day into one sitting. Maybe you have a half hour in the morning after the kids leave for school; a half hour during the afternoon; another hour of quiet time at night while everyone else is watching television or after everyone is in bed.

Maybe you don’t need more time as much as you need a situation where you can accomplish more in the time you have. Writing machine shorthand is primarily a mental skill. So if you’re trying to practice when your concentration and your writing are continually being interrupted, if you’re so exhausted physically, mentally, or emotionally that you can’t really focus and do your best, you’re not accomplishing very much other than setting yourself up for frustration and discouragement. Walk away from it for the moment—but try to find a better time later.

WHATEVER the amount of time you can find to practice, a good general routine would be:

First, finger drills, plus exercises for writing numbers and alphabet functions. I’d start my day’s practice with finger drills because they’re an excellent wake up call for both my fingers and my brain and an excellent warm-up for the rest of my day’s practice. I’d spend a little less than one-third of my available time on finger drills, AND number and alphabet functions.

Second, I’d spend a little less than a third of my practice time writing my list of hesitation words/brief forms and any problem-solving exercises I’m writing PLUS practicing my one-minute "speed push/accuracy" take. I’d want to review my hesitation words/brief forms and problem areas BEFORE I start my five-minute speed takes—because those words might come up in the material I’m about to write. And my one-minute speed push limbers up my fingers even further and also makes the speed SOUND slower<gg> on the five-minute takes.

The balance of my time, I’d spend on writing and reading back five-minute takes plus writing longer takes for endurance. I’d write those five-minute takes at speeds which push me 10 to 20 wpm beyond my present ability, recognizing that I’ll have drops (which will get smaller and smaller as I gain just a little more speed), and I’d write them as though my life depended on my getting every word down with accurate notes.

And I’d END my day’s practice with a take of five-minutes or longer at a speed about 10 wpm BELOW my present writing speed so I can ENJOY the fun and challenge of writing and end the session feeling good about myself and how far I’ve come, how much faster I can write today than I could four months ago, or even four weeks ago.

And if I was an independent-study student who was not typing weekly transcripts as a class requirement, I’d transcribe and proof at least two five-minute takes (or longer) every week, just as though I were submitting them for a grade.