Phoenix Theory Speed-building Tips 6

QUICK TIP

A Conflict Distinction Stroke can be a very handy thing!

There are over 3,000 English homonym pairs/triplets/multiples. Understandably, sometimes it’s hard to recall instantly exactly how you decided to distinguish a particular homonym (AE vowel, asterisk, spelling, etc.). Maybe using a Conflict-Distinction stroke as one consistent way of distinguishing homonyms will work better for you.

For example, Phoenix Theory uses R-R as a conflict distinction stroke. I chose R-R because: (1) It’s stroked with the two strongest, most dexterous fingers; (2) It’s directly under those fingers when in home position and requires the least amount of finger travel; and (3) It creates no conflicts. However, you can designate any unused key combination as your conflict distinction stroke. (If you would like to use R-R but are presently using it as a brief for railroad, try R-RD or R*R as a new brief for railroad.)

How does it work? For example, your dictionary entry for "tick" would be TEUBG; your dictionary entry for "tic" would be TEUBG/R-R; "pray" would be PRAEU, "prey" would be PRAEU/R-R. You program the less-frequently-encountered homonym or the homonym with the least common spelling so it’s distinguished by following the stroke for the sound of the word with R-R. The advantages are: (1) You can write all homonyms by sound. (2) It can be totally consistent—no hesitation trying to decide which technique you decided to use to distinguish each homonym. (3) Frequently, we don’t recognize that a word is a homonym which requires distinction until we’re actually in the middle of stroking it. Instead of having to asterisk out and restroke, when you think, "Oops, that should be "herd," not "heard," you just immediately stroke R-R.

On the really high-frequency homonyms which you prefer to learn and use a one-stroke distinction for, fine, program it in both ways so you have the best of both worlds. For example, "seed" = SAOED; "cede" = SAO*ED or SAOED/R-R. If you realize the word should be "cede" before you start stroking it and if you instantly recall it’s distinguished with the asterisk, great, stroke SAO*ED. If you don’t realize it should be "cede" until after you’ve already stroked it, or if you can’t recall your one-stroke distinction instantly, just immediately stroke R-R.

Your conflict-distinction stroke can be a big help in other areas, too.

Use it to distinguish abbreviations: foot = TPAOT; ft. = TPAOT/R-R; street = STRAOET; St. = STRAOET/R-R, captain = KAP/T-PB, Capt. = KAP/T-PB/R-R, etc.

Simplify stroking for common, hyphenated phrases. Distinguish them as hyphenated phrases rather than individual words by including the conflict-distinction stroke in your dictionary entry: black-and-blue, two-by-four, out-and-out, cock-and-bull, cash-and-carry, etc. On some really high-frequency hyphenated phrases, you may prefer to program in the hyphenated phrase WITHOUT the R-R, and add the R-R only on the rare occasion when those words would NOT be hyphenated.

Use it to distinguish proper names: Is it "Central City area," or "central city area," Carr or car, Byrd or bird, Lake Pleasant or "Isn’t the lake pleasant?" Include the CD stroke in your dictionary entries for proper names which could create conflicts.

Unforeseen problems: You just created a beautiful shortcut for First Interstate Bank and now the witness is shortening it to First Interstate? Continue to use your handy brief for First Interstate Bank, but make a quick dictionary entry for your brief followed by R-R to translate as just First Interstate. A CD stroke can resolve some very sticky situations.

A MAJOR source of hesitation—and LOST SPEED—when writing machine shorthand comes from specific fingering positions or progressions between fingering positions which are less comfortable—and therefore, slower—for you to execute. You may be totally unaware that there are particular fingering positions which are detracting from your speed, and the fingering positions which are a "piece of cake" for you may be a real bugaboo for someone else. You can write machine shorthand for 20 years and never recognize where you’re hesitating, where you’re LOSING SPEED, unless you take very specific steps to identify and eliminate these areas of hesitation.

And the best possible way to do that is with finger drills. If you want to gain speed more rapidly, make finger drills part of your everyday practice routine.

Why? For the same reason the pianist plays scales and chords: It’s the fastest, most effective way to: (1) Master the "theory" and the keyboard; (2) Develop and reinforce proper fingering technique; (3) Increase finger control and dexterity; (4) Develop stroking rhythm; (5) Create automatic responses; (6) Eliminate hesitation and INCREASE YOUR STROKING SPEED.

As I stated earlier, the dynamics of developing machine shorthand keyboard skills are virtually identical to developing skill on a musical keyboard. And it’s as illogical to assume you can reach your potential speed in the shortest possible time simply by writing new material every day, without writing exercises designed to reinforce mastery of the keyboard and increase finger dexterity and control, as it would be to assume a pianist can become a concert pianist in the shortest possible time just by playing new material every day, without practicing scales and chords. It truly is "a no-brainer."

Remember, speed comes FROM ELIMINATING HESITATION. When you’re writing text, you’re not aware of the innumerable times you hesitate an extra fraction of a second. You can write machine shorthand 8 hours a day, 5 days a week for the next 20 years and never recognize or eliminate the hesitation that’s limiting your speed.

I recommend Fast Track to Machine Shorthand Speed. I have to because I wrote it<gg> Of course I’m biased! But the schools who use FTTMSS as a required part of their training program, the captioning companies which use it as part of their in-house training of captioners, and the court reporters who credit it with dramatic improvements in their stroking accuracy and writing speed because it’s made it possible for them to identify and eliminate hesitations they didn’t realize they had even after 20 years of reporting—these people don’t have any reason to be biased. They’ve just found something that really works and has helped them become cleaner, faster writers.

There are 107 finger drills in FTTMSS with a graduated level of difficulty. The unique benefits of the FTTMSS finger exercises comes from their reinforcement of specific finger positions and the progression from one fingering position to the next. The exercises include reinforcement of every finger position on the keyboard, plus every progression from one finger position to any other finger position. Because the finger drills are comprised of WORDS, you get maximum benefit from the drills by reinforcing left-side fingering positions, right-side fingering positions, and the vowels simultaneously.

Whatever finger drill program you elect to use, making finger drills part of your daily practice routine is an absolute MUST if you want to build the most speed in the shortest possible time. And remember, to be effective, finger drills MUST be written against a metronome.