Getting a feel for 225

I have always subscribed to the theory that you should work on your accuracy first and train your fingers to "remember" strokes thereby reducing your hesitation and increasing your speed.

As I struggle to pass my 80s threshold, I've opened my mind to other theories and have found that most, if not all, make sense to me. So I'm going to try other suggestions to see what works best.

I recently read a blog post on a Facebook court reporting group that suggests you listen to audio at 225 words per minute to help with your speedbuilding.

Here is a quote from Jillian Woods Facebook post:

"First things first, at around 100wpm, the realm of 'realtime' and 'speed' will split in two, each moving in separate paths, but heading in the same direction. What the hell does that mean, you ask? Well let me tell you... I am paraphrasing many teachers and students when I say that in order to perfect your realtime output (at speeds above 100), you need to work on SPEED. It feels counter-intuitive. How can you increase your speed without perfecting your accuracy? And yet, to quote the Director of Admissions at a very well-respected school, "you cannot get to realtime at 225 without knowing the speed of 225." The point being, that you need to know what it FEELS like to write 225. You need to get used to HEARING 225 (yes, throw on a dictation at 225 and sit back and listen). The trick to speedbuilding is staying on top of the speaker.

NOW, what I just said really implied so many things. First of all, staying on top of the speaker is a very hard thing to do at a speed that is, currently, out of your reach. What has worked for me is doing two things: 1) begin to shorten your writing, using briefs and phrases ONLY when it comes to words/phrases that are spoken OFTEN and that you feel comfortable writing, and 2) APPROXIMATE the strokes. Let your fingers do the dancing. If you are THINKING about how to write something, you're going to get left behind. To stay on top of the speaker (at your push speeds, 20-25%ish above your control speed) you have to let go and completely trust your fingers. Trust that all the work you've done perfecting your strokes thus far, through finger drills and perfecting your realtime output at the lower speeds, have trained your fingers to do the thinking for you. You CANNOT have a distracted mind when practicing at high speeds. You cannot THINK about what is being said and how to write it. Just let go. DON'T LOOK AT YOUR SCREEN! Believe me, you're not going to be happy with the outcome... LOL!... But when you pull up your paper notes, you might be in for a big surprise."

If you're on Facebook, you may find the complete post here: Jillian's blog post

So I tried this suggestion the other night. I logged on to Realtime Coach and practiced steno to audio at 225 words per minute.

After the initial shock of listening to people speaking at higher speeds, I got into a rhythm of writing. I tried to get down what I could and tried to "let my fingers do the dancing" -- which is tough for a perfectionist like me. It was difficult for me to simply type an outline, any outline, in an effort to keep up with the speaker.

After about an hour and a half of this style of speed practice, I sat down to "read" my tape. It wasn't perfect, but I could actually read it; even with the many, many mistakes that I had made. I considered this a very successful practice session and now understand why this is beneficial to speedbuilding in general. I am adding 225 speedbuilding exercises to my ever-evolving practice routine. It's a great suggestion and I recommend that you try it too!

10 things court reporting students must do - #9

Here is the next in the series of videos that Todd Olivas has completed about what every court reporting student must do in order to graduate. I'll post them here as he completes them.

#9 Do what they tell ya



Previous posts from the series:

#10 Show up

10 things court reporting students must do ~ #10

Todd Olivas has started a series of videos about what every court reporting student must do in order to graduate. I'll post them here as he completes them.

#10 Show up

Adjusting keystroke depth

I've been making adjustments to my Stenura Protege stenograph for several months now. I have adjusted the keystroke tension, the depth of the keystroke, and even adjusted the key contacts. I used the instructions given in the owner's manual that came with my stenograph for all of these adjustments ~ even though I knew that other techniques were available, I remained true to the owner's manual.

I was doing some speedbuilding exercises yesterday and it felt like the depth of my keystroke was still slowing me down as I tried to type faster. It reminded me of the difference between typing on a manual typewriter and an electric typewriter. My mother had an old typewriter and I had an IBM Selectric. (Anyone out there old enough to remember those?) I tried to type on her old typewriter, but I couldn't gather any significant speed because I had to press down each key about an inch before the letter hit the ribbon to print on the paper. After that experience, I thanked God for my IBM Selectric! What a joy it was to press a key down only a quarter of an inch to get the letter you wanted.

So the time had come to break free of my owner's manual and, once again, adjust the depth of the keystroke. I wanted to make them as shallow as possible to eliminate the time wasted pressing long, deep keystrokes. Jenni over at Court Reporter Bound sent me a link from Cheap and Sleazy's website a while back on how to use a credit card to shim the depth of my keystrokes and I thought I'd give it a try. It didn't take me very long to complete this task. The instructions are easy to follow and can be found at this link:

Adjusting Depth of Keystroke

Here's a picture of my stenograph showing where I placed the shim (credit card):

Click image for larger picture

The instructions are courtesy of Kathryn A. "Stenoray" Thomas, another fabulous court reporter you may want to follow on on Twitter at Stenoray.

Today's practice session was a lot of fun. And I absolutely love the way my stenograph writes. My hands didn't tire as quickly as they normally do and I was able to practice a lot longer than usual!

No rest for the weary

Just like a lot of other court reporting students, I'm on my two-week winter break from school. Unlike my last break, however, I am NOT taking a break from practicing my steno! That was a huge mistake which I will not repeat.

I've been doing a lot of hard copy steno practice followed by practicing to the television. This has been my practice routine for the last two weeks, and I can see some real improvement in my accuracy. I haven't gained any speed, mind you, but I'm taking my rewards where I can get them.

Now comes the hard part. Adding speedbuilding to my practice routine. This is not easy for me because I still find it difficult to "let go" and trust my fingers. A fellow student suggested that I stare at one of those "Magic Eye" pictures and try to get the image to appear while I'm practicing. THAT may be too much multitasking for me, but I think I'm going to give it a try!


Well, back to practicing!

Just for Grins

It's time again for Just for Grins. This is from the section of the JCR magazine where court reporters send in their funny transcript excerpts.

GOOD ANSWER!

Q. When is your birthday?
A. December 1st.
Q. What year?
A. Every year.

THE SECRET LIFE OF THE AMERICAN TEENAGER

The witness was an 18-year-old senior in high school. The questioning attorney has an 18-year-old son who was also a senior.

Q. You're not married; are you?
A. No. No way.
Q. You have no children?
A. No. Gosh. No. that would be awful.
ATTORNEY: You don't know the first of it.

Practicing to hard copy

As some of my fellow stenographers suggested, I have been practicing steno to hard copy to pull myself out of the boredom of constantly practicing to audio. I selected a book that I began reading this summer. The Alienist, by Caleb Carr. It's a great book, but unfortunately, I can't write fast enough to comprehend any of the sentences that I'm typing. Yes, I'm that slow.

Nevertheless, I enjoy this type of practice. It gives me the opportunity to work on my accuracy. I feel guilty, however. As I type at my glacially-slow speed, I keep thinking, I should be working on my speed, not accuracy.

So, here I sit torn between speed and accuracy. I'm sure my guilt will get the best of me and I'll be back to practicing to boring audio takes tomorrow. Sign . . .

Pushing through the boredom

I'm in a rut. Everyday is the same thing. Practice on RTC and get bored. Practice by television and get bored. Go to speed class and get bored. I've tried practicing briefs by metronome, practicing phrases, looking for new audio on the internet. Reading steno from my StenEd Reader.

Maybe it's because I don't feel like I'm making much progress in my speed. Maybe it's the holidays and I'd rather be shopping, wrapping gifts or baking cookies. I just haven't wanted to take the time to work on my steno recently.

I need to find something new and different to jazz things up in my practice routine.

Zzzzzzzz

Closed Captioning

In the Lovin’ these Blogs section of my blog, you will notice that I follow the StenoKnight CART Blog. The author of this blog, Mirabai Knight, has started a series where she posts a variety of videos that she has closed captioned using Universal Subtitles. What a wonderful thing to do for the hearing impaired world!

So, being a curious person, I wandered over to the website for Universal Subtitles and tried it myself. I captioned a scene from Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer. It's really easy and fun ~ Check it out!

Retention and memory

Last night’s class was rather interesting. Marci, our instructor, drilled us on our retention and memory skills. She started with memory drills by reading one complete sentence. During this time, we were not allowed to write. After she said, “OK type”, we could start to transcribe the sentence she just read. That doesn’t sound so tough, does it? Guess again! These sentences were laden with dates, numbers, dollar amounts and statistics. Yuck. In the beginning, most of the students totally bombed out on their accuracy. But, by the end of these drills, we were getting the hang of it. Oh sure, some of the statistics may have been off a bit, but we were close!

The second set of drills were much more difficult. Marci started dictating a jury charge, but we were not allowed to start writing until she waved her hand. The voice in my head said, OK, she’ll wave her hand after she has said five or six words, right? Nope. She waved her hand after she had read two sentences. OMG, we’re behind by two sentences?! Panic! I couldn’t keep up. My retention skills are horrible. I’m used to writing nearly on top of the speaker. In fact, as soon as I was lost, I jumped ahead to write directly on top of Marci's dictation again. Trailing behind the speaker is a skill that I MUST develop, and I must develop it SOON!

Video blog - briefs and phrases

Finger twisting drills!

I was diligently doing my finger drills tonight and I suddenly remembered that I had scribbled down some drills that my steno instructor gave us after we completed theory class. I found them on the back of a folder buried under my stack of briefs and phrases.

I don't know where she found them, but they're like tongue twisters for your fingers! (Finger twisters?) I typed them up so I could share them with you. I think these drills are to improve your dexterity. Give them a try!

Lots of audio at Podomatic!

If you're looking for fresh audio material on which to practice. Check out Podomatic. John DeCaro has recorded a ton of audio perfect for steno practice.

Here's the link to his podcasts:

Podomatic

If the audio is too fast or too slow for you, download the podcast and adjust the speed by playing it through Windows Media Player.

Sorry for the short post, but I'm itching to get back to practicing to Podomatic!

Good night, ya'll!

Under the hood of my stenograph

I've been getting a little frustrated with Eclipse and RealTime Coach recently. My accuracy scores on RTC have been falling - even during the audio takes that I have scored highly on in months past.

So I compared by paper tape with the computer "tape" on Eclipse. What I discovered was that when I write faster, I use a lighter touch and Eclipse (and RTC) doesn't read all of the characters of certain outlines. My paper tape is still legible, but RTC and Eclipse doesn't read the lightly printed letters on the tape. For instance, the world "people" (PAOEPL) will translate as "peep" (PAOEP). The word "any" (TPHEU) translates as "think" (THEU). My accuracy is actually higher than RTC is scoring. That's good news, but still frustrating.

I asked our instructor about adjusting the tension of my keyboard when I was still in theory because I thought it felt rather stiff to me. She pretty much scared me away from attempting any type of adjustments at that time, so now I'm afraid to try anything. But, with the encouragement of my newly found Twitter steno pals, I made some adjustments to the key contacts and keyboard tension this afternoon. One of my Twitter pals also suggested that I oil and lube my steno as long as I was under the hood. Which I also did. I haven't driven the Stentura Protege since it's tune-up, but from the few key strokes that I tried, I think it's going to be a lovely driving experience. I can't wait to settle in for a long practice session tomorrow.

Here is the link to maintenance instructions for the Stentura:

Stentura Stenograph maintenance

Occupational Hazard

One of the speedbuilding tips that I read about suggested that you focus your attention on an area of the floor or a picture on the wall as you take dictation. It's supposed to help you concentrate on your listening skills as you transcribe. I've been using this handy little tip and it helps, it really does.

But I'd like to add an addendum to this speedbuilding tip: Remember to blink!

I don't believe I've blinked in two hours ~ Ouch!

Pass the popcorn, I'm a slacker.

OK, I admit it. I’ve been a slacker for the past few days. I only practiced a total of one hour this past weekend. In my defense, I was trying to ward off a cold and didn’t think my steno study would have been very productive anyway.

I usually practice a couple of hours on Tuesday nights. But, last night was election night. That’s a national holiday for me! Don’t tell anyone, but I LOVE watching the election results roll in. Now, don’t misunderstand who I am ~ I’m not into politics. In fact, I hate the months and months of campaigning that lead up to election day, and the pain of watching those never-ending, horrible campaign ads is unbearable. But I love a good horse race, and election night is as good as it gets! My husband suggested that I should practice my steno while the pundits were projecting the results. I suggested he just pass me the popcorn!

So, there ya have it. Today is Wednesday – I have class tonight, and I haven’t practiced. I hope it’s not too grueling!

Inching toward my goal

As many of you know, my goal is to achieve at least 70 words per minute by the end of October and 80 words per minute by the end of November. To be honest, I don't know if these are lofty goals or not. I guess I'll know by the end of November.

To gauge my speed, I took a home test the other day. What I mean by "home test" is that I selected a 5-minute audio take in RealTime Coach at 75 wpm and then transcribed my notes the same as if I were in speed class. I try to make it as realistic as possible. At 75 wpm, I graded myself at 72% accuracy. I guess that's not too bad for 75 wpm. This weekend, I'll be giving myself several 70 wpm home tests to see if I've hit my goal. Cross your fingers and pray for 97% accuracy!

As a side note: I took another 80 wpm test in speed class tonight. I waited for the instructor to grade the test before I went home. She didn't give me an accuracy percentage, just the number of words that I missed. It wasn't very good; but, then again, I didn't expect it to be. What I did learn, however, was that I have a tendency to skip the word "that". I missed it completely seven or eight times throughout the dictation. I also typed the word "the" instead of "that". And I typed the contraction "that's" instead of "that is". It must be one of those words that my ear just doesn't hear. Well, I learned something new tonight.

Don't take your theory for granted

Wednesday night's class was a bit of an eye opener. I was writing with ease and had planned to transcribe the 80 words per minute test given at the end of every class. Knowing that I had given myself tests at home at 75 words per minute and transcribed them with 72% accuracy, 80 words per minute seemed doable. True, I wasn't going to get anywhere near the 97% accuracy needed to pass the test, but I think I could have achieved a decent showing.

So all was well until the instructor started dictating the test. Numbers! She's dictating numbers?!? Crap! When was the last time I worked on numbers? Then I started to confuse the endings -LESS and -NESS. And when was the last time I worked on -OLOGIST? Once again, my brain locked up and I was missing great chunks of dictation. Breathe, girl, breathe ~ you can do this ~ get your rhythm back! Nope, that ain't going to happen tonight. Neither is transcribing this test.

What went wrong? I was doing so well. Obviously, I don't know my theory as well as I should. I grabbed my theory book when I got home and started to mark all of the chapters that I need to review. I've marked eight chapters so far. But this is a good thing. I needed a wake-up call. I'm going to get back to basics, slow down and take some time to review my theory. I need to nip these problems in the bud now. Theory is the foundation that everything else is built upon, right? I'll never have the confidence I need, if I don't have a strong foundation in theory.

Adjusting speeds in Windows Media Player

I may be the last person on earth to discover this, but did you know that you can adjust the speed of your MP3 audio takes in Windows Media Player? It comes in handy for court reporters who want to adjust the speed of their MP3 audio takes.

Here's how you do it:

1. Open your MP3 in Windows Media Player.

2. Click on "Now Playing" to drop down the menu bar.

3. Click on "Enhancements" to drop down another menu Bar.

4. Select "Play Speed Settings".

5. Now you'll be able to see an area at the bottom of your Media Player which will allow you to select the speed you want.

6. Simply grab the little marker on the slide bar and move it to the right or left depending on the speed you're looking for.

I wish I learned this trick months ago. Now I can challenge myself with lists of briefs, phrases, and other audio that has become too slow for me!

More commonly used words

Every steno student has studied, practiced and memorized the 100 most commonly used words in the spoken English language, right? Well, I've found an interesting list of the most commonly used words in printed material through W.E.B. DuBois Learning Center's website. It's slightly different than what you're used to seeing since it's for published material and not the spoken word. It's ranked in order of use and is excellent practice material. I've printed out each page and placed it on my typing stand. That's a total of 1,000 words that I'm going to use for my daily drills. If I can get these words to fall naturally under my fingers without hesitation, my speedbuilding classes will be a helluva lot more fun!

Here are the links if you're interested:

First 100 most commonly used words

Second 100 most commonly used words

Third 100 most commonly used words

Fourth 100 most commonly used words

Fifth 100 most commonly used words

Sixth 100 most commonly used words

Seventh 100 most commonly used words

Eighth 100 most commonly used words

Ninth 100 most commonly used words

Tenth 100 most commonly used words

Getting my groove back

Well, I'm finally starting to relax in speed class. I know this may sound trivial, but simply moving to another desk has helped. During the first few classes, I was sitting front and center. Everyone was staring at the back of my head. I had to careen around whenever another student was talking - or be rude and just stare forward at the whiteboard. So I moved to a desk on the right side of the classroom and rotated sideways so I can see everyone.

Also, I no longer freak out and panic when the instructor reads at 100 words per minute. I simply write what I can and jump ahead when I need to. Thankfully, she doesn't ask us to read back our notes at that speed. That would be torture.

At the end of every class we take an 80 wpm quiz. Those students who want to transcribe their notes do so. Since I'm still writing at 60 wpm, it seems senseless for me to transcribe my notes at this point. My goal is to be at 70 wpm by the end of October, and 80 wpm by the end of November. Sigh . . . I feel like I'm in control again.

Just for Grins

I was browsing through the latest JCR magazine this afternoon and noticed the Just for Grins page where court reporters send in their funny transcript excerpts.

I thought I'd share a couple of them here:

WOULDN'T YOU LIKE TO BE ONE, TOO?

Q. You still use a calculator with your right hand?
A. Yes, and the computer keyboard, I'm not a full typer,
I'm just a pecker.
Q. Your words, not mine.

WHAT A JOB!

THE COURT: Ma'am, are you employed?
PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, I am.
THE COURT: What type of work do you do?
PROSPECTIVE JUROR: CPA for a plant in Monroe.
THE COURT: Thank you. Are you married?
PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes.
THE COURT: What type of work does your spouse do?
PROSPECTIVE JUROR: He passes gas for a living.
(Short period of silence)
THE COURT: I'm just so excited my six-year-old has a future.
(Prospective jurors and spectators roaring with laughter)
PROSPECTIVE JUROR: He markets natural gas.
THE COURT: Again, I'm happy about that.
PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Residentially and commercially.
THE COURT: That has to be a fun one at parties.
PROSPECTIVE JUROR: Yes, it is.

Video: Court Reporting Contest - 280 words per minute!

Impressive! This is Melanie Humphrey-Sonntag discussing how she practices for speed contests. Melanie is also the newly installed president of the NCRA.

Audio recording vs. court reporting

When I tell people that I'm learning to be a court reporter, they look at me like I've chosen an obsolete career. They nod sweetly, but gently steer the conversation to technology and then tell me, "you know, some courts have replaced their court reporters with audio equipment?" Yes, it's true. In an effort to save money in their budgets, two adjacent states (Minnesota and Iowa) have already replaced court reporters in some of their courts.

It may take a while, but I think these courts will realize their mistake eventually. Here are a couple of items I spotted in my Judicial Court Reporting magazine:

INAUDIBLES AND INDISCERNIBLES STALL THIRD DISTRICT CASE

In the Third District, appellant Atlantic States Cast Iron Pipe Company filed a motion to correct the record due to the approximately 10,000 inaudible and indiscernibles that riddle the trial and sidebar transcripts. The errors were not spelling, grammar, or punctuation errors, but substantive mistakes. According to the motion, no court reporter was present during the trial, and the audio discs taken of the proceedings were sent to a transcription service.

The District Court pursued its own review of the transcripts and learned that several audio discs were missing from the trial. According to the motion, "Despite the District Court's best efforts, the record is not certifiable at this point." The appellants requested an extension to review the transcript once the district court has produced a certified record.

RECORDING DEVICE FAILURE CANCELS COURT IN ALBERTA

According to the July 20, 2010, Drayton Valley, Alberta, Canada, Western Review, a technical glitch in the audio recording device in the court meant that those who had business were required to come back another day. There was no additional information in the article as to what caused the problem in the recording system.

This has become a topic of conversation is my steno class too. Thankfully, South Dakota judges are pro court reporter. They understand the need for a human being to properly record court proceedings. The court reporter insures that the witness is heard and understood, and that people don't talk over each other. It's the court reporter's responsibility to stop and say, "I'm sorry, could you speak up? I couldn't hear what you said." Or imagine if a witness is from other country and isn't fluent in English. It's the court reporter's responsibility to stop the testimony and confirm what a witness said. Tape recorders don't do that.

In the long run, taping trials doesn't save any money and I hope the courts start realizing this soon.

Speedbuilding tips

My first speedbuilding class begins in two weeks, so over the next two weeks, I plan to work on my accuracy (and my speed, of course). Now would be a good time to eliminate any bad habits that I may have acquired during the theory portion of my training. To help me do this, I went online and did a little research on accuracy and speedbuilding.

Well, friends, I have found the mother load of wonderful speedbuilding tips, and I thought I would share them with you. The link to the webpage is posted below, but be forewarned, it took me hours to read them all. So grab a cold beverage, sit back, and read on.

SPEEDBUILDING TIPS

My thanks to Carol Jochim ~ she has put a lot of work into these tips!

Success at 60 wpm!

I passed my 60 wpm final exam, which means that I graduated from Theory III! Yippee!

Apparently, third time's a charm. I passed during my third attempt. The first attempt was pretty close, and the second attempt I completely tanked. My brain totally froze up and I kept hesitating on words that I knew. By the time I took the exam the third time, I had worked through my hesitation issue.

I'm really going to put in the time on RTC over the two-week break and really work on my accuracy.

My motto for the Fall term ~ Without accuracy, speed means nothing!

Just for Grins

I was browsing through the latest JCR magazine this afternoon and noticed the Just for Grins page where court reporters send in their funny transcript excerpts.

I thought I'd share a couple of them here:

KNOW YOUR MEDICATIONS!
Q. What medications are you on?
A. They have me on Lasix.
Q. Lasix is a diuretic?
A. No, it's to make you go to the bathroom to get
the fluid out of your body.
Q. Right. Okay.

WHO'S ON FIRST?
Q. What doctor did he see next?
A. Doctor Doctor.
Q. His name is actually Doctor Doctor?
A. Yes.
Q. How is it you came to find this physician?
A. Referred from the ER.
Q. Where?
A. Ware.
MR. ATTORNEY: This is getting to be like who's on first.
This is ridiculous.

Striving for 60 wpm!

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while. I'm spending as much time as I can on RTC pushing myself to increase my speed. I have taken the 60 wpm final exam twice and I've come close to passing, but close doesn't get you to the next class!

I'm trying to get beyond my hesitation issues. Trying to recall outlines quickly is still a problem for me. Compounding the hesitation issue is that I'm also a perfectionist. So while other people can move on to the next word, I'm pausing longer than I should because I know the stroke and I must hunt it down in my brain. Honestly, do I really need to have a clean transcript at this point in my learning? No. But, it's still frustrating!

There's light at the end of the tunnel

I only have a few more weeks of class this quarter. Last night we took two speed tests. One was the usual speed test given on Mondays. It was given at 56 words per minute. I think I did fairly well – although you never know if you’ve “spazzed out” for a few words until you get your results to see what you missed.

The other test was our 60 words per minute final exam. This is our final exam speed test that we have to receive a 97% accuracy score or we don’t pass the course. Yikes! No pressure there. The instructor decided that she will give this speed test during every class until the end of the term. So I’ll have four more chances to get a passing grade. I was keeping up quite easily at first, but then it seemed like the instructor was starting to dictate faster. I’m sure that she wasn’t ~ I was just getting farther behind. I don’t think I passed this time, but I think I might be close to passing, so I’m anxious to see my score.

Train your brain - Great advice from our professors

During last night’s class, we received some great advice on speed building. Since there are so many of us are trying to reach our ultimate goal of 225 wpm, I thought I would share her advice here on my blog.

She asked if anyone in the class was in the habit of mouthing the words of her dictation. One gal raised her hand. Then she asked if anyone was in the habit of repeating her dictation silently to themselves in their head. At that point, I raised my hand. She told us that we needed to break that habit right away. And here’s why: “If I’m dictating at 60 words per minute,” she said, “and you’re repeating everything you hear, you’re actually hearing 120 words per minute.” You need to train your brain to transcribe from the initial word you hear, not the word you repeat to yourself. It makes perfect sense. Now if only I could get my brain to comply . . .

Yikes!

I just received the grade from my first “official” speed test. I got an 83% . Crikey!

In my defense, I knew I wasn’t going to do well. I was having “one of those days”. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. I couldn’t focus, my mind kept getting hung up on certain words, and my fingers felt like they were moving in slow motion.

On the bright side, 83% is a solid B, so I guess I won’t commit hari kari.

My first "unofficial" speed test

We had our first "unofficial" speed test. Our instructor wanted to get an assessment on how fast we were writing. As a warm up, she dictating three takes at 48 words per minute. Then she tested us at 52 words per minute. We were given time to type up our notes and hand them in. I just received an e-mail with my score. 98.35% correct! Here is some of the advice she gave me:

"You should have no trouble passing the 60 wpm take by the end of the quarter. Practice RTC (RealTime Coach) as much as you can, tackling speeds where you are being challenged but where you are not completely out of control. There are finger drill exercises and theory exercises and speed exercises...plenty to keep you busy over the break. If you work hard on speed building through the end of the quarter and over the break, you will hopefully spend very little time in 80s. Don't get too bogged down with briefs and phrases. Only concentrate on the ones that make sense to you and that you believe will come up a lot."

Well, back to speedbuilding. I've only practice about and hour and a half today and I need to get in another hour or so.

SHUS, SHAL and Numbers.

I’ve had a full week to play around with RealTime Coach and, while it’s a lot of fun, it’s frustrating too. I’m not so sure I like having my weaknesses displayed so prominently in the form of accuracy percentages! But seriously, it’s a great tool.

Our first homework assignment was the SHUS and SHAL endings. Our professor wanted us to strive for 90% accuracy at 60 wpm. That was a little tough. I only managed to get a score of 76% accuracy. I was happy to get a 100% accuracy rating at 45 wpm, though. Mind you . . . that occurred only after working on those drills for about 30 minutes apiece.

The other drills assigned were NUMBERS. Ugh, talk about my weak spot. I started out on the 45 wpm drills and was dropping words and hesitating all over the place. I did so poorly that the program wouldn’t even give me an accuracy score. The computer pop-up politely said, “Um, yeah, I think you should try some slower drills”. I dropped down to the 25 wpm drills. It was ugly. But, I know what I need to work on!

My violin teacher used to tell me, “If it was easy, everyone would be doing it.” This applies to court reporting too.

RealTime Coach

Last night’s class was a blast! All three of our professors were in attendance and helped us set up our laptop computers to work with Eclipse and RealTime Coach. After about an hour and a half of downloading plug-ins and updating Acrobat, we had a quick tutorial on RealTime Coach and we were ready to give it a try.

What a cool program! I know it’s rather expensive, so I’m grateful that I get to use it under the educational license for Colorado Tech.

I know this post is going to sound like an advertisement for RealTime Coach, but I’m really jazzed about using this program. And, for those of you who know me, it takes a lot to impress me. So bear with me. RealTime Coach has a vast amount of audio takes from 40 wpm to 260 wpm. You can choose from a variety of different subjects from medical conversations, legal depositions, and literature. I was typing from Charles Dickens’s novel A Christmas Carol last night. I chose an audio take of 60 wpm. It was a little too fast for me, but RealTime Coach allows you to slow it down (or speed it up) in small increments.

After you complete writing your audio drill, the program will give you an assessment of how you did. It suggests ways to improve your speed. RealTime Coach can recognize your problem areas or if you ghosting letters. It may suggest finger drills or speed drills which, of course, are available in this program too

The problem we had during class last night was that no one thought to bring their headphones! It was very difficult to hear your audio over everyone else’s. So, needless to say, I can’t wait to get home and start logging my practice time!

One more chapter to go ~ speed building here I come!

I have one chapter left to learn in my theory book and then it's on to speed building. I have been attending my theory class several days a week since January and I'm soooo excited to apply this theory to speed building. It's fascinating to think that in one week, I should be able to apply the theory I've learned to any word in the English language and write it in steno.

Our class routine is going to change considerably. We're going to use a web-based program called Realtime Coach. We will be given a login/password and will log our speed building time in Realtime Coach. Our instructors will be able to log in and take note of our progress and see how much time we've spent working on our skills. No pressure, right?

I'll admit that learning theory has been mentally draining, so I'm looking forward to the change.

Validation

The other day I saw a television commercial that’s airing in Sioux Falls for AIB School of Business in Des Moines, Iowa, touting the need for court reporters. It’s similar to the commercial that was aired by Colorado Technical University last year that prompted me to enroll in college and get my degree in court reporting. CTU’s court reporting commercial has stopped airing, but seeing another college try to drum up court reporting students stating the demand for court reporters is going to increase in the next four to five years is something I LOVE hearing! Many court reporters are close to retirement age and there simply aren’t enough court reporters entering the field to replace them.

I live in South Dakota and our instructor told us that there are approximately 80 court reporters in the entire state and many plan to retire within the next three to four years. That puts me in a pretty good position when I graduate.

Chapter 38 is a cake wreck

Last night’s class continued with Chapter 38 which is all about prefixes. Chapter 38 is a little different from the rest of the textbook. Let’s see . . . how do I explain this?

This chapter is like decorating a birthday cake. Have you ever started writing the person’s name in frosting and then realized that you started writing too large and now you have to squish everything into a small little corner of cake? That’s what happened to this chapter! I think every prefix in the English language is squished into this Chapter.

Photo courtesy of Cake Wrecks

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/

The textbook gives you the outline for a prefix and two examples of the word and then moves on to the next prefix. Hardly enough time spent on a single prefix to feel it under your fingers. Oh, the instructors know that they can simply give us the new brief and we’ll eventually incorporate it into our steno, but the quiz for this chapter is Monday! That’s an incredible amount of prefixes to memorize in such a short period. I’ll have to study harder than usual for this quiz . . . It’s going to be one of those weekends.

Prefixes, prefixes, and more prefixes

Only three more weeks of studying real-time theory and then we start speed building.

Tonight's lesson was all about prefixes. Tons of prefixes! They're pretty easy - provided you can get your fingers to contort to some of the briefs. Having an asterisk in the outline can make it difficult to write. That's were practice makes all the difference. When I think back to some of the words that I found difficult six months ago, they now fall easily under my fingers. So you know what I'll be doing this weekend? That's right. Practicing. Good answer!

At the end of the class, the instructor dictated real testimony from court records. She guessed that she was reading about 60 words per minute, which is the goal that we hope to achieve by the end of this term. Actually, it was pretty easy to keep up, so that made my day!

Summer session classes

I'm at the end of my two week break and have loved every minute of it! The summer session starts Monday, and I feel well rested and ready to start classes again. The summer session is going to be tough. I am taking Realtime Theory III (which encompasses speed building), along with Criminal Law and Anatomy and Physiology.

I'm looking forward to Criminal Law. I worked as a legal secretary at a law firm for four years and was married to a lawyer for ten. Not that this means anything, but I enjoyed playing devil's advocate with my ex-husband. Another benefit is that I already know the legal lingo. Yay!

I'm a little worried about Anatomy and Physiology. I've never been very good at science. Thankfully, my husband is. I have a feeling he may become my study partner! The books I bought for this class came with a video on anatomy that's based on the Visible Human Project. It looks really cool; and, with any luck, the visual aid will help me understand this particular science. It probably won't be as bad as I think it will be. Truth is, I'm a much better student now that I'm an adult . . .

A few news items

I was reading a back issue of the Journal for the Reporting and Captioning Professions (April 2010) and three small news briefs caught my attention.

1. “Minnesota considers cutting reporters” On Feb. 6, 2010, the St. Cloud Times reported that a committee has recommended, as a way to cut costs, that the Minnesota Judicial Council replace court reporters with digital audio recording equipment, as well as centralize financial processes and merge judicial districts.

2. “Brevard County faces loss of reporters” Florida Today reported that Brevard County (FL) courtrooms will eliminate funding for court reporting services and expert witnesses to relieve shortfalls in the budget. The deficit is attributed to a combination of inadequate funding from the state legislature, increasing case loads, and a tanking economy.

Sigh ~ Several people have asked me about this development in courtrooms. “Well, technology is going to make court reporters obsolete.” Baloney! I say. So you record the proceedings, now you still have to produce a transcript. Who’s going to do that? A court reporter – duh!

The third news brief is gave my spirits a little boost.

3. “A Bill in Kentucky requires closed captioning in movie theaters” A bill moving through the Kentucky legislature will require movie theaters to expand its offerings of captioned movies. Kentucky State Senator Ray Jones has proposed a new bill that will require closed captioning for the people who are hard of hearing on at least one screen at all cinemas with at least five screens. The bill would also require that captioning be offered in a number of different ways.

Oooo, what a great idea! I hope this trend catches on.

It's not like riding a bike

I took a week off from all things steno related. I had three final exams last week and the first exam was court reporting. So I put the stenograph away and directed all my energy and time to studying for my American Government and Sociology finals. All exams went well and I’m ready for the summer term. Well, almost …

During dinner last night my husband says, “I’ll do the dishes if you want to practice your steno.” Of course I’m going to take him up on his offer. Wouldn’t you? For the record, I couldn’t do this without him. While Jack has always been extremely helpful in all household chores, he’s really going beyond the call of duty these days. Have I mentioned that I’m working full time AND going to college full time? That leaves most of the household duties for Jack to do.

So after dinner I hopped on the stenograph fully expecting to be right where I left off. I paged through my theory book until I arrived at the last chapter we worked on. I put on my headphones and started transcribing the dictation for this particular lesson. Hey, guess what? It’s not like riding a bike. To describe the situation: I sucked! The last lesson we worked on was how to do Q&A. Apparently, my brain had already left the classroom and started on my two-week break before my body did. I didn’t retain much of this lesson as I was really struggling to do it properly last night.

A frustrating evening of practice, but I learned a valuable lesson. Never, ever go a week without practice!

Two week break!

I received an e-mail from my court reporting professor. I received 4 points over 100 on my final. "That's a A+", she said. Yay! The 4 points were from the extra credit sentence that she threw in at the end of the exam.

So, now, I have a two-week break and then it's on to Realtime Theory III. This is a new class that the professors felt that they needed to add to the curriculum. The Court Reporting program at Colorado Technical University is fairly new. My class is the third class to begin this program at CTU. The professors are learning as they go and have already tinkered with the course. While I feel a bit like a guinea pig, I'm glad to be a recipient of their new ideas and changes.

The very first court reporting class started the course using their laptops with CAT, or computer-aided transcription. The professors realized that the students were relying too much on their computers. They were having trouble reading their paper tapes and read-back wasn't as fast as it should have been. So our class is learning the old-fashioned way without computers. This is a great decision as I'm learning to read steno fairly quickly now.

The second change the professors made was to add an additional course ~ Realtime Theory III. The first two court reporting classes went directly from Theory II to speed building. The professors felt these students should have had more time studying and learning the theory as they're having difficulty getting their speed up to 80 words per minute ~ a requirement to graduate from the the speed building course. I'm so glad they made this decision. Some of the chapters were pretty intense and I could use more time studying some of the new lessons we've learned this past quarter.

So as I let my mind, body, and soul take a short break from steno, I'll leave with you a few pictures of the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Park, which is where I'm taking my break!

Yellowstone National Park


Yellowstone National Park


Grand Tetons National Park


Grand Tetons National Park

Preparing to exhale

I have just completed the last two chapters of real time court reporting theory for this quarter. They were quite easy, actually. Tonight we review the lessons learned this week and then it’s on to FINALS WEEK!

The three classes I need to prepare for are American Government, Sociology and Court Reporting.

My American Government professor sent out a wonderful study guide for the final, and has been very clear about what will be on the test. I’ve already started to put the study guide to memory so I believe this test will go well.

Sociology is an open book test. I’ve never warmed to the idea of an open book test. Do you really learn anything in a class that has open book tests? I think it makes it too easy for students to simply skate by. I’m looking for a quality education here! I know, I know, this isn’t Harvard, but give us a little credit. Sheesh!

And I have to hand it to our Court Reporting professors. They are holding our feet to the fire in this class. In order to pass the class, you have to get a score of 97% or above on the final test. Eeeek ~ no pressure there! The test will be straight dictation of commonly used words. It makes sense. If you don’t know the most commonly used words in the English language, you’ll never make it as a court reporter. I guess it’s their way of washing out students.

Wish me luck!

I'm thinking too hard

I have lost count of how many word endings I have learned over the past three weeks. I'm still feeling a bit shell-shocked from all the information that I've absorbed. In fact, I occasionally get stumped during dictation and stop to figure out what key stroke to use for a particular ending. In my struggle to dig deep into my brain and hunt down the information that I'm looking for, the man dictating sentences through my headphones continues to dictate. HOW RUDE! What ~ he's not going to wait for me to catch up? And then the "Duh" moment hits me: The longer you stop writing, the farther behind you get in your transcribing. Bad girl! Bad.

Our court reporting instructors told us at the beginning of this quarter that it is OK to drop words. And they expect us to do it. You can always go back and figure out what you missed from the context of the conversation. Unfortuantely, I'm kind of a perfectionist and I want to have a clean transcript immediately. So the "just skip it and move on" concept is hard for me to do. There are two skills that I'm dealing with here, and they are in direct conflict with each other.

1. Recalling the knowledge, and,
2. Doing it at great speed.

Maybe it's too early to expect fast recall at this point, but it's what I'm striving for. Besides, it's what make a good court reporter, and that is what I want to be.

So today I will practice my speed building. My mantra is: I will drop words and I will be OK with that.

A calmness finally returns

After several weeks of feeling like I've been pummelled with information and falling behind, I'm back in the saddle again. I spent the weekend going back over the chapters that were troubling me and it paid off. I achieved a 98% on tonight's quiz ~ yay!

So moving forward with today's chapter was much easier. Chapter 32 is about words beginning with U, UN and UNDER. UN and UNDER are easy.

The U is a little tricky. Using the single letter U is out of the question. That is reserved for the shortcut of the word "you". When you spell out the word "you" it's YAOU ~ and that's what you write when starting words like unanimous, united, or utensil. When the long u sound is followed by a consonant sound in the same syllable, you include it with the long u sound. An example of this would be the word "urethane". Written out in steno, it looks like this: YAOUR/THAIN

With a little practice, I think this will come naturally.

Two steps forward, one step back

I'm taking the time to go back and review a couple of chapters that I didn't grasp too well ~ Chapters 28 and 29.

As I mentioned before, there was A LOT to absorb in these two chapters. On top of that, these theories were not cut into marble. There are a lot of variables that can occur. Like words ending in the ANS sound; as in guidance, inheritance and relevance. Sometimes you add the ANS with the last syllable and consonant: GAOI/DANS, IN/HERT/TANS, and REL/VANS and sometimes you tack on just the NS if you can fit it in at the end of the word, DE/FAOINS (defiance), KOM/PLAOINS (compliance) and PUR/SAOUNS (pursuance). I know this should confuse me, but it does.

Study, study, study.

Chapters 30 and 31

We studied the theories from Chapters 30 and 31 this week. I've lost track of how many word endings we've learned. I think I may have forgotten more than I've learned by now.

Thankfully, I had Friday off from work and had an extra day to study. This made a big difference this week. I don't feel quite as lost and am, once again, feeling back on track.

I'll have to remember this in the future. When I begin to get frustrated and lost, take a vacation day and decompress and study a bit!

Well, friends, back to studying!

16 different word endings in two days!

This week’s homework assignments were grueling. We worked on two chapters this week; both were about word endings. In total, we learned 16 different endings for words.

The theories for these endings are not carved in marble either. It seems like there are exceptions to every rule and it was never more obvious than in these two chapters.

We’ve been using the audio takes that have been provided with this course; which is Real-time StenEd Court Reporting. But, for some reason, this week’s audio recordings were done by one of our instructors. I think she forgot that we’re still writing at approximately 40 words per minute. If I had to guess the speed at which she spoke, I’d say 60 w.p.m. At first, I was stopping the tape in order to catch up and write all of the words. Then I thought to myself, well, that’s just cheating, just write what you can – drop words if you have to. It was stressful and it was awful. I’m not ready to write fast yet. I’m still learning the theory for Pete’s sake!

Closed captioning provided by . . .

When I decided to take classes to become a court reporter. I imagined myself sitting in a courtroom transcribing a trial, or in an attorney’s office taking depositions. I had no idea the wide array of jobs available to a court reporter that is trained and certified in real time court reporting.

Did you know that the closed captioning on television is provided by court reporters? Neither did I until recently.

In order to be able to provide closed captioning, a reporter needs to be certified in “Conflict Free Real-time Court Reporting”. This type is court reporting is designed to be mistake-free and read as it is typed. If you watch closed captioning long enough, you may see a typo. Most likely what you’re seeing is the court reporter using an incorrect “outline” for a word. Homonyms are a court reporter’s nightmare.

Look at these words:

weather/whether
weave/we’ve
medal/meddle
rain/rein/reign
metal/mettle
steel/steal
aisle/isle/I’ll
here/hear
border/boarder

Conflict Free Real-time Court Reporting is the style of stenography that I am learning. In order to get my degree and become certified, I will have to pass the test at 97% accuracy at a speed of 225 words per minute. This will take years to achieve, so wish me luck!

Oh, and the next time you see a “typo” in the closed captioning you’re reading, give the court reporter a little latitude. The English language is filled with all sorts of anomalies.

Banned words of 2010

In January, 2010, Time Magazine published their annual list of banned words.

1. Shovel-ready
2. Transparent/Transparency
3. Czar
4. Tweet
5. App
6. Sexting
7. Friend as a verb
8. Teachable Moment
9. In These Economic Times ...
10. Stimulus
11. Toxic Assets
12. Too Big to Fail
13. Bromance
14. Chillaxin'
15. Obama as a prefix

I don't necessarily agree with the words Transparent/Transparency, although I understand where they're coming from. The rest of the list is spot on.

My own personal list includes "awesome" and "dude". Perhaps this is a regional thing, but up here in beautiful, bountiful Sioux Falls, South Dakota, these words are very popular. Ugh! Did the good folks of Sioux Falls fall through one of those space time continuum black holes and land in bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure?

Now don't get your undies in a bundle, I can kid the citizens of Sioux Falls because they're the "shiz nits".

Mwua ~ love ya, Sioux Falls!

A brief lesson in stenography

My friend, Jay, asked me the other day, "So, how to you spell my name in steno? Is it just the letter J?"

A devilish grin slowly made its way onto my lips, and I said, "Well, Jay, since there is no 'J' on a steno keyboard, your name is spelled SKWRAEU." He was gobsmacked.

The combination of letters represent certain sounds. The letters SKWR is the "J" sound as in January, gymnasium, or geranium.

The letters AEU stand for the long "A" sound as in bait, rate and take.

So simply put ~ Jay is the J sound followed by the long A sound and is spelled SKWRAEU.

Poor SKWRAEU!

Carol Burnett still cracks me up!

I'm studying for a midterm exam tonight, so I'll leave you with a classic Carol Burnett court reporting skit. Cheers!

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Mata Hari has nothin’ on me

I think our military is missing out on recruiting spies. Ever since I started going to college to get my degree in court reporting, my friends have asked me to give them a glimpse of what steno looks like. They're completely baffled by this strange combination of letters running down a paper tape. I admit that steno is difficult to read. You read from top to bottom, not left to right. This could be the reason that my class began with 15 students and is now down to only 4. It takes years for a stenographer to learn the theory behind the language, and to be able to write and read it back quickly.

It’s truly fascinating and if you're into code breaking, this is one you should try to break. Let me give you a small hint. You can spell the same word several different ways in steno . . .



Want to see what steno looks like? (Translation included, of course) Imagine this getting into the hands of the enemy.

OK, take a deep breath

This week's lessons are all about word endings. We worked on Chapter 28 tonight which is about words ending in -EN, -IN, -AN, -ENT, and -ANT. The theory is pretty simple, but there is A LOT to learn. OK, you should never end a word with the stroke EN. EN is used to begin a word. If the word ends in EN, type a final N, or add the consonant on the last stroke with EN. Similarly words ending in -IN and -AN. Add the consonant on the last stroke so that IN and AN do not stand alone. Clear as mud?

I peeked ahead to Chapter 29, which comes up Wednesday. More word endings coming up. -LE, -EL, -AL and -IL. Wow, this is a lot for one week!

Oh, and I got 99% correct on the quiz for Chapter 27!

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Chapter 27

I'm really enjoying this chapter. The theory for words beginning with IN-, INT- AND ENT- is nice and makes sense to me. Besides, the theory falls nicely under my fingers! I've almost finished all of my homework which is due on Monday. I'm going to leave the audio drills until tomorrow. I like doing the audio drills and it's a nice way to spend a Sunday.

Monday quiz and Chapter 27

I was a little worried about tonight's quiz. We have a quiz every Monday regarding the previous week's lessons. If you remember, last week was numbers, decimals, fractions, dollar amounts and the SHUS and SHAL endings for words. It was a lot to absorb in a week. But, I got a score of 98%! Yay!

This week we're concentrating on only one lesson. Chapter 27 is all about words beginning with IN-, INT- and ENT-. Words beginning with IN- are pretty simple because in steno, it's the letters "IN".

However, if the word begins with INT or ENT, in steno you write "SPW". Holy horror! That makes reading back your notes VERY difficult. I think I understand why the instructors want to tackle only one chapter this week.

Crikey ~ wish me luck!

Busy weekend

I got A LOT done this weekend. I finished all my homework for the week. I finished a quiz and essay for Sociology due this Friday. I finished my American Government assignments and studied for the midterm. And I completed all of my Court Reporting homework. Whew!

I took some extra time this afternoon to work on some audio tapes for steno. I attempted the tapes at 45 words per minute, but I don't feel that I did very well. I'm torn between working on speed and working on my accuracy; because right now, I can't do both. As I've always said, if I can't write accurately slowly; I'll never be able to write accurately fast. Words to live by.

A night to relax? Nah.

Here we are. Friday night. My plans were to relax after dinner, but the homework from my other classes was haunting me. I kept thinking that if I get some of it done, I'll have more time to practice court reporting over the weekend.

Well, I managed to get quite a bit of my Sociology and American Government homework done. Yay! Since I was on a roll, I decided to work on some steno dictation. I started with Chapter 25 (Numbers). The mp3 recordings that our instructors provided us are spoken at either 25 words per minute (too slow) or 40 words per minute (too fast). I wanted a challenge so I opted for the 40 wpm mp3. Holy moley ~ I'm dropping words all over the place! Very frustrating. Perhaps, I'll try again tomorrow when I'm fresh.

Good night all.

Review night

Court reporting class is held three nights a week ~ Monday, Wednesday and Thursdays. Monday and Wednesday nights we learn new theories and Thursdays we review the week's lessons.

Did I mention that each night we have a different instructor? Court reporting is taught by working court reporters. Hence, the evening classes. I'm not sure how many court reporters teach at Colorado Technical University. There are three that teach theory and several more that teach the speed-building courses.

I feel a little sorry for our instructors ... our little class of four students currently write at about 35 words per minute, and the gals have to dictate V-E-R-Y S-L-O-W-L-Y. It kind of sounds like a first grader learning to read.

Shhhhhh

We learned more endings for words tonight. We learned how to write the sound SHAL, as in artificial, facial, glacial. And we also learned how to write the sound SHUS, as in delicious, cautious, pretentious. It was a lesson that was easy to understand - a nice break from Monday's lesson about numbers, decimals, fractions and dollar amounts.

The highlight of the class was during read-back. One of the students was having difficulty reading back her notes and said, "The male was both delicious and nutritious." Ummm, I believe the correct word is "meal". The teacher said as she burst out laughing, as did all of us.

I hope I don't make a mistake like that in court ~ Yikes!

Giving the answers away.

As I mentioned before, I’m working toward getting my A.S. degree in Court Reporting. With that, of course, comes many, many other classes that seem to have no relation to court reporting. This quarter I’m taking Sociology and American Government along with my court reporting classes.

Our assignment this week in Sociology is a 30-question quiz and a short essay about whether or not government should fund studies on sexual behavior. At the end of class last Friday, the professor tells us about our homework and directs us to the student portal website where we can download the quiz. We download the quiz and find the key to the quiz at the end. Whoops! Seems the professor downloaded the wrong document. When we point out his error, he says, “Well, it looks like you get one for free this week.” Yay!

I bet he double-checks his work next week.

Numbers!

Tonight's class was all about numbers. According to my instructor, nobody likes numbers. I can see why. I never liked them in my standard typing class either. Although, we changed our settings in the translation program (Eclipse) that we use to make writing numbers easier, and it helped a lot. I was actually getting the hang of it by the end of class.

BTW, did you know that there are cardinal numbers and ordinal numbers? I never knew the way you write a number actually has a name. Cardinal numbers are 1, 2, 3, four, five, six, etc. Ordinal numbers are 1st, 2nd, 3rd, fourth, fifth, sixth and so on.

We learned how to type dates, decimals, fractions, large numbers, dollar amounts and even Roman numerals.

One of the gals in class had an orthodontist appointment and had to miss class. Of all classes to miss ~ this was not the one. I hope she gets a chance to meet with the instructor. The author of our book crammed a lot of information in Chapter 25!

The start of a new chapter

Hi friends,

Since I've managed to make it through Realtime Theory I at Colorado Technical University, I thought I start a blog in an effort to record my progress as I work toward getting an A.S. degree in court reporting.

Well, so far, so good. I have the basics well under my fingers. Memorized keyboard - check. Can type without looking at the keyboard - check. Have a good number of briefs and phrases memorized - check. For those of you who don't know what briefs and phrases are - and you'll hear these terms a lot - they are the "notes" (the letter combinations used to define a word), that represent words or a combination of words. For example, S means "is" and T means "the". Therefore, S-T stands for "is the". Get it?

Anyway, as I begin Realtime Theory II, the language of steno is getting much easier to read and I've built up a little speed - OK, very little. But I look at it this way: If I can't type slow accurately, then I won't be able to type fast accurately.

So, I guess I better get my homework done for tomorrow night's class . . . we'll talk soon.