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THE FACTOP^S OF
SHORTHAND SPEED

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SOUTHERN ERANC,

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORI^^:
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LOS ANGELES. CALIF.

Digitized by the Internet Archive

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http://www.archive.org/details/factorsofshorthaOObrowiala

THE FACTORS

SHORTHAND SPEED;

HOW TO BECOME A STENOGRAPHIC
EXPERT.

A Book of Practical Aids and Suggestions to the Student,
the Teacher, and the Young Reporter.

DAVID WOLFE BROWN

Late Official Reporter, U. S. House of Representatives j

Author of «« The Mastery of Shorthand," "The Learner's Needless
Burdens," "The Hand and Its Handicaps," " What Has
Half a Century Done for Shorthand?" "The
— Rationale of Phrasing," etc.

427?)n

I9I0
THE GREGG PUBLISHING COMPANY

New York Chicago

"We are making in office and court and legislative hall,
the reputation and the future of shorthand and reporters.
If we do well, we shall be honored and well paid ; if not,
the reverse. Whatever adds to our skill and encourages us
all, is desirable. Friendly contests in skill keep alive that
'enthusiastic perseverance which is often mistaken for
genius.' I believe in all things which make us better report-
ers and educate people as to what a Btenographer ought to
be able to do." — Fred Irland.

"The race of the accomplished stenographer after, or rather
with, the rapid and cultivated speaker, is one of the most
interesting spectacles which can engage the attention of the
mind. There is an indescribable exhilaration in the contest.
Ce n'est pas la Vicioire que fait la joie des noble coeurs; c'esi
le Combat," — Eugene Liavis.

By David Wolfe Brown.

By John R. Gbegq.

Z53

PUBLISHERS' NOTE.

**The Factors of Shorthand Speed" has long
been regarded as a shorthand classic. Since its
author died, the book has been in great demand,
and copies of it have been at a premium. We
consider ourselves fortunate in having been able
to purchase the copyright from the heirs of Mr.
Brown, thereby being enabled to place this help-
ful and inspiring book in the hands of students
and writers of shorthand.

While much of the advice contained in "The
Factors of Shorthand Speed" applies to the
peculiarities of the style of shorthand most in
vogue at the time Mr. Brown acquired the art,
and, in fact, up to the time the book was first
published, there are enough helpful suggestions
of a general nature to well repay perusal by
writers of any system. Not a line in the original
book has been changed, and the only addition
is in the form of occasional footnotes containing
comments of an explanatory nature.

The Gregg Publishing Company.

New York, June 1, 1910.

INTRODUCTORY.

"The Speed Secret**

It is a sad fact that many a student, after de-
voting months to the study of an art which
temptingly offers itself as a system of swift
writing, finds himself unable to use the art with
even the rapidity of longhand. Other students,
somewhat more successful, fail after long con-
tinued efforts to obtain amanuensis speed. Still
others, possessing for months or years the skill
of the office stenographer, find themselves con-
stantly baffled in their attempts to follow some
of the easiest of public speakers. The young
shorthand writer, aspiring to "speed," and per-
haps working hard to secure the much-coveted
prize, feels often as if there must be some
"secret" which others have found, but which
has eluded his own patient search.

Appealing to this eager desire for the "speed
secret," there appear from time to time men
who are ready "for a consideration" to com-
municate some "short and easy" method of re-

6 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

moving the ponderous obstacles that block the
young stenographer's path. While I write, there
lies on my desk a pamphlet purporting to come
from an "ofScial reporter," and attractively
styled "The Speed Secret." A part of the pre-
cious information which this pamphlet offers to
the world for the paltry sum of fifty cents, is the
following :

"Good speed practice for the hand is to write
the figure three as rapidly as possible. You will
be surprised to find how few threes you can
make the first minute, and equally surprised to
find how quickly practice increases speed. The
sustained precision of hand required to make a
couple of hundred threes rapidly is just what is
required for shorthand."

But the "speed secret" is not always offered at
so low a price as fifty cents. There lies before
me another version of the "speed secret," which
(though comprised in two typewritten pages)
has been sold to many a "speed" seeker for five
dollars. The author's advice in this case covers
but two points : First, copy over and over again
and then repeatedly write from dictation, some
of the published specimens of the author's short-
hand; second, take care that the dictation is al-

INTRODUCTORY. 7

ways about five words a minute slower than the
rate at which you can write!

Another author undertakes to show "how
great a gain may be realized by writing short-
hand with both hands simultaneously!" "It is
evident," he says, "that if we can write 100
words per minute with the right hand, and 90
with the left, we can write 190 words per min-
ute, provided we can unite the capacity of the
two hands. That is accomplished by emplojdng
each hand to write each alternate word of a pas-
sage. For example, 'To be contents his natural
desire. ' * To ' may be written with either hand ;
but we will suppose it is written with the left
hand. A little in advance 'be' may be written
with the right hand; and in advance of this,
'contents' with the left; then 'his' with the
right; 'natural' with the left hand; and 'desire'
with the right hand."

Unfortunately this author does not state that
he or any one else has ever been able to reduce
this scheme, so beautiful in theory, to actual
practice.

Sometimes the shorthand student, disappoint-
ed again and again in his efforts to write rapid-
ly, says to himself, ' ' My hand will move only so

8 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

fast, and not fast enough ; I must make my head
save my hand ; I will learn more word-signs and
other contractions." Accordingly he sets to
himself the task of cramming his memory with
hundreds and hundreds of arbitrary abbrevia-
tions. And too often the result is only renewed
disappointment and discouragement. Or he may
say, " I do not phrase enough ; phrases are great
time-savers; I must apply myself untiringly to
the study of phrase-lists and phrasing rules. ' ' So
he eagerlj" buys, and patiently tries to master,
any collection of "lightning phrases" that may
be alluringly offered to ambitious students like
himself. But too frequently, after industrious
Aveeks and months devoted to the study of
phrasing, the longed-for increase of speed does
not appear.

At another time the student may say, "My
shorthand system is not brief enough ; I must
discard it and learn another." Or, reduced to a
still more despairing condition, he may reproach
himself with the reflection, "I have no natural
adaptation for learning shorthand ; stenographic
success may be reached by others, but not by
me. I may as well abandon the study on which
I have expended so much time and effort."

INTRODUCTORY. 9

In view of such difficulties and discourage-
ments, is it any wonder that weary months and
even years are frequently spent by the aspiring
young stenographer, with very little result in
the way of speed gained, although he spares in
the pursuit neither study nor labor ? In attempt-
ing the by-no-means-easy task of dealing with
these various phases qf the student's perplexity
and disheartenment,^ I have no pretentious
"speed secret" to impart as a simple and sov-
ereign solution of every student's difficulties. In
order to become a rapid writer, the young sten-
ographer must comply with a number of condi-
tions which cannot be communicated in a few
sentences, or a few pages. Mistaken methods of
study and practice are to be pointed out and cor-
rected. Good habits are to be cultiyatedj bad
habits to be unlearned. Tasks are to be under-
taken which may involve much time and labor.
There are, too, matters apparently trivial to be
pressed upon the student's attention, because
nothing can be trivial which contributes to his
final success. If this book shall serve its in-
tended purpose, it will enable many a baffled
and desponding learner to discover the "secret"
of his failure, and will place his feet on the path

10 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

that leads to the coveted goal. It will seek to
set guide-posts along his course, so that he need
not go astray. It will point out prevalent mis-
takes and wrong habits. It will give direction
and advice for their avoidance or correction. It
will seek to anticipate and fully answer every
question thats an eager, ambitious learner might
wish to ask. In short, it will aim to teach him
how to attain — not without labor, but with no
wasted labor — the highest speed that his educa-
tion and natural faculties fit him to reach.

"Can I Ever Become a Speedy Writer?"

I am not charlatan enough to promise to every
reader of these pages a speed of 200 or 250
words a minute. In the shorthand profession,
as elsewhere, Pope's words are true:

"Some arc, and must bo, greater tban the rest." ^

But ever}' learner who will faithfully follow
the methods here pointed out, may expect a de-
cided increase of shorthand speed. To what
speed-altitudes the pursuit of these methods
may finally carry him depends partly upon his
dogged perseverance as a student, and partly
upon his natural adaptation for the stenographic
profession. In this, as well as in other branches
of study, the student's capacity can be deter-

INTRODUCTORY. il

minded only by a fair trial. Such a trial he should
be willing to give, in justice to himself and the
subject. And the period of this trial must not
be too short. The final measure of his success,
cannot be judged by the progress attained
during a few weeks or months. And even
though a particular student may not have that
natural adaptation which will qualify him to be-
come a "shining light" in the reporting profes-
sion, is it not worth his while to gain all attain-
able speed by learning to do in the right way
things he has been doing wrongly — by learning
to practice according to the best methods, in-
stead of the worst? Supposing he can write at
present but 80 words a minute, is it not worth
his while to attain 120, 140 or 160, even though
he may never reach 200, 225 or 250? Should he
not use reasonable effort to make out of himself
as a shorthand writer all that can be made? In
the fruits of this effort, he may find the satisfac-
tion of a reasonable ambition, as well as a de-
cided increase of his wage-earning capabilities.

"What Shorthand System Should I Learn?"

The most important prerequisite for becom-
ing a speedy writer is that the shorthand sys-
tem selected shall be capable of high speed.

12 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

While theorists and pretenders are flooding the
market with "new and easy" methods, many of
which are not fit for amanuensis work, much
less for reporting, the peril of a mischoice on
this point overhangs every learner. In rare cases
a man of extraordinary talents may do excellent
reporting by means of a poor shorthand sys-
tem; but this simply shows the power of genius
to do its work with tools intrinsically imperfect.
The ordinary stenographic student cannot af-
ford to apply himself to the study of an inferior
system, with the probability that his time and
labor will be saved.

It is highly important that the learner should
select a system which he may contentedly write
without change for the remainder of his life.
]\Iany shorthand students take up one system
after another, thus wasting precious time, and
necessarily failing to become rapid writers; for
rapid writing depends largely upon well-settled
habits. The learner should choose a system that
he can ' ' tie to. ' ' The safe rule is to select a sys-
tem which is written by a large number of prac-
tical reporters, and the text-books of which ema-
nate from practical men. In essaying a well-tried
system, expounded by men who have successful-

INTRODUCTORY. 13

ly used it, the learner can scarcely go astray.
He should be especially on his guard against
systems invented by mere theorists, who have
never demonstrated by their own practical work
the value of their inventions.*

In deciding the merits of rival systems, all ar-
guments founded on theoretical considerations
should be discarded. "By their fruits ye shall
know them." The touchstone to be applied to
a shorthand system is comprised in the ques-
tions, Has its author successfully reported with
it under difficult and exacting conditions ? Have
any considerable number of others ever used it
in the same way? It must never be forgotten
that the successful use of a shorthand system
by one man or a few men, does not prove its
adaptation to successful use by the generality of
students.*

And a wise aspirant to shorthand skill will
give no weight to the certificates, however nu-
merous, of persons who testify to the marvelous-
ly short periods of time within which, by the
practice of a particular system, they have quali-

*In all fairness it should be noted that the system written
by Mr. Brown was invented by Isaac Pitman, who was ad-
mittedly "a mere theorist." The "safe rule" and the "touch-
stone" recommended by Mr. Brown, if applied to the Pitman
system when it was published, would have excluded it from
consideration. — The PuMishers.

14 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

fied themselves for amanuensis work. A system
brief enough for taking ordinary office dictation
may be far too cumbrous for anything like rapid
reporting. I have met some unfortunate stenog-
raphers who, having entered upon the practice
of an amanuensis system in office work, have
found themselves afterward in this sad plight:
with an ambition to become reporters, they
must either regretfully renounce that ambition,
or they must for a considerable time give up
their daily source of income, while they labori-
ously forget an amanuensis system, and, begin-
ning shorthand afresh, learn a system adequate
for keeping pace with rapid public speaking. For
a person who hopes ever to become a reporter,
it is the poorest kind of economy to spend time
upon any amanuensis system, however glittering
its promises of speedily giving amanuensis skill.
Especially should the student beware of sys-
tems which are attractively offered as "new and
easy." Their pretended novelty is generally the
revamping of ideas that have been long ago tried
and discarded. Their "ease" arises from the
meagerness of their material and their insuffi-
ciency for the work of verbatim reporting. Any
shorthand system that promises to the pupil sue- ,
cess in a remarkably short time is prima facie
a fraud. No human being ever acquired with very
little labor the art of stenographic reporting.

PREPARATORY SHORTHAND
TRAINING.

A proper system having been selected, it is
all-important that the student should make no
mistake in his methods of study and practice. If
possible, he should seek the guidance of a thor-
oughly competent teacher, who will stimulate
and encourage him, and save him from erron-
eous habits or methods. The associations and
surroundings of a good school are vastly help-
ful.

But the would-be learner of shorthand should
be carefully on his guard against teachers who
promise to accomplish wonderful results in a
very short time. If unable to secure the services
of a competent, conscientious teacher, the stu-
dent should, if possible, induce some friend or
friends to pursue the study along with him. In
this way interest will be better maintained, and
improvement more rapidly made, than by soli-
tary application.

16 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.
The Foundation Must Be Well Laid.

A serious and often fatal mistake made by
the majority of learners is that, in their eager-
ness to reach the advanced portions of the sys-
tem— "to write as reporters write" — the rudi-
mentary principles are studied too hurriedly and
superficially. If the fundamental abbreviating
rules, in accordance with which a majority of the
words of the language are always to be written,
should be skimmed over in the ''hop, skip and
jump" fashion of too many learners, the result
cannot but be disappointing. By dwelling upon
these word-building principles until they become
instinctively familiar, the learner is not delay-
ing, but is hastening, his acquisition of reporting
speed. A person is a good or a bad stenographic
student, and ultimately a good or a bad reporter,
in proportion as he masters, or fails to master,
these fundamental abbreviating rules. There
may be many things in his text-book that he can
afford to "skip," but none of these foundation
principles must be slighted. The prime quali-
fication of a good stenographer is that, when
pressed for speed, he shall be able to write read-
ily, and with at least approximate correctness,
any ordinary English word, though it may be of

PREPARATORY SHORTHAND TRAINING. 17

difficult construction and he may never have
written it before. The ability to do this* arises
from a thorough familiarity with those princi-
ples to which the student is introduced during
the first few months of his study. Startling as
it may seem to some who think that the whole
or the principal strength of a shorthand system
lies in its ''advanced reporting expedients," I
affirm that when the student, by faithful elemen-
tary study, has acquired the power of promptly
writing new words according to principle, the
most laborious and the most valuable part of his
reporting equipment has been acquired. The
matters that remain to be learned — a certain
number of logograms, a certain number of dis-
tinctions between words by differences of out-
line or position, a certain amount of phrase
knowledge — these will require far less applica-
tion, and, so far as not acquired, ma}^ be more
safely dispensed with, than any part of the fun-
damental knowledge and ability which have
thus been mastered. It is this familiarity with
fundamental word-building principles that en-
ables the accomplished reporter to write new
and strange words without loss of time and
without getting ''rattled." These new and

18 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

strange words lie is constantly liable to meet till
the last day of his reporting life.

Some Things "Speed Practice" Cannot Do.

Let it be remembered that misnamed "speed
practice" has no magical power to fill gaps in
rudimentary study. Kules never mastered sin-
gly can never be applied promptly when called
for in combination. Nor can "speed practice"
give agility of hand so long as a hesitating and
half-recollecting mind cannot promptly supply
the hand with the material upon which agility
might be developed.

The student must be especially warned against
slighting or omitting those principles of the sys-
tem which, as he maj^ think, will be rarely called
for. If called for at all, however rarely, they
need to be as familiar as any other part of the
system. The failure to have them at one's fin-
gers' ends may at some critical moment cause a
mortifying "break-down."

Teachers and pupils too often content them-
selves ^^-ith a superficial study of the "vowels."
Misled by the fact that the "reporting style" is
largely an unvoealized style, that the vowels, be-
ing rarely needed by the reporter, will be at a

PREPARATORY SHORTHAND TRAINING. 19

certain stage of practice dropped in large degree
by the learner, teachers and pupils too often
assume that a slight or hesitating knowledge of
"vocalization" will suffice. There can scarcely
be a more lamentable and disastrous error. The
experience of every reporter in regard to "vo-
calization" is similar to that of the Texan in
regard to his revolver : " he does not often want
it, but when he wants it, he wants it bad."
Every reporter knows that, though he seldom
inserts vowels, he must be able to insert them
instantaneously when new and strange words
require them. The stenographer, however dili-
gent, has only half mastered his task, if he has
not mastered the art of instantaneous vowel-
placing.

Neat Writing an Imperative Need.

It hardly need be said that the student should
aim from the start to write neatly, and espe-
cially to observe the distinction between light
strokes and heavy. This distinction, which is
so great a help toward legibility, can be kept
up even in rapid writing, if the habit of ob-
serving it be established by careful practice in
the beginning. However hard it may be to re-
strain the premature eagerness of the pupil for

20 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

"speed," and however difficult to induce him to
execute his characters slowly enough to insure
their correct form, inclination and thickness,
this is a requirement which cannot be waived,
if, when he becomes a practicing stenographer,
he is to read his notes with facility and cer-
tainty.

"Make Haste Slowly," But Don't Dawdle.

Yet, while undue haste is to be discouraged,
especially the haste which induces superficial,
instead of thorough, study of the rudiments, it
is important that the student should not acquire
during his early practice a sluggish habit of
hand and mind. The maxim, "Make haste slow-
ly," so often pressed upon beginners in short-
hand, may be seriously misunderstood and mis-
applied. There being in the student's early ex-
ercises no pressure for speed, he feels that, with
abundant leisure, he may take his own time in
pondering and hesitating. Thus there may grow
up a dawdling habit of mind, unless even the
beginner is urged, not to a hasty, but a prompt
decision. So, too, being instructed to shape his
characters carefully and to "think nothing of
speed," the student too often acquires, if I may

PREPARATORY SHORTHAND TRAINING. 21

SO express it, a drawling style of execution.
Each stroke is traced or drawn with painful
slowness. Thus there may be too much of leis-
urely deliberation in thinking what is to be writ-
ten, and too finical or over-scrupulous care in
writing it. It is therefore in many cases advis-
able, or even necessary, to put a live coal on the
back of the tortoise — to remind even the beginner
that shorthand is an instrument for writing fast,
which implies mental and manual quickness.
The teacher, while seeking to make accurate
shorthand writers, must not allow learners to ac-
quire a dawdling habit of mind and hand — a de-
liberateness, stiffness and preciseness of style
entirely out of place in following a speaker.

Ofif-Hand Word-Writing.

As a means of averting sluggish habits of
mind and hand, and as a most important dis-
cipline in other respects, nothing can be more
beneficial to the student than to write off-hand
from dictation, words upon which he has had no
previous practice, but which can be correctly
written in accordance with the principles he is
learning or is supposed to have mastered. These
exercises cannot be too copious, if the words be

22 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

properly chosen. The student of course should
not be called upon to write any word whose
proper outline is constructed according to prin-
ciples yet to be acquired, or any word for which
a word-sign is subsequently provided. As the
learner proceeds with the study of the principles,
these dictation exercises should be adapted to
the successive stages of his progress. The words
dictated may call into play, not one principle
alone, but several principles already familiarized.
Sometimes a single word may illustrate two or
three abbreviating rules.

Reporting Habits Should Begin Early.

If all the common words which may be writ-
ten by the application of the given principle
be introduced under that principle as practice-
words, the student, besides mastering the prin-
ciple, acquires a prompt command of many com-
mon outlines, and thus gradually and with little
effort he accumulates a "reporting vocabulary."
^Moreover, this species of practice, early begun
and faithfully continued, cultivates the faculty
of prompt decision, and prepares the student
from the start for what he is finally to do — to
hear and write simultaneously. It nurtures, too,

PREPARATORY SHORTHAND TRAINING. 23

the spirit of self-reliance, pricelessly valuable
to the stenographer, who should be so educated
that when ^n uncommon word is to be written,
he may attack it fearlessly, not stopping to in-
quire hesitatingly and helplessly, "What out-
line does my text-book or my shorthand diction-
ary give?"

This dictation practice upon each principle in
its turn should be so thorough that any word
calling for the application of that principle,
may be written without a particle of hesitation,
though it may never have been written before.
Indeed, unhesitating promptitude of execution
within the domain of the principle undertaken
to be acquired, should from the start be the test
as to whether the principle has been mastered,
and whether the student is making healthy
progress.

Of course, in thus writing words off-hand from
dictation, the student must not allow himself to
be pushed into executing the shorthand charac-
ters badly. At this stage he is not to expect of
himself much manual facility. The object to
be sought is the prompt action of the mind, with
ready (not necessarily rapid) action of the hand
— the avoidance of that serious loss from which

24 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

beginners and even advanced students so com-
monly suffer — ^the painfully-prolonged gap be-
tween hearing and writing — the time-consuming
pause while the hand awaits the decision of the
mind.

This dictation practice should by no means
dispense with the more deliberate writing of
words from ordinary print, or the copying of
symmetrical shorthand in order to train eye and
hand to correctness of form. Words previously
written from dictation may be carefully writ-
ten without dictation pressure, in order that er-
rors committed in dictation practice may be
corrected, and that the student may not form
the habit of writing carelessly and illegibly.

It is desirable that the writing of discon-
nected words or any other single line of practice
should not be carried to such a point as to be-
come monotonous. Specially-constructed sen-
tence-exercises should be introduced as early as
practicable ; and the memorizing of useful word-
signs may proceed gradually from the start.

In these preliminary stages of his shorthand
education, the student should aim to acquire
those correct writing habits — the proper hold-
ing of the pen, the right position at the desk, etc.

PREPARATORY SHORTHAND TRAINING. 25

— upon which his ultimate speed as a writer may
largely depend.

Memorizing of Word-Signs, Etc.

\ It is highly important that, whatever the stu-
qent undertakes to memorize, should be memor-
ized thoroughly. From half-reeoUection comes
hesitation; and from hesitation comes loss of
speed. In order that everything undertaken in
the way of memorization may be thoroughly
done, the student should make it a rule not to
attempt to learn more than a little at a time, and
to learn that little well. Especially in the study
of the word-signs, most students undertake to
learn too many at once. It cannot be too often
repeated that in shorthand, whatever needs to
be memorized at all, needs to be so mastered
that it may come instantly to the mind and fin-
gers whenever wanted. If too many word-signs
are undertaken at one time, the memory is "con-
fused, and the student's progress retarded.y

As the best method of learning the word-signs,
Mr. Bernard De Bear, the well-known English
reporter and teacher, has suggested the follow-
ing:

**Take a double sheet of foolscap and fold it

26 THE FACTORS OF SBORTHAND SPEED.

over into folds which will give about twelve divi-
sions in all Copy from the text-book neatly and
carefully the signs you are about to learn, one
on each line. Having thus filled the first col-
umn, close the book, and endeavor at once from
memory to transcribe into longhand in column
two. The words having only just been copied,
this should prove no difficult task; but any
blanks should be filled in from the key and un-
derlined, to denote that the signs were not re-
membered. This done, fold under column one,
so as to leave only the longhand words in col-
umn two visible, and transcribe those into short-
hand in column three, so nearly as the memory
will allow Gaps can now be filled in from col-
umn one, which, however, should not be resorted
to until the attempt has been made to work
through the entire list. Then retranseribe the
shorthand lines on column four. And so on to
the end — shorthand into longhand, and vice
versa It may be guaranteed that by the time
the twelve columns have all been filled in the
manner indicated, that particular set of words
or phrases will have been almost thoroughly
mastered I have tried this plan with the dull-
est of pupils, with those whose memories seemed

PREPARATORY SHORTHAND TRAINING. 27

to be an altogether unknown quantity, and I have
rarely known it to fail. I have since used it in
other than phonographic studies, and always
with equal success."

In learning abbreviating principles, word-
signs, or any other portions of the shorthand
"system," the learner must not overlook the im-
portance of constant review. However well, as
he may think, his previous tasks have been mas-
tered, the need of unremitting review is impera-
tive. It is too often assumed blindly that what
was known last week or last month must as a
matter of course be well known to-day.

Repeated Copying of Correct Shorthand.

When the principles of the system and a rea-
sonable number of word-signs have been learned,
an important step in preparing for "speed prac-
tice" is to copy over and over again matter care-
fully written or printed for the student's use in
the "reporting style," and when a page or two
have become fully familiarized, to write the
matter from dictation in exact conformity to
the original and with as much rapidity as may
be possible without writing illegibly. In thus
copying from the shorthand original — ^not from

28 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

ordinary print or from the student's own notes —
the eye, the hand, and the memory are simul-
taneously trained. The learner unconsciously
imitates the symmetrical characters from which
he copies. He also stores his memory with the
best outlines for those common words and
phrases which are to form a large proportion of
his future writing. Thus he is in great measure
relieved from tedious study of text-book lists of
word-signs, phrases, and words of peculiar out-
lines. By writing from dictation at steadily-in-
creasing speed the matter thus memorized, he
acquires also a constantly-growing facility of
hand, which cannot be cultivated by the slow
methods of manipulation ordinarily indulged
before "speed practice" begins.

"SPEED PRACTICE."

Speed, or at least the semblance of speed, may
be purchased at too high a price. The student
entering upon "speed practice " should determine
that he will not sacrifice in the pursuit of speed
other desirable things, without which mere speed
will be of little value. As has been well said by
an accomplished phonographer and most instruc-
tive writer (the late Fred Pitman), **It is a
misfortune to a phonographic writer when speed
is attained apart from other excellencies. Its
acquisition ought to progress simultaneously
with the development of other powers. A whole
phalanx of excellencies should advance together.
Accuracy of form; a good, smooth method of
writing ; facility in reading notes ; the ability to
transcribe notes neatly, quickly and with scrup-
ulous fidelity ; the capacity, when pressed beyond
one's pace, to catch the sense and record it, at
the possible risk of losing a few words, or possi-
bly some fine phrases — these and many other at-
tainments ought to advance abreast."

30 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.
When Should "Speed Practice" Begin?

A most serious mistake is very commonly
made in entering upon ' ' speed practice ' ' prema-
turely. Very often the student who says, "Oh,
I understand the principles of the system, and
all I want now is speed practice," is in such an
ill-tutored condition that "speed practice" can
do him no good and may do him much harm.

In warning the student against premature
"speed practice," I do not include in my warn-
ing every kind of writing from dictation. To
write from dictation copious lists of separate
words (suitably selected) as a means of master-
ing the rules which they illustrate, has already
been strongly recommended as an exercise which
should commence almost with the student's first
lesson, and should be ceaselessly continued until
each abbreviating principle can be unhesitating-
ly applied in every appropriate case. To write
rapidly from dictation, sentence-matter in "the
reporting style," which has been thoroughly
memorized by repeated copying from correct
models, has also been strongly recommended.
Both these methods of practice are highly im-
portant as a preparation for "speed practice,"
which term, for the sake of convenience and

"SPEED PRACTICE." 31

clearness, I confine to dictation practice upon
letters, speeches or other sentence-matter, abso-
lutely new and untried.

In order that "speed practice," thus denned,
may be beneficial, the student should in the first
place understand so well, not in theory alone,
but in practice, the abbreviating principles of
the system, that he can write in some legible
way (not necessarily the very best way), and
with but slight, if any, hesitation, any word of
only ordinary difficulty, though he may never
have written it before. If he cannot do this, the
rudimentary principles of the system have not
been in the proper sense of the term mastered,
and the student, instead of indulging the delu-
sion that all he needs is "speed practice," should
at once turn back to those abbreviating princi-
ples which he has evidently gone over too slight-
ingly (the principles included in what is com-
monly called "the corresponding style" of short-
hand), and should not leave them till he has
them, not simply in his head, but literally at his
fingers' ends. Irksome as this discipline may be,
it is absolutely essential to the making of a rapid
writer.

In the second place, before beginning "speed

32 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

practice," the student should be able to write
all the frequently-recurring words of the lan-
guage (including all the common word-signs),
with their best outlines, and absolutely without
hesitation. This prompt knowledge of ordinary
outlines (complete or contracted) should have
been acquired, not mainly, if at all, by the tedi-
ous study of repelling word-lists, but by the re-
currence of these common and necessary word-
forms in the well-seleoted ' ' reporting style ' ' mat-
ter which we suppose the student (before enter-
ing upon ''speed practice") to have memorized
by repeated copying, and to have written over
and over from dictation.

Before entering on "speed practice," the stu-
dent should also be able to write with no less
promptness all those every-day phrases which
no reporter fails to use (whatever his abstract
views on the question of phrasing) — such phrases
as "you are," "it is." "I am," "it may be,"
etc. These common phrase-forms the learner
should have acquired from the copying and dic-
tation practice just mentioned, not by the study
of vastly-extended phrase-lists or by the ex-
ercise of liis own inventive powers operating
under the guidance of fine-drawn and over-
elaborated phrasing rules.

"SPEED PRACTICE." 33

The student's preparation ought to be such as
to enable him to begin "speed practice" with a
speed of at least sixty or seventy words a min-
ute. Usually, if he undertakes ' * speed practice ' '
at a lower rate than this (as, for instance, as is
very commonly done, at thirty or forty words a
minute), he is attempting to learn from "speed
practice" things that he should have learned be-
fore entering upon such practice — things that
can be far better learned in other ways, and that
indeed mere "speed practice" can never teach.
If there are those who doubt the possibility of
acquiring a speed of sixty or seventy words a
minute without dictation practice, let them turn
to the "Phonographic Magazine" for March 1,
1896, where they will find Mr. A. J. Weeks testi-
fying: "I took my first position without ever
having had a word dictated to me save when I
applied for the position, having gained my speed
by copying and recopying [the shorthand] from
the "Phonographic Magazine."

Repetition Practice Must Not Be Given Up.

Even after dictation upon new matter has be-
gun (and of course much practice upon new
matter is needed by the student, for it is new
matter which he will be required to take fear-

34 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

lessly when he enters upon actual work — not
matter previously memorized or on which he
has been previously "coached"), repetition prac-
tice upon memorized matter should be persist-
ently continued. The benefits of such practice,
in training the eye and the hand of the learner
to correctness of form, in giving him large con-
tributions to his "reporting vocabulary," and es-
pecially in cultivating that facile movement of
the fingers, hand and arm, without which the
highest speed can never be attained, have al-
ready been pointed out. In writing from dicta-
tion matter already memorized, he can "get up
speed," as he cannot upon matter written for
the first time ; for so long as there is constant
and anxious thought as to word-forms, phrase-
forms, etc., the hand lags and lingers at a pace
far slower than it is capable of attaining. Agil-
ity of hand can only be attained when the mind
by prompt conceptions urges the hand to do its
best. Moreover (and this is a most important
consideration), when the writer is able to with-
draw a large part of his attention from the mat-
ter written, he can watch his own writing hab-
its, and can thus observe and correct his faults
of manipulation, which otherwise must escape
his attention.

"SPEED PRACTICE." 35

**The Fingers Move Mechanically to the Sound."

One of the older stenographic authors, Sam-
uel Nelson — who published his "Parliamentary
and Forensic Shorthand Writer" in 1836, just
one year before Isaac Pitman issued the first
edition of Phonography under the title "Sound-
Hand" — has aptly remarked that, in acquiring
shorthand, "the fingers are learning a new lan-
guage"; and for this reason, he says, the stu-
dent should "never omit repeating or rewriting
what has been previously written, until the fin-
gers move mechanically to the sound." This
language most happily expresses the goal for
which the young shorthand writer is to strive.
Until his "fingers move mechanically to the
sound, ' ' he must inevitably write laboriously and
slowly.

That prolific and acute shorthand author, the
late Andrew J. Graham, has recommended in
one of his early works that the student commit
some exercise to memory and write it speedily
hundreds of times. "This practice," he says,
"will give ease and celerity of movement to the
hand."

"Teach the Hand How to Move Along."

Another most accomplished stenographer and
shorthand author, already referred to — Mr. Fred

36 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

Pitman — in emphasizing the same idea, has gone
so far as to say, "The speed realized in writing
one sentence at a tolerably rapid pace will grad-
ually influence the pace of all that the student
writes ; the speed thus gained gives the mind the
right idea, and teaches the hand how to move
along." The fact that dictation practice upon
matter previously memorized ''teaches the hand
how to move along" is one of the strongest rea-
sons for urging it upon the aspirant for speed.

Expressing in still another form the same
thought — the value of indefinite repetition as
applied to dictation practice — that eminent Con-
gressional reporter, Mr. Fred Irland, has re-
marked: "There is forever the plain, straight
road which will lead to success: write and re-
write a correctly-expressed exercise, say, one
thousand words (like the testimony of a witness
or an extract from a political speech), until the
patient friend who reads it is a fit candidate for
the lunatic asylum. Repeat it five hundred
times, if need be ; and the general speed will be
found to increase." Mr. Irland further says:
"We write too many different exercises at first.
Gtet the hand in the way of writing some exercise

"SPEED PRACTICE." 37

in shorihand as readily as longhand is written;
then try something else; and soon one will find
that he has become familiar with all the com-
mon words of English speech, and that he can
write them with no more effort than is required
in the lifting of the pen."

A Distinguished Congressman Testifies.

Similar testimony is jgiven by Hon. R. R. Hitt,
now a distinguished Member of Congress, but
in earlier life eminent as a reporter, having re-
ported before the late war the famous debate
between Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lin-
coln. After telling how he acquired his first
knowledge of Pitman's Phonography, how it
helped him at college, and how it secured him a
very attractive offer of employment from a New
Orleans newspaper, Mr. Hitt says: "Having
leisure at the time, I at once gave systematic at-
tention to practice, aiming chiefly to attain ac-
curacy and the perfection of every character;
writing from dictation an hour at a time without
any pause or hurry; repeating the same dicta-
tion until every character was familiarized by a
hundred repetitions — leaving speed to come when
it would." „

4r2?00

38 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

Many a zealous shorthand student would much
earlier become a rapid writer, if he were content
w^hile pursuing right methods, to "leave speed
to come when it would. ' ' Wherever remarkable
shorthand speed has been attained, it will gen-
erally be found to be due to some such practice
as Mr. Hitt and Mr. Irland have so well de-
scribed.

How a High-Speed Certificate Was Won.

Take, for instance, the case of Mr. George W.
Bunbury, of England, the young man who holds
the Isaac Pitman certificate for a speed of 250
words a minute.* Having first secured a certifi-
cate for 230 words a minute, ]Mr. Bunbury as-
pired to still higher speed; and he tells us how
he attained it. Here is his language: "When I
had won the 230 words certificate, I set about
practicing again, my object being to obtain a 250
words certificate. From the end of April to the

♦Since this was writton It lias been shown that the Isaac
Pitman "Speed Certificates" ret'i^rred to by Mr. Brown are
utterly wortliless. The Scottish Phonographic Association,
which was described by the late Sir Isaac Pitman as "first
in the Kingdom for the vigorous propagation of Phono-
graphy," issued a report explaining why it had discontinued
holding examinations for the "Speed Certificates." An in-
vestigation by a committee appointed by the association had
shown that the certificatrs were granted by Isaac Pitman
& Sons even when candid.s1es had failed to pass the test.
Nevertheless these alleged higli speed records based on the
"Speed Certificates" granted by Isaac Pitman & Sons are
being used for advertising jnirposes. — The Publishers.

"SPEED PRACTICE." 39

end of August, I practiced steadily without re-
gard to speed, in order to form the characters
regularly. The matter I had then dictated to
me consisted of the 'Strand Magazine,' books of
adventure, etc. At the beginning of September
I began working for the 250 certificate ; and the
method I employed, with successful results, was
as follows: Having taken a leading article or
speech from a paper or book, I counted out ten
minutes or perhaps more at the rate required ; I
then had it read to me in the time, after which
I proceeded to transcribe or read what I had
written, circling each outline or phrase which I
had formed badly or which looked shakj'-. These
outlines and phrases I carefully noted in a small
book which I carried about with me for that
purpose ; and, when an opportunity presented it-
self, I wrote and re-wrote them until I acquired
the greatest possiible facility in forming them.
The next night I was able to take the same piece
with much greater ease, and to make my notes
much better. The following night I increased
the speed slightly, bearing in mind, of course,
the advice not to sacrifice legibility for speed. I
had the same piece dictated night after night
for a week, and sometimes two weeks, if the

40 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

matter was of more than average diflSculty; for
I am confident there is nothing like repetition
for increasing speed. With regard to reading
my notes, I have always made it a rule to read
everything I write, and have adopted the follow-
ing plan : When a fresh piece was dictated to
me at a certain speed, I read it through first,
and I read it over again each time the speed was
increased. I continued practicing, never miss-
ing a night (except Sundays), and sat for exam-
ination on the 8th of December, 1893, but failed,
having more than the maximum percentage of
errors in my transcript. This failure did not
discourage me in the least ; in fact, it gave me
more energy and a stronger determination to ac-
complish my object. I still kept practicing as
hard as I could, and on the 30th of December
again presented myself for examination. This
time, however, the passage selected for the test
was read at the rate of 260 words per minute,
owing to a hitch in the timing, and therefore I
did not attempt to transcribe my notes. This
might be considered another failure, but still I
was undaunted. I once more set to work, but
not so hard, as I found I was losing my retentive
powers from over-practice and brain exertion. I

"SPEED PRACTICE." 41

again sat for examination on the 10th of Janu-
ary, and was then successful."

Selection of Dictation Matter.

In selecting matter for dictation practice
(which, as already implied, should alternate be-
tween old matter and new), the first aim of the
student should be to familiarize himself with
the commonplace words and phrases which con-
stitute the stock of every-day converse. Later
the dictation should cover a variety of subjects.
Narrow dictation practice — that practice which
confines itself constantly to the same class of
matter — is to be especially avoided. Nothing
but practice upon a variety of topics will give
the student that invigorating training which he
needs as preparation for actual work. Nor
should the student forget to give preference al-
ways to matter which, while affording good short-
hand practice, will increase his stock of useful,
up-to-date information. For instance, a freshly-
delivered Congressional speech on currency, or
bankruptcy, or the Pacific Railroad system, gives
better practice (other things being equal) than a
musty Parliamentary oration on "the Nabob of
Arcot's debts," or "the abolition of the benefit
of clergy."

42 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

How Fast Should the Dictation Be?

It scarcely need be said that the dictation
should be carefully accommodated to the skill
of the writer, growing more and more rapid as
his mental and manual facility increases. Mr.
Graham has aptly described the proper dictation
speed when he says that *'it should be such as
to require considerable effort to keep up, but not
so fast as to require illegible or incorrect writ-
ing or to induce a confused and hesitating move-
ment of the hand."

"Keep On."

In writing from dictation, it should be an in-
variable rule never to allow one's self to pause
when a difficult or doubtful word or phrase is
encountered. It should be understood that
whenever the rate of dictation (whatever it may
be) has been settled, the reader shall mercilessly
proceed at that rate, and shall be no more indul-
gent of the writer's occasional slowness than an
actual speaker would be. Nothing can more
surely lead to "a sluggnsh mental process" or
more surely delay the acquisition of speed, than
for the writer to indulge the habit of pausing and
pondering upon every uncommon word, or what

"SPEED PRACTICE." 43

is still worse, suspending the dictation in order
that his doubts as to an outline may be settled
by reference to a dictionary or a text-book.
"Keep on" should be the inflexible rule for
writer and reader. If the preparatory disci-
pline recommended in previous pages has been
followed, the writer should be able to get down
the difficult words somehow, without "making a
break ' ' ; and if not, better a hundred times that
there should be an absolute hiatus in his notes
than that he should be humored by allowing him
to pause and ponder — a habit which, if indulged,
must disappoint the hope of ever becoming a
rapid writer. How the difficulties connected
with the off-hand writing of hard words may be
mastered will be fully treated of in a subsequent
chapter. Suffice it to say here that pausing and
pondering upon hard words, while the dictation
is accommodatingly retarded or suspended, will
never teach one how to write such words when
the speaking goes right on.

The Word=Carrying Faculty.

Unless the regular rate of dictation is some-
what retarded (as it should not be) when a hard
word is encountered, the young writer, while

44 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

"tackling" the difficulty, will necessarily fall
somewhat behind, as even the accomplished re-
porter will often do in a similar situation. It is
desirable, then, that "speed practice" should
train the young stenographer to write, when
necessary, a number of words behind the speaker.
A prominent business educator (Mr. S. S.
Packard) has said: "There is one practice
which we enforce in the study of shorthand that
would be valuable to anybody; and that is the
fixing of long sentences in the mind, so as to re-
call them automatically. A reporter who can do
this has almost any speaker at his command;
for while the speaker stops for breath or to col-
lect his thoughts for a new start, the pen of the
ready writer, through the aid of a trained mem-
ory, is bringing up the rear,"

For the purpose of cultivating in the young
stenographer the faculty of carrying a number
of words in his mind while engaged in the act
of writing, a portion of each day's dictation
should be given in clauses of at least twelve or
fifteen words at a time. As the writer's mem-
ory gains in word-holding power, the length of
the clauses may and should reach twenty or
twenty-five words, without causing confusion of

"SPEED PRACTICE. 45

mind or hand. Each separate clause should be
read without any pause; but after each clause
there should be a sufficient pause to allow the
writer to "catch up," or what is better, almost
"catch up." An ordinary reader, in accommo-
dating himself to a slow writer, usually punctu-
ates the reading thus :

"In the few minutes that remain before this
fore this bill is voted upon [pause] I wish to
make [pause] as briefly and concisely as I can
[pause] an explanation of its principal provi-
sions [pause] in order to satisfy the House
[pause] that it should be passed [pause] in its
present form [pause] without any modification
or amendment. ' '

Clauses as short as these are too short even
for a writer just beginning dictation practice.
They do not call for any vigorous action of what
may be called the word-carrying faculty. This
faculty would be much better cultivated by al-
lowing eVen to the inexperienced note-taker more
sparsely distributed pauses, as indicated in the
following :

"In the few minutes that remain before this
bill is voted upon [pause] I wish to make as
briefly and concisely as I can [pause] an explana-

46 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

tion of its principal provisions in order to satisfy
the House [pause] that it should be passed in its
present form, without any modification or amend-
ment. ' '

The writer who will steadily practice, day af-
ter day and week after week, from the sort of
dictation here recommended, the clauses gradu-
ally lengthening till they reach twenty or twen-
ty-five words each, will soon be surprised at the
growth of his word-carrying capacity, and will
ultimately acquire the priceless art of writing
composedly, without hurry or flurry (and there-
fore making uniformly well-written notes), al-
though the speaker may indulge in speedy
"spurts" and "jerks" most vexatious to the
writer not thus trained.

Who Are the Best Dictators?

In order to receive the full benefit of this ex-
ercise, it is highly desirable that the dictation
be done by a shorthand writer, who, watching
the writer's pen, can after each pause, resume
dictation before the clause just dictated has been
entirely written. In other words, while there
must be pauses in the reading (and in the be-
ginning of the practice, long pauses, varying

"SPEED PRACTICE." 47

with the ability of the writer), it is highly de-
sirable that the writing shall proceed without
pause ; that the pen shall never come to a stand-
still ; that the writer shall never ' ' catch up ' ' with
the reader, but be constantly on a chase after
him.

When, as often happens in speed classes, a
number of stenographers whose rates of speed
vary are following the same reader, who gener-
ally accommodates the rate of dictation to the
slowest of the class, the more rapid writers are
of course missing one of the main advantages
which ' ' speed practice ' ' should furnish — 'the con-
stant pressure upon the writer to do his best.
The greatest improvement from dictation prac-
tice is obtained when the writer constitutes ''a
class of one," and the reading is accommodated
to him alone. To enjoy the advantages of such
dictation, no better plan can be adopted than
for two stenographers to seek mutual improve-
ment by reading to each other. As intimated in
a previous paragraph, a reader who is himself a
stenographer, able by watching the writer to
tell how far the writing is behind the reading,
can be far more useful than a reader ignorant
of shorthand, who usually pauses between the

48 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

clauses until he sees the writer's pen stop. This
constant pausing of the pen is what should be
especially avoided. A writer is getting the best
training for speed when the reader never, or very
rarely, allows him to "catch up." In this way
the reader, as it were, pulls the writer along.
No chance is given for lagging or loitering.

MORE ABOUT -SPEED
PRACTICE."

Fatigue as a Schoolmaster.
There seems to be particular benefit to the
young stenographer from writing up to and past
the point of muscular fatigue. Shorthand writ-
ing long continued at a single sitting, with no
let-up when the writer has become thoroughly
weary, appears to limber the writing machinery
as nothing else ^\^ill. There are reasons why
this should be so. Whatever people undertake
to do involving muscular exertion — walking,
swimming, bicycle riding, etc. — is at first per-
formed with an excess of effort. In this excess
of effort, there is needless expenditure of mind
and muscle. The surplus beyond what the act
requires is wasted. Where rapidity is an object,
this waste of effort and strength holds us back.
Almost every shorthand writer in his early prac-
tice throws into his work too much muscular
effort — much more than the act of writing re-
quires. He works under intense mental strain,
with eager determination to keep up if he can;
49

50 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

and this mental strain engenders by sympathy a
muscular strain. This can be seen in the set
expression of the face, and the tightness with
which pen or pencil is grasped. From this over-
straining, this surplus of effort, there comes
generally such a stiffening of the muscles
as forbids the best work. For surplus of
effort, the writer needs to substitute economy
of effort; and for muscular tension, muscular
relaxation.

Fatigue is a grand school to teach a person
to do anything in the easiest way. Mind or
body, when required to continue effort past the
fatigue point, works along the lines of least re-
sistance. The easy, swinging gait with which
the veteran soldier accomplishes long marches
at the cost of but little weariness, contrasts
strikiugly with the stiff, self-conscious move-
ment of the holiday soldier, who has not learned
in the school of fatigue to economize muscular
effort. The young stenographer must learn from
tiresome practice to get the maximum of re-
sult from the minimum of effort. This idea has
l)een compressed by Mr. Irland into a single sen-
tence: "Write from dictation until your arms
are ready to fall off — until your friends (whom

MORE ABOUT "SPEED PRACTICE." 51

you have conscripted as your readers) fly at the
sight of you." I think it will be found a rule
without exception that extreme speed has never
been attained by any one until he has passed
through spells of note-taking continuing hour
after hour and day after day — continuing when
excessive weariness would have made him de-
lighted to stop. The writer who is thus com-
pelled to "keep his nose" to the reporting
"grindstone," the grindstone turning vigorously
all the time, is the writer who learns to write
easily, who gains enviable speed, and who finally
almost defies fatigue.

Weary Work Wins.

If a young writer has really reached a point
(which so many falsely imagine themselves to
have reached) where "all he needs is speed prac-
tice," then, if he wishes to see his "speed prac-
tice" bear fruit promptly and profusely, let him
every day or night for a single week, write from
dictation for one hour, absolutely without a mo-
ment's pause or let-up, the reader holding him
constantly at the top of his speed. During the
next week let him continue the same discipline

52 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

for an hour and a half daily. The following week
let each day's dictation last for two hours.
During each day's period of discipline, let there
be absolutely no pause, no ** breathing spell" of
any kind. Though the writer may feel at times,
in the language of Mr. Irland, as if his arm
were ready to drop off, let him keep right on. If,
because of extreme weariness, he stops to rest
before his task is done, he loses the crowning
benefit of this highly invigorating discipline. If
he has the resolution to submit to this severe
regimen, he will at the end of the third week
(possibly much earlier) feel a gratifying con-
sciousness of increased speed and will write with
far greater ease than ever before. The stooping
posture which caused his back to ache so much,
the vise-like grip of pen or pencil which so
severely wearied the muscles of hand and arm —
these and other bad habits which helped to
fatigue him. while at the same time hindering
him from keeping up, will have been partially
or wholly abandoned. The whole writing ma-
chinery, mental and physical, will have been lim-
bered and relaxed, and thereby fitted to move
smoothly and rapidly.

The shorthand student, if qualified by sound

MORE ABOUT "SPEED PRACTICE." 53

stenographic training to enter upon such prac-
tice, may reasonably expect in even so short a
time as three weeks, a gain of twenty to thirty
words a minute. No more helpful injunction
can be given to the young stenographer than
this : If time allows, keep up each spell of dicta-
tion practice till you are thoroughly weary. The
longer you practice at one time, and the wearier
you are when you stop, the sooner and the more
surely will you become a rapid writer. The
stenographer who never writes from dictation
for more than ten or fifteen minutes at a stretch
deludes himself if he fancies that such easy-
going discipline is really worthy the name of
"speed practice." [

A veteran reporter once told me that he never
knew a stenographer to amount to anything till
he had passed through "a demnition grind."
The persistent practice of shorthand under dicta-
tion pressure, up to and past the fatigue point, is
the "demnition grind" which more than any
other one thing constitutes, in my judgment, the
solution of the "speed" problem. If any young
stenographer who flatters himself that he is " am-
bitious to become a reporter," regards such se-
vere discipline as involving "too much hard

54 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

work," then he must content himself without
the high speed which nothing but hard work can
give him.

Practice Must Be Regular.

There ought not to be occasion to say that
practice, to be in the highest degree improving,
must be ceaselessly continued from day to day —
a regular quantity of practice at a regular time.
Some students who fancy they are "practicing
shorthand," give to the study, for example, half
an hour one day, and fifteen minutes the next.
Then comes an interval of two or three days
with no practice at all; then a day when, to
"make up for lost time," practice may occupy
perhaps forty-five minutes or possibly an hour;
then utter suspension of practice for perhaps a
week or more. Such irregular or intermittent
practice is of little or no value for the cultiva-
tion of speed. Where shorthand practice is
merely a "side issue" — where simply odds and
ends of time are devoted to it — ^little advance-
ment can be expected.

How Much Daily Practice?

Three or four hours daily, in some eases five
or six, are not too much for the various branches

MORE ABOUT "SPEED PRACTICE." 55

of shorthand practice, if the zealous student is
fortunate enough to command that much time.
Where a large Amount of time can be daily
given to the acquirement of shorthand skill,
the different branches of study and practice
may be diversified in accordance substantially
with the following schedule:

1. Careful copjnng from correct shorthand for
the purpose of acquiring or preserving a sym-
metrical and legible style (which constant writ-
ing under * * speed pressure ' ' tends to impair and
destroy), and for the purpose of accumulating
gradually ' ' a reporting vocabulary. ' ' This copy-
ing may embrace separate words properly se-
lected (including word-signs, contracted forms,
etc.), sentence-matter, or phrases.

2. The writing of this memorized matter from
dictation as rapidly as it can be done correctly.

3. The writing of new matter from dictation,
it being borne in mind that the reader should not
pause to enable the writer to construct or recall
the outline of some difficult word. A portion of
this dictation should be directed to cultivating
in the manner already described the word-carry-
ing faculty.

4. The reading back of considerable portions

56 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

of all dictated matter, it being remembered that
this reading back should always include some
matter written on a previous day.

5. Writing off-hand from dictation new and
difficult words, with the least possible hesita-
tion, so that the student may learn not to be
staggered when called on to write a word which
he has never written before.

The Office Stenographer's Peril.

Some writers expect an increase of speed
because they are daily using shorthand in tak-
ing office dictation. Experience shows that such
practice offers but little improvement; and
often, where the conditions of office dictation
are easy and unexacting, the writer almost un-
consciously becomes, as time goes by, less and
less speedy, and less and less fitted for any-
thing except his daily routine. In the first place,
the office stenographer writes too little short-
hand. All told, he has perhaps an hour or an
hour and a half of daily practice — too little for
rapid improvement — -too little to satisfy any am-
bitious writer. Besides, the dictation is in many
cases so slow as to induce loss of speed,
instead of gain. And the dictation, what-

MORE ABOUT "SPEED PRACTICE." 57

ever its rate, does not grow more rapid from
week to week and from month to month, as
genuine "speed practice" may and must. Then
the topics of office dictation are of limited range,
covering the routine of a single business. More
than that, the writer who takes daily the dicta-
tion of but one man or a few men, gets no such
practice as the would-be reporter requires in fol-
lowing a variety of voices and a variety of ver-
bal styles.

A. Washington correspondent of the New York
Mail and Express tells a story which emphasizes
the office stenographer's peril — the peril of los-
ing gradually and almost perceptibly in au of-
fice position the shorthand skill with which he
entered it: "I know a young man up in the
Treasury Department who, until a few months
since, held a $1,800 position. "When he first
entered the Department he was one of the best
stenographers in the country. As ill-luck would
have it, he was assigned to the private secretary-
ship of one of the chiefs of the Department. This
gentleman was a slow thinker and talker. For
several years those two worked in harmony, and
thoroughly understood each other. But uncon-
sciously, the stenographer drifted backward.

58 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

Not long ago the chief was 'fired' on short notice.
The man that took his place came out of the
West, and was full of nervous energy. He
started in with a rush on his dictation, and, in
the language of the profession, 'put it up the
back' of his stenographer, though the speed was
such as the young man would have smiled at
when he entered the Department. The chief
fumed and fretted at the stenographer's breaks
and mistakes; and in one week's time the latter
was relegated to a $1,000 position."

"The only trouble," the writer continues,
"with the force in the Department is that in a
great many oases their work is so light that they
almost unconsciously slip backward. Then comes
a time when their ability is tested, and their
weakness brought out. There are hundreds in
this class, and the danger of slack work has
become a menace to the profession."

Practice From Actual Speaking.

Dictation is at best a mimicry of public speak-
ing, and, because it is but mimicry, must always
lack some of the essential qualities of what it
imitates. The mere writing ef dictated matter,

MORE ABOUT "SPEED PRACTICE." 59

however judiciously managed the dictation may
be, can never fully prepare any one for the
every-day work of the reporter. The art of
reporting public speeches can only be effectually
learned from reporting public speeches. The
young stenographer, when dictation practice
with its measured monotone has reached a
certain point, must accustom himself to follow
the cadence of natural speech, with its rises
and falls, its rushes and pauses. He must ac-
custom himself to follow a variety of voices,
different in their tones and articulations. He
must accustom himself especially to that sort of
utterance which does not humor his shortcom-
ings as a writer. So, when the proper time
comes, the would-be reporter must lose no oppor-
tunity to take notes from the lips of actual speak-
ers. Sermons, lectures, court proceedings, busi-
ness meetings, etc., are the material upon which
he is to try his "prentice hand," and which
are to give him practical training for his chosen
profession.

When Should Speech Practice Begin?

When should this practice begm? As soon
as the rate of a very slow speaker — say, ninety
or one hundred words a minute — 'has been at-

60 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

tained. There are many ministers of the Gospel,
and even some lawyers and rostrum orators,
who do not exceed this rate of utterance.
Equipped with a bona fide speed of 90 or 100
words a minute, the young practitioner will find
no difficulty in discovering speakers who will
not overtax his powers. Let him miss no oppor-
tunity to take down these slow speakers. As the
task becomes easy, let him select for practice
some speaker or speakers of greater speed, but
not too fast for him ; for it should be borne in
mind that the best practice for the increase of
speed is that which keeps the writer constantly
straining to keep up, but never (except in occa-
sional "spurts of speed") leaves him discourag-
ingly in the lurch. As he proceeds with his prac-
tice, he vnll find that very often he can success-
fully take the whole of a sermon or address, ex-
cept possibly a few passages (perhaps only the
peroration), in which the orator, warming with
his subject, goes beyond his average pace. These
losses of occasional passages must not make the
young writer despond. Nor must he, as soon as
the speaker becomes too fast for him, drop his
pencil or close his note-book. When the more
rapid passages come, let him keep cool, and re-

MORE ABOUT "SPEED PRACTICE." 61

cord as many of the words as he can, in legible
characters and in the form of complete sen-
tences, even though these complete sentences
as recorded may lack some clauses of minor
importance.

In both the earlier and the later stages of the
young writer's training, he should, if possible,
practice upon different speakers, rather than
exclusively upon any one man. Practice in a
court room is excellent when one has attained
something near the average speed of legal pro-
ceedings. But, unfortunately, court rooms do
not generally furnish hospitable accommodations
for the amateur practitioner. Reporting a course
of law lectures will afford excellent practice.
Even if one 's primary aim is to be " only a sten-
ographer," not a lawyer, the fee demanded for
attendance on such a course will be far more
than repaid by the opportunities for shorthand
practice and by the legal knowledge incidental-
ly acquired, which must prove highly useful
to the young reporter, whose business will of
course call him frequently into the courts.

Avoid Speakers Who Are Much Too Fast.

The young writer should be especially warned

62 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

against practicing habitually upon speakers
whose regular rate is much too fast for him.
If, when such a speaker is encountered, the
young practitioner can remain cool, and keep his
wits about him — a hard thing for a novice to do
when the speaker in the course of every sentence
completely outstrips him — he may succeed in
condensing the rapidly-uttered passages as they
proceed, and thus making a readable and con-
nected, though not a complete, report. Such
a method of "reporting" may be invigorating
as a mental exercise; it may indeed have its
value as practical training for much of the
work that a newspaper reporter is often called
upon to perform. But it must not be forgotten
that this species of note-taking cannot count for
much as "speed practice," because no person
can carry on the dual operation of simultaneous
condensation and no'te-taking without falling
considerably behind the speed he might attain
if his sole attention were concentrated on his
shorthand.

Besides, if a young writer shows great self-
possession when the speaking is too fast for
him, it is sometimes a dangerous sign. If,
with speed as yet undeveloped, he can coolly

MORE ABOUT "SPEED PRACTICE." 63

and with passable success substitute verbal con-
densation for verbatim note-taking, there is dan-
ger that he may learn to content himself with
taking down less than is actually said. If he
yields (as there is peril he may do), to the
tempting and too flattering delusion that so
many words as he can get down a,re the really
important parts of the speech, and the clauses
which he is compelled to omit are non-essential —
if he accustoms himself to 'think that something
less than the words actually uttered may really
pass acceptably for a "verbatim report," he
may commit the sad error of prematurely per-
suading himself that he is "a reporter." If he
should ever enter the reporting profession with
any such delusive idea, woe to his standing as a
* * reporter, ' ' and woe to the speakers who may be
committed to his audacious but unskillful hands.

Fred Pitman's Sad Experience.

But when the young writer habitually under-
takes to follow speakers whose regular rate is
much too fast for him, the mischief that most
generally happens is that, yielding to the tempta-
tion to get down or try to get down a mark,
however illegible, for every word, he contracts

64 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

a loose, careless, illegible habit of writing, which
it may cause him much trouble ultimately to get
rid of. Mr. Fred Pitman, one of that famous
band of brothers, with the inventor of Phonog-
raphy at their head, whose names are so closely
associated with the development and dissemina-
tion of phonetic shorthand, has told in the fol-
lowing striking language how he was seriously
delayed, and for the time being foiled, in his
efforts to attain reporting skill, by seeking speed
at the expense of accuracy:

"The writer of this paper has, to use a fa-
miliar phrase, gone through it all. He can look
back almost half a century, and can vividly re-
call the sensation of attempting laboriously to
write a short passage in phonography from a
newspaper or book ; he can remember how at
times he worried over his blunders; how he
chafed at his slowness, groaned under the diffi-
culty of constructing good outlines; and how, at
a subseqvient period, he writhed at the apparent
impossibility of overcoming the vis inerticB of his
pen. Looking back over the long vista, he can
now perceive that speed came only too soon.
Possessing a moderate amount of natural quick-
ness, his study and pra<3tice enabled him in a

MORE ABOUT "SPEED rilACTICE." 65

short time to write at a speed of from 100 to 130
words per minute. At this juncture he became
anxious to acquire a verbatim speed that should
qualify him to follow a swift speaker; and with
praiseworthy assiduity, he reported the dis-
courses he heard on a Sunday. The preacher
happened to be a literary man, who composed
sermons of a somewhat difficult character. He
was also decidedly rapid in his delivery, so that
the reporter's imperfect speed not only pre-
vented him from keeping up, but he sometimes
failed even to grasp the meaning of what was
uttered. He, however, strove so zealously to ' get
it all down,' that he soon acquired the ability to
follow this fluent speaker with only an occasional
loss of a word. Alas! he was not aware of the
imperative importance of reading over his notes ;
he did not attempt any regular method of test-
ing his accuracy by writing from dictation, then
transcribing, and afterwards comparing his
transcript with the printed book. He did not
see the desirableness of undertaking the labor
of transcribing a large portion of his writing
practice. He gained speed, but not a good style.
Thus was laid the foundation of faults which it
required much subsequent study and care to

66 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

eradicate. When afterwards he became a profes-
sional reporter, he was sometimes chagrined at
misreading his notes, and discovering, perhaps
too late for remedial measures, that the hidden
meaning of his symbols has not been detected."

The Beginner's "Stage Fright."

When the young writer first attempts to take
notes in public, whether on the platform or at
his seat amid the audience, the newness of the
undertaking, his eager wish to succeed, and his
fear of not succeeding — his apprehension that
the eyes of the audience are fixed upon him and
that the observers are making their estimate of
his success or failure — all these things, creating
a novel and most trying environment, will doubt-
less embarrass him greatly, causing him in his
early attempts at public note-taking to accom-
plish far less than upon fair trial he is really
able to accomplish. A distinguished English
reporter, looking back from the standpoint of a
veteran to the boyhood period when he first
attempted to take notes of a sermon, describes
thus vividly his discomfiture :

''I tried my best to conceal my emotions; but

MORE ABOUT "SPEED PRACTICE." 67

my heart was beating all the way to church. As
to the preliminary service, I understood as little
of it as if it had been read in Cherokee. I stood
when I ought to have knelt, and knelt when I
should have sat or stood. I demeaned myself
like a youth whose religious education had been
sadly neglected. At length the clergyman en-
tered the pulpit, and I took my sheets of paper
from the Bible in which I had concealed them,
and my pencil from my pocket. If I did not feel,
like Bonaparte's soldiers, that the eyes of pos-
terity were upon me, I devoutly believed that
every eye in the church was directed to ray note-
book. The color mounted to my cheeks, and my
whole frame trembled."

For what Thomas Allen Reed thus suffered,
and what many a stenographic novice must suf-
fer, in his first attempts at public note-taking,
there is no cure but to "brave it out." Let the
unfledged note-taker resolve that he will mas-
ter his embarrassment and self-consciousness;
let him courageously repeat his public attempts
at reporting as often as occasion offers. Gradu-
ally, as he becomes more and more accustomed
to his environment, his task will become easier
and easier, until finally he will be able to take

68 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

notes as well under the eyes of an audience as if
he were in the seclusion of his little room at
home.

In getting his reporting practice, the novice
must not grumble if often his accommodations
for note-taking are bad. If he is obliged to write
on his knee, if he is obliged sometimes to write
while standing, or sometimes on a desk or table
which is jarred at intervals by the pounding of
the orator's fist (as often happens at political
meetings or in court), let him console himself
with the reflection that he is getting in good
time an essential part of his education as a re-
porter; for the reporter in the practice of his
vocation is obliged frequently to conform him-
self cheerfully to "rough and tumble" condi-
tions.

Dictation Practice Must Still Go On.

When the young writer begins to take notes
of public speaking, his dictation practice is by
no means to be suspended. "While practice from
public speal\ing has its advantages, of which
ever}' j'oung practitioner must avail himself — •
' advantages which mere writing from dictation
cannot supply — there is connected with dicta-

MORE ABOUT "SPEED PRACTICE." 69

tion practice one peculiar advantage so valua-
ble that the shorthand writer can never afford to
give up such practice entirely until he has at-
tained all the speed to which he aspires. The
young writer, while developing his speed, finds
that some speakers upon whom he experiments
are too slow, others altogether too fast, and only
a comparatively few are just rapid enough to
realize the ideal of speed practice as defined by
Mr. G-raham — "requiring considerable effort to
keep up, but not so fast as to require illegible or
incorrect writing, or to induce a confused and
hesitating movement of the hand."

In order, therefore, that the student who has
begun to practice on public speakers may still
secure a sufficiency of that invigorating practice
which, while constantly putting him on his met-
tle, never entirely baffles him, dictation at a
steadily-increasing pace adapted to his steady
advancement in speed, must go on from day to
day and from week to week. As this dictation
practice goes on, steadily nerving the student
to higher and higher attainments, the reporting
of public utterances will grow easier and easier,
and the difficult or impossible speakers will
gradually become fewer and fewer.

70 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.
How to Insure Legible Notes.

One danger of persistent speed practice — the
acquirement of an illegible style of writing —
must not be overlooked. The best safeguard
against contracting an illegible style, or at least
a sure warning when illegibility is making its
encroachments, is the persistent and habitual
reading of one's notes. Let it be understood
that all notes are to be regarded as illegible
which cannot be read with reasonable fluency.
If the writer finds himself obliged to "wrestle"
with his notes because the characters are badly
formed, so that perhaps several hours are re-
quired to ''decipher" what he has taken down in
the course of twenty or thirty minutes, speed, if
gained at all, is being gained at the expense of
accuracy, and no real progress is being made.

But it is to be remembered that practice,
however industriously pursued, in reading one's
own notes, has no magic power to make bad
shorthand good. Reading may disclose faulty
forms — ^faultj' in conception or in execution —
which speed practice has developed or is devel-
oping; it may cultivate, too, a certain facility in
reading shorthand thus faulty. But the faculty
which the student should seek is not the faculty

MORE ABOUT "SPEED PRACTICE." 71

of deciphering with effort shorthand badly writ-
ten. His aim should be to acquire that facility
in reading which comes from writing notes that
can be read without difficulty because of their
intrinsic legibilty — not because the writer has
habituated himself by long practice to reading
with painful struggles his own misshapen short-
hand forms, as unintelligible as Chinese hiero-
glyphics to everybody but himself.

There is one simple recipe for maintaining an
intrinsically legible style in spite of persistent
speed practice, either upon actual speaking or
from dictation : let the student, without suspend-
ing his speed practice, devote some portion of
every day to writing, with no thought of speed,
and not necessarily from the voice, a reasonable
quantity of shorthand with all the symmetry
and neatness that he can command. This will
insure him against the dangerous tendency of
speed practice (an almost unavertible danger if
speed practice be exclusively pursued) to wear
away habits of neat execution which may have
been formed, and to bring the writer into the
condition so vividly described by Mr. Fred Pit-
man in the extract already quoted. One of the
most noteworthy points in Mr. Buubury's course

72 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

of training, as described by himself on a previous
page, is that, even while drilling for a most ex-
acting speed-test, he resolutely devoted a por-
tion of this time to practicing with no thought
of speed, and with the object merely of making
legible notes. The shorthand student should
never forget that it is entirely practicable to
carry into reporting work a neat, symmetrical
style of writing ; and to do this should be a dis-
tinct object of his ambition.

HOW TO WRITE THE "HARD
WORDS."

The Student's Bewilderment.

The young shorthand writer, when undertak-
ing to follow dictation or public speaking, is
often tempted to exclaim, "If it were not for
these hard words which now and then bother me
and break me all up, I could get along pretty
well. ' ' This vexed and bewildered state of mind
has been vividly described by that widely-known
reporter, Mr. H. C. Demming, of Harrisburg,
Pa. : * * Just where the greatest speed is necessary
— to write the consonants and then put the vow-
els in their proper places — is just where the most
hesitation is liable to be. First, time is lost in
getting the true sound of the word; secondly,
comes the quickly-to-be-disposed-of thought how
to write the consonants the best way. and which
vowels to put in, and how many. All this in less
than a second! By that time the outline has
been made with such spasmodic jerks that in-
tended full-lengths are half-lengths, and intend-

74 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

ed half-lengths twice as long as they ought to
be; or an intended hook has been made into a
circle, or a circle into a hook. Some stenog-
raphers make a desperate dash in the beginning
to write the troublesome word in longhand. Then
the longhand may be harder to read than if it
had been in shorthand. Or, if made originally
in shorthand, one of the vowels may have been
thrown into the wrong position. These things
are almost distracting to some stenographers of
short experience. ' '* f

When, after the harrassing encounter with a
"hard word," the difficulties thus described have
been overcome, and the desperately-sought out-

♦In my essay on "The Mastery of Shorthand," I attributed
this language to an English author. Later, I found that it
was part of an essay read by my friend Demming, some years
ago, before the New Yorli State Stenographers' Association.
The English author borrowed the passage without giving due
credit.

+In July and August, 1908, the Typewriter & Phonographic
World published a symposium on "What Should Constitute
the Best System of Shorthand?" The question was addressed
to many well-known authors and reporters with the stipula-
tion that each answer should not exceed fifty words. The
writer of the extract quoted above, Col. II. C. Demming, of
Ilarrlsburg. replied to the question as follows:

"Permit me to state — from an experience of more than
forty years — that that system should constitute the best
system of shorthand which is the most rapidly and easily
written, and which can be read without hesitation or mistalse.
To roach this result, it seems to me that the forward line
movement is the ideal ; and there would be an improvement
if the forward lines could be written without reference to
shading or position."

This was written by Col. Demming eleven years after the
extract given above was quoted by Mr. Brown. — The Pui-

HOW TO WRITE THE "HARD WORDS." 75

line has been finally fixed upon paper, the writer
finds that he must make up for lost time, must
strain his energies to write perhaps ten or fifteen
words in the time usually required to write six
or eight. The struggle with the refractory out-
line has left his mind flurried and worried ; and
it does not easily regain its ordinary composure.
Thus the "hard word" not only has its own
sting, but it leaves "the trail of the serpent" be-
hind it.

Will the Bother Ever Cease?

Smarting under such a vexatious experience,
repeated far too often, the young writer is driv-
en to ask, ' * Shall I ever reach a point where all
the words will be as easy as some are now?"
No, my young friend, the point will never be
reached where all words will be written with
equal ease. Continued practice will make many
outlines easy which at first were troublesome;
the "hard words," so far as ordinary matter is
concerned, will become fewer and fewer. But,
after writing shorthand for years, the writer will
stiU be liable from time to time — in technical
matter, possibly dozens of times a day — to jostle
up suddenly against some strange word never

76 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

before written, and perhaps never before heard,
but which must be written on the instant, leg-
ibly and briefly. To do this requires, of course,
a masterly command of stenographic resources;
yet it is possible for the stenographer so to edu-
cate himself that this encounter with "hard
words" shall lose its terror, that the ordeal
shall no longer be feared, because he will have
at his command the resources for meeting it suc-
cessfully.

Wide Verbal Knowledge Helps.

The difficulty will grow less and less as the
reporter enlarges his familiarity with his mother
tongue, and as he becomes acquainted with the
terminology of the different subjects about
which he is to write. When a word has been
seen or heard, though never before stenograph-
ieally written, its outline is much more promptly
fixed upon paper than when the word is strange,
not only to the hand, but to the ear. If, for in-
stance, anthropomorpMsm (a word not uncom-
mon in theological and metaphj^sieal discus-
sions) should fall upon the ear of the reporter
as an utterly strange term, he would probably
fail to write it, however distinctly it might be

HOW TO WRITE THE "HARD WORDS." 77

spoken, because he would fail to understand it.
But if the word were already somewhat familiar
to eye or ear, the difficulty of writing it in short-
hand would not be appalling; and even if writ-
ten incorrectly, it would still be correctly read.
Hence, if the young reporter familiarizes him-
self in advance with merely the sounds of any
technical terms which he is likely to meet in
reporting, he has shorn the "hard words" of
much of their terror. It is when ear and hand
are both puzzled that the bother is greatest. This
is well illustrated in the following incidfent,
narrated by a well-known stenographer, Mr. A.
O. Reser:

"An eminent Bible lecturer told me the other
day that he was lecturing last summer at Mount
Eagle, Tenn., on the genealogy of the Bible. He
started out with Adam and passed down past
Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar. Mr. Levering,
the lecturer, said that after he had commenced,
he noticed that the audience was amused at
something, and he did not know what it was.
After the meeting was over, he asked some of
the members of the audience what amused them.
They told him they were laughing at the hercu-
lean exertiKDus of the reporter, who for ten min-

78 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

utes tried to report, but at the end of that time
threw down his pencil and gave it up. He sim-
ply could not do it ; not from inability to write,
but largely because of inability to hear and un-
derstand the words used."

Common Outlines Must Be Memorized.

While it would be an impossible task to learn
in advance the shorthand forms of all the "hard
words," every young writer should become ac-
quainted as quickly as possible with the outlines
of all the common words, including all ordinary
word-signs and every-day phrases; and for this
purpose his reading and writing exercises, if
rightly chosen, should be made thoroughly fa-
miliar by continued repetition. In learning the
common words, he is learning the principles
upon which the uncommon words must be
written. Besides, he is qualifying himself to
"catch up" more quickly when a "hard word"
has thrown him back ; and then, too, because he
can readily write ordinarj^ words, he is not so
far behind when a "hard word" strikes him.
Thus the stenographer helps himself to write the
"hard words" by thoroughly mastering the easy
ones. It may here be remarked incidentally that

HOW TO WRITE THE "HARD WORDS." 79

the liability at any time to meet a "hard word"
is one strong reason for cultivating the habit of
writing as little behind the speaker as neces-
sary. A ' ' hard word ' ' has the writer at a great
disadvantage when it finds him already lag-
ging, holding in his mind eight or ten words still
unwritten.

Fundamental Abbreviating Principles Must Be
Mastered.

To write promptly a new and complex outline
requires a thorough knowledge and ready com-
mand of the abbreviating principles of the short-
hand system. I speak of ''abbreviating princi-
ples" as distinguished from word-signs and
other arbitrary contractions. How and when
circles, loops, hooks, half-lengths, and double-
lengths, may or may not be used, is a species of
knowledge which, though often despised as a
part of "the corresponding style," is indispen-
sable not only to the learner but to the advanced
reporter. "Reporting expedients," as they are
called, can never supply the place of these sim-
ple abbreviating principles. With the latter at
one's fingers' ends, a new outline, however com-
plex or difficult, may generally be constructed

80 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

without serious delay. It does not matter for
the moment if an outline which, in the midst of
hurried speaking, must be written hurriedly or
not at all, be not the same as that given in the
student's text-book or dictionary. The different
consonants, if combined somehow, with a fair
regard to rudimentary principles, will form a
legible outline. The one thing above all others
which distinguishes the stenographic athlete
from the stenographic weakling is the readiness
with which the athlete, amid a torrent of lan-
guage, writes a "hard word" which he has never
written before. And this readiness comes large-
ly from a thorough mastery, not merely intellec-
tual but manual, of radical principles. Mere in-
tellectual mastery of a principle counts for al-
most nothing in an art like shorthand, which de-
pends largely upon manual skill exercised with
ahnost inconceivable promptness.

Should We Write "Hard Words" in Longhand?

It has been suggested that "a reporter may
take time occasionally to write a hard word in
longhand." But longhand, as a makeshift sub-
stitute for shorthand, is never the refuge of a
thoroughly-trained stenographer. To fix beyond
doubt the spoiling of a proper name, to make a

HOW TO WRITE THE "HARD WORDS." 81

possibly dubious word plain to his transcribing
assistant, or for some similar purpose, the ac-
complished reporter may occasionally write a
word in longhand, but never because he is stag-
gered in the application of shorthand principles,
and cannot devise for an uncommon word a
suitable stenographic outline. A word nervous-
ly and hurriedly written in longhand, because
the stenographer is staggered, involves general-
ly the loss of succeeding words, and, besides,
proves often undecipherable.

Get It "Down Somehow."

One of the most valuable habits for the young
stenographer, and one which he should assidu-
ously cultivate in taking dictation as well as in
reporting, is that of attacking promptly and
boldly an uncommon or difficult word and get-
ting it down somehow. If the writer be well
schooled, the outline thus promptly achieved
will generally violate no principle, although it
may not be the briefest form possible. And even
though a shorthand rule be for the moment vio-
lated, this is far better, if the outline be legible,
than that time be lost in hesitation. Sometimes
the reporter, hard pressed to keep up, must get

82 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

a word down "by hook or by crook," even though
the "hooks" and "crooks" may be somewhat at
variance with the canons of his system. Of short-
hand it is distinctly and emphatically true that
"he who hesitates is lost." An accomplished re-
porter, and a phonographic author of no mean
standing (Mr. George C. Thornton) has said that
we should "make it a rule to write proper forms;
but we must violate this rule ruthlessly, rather
than run the risk of falling farther behind than
can be done with entire safety." "It is better,"
he says, "to write an outline in the fullest possi-
ble manner, rather than hesitate for even the
most trifling period of time for the purpose of
recalling the text-book forms."

"The Faculty of Keeping On."

The habit of coining to a standstill because a
word is uncommon and somewhat difficult to
write is one of the most fatal that a young
stenographer can acquire. Many a learner prac-
ticing for speed interrupts the dictation again
and again so that he may settle nice questions in
regard to dubious outlines. Occasionally time is
taken to look up the doubtful word in a short-
hand dictionary. Those who indulge this dan-

HOW TO WRITE THE "HARD WORDS." 83

gerous habit should ponder well the following
advice of Mr. Fred Pitman : * ' Stopping to con-
sider the form of a word while following a
speaker is almost sure to result in the loss of
some words which follow. When the reporter
meets with complex or long words, he should
avoid hesitation, and exercise the faculty of
keeping on. This is a faculty which must be
carefully cultivated in one's writing from dicta-
tion. How to deal promptly with perplexing
words is a problem which must be mastered by
anyone who would become a verbatim reporter.
One hard word, if the writer allows himself to
pause and hesitate, may cause the loss of a dozen
words following it."

Don't Seek the Briefest Outline.

The staggering hesitation of the young sten-
ographer when called on to write a new word,
arises often from an undefined notion that he
must, though writing the word for the first time,
get down the briefest and best outline that the
system will allow. It is of vital importance that
such a notion be dismissed. A long outline for
a new or strange word is something that no
stenographer should be afraid of. Frequently, in

84 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

the hurry of note-taking, a long outline which
suggests itself readily, is more quickly written
than a shorter one which requires the writer to
stop and think. Indeed, many reporters prefer
to write a new word very fully the first time it
occurs. They believe that in such cases a full
outline is more likely to be readily legible. If
the word occurs again and again, the outline
may gradually be more and more abbreviated.
Thus a difficult technical term, newly encoun-
tered, may be written one way at the top of the
note-taker's page, another way at the middle,
and still another way at the bottom.

The Bugbear of "Position."

The task of the young writer, on meeting a
new and difficult word, is made all the more per-
plexing, if he has unfortunately been misled into
the belief that every outline, long or short, fre-
quent or infrequent, ambiguous or unmistaka-
ble, must be written in the position correspond-
ing with its accented or leading vowel. If thus
mis-schooled as to the requirements of the "re-
porting style." he must not only think out the
whole outline before starting to write it, but,
with the outline mentally suspended, must de-

HOW TO WRITE THE "HARD WORDS." 85

eide which of perhaps half a dozen vowels
(heard possibly none too distinctly) is the one
which should determine the "reporting position"
of the outline. I pity the thousands of young
writers who to-day are being educated into a
habit which thus makes needlessly difficult the
acquisition of speed. I meet such mis-educated
young writers from time to time. I ask them to
write some word, not very difficult, but which
they have never written before; and they hesi-
tate painfully. The pen seems unwilling or un-
able to touch the paper. Mind and hand appear
paralyzed. "What boggles you?" I ask; and
they reply, "Oh, I can write the outline, but I
am trying to think of the position ! ' ' This is often
their pitiable plight after they have been writ-
ing shorthand for months and months! They
deludedly fancy they are being educated to write
"as reporters write"; but alas for any reporter
(I do not personally know any such) who has
acquired, among his "reporting habits," that of
pondering about the "position" of a new and
difficult word before putting it upon paper!*

"Divide and Conquer."

"Whatever may be the dicta of certain teach-

♦These remarks do not apply to systems which are written
without the "Bugbear of Position." — The PuUishers.

86 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

ers and text-books on this subject, a vast ma-
jority of the practical reporters of the country-
do not thus understand "the reporter's rule of
position." In dealing with a new word of con-
siderable length and difficult construction,
these writers (following the long-settled canons
of standard text-books and recognizing no such
spurious "rule of position") meet the difficulty
in a simpler way than by first thinking out the
consonant outline; then, with the outline men-
tally suspended, running over all the vowels to
ascertain the accented or leading one; and then
placing the outline in such a position as that
vowel is supposed to require. These writers, when
they meet a long and rare word like perspicacity,
tergiversation, paradoxicalness, supererogatory,
duplicative, follow the maxim which applies
often in shorthand as elsewhere, "Divide and
conquer." Thinking nothing in the first instance
of the vowels — thinking nothing even of the eon-
sonants, except the initial stroke, simple or com-
pound— these writers, as soon as the word falls
upon the ear, place the pen unhesitatingly upon
the paper, and, starting the word in the second
or neutral position — the easiest, the natural po-
sition—tliey proceed to think out the outline, if

HOW TO WRITE THE "HARD WORDS." 87

need be, syllable by syllable or stroke by stroke
as they write. Mind and pen do their work sim-
ultaneously and in concert. In the word imper-
ceptible, for instance, the different parts might
be thought out, and written step by step, thus:
Im-per-cept-ible. In this way, each syllable be-
comes, as it were, a separate little word ; and an
outline which, taken as a whole, would seem ap-
pallingly long and difficult, proves comparative-
ly easy when thus resolved into its several parts.
The exact syllabic divisions which may be
adopted in thus writing a word for the first
time under speed pressure, are comparatively
unimportant. Nor is it essential in the first
writing of a word that the consonants of each
syllable be expressed in absolutely the briefest
way.

Ordinarily, with a practised writer, the mind
will keep pace with, if it does not outrun, the
hand, so that between the syllabic parts of the
word the pen need not pause. But suppose an
expert writer, following this method, may occa-
sionally pause, with pen upon paper, at the end
of a S3''llable or a stroke, until the succeeding one
is thought out ; is not this far better than a stag-
gering and possibly unsuccessful attempt to pre-

88 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

construct by a single grasp of the mind, the
whole outline of a difficult word, before even
beginning to write it ?*

Vowel "Indication" Often a Delusion.

If it be said that this method of writing a dif-
ficult word piecemeal, and without thinking in
the first instance of "position," makes no pro-
vision for "indicating" omitted vowels, I answer
it is far better, when a strange word is met with,
that the "indication" of the omitted vowel be
not attempted than that the writer, by ponder-
ing hesitation, should fail to fix upon paper the
consonant outline, or, while slowly determining
both outline and "position," should lose essen-
tial words which follow. I answer further that,
in many eases the prompt writing of the outline
will leave time for the actual insertion of the
leading vowel, which, with a new or rare word,
is far better than any imperfect, and, at best,
vague "indication." I venture to affirm that all
practical reporters, when writing for the first

*Tlio mothod here described of "tackling" rare or difficult
words is pnuticed. I believe, by the majority of experienced
reporters; but I do not Ivdow that I have ever seen it de-
scribed in print, excopt in a magazine article of Mr. A. .T.
Barnes, the well-known author and teacher of St. Louis,
Missouri, some of whose ideas and expressions 1 have taken
the liberty of using, with this acknowledgement.

HOW TO WRITE THE "HARD WORDS." 89

time any out-of-the-way word, aim to express, if
possible, the characteristic and significant vow-
el, rather than trust to any mere ''indication" of
it; for ''indication" in many cases means simply
that, when the word is to be deciphered, not
only must one of four, five or six possible vowels
be fixed upon by guess, but the syllabic place of
the accented vowel in a word of perhaps five or
six syllables must also be guessed at.*

While putting a word promptly upon paper in
the manner I have described, the writer inaudi-
bly, and perhaps unconsciously, pronounces each
syllable to himself ; and having thus, while writ-
ing the consonant outline, rehearsed incidental-
ly the vowels with the consonants, the essential
vowel is generally clear before his mind as soon
as the outline is finished, and can be instantly
inserted if time allows. Thus an outline, which,
ignoring artificial rules of "position," is so vo-
calized as to express the essential vowel, will
often be written in less time than an unvocal-
ized outline carefully placed in "position,"
which, theoretically, is supposed to "indicate"
the omitted vowel, but whose "indication" is,

*The difficulties mentioned in this passage are peculiar to
Pitmanic shorthand. — The Publishers.

90 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

for an unfamiliar word (such as a proper name),
generally vague, unsuggestive, and practically
useless. There is a "reporter's rule of position"
by which a few hundred brief and common out-
lines are saved from the need of habitual vo-
calization by resorting to the exceptional de-
vice of three difierent positions, while thousands
of other words of unmistakable outlines — a vast
majority indeed of the words of the English
language — are written in the second and easiest
position, without reference to accented or lead-
ing vowels, and are readily recognized by their
consonant outlines alone. The genuine "rule of
position," as thus practiced, will be found fully
explained in most of the standard instruction-
books. It needs no further discussion here.

Some Minor Difficulties to be Met.

In writing a word for the first time, medial
hooks or loops should be used very sparingly,
because often they seriously retard the flow of
the outline. If, for instance, in hurriedly writ-
ing penetraiion, the n-hook should be introduced
in the syllable "pen," the next part of the out-
line, "tr, " could not be written in the only prop-
er way, with the r-hook. Thus an awkward, un-

HOW TO WRITE THE "HARD WORDS." 91

Sometimes, when a hard word as uttered is
entirely strange or unfamiliar, the writer may
be in doubt whether the sounds which reach his
ear constitute one word or more than one; in
w^hich case, without stopping to ponder upon
the question, he may, upon the impulse of the
moment, write the combination of sounds either
as one word or as several. The word or words
intended may often be precisely ascertained af-
terward from books of reference or by personal
inquiry.

It ought to be added that, in writing "hard
words," a thorough familiarity with the vowel-
signs, so as to use them without the least hesi-
tation, is often absolutely indispensable. When
a word, because unfamiliar, is indistinctly un-
derstood, the vowels are generally more clearly
heard than the consonants, and though the con-
sonant outline may be incorrect, a clearly-ex-
pressed vowel may be so wonderfully suggestive
as to settle beyond doubt the word intended.*

Special Practice Upon "Hard Words."

But "how to write the hard words" must be

learned practically. The mere reading of rules

♦Writers of a connective vowel system will appreciate this
strong endorsement of the importance of the vowels. — The
Publishers.

92 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

on the subject can give one nothing more than
theory. The student must learn how to ' ' tackle ' '
a difficulty by "tackling" it. If he would learn
to write "hard words" off-hand, he must from
tiilie to time practice the writing of such words
off-hand. To attack "hard words" boldly, as
soon as heard, and instantaneously to originate
some legible outline, is something quite differ-
ent from attempting to creep around the "hard
word" mountain by memorizing outlines which
have been constructed by some one else. If the
student would acquire the art of writing "hard
words" without needless loss of time, a part of
his daily drill should be to write from dictation
a certain number of such words — words not so
rare as never to occur in practice, and not so
common as to be a part of one's every-day vo-
cabulary. As each difficult word is dictated
to him, he should, without stopping to deliber-
ate, begin at once to write it, and proceeding
with as little pause as possible, he should go on
and finish it. Such an exercise might be so ar-
ranged that the words introduced shall gradu-
ally become harder and harder.-

Practice of this sort will develop in the
writer what has already been spoken of as "the

HOW TO WRITE THE "HARD WORDS." 93

faculty of keeping on, ' ' the faculty of grappling
a hard word promptly and unflinchingly, and at
once achieving some outline — brief and correct,
if possible, but at any rate legible. Under this
sort of practice, the habit of stumbling and
staggering whenever a new word is met should
finally disappear. If such practice, when at-
tempted, should show — as in some cases it may
— that the student has had insufficient drill on
the abbreviating principles — if, for instance, he
sometimes writes an 1-hook instead of an r-hook,
or an n-hook instead of an f-hook — if he fails
sometimes to make the circle, the loop, the half-
length or the double-length where plain princi-
ple demands them — ^then he is unprepared for
anything in the nature of "speed practice"; and
if he is wise, he will turn back to those rudi-
mentary rules which neither the veteran reporter
nor the stenographic tyro can ever dispense
with, and will never leave them until they are
mastered.

THE SPEEDY HAND

For the most rapid stenographic writing,
there must of course be considerable agility of
hand. The lack of this does not show itself in the
beginning of the student's practice, because at
that stage he cannot think out his shorthand
fast enough to keep even a slow hand busy; the
hand, however inexpert, awaits the slow action
of the mind. Nor does this lack of manual fa-
cility show itself decidedly during the amanuen-
sis stage, because for the speed of the amanuen-
sis very little special training of the hand is
needed, if in ordinary writing a fairly easy and
free command of the pen has been acquired. But
for the attainment of high reporting speed much
manual facility is indispensable. Where ex-
ceptional executive power is sought, special man-
ual discipline is as important to the student
of shorthand as to the pianist.

It may be true, as a writer in the "National
Stenographer" (May, ]S96) remarks, that "a
naturally slow hand will never develop sufficient
04

THE SPEEDY HAND. 95

speed for verbatim reporting"; but no one has
a right to accuse himself of having "a naturally
slow hand, ' ' while the fact may be that his hand
is simply untrained or mistrained. A "natural-
ly" agile hand can be so mismanaged, so handi-
capped by bad habits, so held back by poorly-
learned and poorly-remembered shorthand, that
its natural agility cannot show itself. Many a
shorthand writer who reproaches himself with
slow-handedness could move his hand freely
enough if he could think promptly what to
write.

If any slow writer of shorthand wishes to de-
cide whether his slowness has its cause in the
hand or in the mind, he can easily adapt a trust-
worthy test. Let him have read to him a limited
quantity of new matter — two or three hundred
words, and let him note the exact speed with
which he is able to write it. Then, after care-
fully correcting his errors, let him copy the same
matter in its corrected form twenty, thirty, for-
ty, or fifty times. After thus familiarizing him-
self with the matter so as to write it without a
particle of hesitation, let him have it again dic-
tated to him. He will probably find that on this
last trial he can write it from dictation twice as

96 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

fast as at first. As many strokes are written,
and manual motions made, in one-half the time
required at first. Why? Not because the hand
has developed in half an hour or an hour a
doubled capacity for rapid movement. The
simple explanation is that the mind no long-
er hesitates; the hand is no longer held back by
slow shorthand thinking; the writing has be-
come automatic. Such a trial will demonstrate
to any writer the real speed capacity of his hand
at the particular time of making the trial — not
necessarily the limit of its speed capacity after
it shall have undergone proper discipline; for
there may be unconsciously to himself bad ma-
nipulative habits which need to be removed and
methods of manual training which he needs
faithfully to pursue.

The Longhand Twist.

In the shorthand writer's manual discipline
the first step is to get rid of certain habits often
acquired in writing longhand, and which, unless
corrected, must inake high stenographic speed
a physical impossibility. It may be desirable,
for a time at least, that longhand practice be as

THE SPEEDY HAND. 97

far as possible suspended, so that a new set of
manual habits may be the more easily acquired.
One of the habits which shorthand students
need especially to overcome arises from the pe-
culiar slant of the longhand characters. In or-
der to give these their ordinary forward inclina-
tion, the fingers and the hand are usually twist-
ed to the right, with the penhandle pointing to
the shoulder, or sometimes to the breast. But
as the shorthand characters are written in al-
most every direction — probably more of them
with a baekwaa^d inclination or with a horizon-
tal motion than with a forward slope, the hand
and fingers, in being educated for shorthand
writing, must be emancipated from the fixed po-
sition to which they have been accustomed in
longhand. For shorthand writing the penholder
should generally, though not constantly, point
in a line with the forearm, so that, without
changing its position, a phonographic d or h can
be readily made.*

Aerial Pen Twirling.

It scarcely need be said that the shorthand
writer must absolutely discard the habit in

♦These remarks apply only to geometrical systems. It Is
not necessary for writers of a system, founded on the same
elements as longhand is, "to get rid of certain habits acquired
In writing longhand which, unless corrected, must make high
stenographic speed a physical impossibility." — The Publishers.

98 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

which some longhand writers seem to take pride
— a useless and ridiculous fashion of lifting the
hand an inch or two from the paper, and wig-
gling or twirling it in mid-air as a preparation
for the writing of a word or a letter. These pen-
pirouettes, whatever purpose they may serve in
connection with longhand (and I believe the
most rapid longhand writers do not indulge
in them), have certainly no magic power to aid
in the correct, symmetrical or rapid shaping of
shorthand characters. This preparatory twirl-
ing or poising of the pen (indulged in by so
many longhand writers) seems to be an incident
of the much-lauded "arm movement," or "mus-
cular movement," and is to my mind a confes-
sion of the unsteadiness and inexactness of "the
arm movement" as a letter-forming movement.
I do not disparage the great importance of a
free arm in order to transport the hand smooth-
ly and pauselessly across the page; but any
movement which in longhand requires that the
stroke to be written must be rehearsed and pre-
pared for by a species of aerial gymnastics, while
the writing is momentarily suspended, and be-
fore the pen touches the paper, is evidently un-
suited to shorthand writing. This preparatory

THE SPEEDY HAND. 99

poising of the pen is thus approvingly described
by one of the writing masters:

'^Practice the movement with the pen in the
air; then take a good aim and fire to hit the
mark. The same rules will in a measure apply
to writing with 'the muscular movement' that
apply to rifle practice ; namely, a steady, nervy
movement, a keen eye, and true aim."

The aerial rehearsal of the strokes about to
be written — the preparatory shaping of the
characters **in the air" before the pen touches
the paper — is evidently what this master of the
"muscular movement" means by "taking aim."
But for such "taking aim," the shorthand writer
has no time. He must fire without waiting to
"take aim." So long as he habitually stops to
steady his rifle and deliberately "take aim," he
will not bag any stenographic game.

Pen=Gripping.

Another of the bad habits which the student
may need to get rid of, is too tight gripping of
his pen or pencil. As Thomas Allen Reed
says, "Some writers grasp their pen or pencil
so tightly that an easy and flowing style is
never acquired." This is a common fault with

100 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

both longhand writers and shorthand writers.
"With beginners in stenography, it may be either
caused or aggravated by the concentrated men-
tal strain attending the mastering of a new sys-
tem of writing,* This pen-gripping, involving
as it does needless muscular effort, tends to
promote an inartistic style of writing, inter-
feres with the acquisition of speed, and induces
undue and premature fatigue, saying nothing
of the ultimate danger of pen paralysis from
the unnecessary, excessive and long-continued
muscular strain.

Finger Action.

The habit of pen-gripping has this further dis-
advantage: it prevents the free flexing of the
two writing fingers and the thumb, which should
be pliable and supple in order to contribute
their share to neat and rapid shorthand. This
tight grasping of the pen or pencil seems to arise
in many oases from a mistaken effort to write
entirely '^from the arm." The free action of the
writing fingers is still further obstructed if (as

*B.v ft "new system of writing" we suppose Mr. Brown
means the jrewmetrical style of penmanship to which he re-
ferred in speaking of the "'longhand twist." It is also im-
portant to note that absence of distinctions between light
and heavy strokes helps to overcome the tendency to grip
the pen. — The Publishers.

THE SPEEDY HAND. 101

is too common) the penhandle or pencil is al-
lowed to rest fixedly below the knuckle — in the
crotch, as it may be called, between the knuckle
and the thumb. If, avoiding this position, the
pen is held so that it may roll, as it were, upon
the side of the knuckle as the fingers are extend-
ed or contracted, a wonderful sweep of finger
action may be obtained, unspeakably useful in
the shaping of many of the shorthand charac-
ters. Some of the writing masters have so great
a horror of what they call the ''finger move-
ment" (I do not favor a vicious finger movement
any more than they do) that they give no atten-
tion to cultivating the flexibility of the fingers
and thumb, saying to their pupils that ''the fin-
gers will take care of themselves, " " you are sure
to use the fingers enough." Without stopping
to dispute the infallibility of the writing mas-
ters within their special province (the teaching
of longhand), I affirm, from personal observa-
tion of many a shorthand writer attempting to
write rapid stenography with inflexible fingers,
that in shorthand the fingers unfortunately do
not "take care of themselves." I affirm further
that, for the purpose of promoting ease of move-
ment, for the purpose of securing an easy lift-

102 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED

ing of the pen (which is best accomplished by
a mere extension or lifting of the fingers with-
out any lifting of the hand), and for the purpose
of accomplishing a facile formation of the
shorthand characters, the fingers and the thumb
should be entirely flexible, ready to do their
proper share in the act of writing.

In these days when we hear so much about
"writing from the shoulder," about "the arm
movement," "the muscular movement," etc., it
should not be forgotten that those nimble little
instruments, the fingers, so highly valued in
every other manual art because of their adapta-
tion to quick and delicate movements, can serve
as important adjuncts (I do not claim that they
should be the sole machinery) in symmetrical
and ripad shorthand writing. Some of the most
rapid stenographic penmen, including one of
whom it has been said that "in the making of
shorthand notes, no human hand was ever more
artistic and skillful." have been remarkable for
the magnificent sweep of their deft fingers. (See
remarks of Eugene Davis, in "The Missing Link
in Shorthand." upon Joseph E. Lyons, deceased.)

In defense of a vicious "finger movement," as
described by a writing master of my acquaint-

THE SPEEDY HAND. 103

anee, I have nothing to say. "Place the hand,"
he says, "on the desk, resting firmly on the side
of the little finger and side of the palm of the
hand. Now, without the least movement of the
hand, write one, two or three letters ; then slide
or drag the hand along to a new resting place,
and repeat the writing of several letters before
again changing the position of the hand. This
is what writing masters condemn as the finger
movement. ' ' Of course there is a vast difference
between a vicious finger movement, as thus
described, and that free and natural play of
the fingers without which shorthand writing
cannot be done with artistic ease, and with no
premature and unnecessary fatigue.

The Gliding Movement.

The proper management of the fingers, the
hand and the arm (upon the combined action of
which the best shorthand writing depends) can-
not receive from the ambitious shorthand writer
too much attention. While the fingers should
be allowed to yield themselves flexibly and
gracefully to the motions of the pen, any at-
tempt to write exclusively with the fingers must
result in a cramped and slow movement. The

104 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

hand should learn to carry itself smoothly across
the page, with as little pressure as possible, the
little finger resting lightly upon the paper from
the beginning to the end of the line, so that the
hand, propelled by the forearm, may deftly glide
along without hitch or hesitation. With many
writers, however, the hand bears so heavily
upon the paper as to forbid anything like ''glid-
ing," so that as soon as a few characters have
been executed, the hand, by a comparatively slow
and laborious movement, must be restationed.
When the fingers can be stretched no farther
sideward, the little finger, upon which, as on a
fixed prop, the hand has heavily rested, is either
completely lifted, carried an inch or two for-
ward, and replaced upon the paper; or, without
leaving the paper, it is dragged an inch or two
toward the right, to remain in its new position
until required to make another laborious little
journey as soon as a few more characters have
been written. During each of these hitches, of
course, the writing is completely suspended un-
til the hand can be restationed.

In the movement which the student must seek
to cultivate, the hand, resting lightly on the outer
edge of the little finger, glides (no word can

THE SPEEDY HAND. 105

better express the proper movement) steadily
over the paper. Until the end of the line is
reached, the little finger is not lifted; so that
the writing goes on without needless interrup-
tion. The wrist does not touch the paper. The
hand receives the slight support it needs from
the little finger, whose main function, however,
is not so much to support the hand as to steady
it. The light, smooth, regular, continuous, glid-
ing motion here described and insisted upon,
seems to be absolutely necessary for the high-
est shorthand speed. The wretched "atepety-
step" movement, in which the hand rests heav-
ily upon the paper, except when, after every few
words or phrases, it is with effort lifted or
dragged along, will never permit rapid writing.
No reasonable effort should be spared to ac-
quire this gliding movement, as it has been
termed, this free lateral movement of the hand.
But if, after persevering trial, it cannot be ac-
quired, so that the writer still finds himself un-
able, as he thinks, to carry his hand lightly
across the whole breadth of a foolscap or letter
page, he may compromise with his own infirmity
and evade rather than overcome the difficulty
by dividing the note-taking page into two or

106 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

more columns, filling, as he writes, first one
column, and then another. This method has been
practiced and recommended by some writers of
high standing, one of whom has said : " By writ-
ing in columns, the motion of the hand across
the page is saved, as the fingers will extend the
pen across the column without moving the hand
in this sideward direction; and the only motion
of the hand required is down the page ; and even
that may be saved by sliding the paper up with
the left hand."

"A Light Touch."

The habit of writing with no undue straining
of the muscles, with an easy grasp of the pen
or pencil, with but slight pressure upon the
paper, and with a graceful gliding of the hand
across the page, constitutes what is called "a.
light touch" — a most valuable acquisition to
any one who aspires to be a rapid shorthand
writer. "A man" (says Mr. Fred Pitman) "who
possesses a fine touch will write smoothly with
little apparent effort, even at a high rate of
speed." This lightness of touch, he adds, is "so
important a thing that great speed can scarcely
be attained without it." More than that, it en-

THE SPEEDY HAND. 107

ables the writer to continue his work for a much
longer period and with less fatigue than would
be possible with a heavier hand and greater
muscular strain. "Where the pen is tightly
held," says Thomas Allen Reed, "a couple of
hours continuous writing is felt to be a toil, pro-
ducing in the case of rapid note-taking a sense
of considerable fatigue. ' ' On the other hand, he
remarks, "a man who holds his pen lightly and
is perfectly familiar with his shorthand, will
write for half a day or more without any labor-
ious exertion or sense of weariness. I have my-
self taken shorthand notes for ten hours con-
tinuously, with an interval of only a few min-
utes, filling more than two hundred closely writ-
ten pages, each containing about five folios ; and
I could have gone on without much difficulty for
an hour or two longer. I take no credit to my-
self for this. Having naturally a light touch, I
have simply tried to cultivate it, as many others
have done with the same result."*

A reporter of my acquaintance who has had
great experience in taking notes for many hours
daily during many successive days, has told me

*This is more applicable to a system requiring shading
than to one in which all the writing is light. The absence
of shading in writing gives a sense of freedom which is
productive of a light touch. — The PubUshera.

108 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

that, being threatened with pen paralysis, and
compelled to resort to every expedient to econ-
omize the muscular effort of writing, he de-
rived the greatest possible aid from cultivating
extreme lightness of touch. This, he said, had
proved in his own case an unmistakable aid to
rapidity, a protection against fatigue, and a
safeguard against the greatest peril of the hard-
working stenographer — penman's palsy.

The cultivation of a light touch should be one
main purpose of the shorthand writer from the
very beginning of his practice. Unless cultivated
in the beginning, its acquirement may later be
very difficult, if not impossible ; for it has been
aptly remarked, "No habits are retained with
more permanence than those pertaining to the
operation of the muscles."

In aiming to acquire a light pressure of the
pen, it may be well for the student to bear in
mind the words of Mr. Reed: "The only pressure
on the pencil or the penholder which is needed
i.s just enough to give the fingers a perfect com-
mand over it, so that the forms may be traced
firmlj' and clearly, but not stiffly. A happy and
judicious combination of firmness and lightness
is the goal at which every young shorthand
writer should direct his efforts."

THE SPEEDY HAND. 109

An eminent American reporter, who inclines
to the use of the pencil in preference to the pen,
has said in one of his publications : " If you have
a heavy hand use a pencil" — which seems to me
equivalent to saying: "If you have any faulty
method of writing, humor it, and don't seek to
overcome it." I would rather say to the stu-
dent, "If you have a heavy hand, strive to get
rid of it by using an instrument which requires
you to write lightly ; get the softest pen you can
find, that it may compel you to hold your natur-
ally heavy hand in check." For the shorthand
writer who wants a light touch — that is, who
wants to write with no needless pressure — there
can scarcely be such a thing as a pen which is
too soft.

In aiming to acquire that much-to-be-desired
boon, "a light touch," the shorthand student
should constantly aim to throw as little weight
as possible upon the right arm. To lean for-
ward, and, as it were, crouch over one's note-
book, is not only an ungainly habit, but one
which, by throwing extra weight upon the writ-
ing arm, interferes with ease and speed.

A sadly vicious habit, too often indulged,
even in some schools of penmanship and short-

110 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

hand (as shown in the photographs of their well-
filled class rooms), is to place the right side of
the body toward the desk and write with the
weight of the body thrown upon the right arm.
On this point, I am glad to quote with hearty
concurrence the language of that well-known
"speed writer," Isaac S. Dement: "Now we
have got the weight of the movement off the arm,
let us take the weight of the body off from it
and throw it on the left arm. Then it is per-
fectly free. What have you got? Your hand
is in perfect condition to do exactly what you
wish it to do. Of course, if there is no cramp-
ing, the rapidity is assured."

"THE LITTLE FOXES THAT
SPOIL THE VINES."

One of the striking characteristics of the
speedy hand is that it loses no time in waste
motions. An ingenious writer has estimated
that the time necessarily lost during pen-lifts
by the most experienced and expert stenogra-
pher under the most favorable circumstances, is
equal to forty per cent of the whole time occu-
pied in the writing. In other words, there is
sixty per cent of written product to one hundred
per cent of time consumed. This estimate seems
to me much exaggerated; but it is doubtless
true that the ordinary writer, with whom of
course the non-productive consumption of time is
greater than with the expert, loses while his pen
does not touch the paper — while he is passing
from word to word, from phrase to phrase,
from line to line, from page to page — ^while,
strictly speaking, no writing is being done —
more time than he occupies in the shaping of
the shorthand characters.
Ill

112 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

A certain amount of loss during the pen-lifts
is of course inevitable. But how can this loss
be kept down to the lowest possible point?
Doubtless with many young writers a large part
of the loss occuring during pen-lifts proceeds
from mental hesitation — indecision as to how
the successive shorthand outlines should be
written. The cause and cure of this infirmity
will be the subject of a later chapter. But when
mental hesitation has largely passed away, there
often remain many time-wasting habits which
do their fell work, unconsciously to the writer,
while his pen is lifted — habits many of which,
taken singly, would scarcely be worthy of notice
except in connection with an art in which liter-
ally every moment is precious. These time-wast-
ing habits, while the writer is unaware of their
existence, rob him of the speed he might attain.
They are "the little foxes that spoil the vines."

How Good Phrasing Helps.

"When we seek to minimize the losses by or
during the pen-lifts, an obvious suggestion is,
reduce the number of necessary pen-lifts by
good phrasing. By good phrasing, I mean, of
course, phrasing which does not, while pretend-

"LITTLE FOXES THAT SPOIL. THE VINES." 113

ing to save time, sacrifice it by inconvenient or
awkward junctions, or by an habitual ponder-
ing upon the phrasability of all the various ver-
bal combinations which present themselves in
following a reader or a speaker. But when good
phrasing has dispensed with every unnecessary
pen-lift, the pen must still be lifted again and
again during the course of every line; and if at
every pen-lift time is needlessly lost, the possi-
bility of high speed is defeated, because the "lit-
tle foxes" are stealthily doing their work.

"Quick Transitions."

Time may be lost during the pen-lifts, not only
by unnecessary motions, but by performing nec-
essary motions in a sluggish way. The move-
ments of the hand in passing from word to
word, from line to line, from page to page, may
be performed in the right way, but not with
sufficient alertness. "Quick transitions" should
be the watchword of every writer who aims at
speed. While the pen is lifted, let all sluggish-
ness and dawdling be avoided. Let the pen,
when necessarily lifted, get back to its work with
no waste motion or needless delay. Let the hand
be carried from the end of one line to the be-

114 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

ginning of another with lightning-like celerity.
Let the turning of the leaf be always properly
prepared for, and then at the right moment,
be done "with a whiz." Let all the movements
of fingers, hand and arm, while the pen does not
touch the paper, be hurried to the last extreme.
If these movements, in which no amount of
hurry can do harm, be performed ' ' with a rush, "
time is gained for carefulness where it is often
needed — while the pen is actually making its
record. Even the beginner (too often indulged
in sluggish movements and methods) should
habituate himself as soon as possible to "quick
transitions."

The Pen=Lift Must Not Be a Hand-Lift.

But during the pen-lifts the writer's motions
are too often not merely sluggish, but superflu-
ous. Time is lost in doing what need not be
done and ought not to be done. Sometimes, for
instance, the pen-lift which (except at the end
of a line) should be accomplished by a mere
extension or lifting of the writing-fingers, be-
comes a hand-lift. In such cases the little fin-
ger, on which the hand should glide from the
beginning to the end of the line without leaving

"LITTLE FOXES THAT SPOIL THE VINES." 115

the paper, is lifted at the end of almost every
word or phrase, and carried forward, to be re-
stationed a little farther on. "When this hap-
pens, not only is there a loss by the needless
lifting of the hand, as well as by its return
and readjustment, but the hand, especially when
hurried, can scarcely return to the paper, after
one of these lifts, without a sort of jar, necessi-
tating a little pause until the pen steadies it-
self; or, if this steadying pause be not made,
the character of the writing suffers. Sitting
beside a writer who habitually substituted hand-
lifts for pen-lifts, I have felt the jarring of
the desk two or three times in the course of every
line, as his hand heavily returned to the paper.
This habit of hand-lifting is no doubt in many
cases a legacy of longhand-teaching. The writer
unconsciously clings to the notion, already re-
ferred to, that the twirling of the pen "in the
air" before it touches the paper — "taking a
good aim," as the writing master calls it — aids
in the shaping of the characters.

Many writers who avoid the error of making
a hand-lift instead of a pen-lift, lose time by
lifting the pen too high. Let it be remembered
that a mere breaking of the contact between

116 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

pen and paper is all that is necessary, and
"whatsoever is more than this cometh of evil."
With some of the most rapid writers I know,
the pen, except at the end of a line, can scarcely
be seen to leave the paper, the lifting being
often so slight as to show upon close examina-
tion a faint track left by the pen or pencil upon
the paper in passing from word to word or from
phrase to phrase. This I have noticed particu-
larly in the writing of those masterly stenog-
raphers, Mr. Andrew Devine and Mr. Fred Ir-
land.

Wasteful Spacing.

Another case of lost motion is when the hand,
while passing from word to word, travels far-
ther than it needs to do, and makes the inter-
vening spaces too large. Many persons adopt
so loose a style of writing as to get only five or
six words on a line which might easily contain
three or four times as many. In this "scatter-
ing" style of shorthand, there is a loss both
direct and indirect. The direct loss, occasioned
by the distance which tho hand needlessly tra-
verses between the words or phrases, entails an
indirect loss by compelling the hand to pass

"LITTLE FOXES THAT SPOIL THE VINES." 117

oftener from line to line than a compact style
of writing would require. From the mere sub-
stitution of a compact for a scattering style, I
have seen in many students an almost immediate
gain of speed. On this subject I take pleasure
in quoting the testimony of a well-known and
long-experienced teacher, Mr. G. S. Walworth:
''I frequently tell my students to keep the pen
close to the paper, to write rather small out-
lines, and to leave little space between the words
and phrases. Students in whom faulty habits
in these respects are very pronounced, usually
make a great jump in speed as soon as they rid
themselves of them."

Pencil Moistening.

What shall I say of the inexcusable habit
(which I have seen practiced by both men and
women) of putting the pencil to the mouth as
often as it may seem to be necessary, to supply
to the lead the moisture required for a clear
stroke? This habit should not be tolerated for
an hour. A pencil that constantly needs to be
moistened is not adapted to shorthand work.

Many of the wrong habits pointed out in the
last few pages are practiced unconsciously, and

118 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED,

can scarcely be corrected except through the
vigilance of some person other than the writer
himself. Let the student who suspects himself
of any of these habits invite the keen watching
of his teacher or dictator. He should also do
what he can to watch himself, when engaged in
writing memorized matter which requires only
a limited share of his attention.

Expeditious Leaf Turning.

To avoid one of the most serious losses of
the young writer, it is important that he should,
from the beginning of his practice, aim to turn
the leaves of his notebook readily and quickly,
and to make the doing of it so habitual as to
require but little attention. I have seen some
otherwise accomplished writers, in turning a
page, interrupt the writing while taking hold of
the lower corner of the page with the right
hand. Thomas Allen Reed gives a method of
leaf-turning which is practiced by many English
and American reporters:

''While writing on the upper half of the leaf
introduce the second finger of the left hand be-
tween it and the next leaf, keeping the leaf on
which you are writing steady by the first finger

"LITTLE FOXES THAT SPOIL THE VINES." 119

and thiimb. While writing on the lower part of
the page, shift the leaf by degrees till it is about
half way up the book; when it is convenient,
lift up the thumb, and the leaf will turn over
almost by itself. * * * The finger should
be introduced at the first pause the speaker
makes, or at any other convenient opportunity
that presents itself."

Another excellent method is, while writing on
the upper half of the page, to take the lower
left-hand comer between the thumb and the fore-
finger of the left hand, and then push the page
upward, a little at a time, selecting for this
purpose those intervals when the speaker pauses
or while the pen is shifting from line to line.
The effect of thus pushing the page upward
is to curl it, thus giving an opening for the
introduction of the finger. This curling of the
page will not interfere with the writing, if one
or two fingers of the left hand are used to press
down the part of the page on which the writ-
ing is being done, thus keeping it flat and
firm. This pushing of the page upward is not
only a preparation for turning the leaf, but it
makes writing on the lower part of the page
much more convenient, as the supporting

120 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

fingers of the right hand are not thrown en-
tirely off the book.

Any writer who, after faithful practice, finds
difficulty in acquiring either of these methods of
turning the leaves, may profit by the suggestion
of Miss Hattie A. Shinn, a most accomplished
stenographer, who (writing in the "Exponent"
for March, 1885), declares that it "requires
nothing short of jugglery to turn the page after
writing to the bottom of it, so quickly that
nothing is lost by the time the top of the next
page is reached." She therefore says to young
writers, "Do not attempt to do fast writing in
books folded at the end." Instead of these, she
recommends side-folding books, in the use of
which "the left hand, resting upon the page on
which you write (and taking hold of the upper
right hand corner) , can readily have the page half
turned by the time the bottom of it is reached.
There is then nothing more to be done than to
move the writing hand to the top of the next
page, without the loss of a single movement."

As the pages of a new note-book have a ten-
dency to adhere to one another, thus increasing
the difficulty of turning the leaves, the writer
will find it an advantage to go through the note-

"LITTLE FOXES THAT SPOIL THE VINES." 121

book page by page before using it, and carefully
separate the leaves.

The Speedy Hand Is Not Showy.

In asking the student to avoid all waste mo-
tions and acquire in its genuine form a speedy
hand, I am asking him to forego the applause
of those (and they are many) who think that
the hand which appears to be dashing in wild
haste across the paper, or which in other ways
makes a great show of motion, is writing fast.
The person who, in writing, allows his fingers
their proper play, who keeps his pen, even when
lifted, close to the paper, who makes small
spaces between words and phrases, who avoids
large and sprawling characters, who turns the
leaves of his note-book deftly but quietly, will
not make much show of motion even in the most
rapid work, and will thus miss the plaudits
which many unthinking lookers-on are ready to
give to the "pen-slinger" who, with great parade
and pretense of fast writing, is, in fact, losing
time by wasted motions which do not help speed,
but hinder it. A gentleman thoroughly versed
in the reporting profession (Mr. Henry C. Dem-
ming), has shrewdly observed: "Let a per^

122 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

son go into church during service, throw him-
self around wildly, slash and dash terrifically,
and turn his leaves over with a snap ; and nearly
everybody within eye and earshot will inwardly
say, 'What an excellent reporter he must be!'
All this and more, while the manipulator of
pen or pencil is not getting one-third of the dis-
course."

Such writers no doubt have the reward which
they seek. But the stenographer who has im-
bibed the prime principle of rapid writing, that
to economize movement and economize space is
to economize time, and who has acquired that
substantial blessing, the really speedy hand, the
hand that makes no false show of rapidity, but
simply keeps right on and "gets there," may
•well content himself with the celerity and ac-
curacy of his note-taking, without envying the
false glory of charlatans and pretenders.

PEN OR PENCIL?

The question whether the pen or the pencil
should be preferred for stenographic writing,
must naturally be of great interest to every
shorthand student. This question has been
among reporters a subject of much dispute. I
believe that, as the result of the discussion, and
more especially as the result of continued ex-
perience with the two instruments, a large ma-
jority of the reporters of the country consider
the advantages decidedly in favor of the pen;
and many who from force of early habit are
obliged to continue the use of the pencil, do so
regretfully, and look with envy upon the users
of the pen.

Twelve Reasons in Favor of the Pen.

Twelve reasons may be stated, which, in my

opinion, should induce every young writer to

educate himself from the very beginning of his

practice to do his stenographic writing with the

pen, whenever circumstances will allow him to

do so :

123

124 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

1. The pen requires less muscular exertion for
its management. Hence the pen-writer works
for long periods with less fatigue than the pencil-
writer. Stating the result of years of experi-
ence, and concurring with the general opinion
on the subject, Mr. Geo. R. Bishop, the distin-
guished author of "Exact Phonography," has
said that he ' ' can write four hours with the pen
with less fatigue than one hour with the pencil."
The management of the pencil is a heavy tax
upon the muscles and the nerves. This muscu-
lar and nervous strain, apart from the immedi-
ate fatigue, tends to bring on "writer's cramp."
Mr. James E. Munson some time ago suggested
that pen-paralysis, so-called, is generally pencil-
paralysis, resulting from muscular overstrain-
ing which the pencil entails. An article in the
' ' Shorthand Review ' ' for August, 1891, exhibits
vividly the extent of this overstraining. "We
have," says this writer, "frequently examined
the notes of recently-graduated stenographers,
and find that the hand-pressure employed in
writing leads to some very astonishing results.
In many eases the pencil makes an impression
through two or three pages of the note-book. It
is needless to sav that under such circum-

PEN OR PENCIL? 125

stances fast writing is impossible. Such an
unnecessary expenditure of force cannot be em-
ployed with the pen."

The testimony of that long-experienced and
widely-known reporter, Mr. A. P. Little, of
Rochester, N. Y., is well worthy of recital here.
Addressing his professional brethren of the
New York State Stenographers' Association,
Mr. Little says: "I do not believe an instance
can be cited where writer's cramp has been
caused by the use of a flexible-point pen in
writing shorthand. I believe that it is almost
entirely produced by the use of a pencil, which,
in my opinion, no first-class stenographer ought
to use in court or elsewhere; or else it is caused
by using a very stiff pen. The use of the pencil
requires the use of all the muscles to so much
greater extent than the use of a flexible pen that
they are over-exerted and thus become over fa-
tigued ; and in consequence of this over-exertion,
one contracts writer's cramp. I do not take
the ground that there are not first-class stenog-
raphers who put themselves to the extra trouble
of using the pencil, or that there are not some
stenographers that use a very stiff pen and 'get
there ' just as satisfactorily as anybody else. It is

126 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

very difficult for one unaccustomed to a stiff pen
or pencil to use a very flexible pen. They are
often entirely unable at first to control a flexible
pen, that is, to make it go where they want it
to go, and to make it do what they want it to do ;
but if they persevere, they can subsequently
write more rapidly and easily than with a stiff
pen. To sum up what I have endeavored to say,
it has been, and still is, my belief that, if
stenographers generally would discard the use of
the pencil or stiff pen and adopt a medium coarse-
pointed, flexible pen, they would never have
writer's cramp."

2. The pen permits and promotes a lightness
of touch which, with the pencil, is out of the
question ; and this lightness of touch conduces
largely to speed. The pen does not allow that
undue pressure which the pencil invites, if it
does not cause. This undue pressure with which
many persons are disposed to write is highly
incompatible with rapid note-taking.

3. The pen, with its yielding nib, is far better
adapted than the pencil to express readily and
clearly the distinctions between light strokes and
heavy. The writing which best preserves these
distinctions is, other things being equal, the

PEN OR PENCIL? 127

most legible. One of the most conspicuous advo-
cates of the pencil, that accomplished reporter,
Mr. Greo. H. Thornton, the author of ''The
Modern Stenographer," has, by inventing and
publishing a ' ' light line ' ' system of stenography,
admitted in the most emphatic manner the un-
suitability of his favorite instrument, the pencil,
to make those distinctions between light strokes
and heavy which are a fundamental feature of
Pitmanic phonography. Writers who have not
adopted any ' ' light line ' ' system of phonography
must distinguish their heavy strokes from their
light ones, if they wish the writing to be legible ;
and for this purpose they need an instrument
like the pen, suited by its peculiar construction
to make these necesary distinctions.

4. Pen-notes are better adapted for preserva*
tion than pencil notes, which even ordinary
handling tends to blur. Anything that is to be
filed away as a record should not be written
with a pencil. Mr. Thornton, in advocating some
years ago the use of the pencil, made an impor-
tant concession in favor of the superiority of
pen-notes for record purposes. ''Notes taken
with a pencil," he said, "are as easily tran-
scribed in after years as those written with a

128 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

pen, if they are not handled." (Proceedings of
N. Y. State Stenographers' Association, 1882.)

5. It need scarcely be said that pen-notes are
more legible, especially when they must be read
at night, than pencil notes. The strain of read-
ing the latter by artificial light (and much of
the professional reporter's work must be done
at night) is terribly trying to the best of eyes.
The young stenographer, looking forward to
coming years, should preserve his sight careful-
ly as a part of his business equipment, and
should realize that he cannot afford to abuse the
only pair of eyes he will ever have.

6. Neater notes can be made with the pen
than with the pencil, the latter tending to gen-
crate a habit of scrawling. The scrawling writer
is nearly always a pencil writer. Some of the
neatest writers in our profession use the pen
constantly.

7. Pencil notes, in consequence of their intrin-
sic illegibility, can seldom be transcribed (as
pen-notes constantly are) by other persons than
the writer. Such transcription by assistants is
an immense advantage to many a hard-working
reporter.

8. The old objection, based on loss of time hy

PEN OR PENCIL? 129

pen-dipping, and on the inconvenience of carry-
ing round an ink-stand — an objection the force
of which was always overrated — has of course
been made obsolete by the introduction of the
fountain pen.

9. The general opinion of almost every report-
er whose early habits have not prevented him
from giving the pen a fair trial, is decidedly in
its favor. All the official reporting of the
United States Senate for forty years has been
done with the pen. Of the five official reporters
of the House of Representatives, four take notes
with pen, two having discarded the pencil with-
in a year or two past. If the pen can be used
successfully in the perambulating reporting of
the House of Representatives, there ought to be
no difficulty in using it anywhere. The "Short-
hand Review" for August, 1891, states that "out
of 65 of the best known shorthand writers in the
country who were interviewed regarding their
pen or pencil preference, 40 stated that they
used the pen, 14 the pencil, and 11 both."

10. When, on rare occasions, the reporter's
environment absolutely requires the use of pen-
cil, the habitual user of the pen finds little diffi-
culty in adapting himself to the emergency. It

130 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

may be remarked inciden'tally that a reporter,
though habitually a user of the pen, should
never be without one or two good well-sharp-
ened pencils in his pocket, for use in case of
accident or emergency.

11. But the pen, if its advantages are to be
enjoyed, must be held in the right way, and its
proper management must have been acquired by
sufficient practice. A person who has written
shorthand with a pencil for months or years
must not decide against the pen upon a trial of
five or ten minutes. Those who say they "can't
write shorthand with a pen" have never given
the pen a fair trial. In most cases they have
never learned to hold the pen in the peculiar
position which shorthand writing requires — a
very different position from that which is taught
in connection with longhand, and which is
adapted only to strokes written in a single di-
rection. It is important that the learner of short-
hand should use a pen from the start. When
pencil-writing has become habitual, a change to
the pen always requires considerable patience
and self-conquest. Many a pencil writer is un-
willing or unable to give the necessary amount
of practice to overcome the habit he has formed.

PEN OR PENCIL? 131

The longer the use of the pen is postponed, the
harder it will be to make the change.

"I Generally Break My Pencil Point."

12. But this question must not be disposed
of without noticing one consideration of over-
whelming force — the liability of the pencil point
to break treacherously at a most critical mo-
ment. This liability is conceded by two of
the most conspicuous advocates of the pencil,
Mr. Dement and Mr. Thornton. Mr. Dement,
while in attendance at one of the annual meet-
ings of the New York State Stenographers' As-
sociation, to take part in the celebrated "speed
contest," made this statement: "We reporters
of the West use the pencil and use the light
line ; and when I use a heavy line, it is generally
w^rong, except in the word 'defendant,' when I
generally break my pencil point."* (Proceed-
ings of 1887, page 138.) How candidly Mr. De-
ment concedes the treacherousness of his favorite
writing tool! At the same meeting, Mr. Thorn-
ton, referring to the notes taken in the "speed

*The testimony of this eminent Pitmanic writer and author
as to the value of light lines will be gratifying to writers
who do not use shading. In Pitmanic shorthand the word
"defendant," to which Mr. Dement alludes, is represented
by a vertical shaded stroke.^The Publishers.

132 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

contest," said that "Mr. Dement would be very
glad to now read over the notes which he had
taken of the matter dictated to him, to show
that he had taken it in good faith, and that he
could read it all, with the exception of one or
two places where his pencil broke." (Page 94.)
Many reporters who may envy Mr. Dement 's
speed as a shorthand writer, will yet prefer to
do their work with a tool which in an emergen-
cy will not thus betray them. Who can say
how much better a record even Mr. Dement
might have made in that contest if he had been
armed with a better weapon?

What Pen to Use?

If, to the satisfaction of the young writer, my
case has been made out in favor of the pen, the
question naturally arises, What kind of a pen
should be used? This must be largely a matter
of individual preference. A gold pen, which
many writers prefer, others cannot become ac-
customed to, especially when in a ''fountain"
holder. Of steel pens, Gillott's 303, Spencerian
No. 1, the Moheta pen, the Falcon pen, and Per-
ry's three pointed pen (with the latter almost all
the note-taking in the United States Senate was

PEN OR PENCIL? 133

done for a number of years) have their respec-
tive champions. In this matter every writer
must make experiments for himself. If he de-
sires to cultivate a ' ' light touch, ' ' a fine-pointed
and very flexible pen will be chosen. He should
also discover by his own experiments the pa-
per and the ink which suit him. On this point
no special suggestion is deemed necessary.

A Beginner Needs the Best Materials.

In closing this topic, it should be remarked
that there can be no greater error than to as-
sume in the matter of materials that "anything
is good enough for a beginner." On the con-
trary, a beginner is entitled to the best ; for he is
more subject than are experienced writers to the
discouraging influence of little difficulties and
annoyances. Besides, he should early become
accustomed to such materials as he is finally
to use, and should early learn to exercise his
judgment in selecting them.

CAUSES OF HESITATION

"Frequent hesitation as to the proper forms of words takes
away very much from the facility of writing." — Andrkw J.
Ghaham.

"Speed depends chiefly upon the ability of the writer to
make the various outlines of words without hesitation."
— James E. Munson.

To Write Quickly, Think Quickly.

Hesitation is the arch enemy of shorthand
speed. Thousands of young stenographers, who
are longing for a "speedy hand," mistake the
eause of their trouble. Their failure to attain
reasonable rapidity is because the mind, not the
hand, works too slowly. lie who would learn to
write quickly must learn to think quickly.
Would-be shorthand writers, who are wondering
why tliey make no progress, are, in many cases,
attempting to carry in their heads more short-
hand than they can get promptly from their
heads into their fingers. Facility of hand, nat-
ural or acquired, avails nothing, unless the mind,
by prompt conceptions, allows the hand a fair
chance to do its work. As the words fall upon
the stenographer's ear, there should be no ap-
preciable pause between hearing and writing.

134

CAUSES OF HESITATION. 135

Shorthand thinking reaches perfection when it
is so promptly done as to seem automatic. If
the shorthand flows, freely from mind to hand,
even an ordinary hand, moving not rapidly, but
steadily and pauselessly (which prompt think-
ing of the shorthand enables it to do), can write
a good many words in a minute, even though
the "system" written be not extremely brief.
He who has discovered how to write shorthand
without hesitation has gone far toward discover-
ing the "speed secret."

Hesitation Mistaken for Slow>Handedness.

The disease often diagosed as slow-handedness
is in many cases not slow-handedness, but hesita-
tion. Many a young shorthand writer, whose
average speed is but 80 or 90 words a minute,
reaches, during a part of every minute, a pace
of 160 or 180. This pace he could easily keep
up but for the fact that two or three times or
oftener during every minute, his hand is brought
to a standstill, while he hesitatingly decides
how a particular word or phrase should be writ-
ten. If these deadly pauses, during which the
eager hand waits upon the lagging mind, could
be overcome — if the young phonographer could

136 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

only write all words as promptly and rapidly
as he can write some — ^how smooth his pathway
would be!

Hesitation Entails Illegibility.

This hesitating habit affects legibility as well
as speed. A boggling mind eauses a jerky, spas-
modic movement of the hand. When an outline
upon which the writer is obliged to hesitate has
thrown him back eight or ten or a dozen words,
there follows a scramble to catch up. The hand
struggles forward with nervous, spasmodic haste.
Like a railroad train belated by lingering too
long at a particular station, it rushes on, to
make up for lost time. And shorthand, thus
written with hurried hand and flurried mind,
proves often undecipherable.

The "Reporting Vocabulary" — How Acquired.

One of the most common causes of hesitation
is that the writer has failed to familiarize him-
self (as he should do before undertaking "speed
practice") with the well-established outlines for
all ordinarj^ words. In all dictation and report-
ing work, a limited number (but only a limited
number) of outlines must be devised off-hand as
the words are uttered. These impromptu out-

CAUSES OF HESITATION. 137

lines, though they become fewer and fewer as
the writer's practice becomes more and more
extended, never disappear altogether; for no
mind is capacious enough to master by rote-
memorizing all the words that a stenographer
must write. Outlines which require to be in-
vented at the moment of writing are, as com-
pared with familiar outlines, time-losers. If
frequent, they sadly reduce the average of speed.
Even with the learner just beginning ''speed
practice," they should be but a small percentage
of the words written. If they form a large
percentage, either the matter undertaken is of
undue difficulty, or "speed practice" has begun
too soon. Until a reasonably large "reporting
vocabulary" has been acquired, "speed prac-
tice" is premature and of little benefit. The pre-
acquired "reporting vocabulary," even of him
who is just beginning "speed practice," should
be large enough to save him from hesitation
about all ordinary words. The outlines of these
ordinary words are to be familiarized by writ-
ing again and again the exercises under the
various abbreviating rules, and also by copying
over and over again correctly-written exercises
in "the reporting style."

138 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

By faithfully copying correct "reporting
style," the student will learn, not only the fully-
expressed outlines of most of the common
words, but also many common and useful word-
signs, with which he should familiarize himself
before beginning "speed practice." It is highly
important that every word-sign he attempts to
learn should be learned thoroughly. Word-signs
imperfectly learned are one of the commonest
causes of hesitation. Recalled hesitatingly and
doubtfully, word-signs cause to many writers a
far greater loss of time than could the most
cumbrous outlines written promptly. In no
other art is the instantaneous action of the
memory more essential than in shorthand.
Whatever a stenographic student undertakes to
memorize, he must memorize more thoroughly
than he ever memorized the multiplication table
or the Lord's prayer.

With many shorthand writers, the memory
works treacherously because it is overburdened;
and this is more likel}' to occur in connection
with word-signs than with any other part of the
system. Hours and hours, day after day, are
spent in conning and re-conning, writing and
re-writing, arbitrary contractions too numerous

CAUSES OF HESITATION. 139

ever to be mastered. ]\Iany of the words upon
whose arbitrary signs time is thus spent, occur
so rarely in actual work as never to pay for
their laborious acquisition, even if they be well
memorized. If not well memorized, they often
work direct mischief just where they are ex-
pected to be a benefit. When a special and ar-
bitrary abbreviation representing some uncom-
mon word like inclemency, misconception, uiv-
discoverable, etc., has been, as the student sup-
poses, learned, his actual practice does not call
for it often enough to keep it fresh in his mem-
ory. The recollection of it grows dim ; but, alas !
it does not fade out altogether. At some unex-
pected moment, in the midst of hurried note-tak-
ing, the out-of-the-way word is uttered, and the
supposed-to-be-memorized word-sign, if instan-
taneously recalled, might be useful; but, sad to
say, there comes to the mind at this critical mo-
ment, not a clear, prompt recollection, but a
tardy, vague, elusive, tantalizing reminiscence;
and while the writer is deciding whether the ar-
bitrary contraction or the full outline should be
written, precious time is lost.* Thus the at-
tempted "cramming" of "more contractions"

♦This point cannot be emphasized too strongly. — The Pub-
Ushers.

140 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

(often undertaken as a sovereign cure for slow-
handedness) results frequently in loss of speed,
instead of gain. Total ignorance of any contrac-
tion is bliss compared with its uncertain or tar-
dy recollection. No writer should forget that
imperfectly-learned word-signs (and they must
be imperfectly learned if too many are under-
taken), especially word-signs of rare occurrence,
are one of the prime causes of hesitation.

Impromptu Outlines.

But, however well all common outlines may
have been familiarized by reading and copying,
however thoroughly all ordinary word-signs may
have been memorized, there must occur (as al-
ready intimated), in the practice of every writer,
words whose outlines require to be devised on
the spur of the moment — to be built up in the
midst of rapid speaking by a quick, masterly
application of word-building principles. These
outlines thus constructed off-hand, will, as a
matter of course, be written less readily than
memorized outlines ; yet if these impromptu out-
lines give the young writer very great trouble,
something must be wrong. If he hesitates in de-
termining on which side the I hook or the r hook
should be written — if he fails to make a half

CAUSES OF HESITATION. 141

length or a double length stroke where the rules
require it — if he turns a medial s circle inside
the angle of two adjoining letters, instead of
outside — if he confuses the / hook with the w
hook — if, in fact, he commits any glaring steno-
graphic solecism, or if he hesitates where to
place the vowels which a new outline may need
in order to make it safely legible, he is not yet
ripe for ' ' speed practice. ' '* He must turn back
to his elementary lessons, and by the diligent
and repeated writing of numerous examples un-
der each rule, must master those principles of
the unjustly despised ''corresponding style"
which he, and perhaps his teacher, have been too
eager to skim over for the sake of plunging with
undue haste into "the reporting style." If the
young writer is ambitious to "write as reporters
write," let him remember that it is by having
these fundamental abbreviating principles at
his finger-ends that the reporter of widest ex-
perience is saved from breaking down many a
time every day.

Invariability of Outline.

Another cause of hesitation with many a
young stenographer is, that he allows himself
to write a word sometimes with one outline and

♦The causes of hesitation referred to in this passage are
peculiar to IMtmanic shorthand. — The Puhlishers.

142 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

sometimes with another, so that often, when he
is pressed for time, several conflicting outlines
suggest themselves for the same word; and
among these he must make a hurried and hesi-
tating choice. Invariability of outline is one
prime factor of speed. The writer should not
lengthen his accustomed outlines because the
speaker is slow, nor try to make them unusually
brief, because the speaker is fast. On the slow-
est speaker the stenographer's briefest ** report-
ing style" should, if possible, be used, for the
sake of maintaining uniform habits. On this
subject, Andrew J. Graham has well said: "You
should have settled forms for the more frequent
and effective words. If you allow yourself to
express a given word by two or three different
outlines, there will always be some effort, and
more or less loss of time, in deciding in each
particular case how you shall write." Again he
says: "Writing a word in full part of the time,
and part of the time by a word-sign, tends to
cause hesitation."*

*Thp emphasis laid upon this point may not he clear to
readers who are not familiar with I'itmanic shorthand. On
account of the numerous ways in which letters may be repre-
sented in the I'itmanic styles — three forms for R, three for
L. etc.. — most long words can be written In several "possible"
ways. The ditficulty is to choose the best of a number of
possible outlines; in fither words, to arrive at "invariability
of out linf>." --r/ie Publishers.

CAUSES OF HESITATION. 143

The Phrase-Seeking Mania.

Another common cause of hesitation is undue
anxiety to invent phrases. Any young writer
who finds that his mind is consciously and con-
stantly occupied during note-taking in deciding
whether word-outlines can be joined, is writing
more slowly than he need do. This remark does
not imply that phrases are never useful, and
therefore never to be written. It means simply
that facile, prompt, time-saving phrasing is the
finishing accomplishment of the shorthand
writer; that the mere novice (in which term I
include every writer who has not attained at
least a hundred words a minute) is incompetent
to undertake impromptu phrase-construction. I
do not mean that until a speed of 100 words a
minute has been attained, each word should be
written separately, but that in the student's
early practice, before he has learned to write
separate words unhesitatingly, he cannot profit-
ably give any part of his attention to off-hand
phrase-invention. At this stage he should confine
himself to two or three hundred common and
useful phrases, Avhich he has not invented for
himself, but which he has memorized from good
models — such phrases as it is, they are, may be, I

144 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

am, you are, shall he, will he, etc. The student,
even at the beginning of his practice, should not
write these common and useful phrases by sep-
arated outlines; for the habit of doing so might
afterward be hard to correct. Hence, at a stage
when attempts at phrase-invention would be pre-
mature and harmful, he may well spend time
in memorizing from correct models a limited
number of common and highly useful phrases.

Phrasing "Rules" Over=Rated.

There is nothing more unprofitable, and noth-
ing more likely to make a slow writer, than the
premature study of phrasing rules, and the pre-
mature attempt to apply them in impromptu
phrase-construction. The memorizing of a lim-
ited number of correctly-formed and constantly-
useful phrases will do more to give the student
a practical and instinctive insight into the art
of phrasing than all the numerous musts and
niust-nots of "phrasing rules." Under the mis-
guided advice of certain teachers and text-books,
the premature effort to improvise phrases be-
gins often before the circles, the hooks, the
loops, etc.. of elementary phonography have all
been mastered, or even undertaken. The phrase-

CAUSES OF HESITATION. 145

seeking mania, thus contracted during steno-
graphic infancy, is, I sincerely believe, doing
more to raise up a race of inevitably slow
writers than any other single cause. The time
which an immature writer may occasionally save
by the invention of a properly-formed phrase
(hit upon, if at all, by accident rather than good
judgment), is vastly more than counterbalanced
by the time lost in making, with hesitating,
painful effort, awkward, clumsy, and illegible
junctions, or in pondering upon junctions which,
after time has been wasted in deliberating,
strike the mind of even the beginner as inadmis-
sible or impossible. Thus, in the ease of many
beginners, it is doubtful whether more time is
lost upon the phrases which are not made, or
upon those which are. I have met many young
writers who have become such pitiable victims
of the phrasing disease as almost to forbid the
hope of their ever attaining the most modest
and moderate speed.

When Should Impromptu Phrasing Begin?

But it may be asked, when should the young
reporter begin to form phrases for himself?
Adopting in part the language of Thomas Allen
Reed, I answer: "When one has acquired a

146 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

reasonable facility in writing, and a moderate
degree of speed; when all the word-signs have
been familiarized; when all the common word-
forms come readily to the hand; when there is
no longer any effort in thinking out the outlines
of words; when, instead of the hand waiting
for the mind, as formerly, the mind outruns
the hand; when words to be written as a group
can be grasped by the mind as a group before
the pen begins to write the first word of the
combination ; then, if the young reporter should
feel a craving to get down on paper more quick-
ly the word-forms as they crowd upon his mind,
he may permit himself to do what has been
well said to be a characteristic of the accom-
plished reporter — "to catch words bj- the hand-
ful." The author of this happy expression (Mr.
Fred Irland) has not said that any beginner
can thus "catch words by the handful"; nor
does he recommend that beginners should try
to do so. At an advanced stage of shorthand
study, when, by the ordinary abbreviating prin-
ciples of the system, and by the use of a few
hundred well-memorized word-signs and phrases,
a moderate speed has been attained, the art of
phrase-invention, to vvhatever extent desirable,

CAUSES OF HESITATION. 147

can be practiced without running into ruinous
channels — can be practiced in such a way as
to be an aid to speed, not a hindrance. The
experience which the student has by this time
acquired will enable him, in making phrases
for himself, to proceed wisely and profitably.
And at this stage, he will have but small
need for fine-spun "phrasing rules." Having
learned phrase-making from practical examples,
he will have little occasion for abstract precepts.
His memorized phrases will have familiarized
him with every useful principle of phrasing ; and
the writing of good phrases will have become to
him almost an instinct. He will have learned
that pen-lifts are saved at too great cost where
their avoidance entails an ever-present hesita-
tion. He will have acquired in reference to
phrasing what Mr. Reed has called ''the culti-
vated instinct." By a sort of intuition he will
avoid unnatural and awkward joinings. He will
feel none of the misinstructed tyro's eagerness
to string words together in combinations of im-
moderate length. His experience in writing and
reading will enable him to avoid phrases which
may be confounded with single word-forms. Le-
gitimate, time-saving phrases will drop from his

148 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

pen with easy flow and without painful seeking.
And thus the much-mooted phrase-problem will
have been solved in the easiest, the safest, the
best, the only practicable way.

HOW DO REPORTERS PHRASE?

That phrasing, rightly studied and rightly
practiced, is a most valuable reporting aid, con-
ducive alike to legibility and speed, can scarcely
be considered an open question. Carried to a
wild extreme, as the phrasing propensity too
often is, it no doubt becomes a hindrance, not
a help ; yet the fact remains too plain for argu-
ment that modern shorthand systems give con-
stant opportunities for writing words without
a pen-lift so as greatly to increase speed with-
out loss of legibility, often with gain in
legibility ; and these opportunities cannot be
neglected by any stenographer who aspires to
be a master of his art.

Though on certain aspects of the phrasing
question there have been wide differences and
warm disputes, and though, as a matter of fact,
some expert stenographers phrase much more
freely and frequently than others; yet I believe
the actual word of practical men shows as close
a practical agreement on this subject as can be

149

150 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

expected where so much depends upon personal
peculiarities of mind and hand. Waiving all
abstract questions connected with this subject,
I shall undertake to show, for the information
of the shorthand student, when, how, and to
what extent expert stenographers actually phrase
in work demanding high speed.

Memorized Phrases and Extemporized Phrases.

It is my belief that, while expert writers differ
as to the number of phrases which they employ
in rapid work, they substantially agree as to
the classes of phrases which they find useful and
possible. The phrases used in actual reporting
by experts fall naturally into two classes, the
memorized phrase and the extemporized phrase.
The memorized phrase may have been learned
as a set task or may have been memorized un-
consciously. Its characteristic is that it is not
originated during actual reporting. The re-
porting notes of every rapid writer show a vast,
and I believe a preponderating, proportion of
phrases which have not been constructed upon
the impulse of the moment. Every stenographer
stores up as a part of his stock in trade a goodly
number of frequently-recurring phrases, such as

HOW DO REPORTERS PHRASE? 151

''it is," "which is," "there is," "I think," "I
am," "we are," "do you," "are you," "there
are," "must be," "can be," "are there," "in
there, " " did not, " " do not, " " had not. " These
and other simple phrases which every reporter's
notes disclose, are phrases which he cannot be
suposed to have originated on the spur of the
moment. They are such as he must have writ-
ten over and over again hundreds and thousands
of times. By reason of their simplicity and fre-
quency, they have so worked themselves into his
mind and fingers that they drop from his pen
without conscious thought. He may have learned
them ready-made from the phrase-lists in his
text-books; or he may at some long-past period
have performed for himself the very simple labor
of their construction ; or he may have imbibed
them unconsciously from the shorthand he has
read or copied.

Let it be particularly observed in regard to
this large class of phrases found in the work of
practical reporters, that they are the phrases of
common, every-day speech. They recur again
and again. Because the word-groups which
these sign-groups represent are pat on the popu-
lar tongue, they have become pat to the re-

152 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

porter's pen. Other phrases which he may have
memorized have been forgotten, because rarely
required, for, as says the "Phonetic Journal"
(July, 1892), "A phrase, however good it may
be, if it be one that the writer does not have
occasion to use frequently, will not come to his
mind [in speedy writing] with sufficient celerity
to be available." But these common, every-day
phrases have been stamped upon the reporter's
memory in such a way that they have become,
as it were, a part of his very nature. And most
fortunate it is that repetition thus makes famil-
iar to the reporter 's pen those words and phrases
which, because frequently uttered, are rapidly
uttered.

But we also find, scattered through the notes
of accomplished reporters, phrases which have
been extemporized as the speech proceeded.
The extemporized phrase defines itself. The
reporter in the act of writing brings together
two or more words which he has never been
taught to join and which he has never joined
before. He has formed a new combination, and
has done this off-hand. The extemporized phrases
which appear in the reporting notes of an accom-
plished writer are often most happy and apposite.

HOW DO REPORTERS PHRASE? 153

indicating thorough training of mind and hand.
But the cold truth must be told that, as the
speaking becomes more and more rapid, the in-
vention of phrases upon the spur of the moment
becomes for most writers less and less easy, and
consequently the extemporized phrase grows
rarer and rarer, until, when rapidity has reached
its acme, the extemporized phrase disappears
almost entirely. There are very few reporters —
I do not say there are none — who can evolve
from brain and hand, impromptu phrases when
the spoken words are speeding on with almost
lightning-like rapidity.

Rapid Writing Shows Few Impromptu Phrases.

The remark of the "Phonetic Journal" (July,
1892), in an article already quoted (presumably
from the pen of Isaac Pitman), that "almost all
the great feats of fast writing have been accom-
plished with a very small use of phraseography, ' '
is true in this sense : that such feats bring into
play very few phrases except such as have been
thoroughly memorized. These exceptional ex-
hibitions of fast writing show no phrases, or
scarcely any, invented on the spur of the moment.
Many a student who is laboring hard to acquire

154 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

the art of phrase-invention, as if the secret of
swift writing consisted in the evolution of short-
hand phrases on the spur of the moment, will be
startled to learn that impromptu phrases —
phrases invented as the speaking proceeds — are
not the phrases that help the reporter over the
hard places. With an overwhelming majority of
even expert writers, it is undeniably true that
when high speed begins, phrase invention ends.
I think I might challenge any one to show me a
specimen of notes written at as high a speed as
two hundred words a minute, in which any ex-
traordinary or peculiar combination of words,
meeting the writer for the first time on that par-
ticular occasion, has been phrased.

In the stress of rapid speech the memorized
phrase is the reporter's mainstay. If well mem-
orized, it comes into play as fully and freelj^ as
in slower utterances, demonstrating more and
more its indispensable utility. It is constantly
and pricelessly useful. It is crowned by two
special merits. Representing, as it always should,
a frequently-recurring word-group, it pays for
its adoption over and over again, day after day
and year after year. More than that, it helps
where help is especially needed, because words

HOW DO REPORTERS PHRASE? 155

or word-groups which frequently recur are
spoken with more than average rapidity.

Catching Up "With a Bound."

In praise of phrasing, the remark has been
frequently repeated that the reporter, when
pressed by a rapid speaker, who threatens to
leave him in the lurch, is often enabled to bring
himself up "with a bound" by means of some
apt and timely phraseogram. For instance,
Thomas Allen Reed speaks of phrases which,
**like some good fairy, have helped him over the
ground when running a hard race." But mark
the illustrative phrases which he mentions. They
are not phrases constructed for the first time
amid the stress of rapid speaking, but such
phrases as "in point of fact," "as a matter of
fact," "do you mean to say," which he had
doubtless been writing habitually for years. The
welcome relief which phrasing affords at critical
moments, when the reporter is lagging behind
the speaker, comes not from impromptu phras-
ing, I doubt whether any practical reporter —
Mr. Reed or any one else — can name a case in
which he was helped over a hard place by ex-
temporizing a phrase-sign for an unfamiliar

156 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

word-group, meeting him for the first time in
the midst of rapid speaking.

Recurrent Word-Groups.

Another class of phrases written sometimes by
the practical reporter should not be overlooked.
Though, as already remarked, the reporter in
rapid writing very rarely combines in a phrase
a group of words which he is called upon to
write for the first time, yet a word-group un-
familiar to the writer when the speaker first
utters it — peculiar perhaps to a given subject-
matter — may, when once introduced, recur again
and again; and though the reporter does not
phrase it when he first hears it, yet the recurrent
word-group naturally suggests, before many
repetitions have occurred, an appropriate sign-
group. This sort of phrase-invention is with
most reporters quite common, and is not in con-
flict with the fact already stated, that a phrase-
sign is rarely extemporized during hurried
speech for a word-group newly encountered.

The Practice of Reporters Summarized.

The practice of reporters in general with re-
spect to the subject of phrasing may be summed
up in the following propositions:

ROW DO REPORTERS PHRASE? 157

1. A vast majority of the phrases which the
reporter writes are memorized phrases, which,
if well memorized, are as freely used during
rapid as during slow speaking.

2. During moderate speaking the reporter
exercises to a limited degree, in some cases to
a large degree, the faculty of phrase-invention
upon word-groups encountered for the first
time.

3. During extremely rapid speaking, he does
not invent, or very rarely invents, sign-groups
for absolutely new word-groups.

4. During rapid speaking he sometimes, in-
deed frequently, invents sign-groups for recup-
rent word-groups.

The Book-Maker's Phrase.

Besides the classes of phrases already de-
scribed (all of which are found in the notes
of practical reporters), there is a third class of
phrases, never discovered in genuine reporting
notes, but found only in the carefully elaborated
specimens of so-called "reporting style" appear-
ing from time to time in certain magazines and
text-books. These are phrases concocted labori-
ously in the mind of some theorist, who, sitting

158 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

in the quiet of his library, wielding no reporter's
pen and pressed by no reporter's exigencies, —
intent only on illustrating the phrasing capabili-
ties of a particular "system" — can take all the
time he chooses to invent methods of joining
words which cannot come together perhaps more
than once in a lifetime, and which, if encoun-
tered for the first time in actual speaking, would
not and could not be written by any reporter in
the manner in which the theorizing constructor
of "reporting exercises" takes so much pride.
These forced and unnatural combinations may
be called "book-maker's phrases," because on
the pages of text-books they shine in all their
glory; or "excogitated phrases," because in
their far-fetched intricacy they are the products
of a state of mind unknown to the reporter.
Note the characteristics of the "book-maker's
phrase": first, the word-group selected for
phrasing is extremely rare; second, the method
of representation is generally overstrained and
unnatural, such as could not be devised off-hand
amid hurried speaking. Here are some examples
of such phrases — not manufactured by myself,
but culled from text-books or "reporting style''
exercises representing various authors and sys-

HOW DO REPORTERS PHRASE? 159

terns ; for alas ! the mania for inventing these
"fearfully and wonderfully made" eombina-*
tions is not confined to a single author or a
single "system":

"A scientific fact that the,"

"A single sandwich,"

"Before he ventured to speak of it,"

"In his imperial anger,"

"Of sacrificing their own rank,"

"As his master is,"

"When we receive their permission,"

"Is said to have forced,"

"Let their future course decide,"

"Murder their own families,"

"How many times will you receive this
notice,"

"Having observed the ebb and flow,"

"Can stand in Washington street,"

"To plow your lands,"

"For all you know we may receive,"

"From the vile mire,"

"Smites its victims,"

"I know that I am not going to be ap-
plauded,"

"His spirited speeches,"

"Is essentially distinct,"

160 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPBED.

"Before a system of grammar,"

"In one of his many passages,"

It scarcely need be said that phrases of this
kind, representing nothing desirable or even pos-
sible in reporting work, are most dangerous
models for imitation; and if the student aims
to achieve in his own writing, phrases based
on models so vicious, he hopelessly handicaps
himself, and speed is out of the question. Yet
strange to say, such phrases seem to have for
certain minds a peculiar fascination. They are
accepted by thousands of students as specimens
of what reporters are doing in their every-day
work and what the student must learn to do if
he would attain reporting speed. Inspired by
such vicious and deluding examples, one zealous
young writer once showed me boastfully, as a
praiseworthy achievement in the art of phras-
ing, the wonderfully useful ( ?) combination,
"cut to the exact size of the coin," which he
had written without lifting the pen ("to the"
and "of the" being of course implied).

The mischief done and doing by circulating
specimens of spurious "reporting style" which
no reporter does or can write, has spread too
far and wide for any words of mine ever to

HOW DO REPORTERS PHRASE? 161

reach a tithe of its deluded victims. I can only
make this earnest protest against these artificial,
far-fetched, impracticable methods of phrasing,
and appeal to practical reporters of every "sys-
tem" to sustain the protest.

Such phrases as those just exhibited, when
once accepted by the student as models, are not
only misleading but highly discouraging. When
he finds, as he must, that he is unable to achieve
any such ingenious combinations under speed
pressure — when he finds that the writing in
which he most studiously and laboriously phrases
is his slowest work — he naturally concludes that
anything like reporting skill must for months
and years be beyond his reach. And well may
he so conclude, if reporting skill depends upon
achieving in practice the outlandish, over-
strained and unnatural phrases which are placed
before him as examples for imitation.

An Object Lesson in Phrasing.

"Young stenographers," says the "Phonetic
Journal, " " are astonished when they come across
a fac-simile of notes taken at a high speed and
discover that there is no such abundance of
phrases as they expected." In verification of

162 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

this remark and to show how few and simple
are the phrases by means of which rapid writ-
ing is accomplished, I invite the reader's atten-
tion to the text of three extracts from speech
matter, written at high speed by three English
stenographers. The magazine ("The Reporter's
Journal," London) from which these extracts are
taken, publishes along with them fac-simile re-
productions of the original notes. The words
phrased in the original notes, I have indicated
by parentheses. Let the reader observe the
character of the phrases achieved under ex-
treme speed pressure. Let him also note the
word-groups which are not stenographically
phrased. Let him note the fewness of the sign-
groups in comparison with the number which
the ambitious beginner would suppose absolutely
necessary for the attainment of high speed. Let
him observe, too, the utter absence of that
strained and unnatural creation of theorists and
their followers — the excogitated phrase. Let him
observe that scarcely one of the sign-groups
actually used can be supposed to have been in-
vented on the spur of the moment. Practically
every phrase occurring in the written notes is
the product of memory, not invention — is such

HOW DO REPORTERS PHRASE? 163

as the writer must have been thoroughly familiar
with before he took up his pen to write the
passage.

The following, written by Frank A. Williams
at the rate of 210 words a minute, contains 26
phrases in 235 words:

(Mr. President), (Ladies and Gentlemen) : I
(very much) wish to say a few words (on this
subject) of possible speed. (I do not know)
(that it comes) with (very good) grace (from
myself) ; but (I am going) to trust myself to
your kindness which you have shown to a
stranger in a strange land, to bear with me who
deserves (so little), because I want to say some-
thing on behalf (of some others). (I suppose)
(that this) whole business (with reference) (to
this) contest arose (out of) the letter that (I
had) the misfortune to write two (years ago)
(to the) secretary of the International Short-
hand Writers' Association. (In that) letter I
tried to say that I thought that when certain
teachers and text-book writers ridiculed the idea
of high speed — (I thought) (that it was) some-
thing which all stenographers ought to pay a
little more attention to, because wherever (there
is) a (shorthand-writer) who can get a hundred

164 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

(words a minute) on paper, (he is) very apt to
foster and countenance the idea that anything
above that (does not count). (In that) letter
I made use of perhaps an injudicious expres-
sion. (It was) this, — that (I believe) (there
are) several men in Michigan — and I used the
term Michigan merely incidentally — who could
write 250 (words a minute) (in court) when
reporting. That was taken up and discussed."
The following, written by George W. Bun-
bury at the rate of 220 words a minute, con-
tains 50 phrases in 283 words :*

(Lord Salisbury), (on rising) (to reply),
(was received) with prolonged cheers. Having
returned thanks (for the) unanimity (with
which the) resolution was carried, he proceeded
to (point out) that constituencies (such as
those) of Sussex (and London) and other
boroughs which he might mention, which had
long been endowed (with the) franchise (and
which) had always been keenly interested (in
the) political facts of the country, had almost
without exception remained Conservative, where-
as the constituencies not long (exercising the)
franchise were (more or less) (at the mercy)

"As lo these ligiiros, soe footnote on page 38.

HOW DO REPORTERS PHRASE? 165

of agitators seeking opportunities (of making)
political capital (for themselves) (and their)
party. Continuing (he also) said: As to (what
the) issue of the impending election (may be)
(I am not) careful (to speak) (to you). Though
(I have) the firm belief that (it will) issue in
a manner agreeable (to our) (own hopes), I
still think (that we have) even larger issues (to
regard). One of the preceding speakers men-
tioned (that the) experience of all parliament-s
(since the) (Reform Bill) (has been) (against
us). (I do not think) (that is) entirely the
case. (As far as) (I remember), (there has
only) been one parliament (that has) gone
through six years (under the) same ministry;
(and that) parliament — Lord Palmerston's Par-
liament— when (it was) dissolved, issued in a
strong majority (for the) Government of the
day. The (Prime Minister) died immediately
afterwards, but (I hope) (I am not) to consider
that among necessary events. Individual min-
isters come and go, but the Conservative cause
lives. After a brief reference (to the) un-
troubled condition of foreign politics, (he also),
referring (to the) labor problem (at home),
continued, (we can not) look abroad (into the)
territories (which are) occupied."

166 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

The following, written by Harry Toothill at
the rate of 276 words a minute,* contains 41
phrases in 276 words:

(Mr. Gosehen) said: (I do not know) (how
many) (of you) (in this) room I may address
as brother electors of the Rye division of Sus-
sex. (I am) here to-night (in my) capacity as
an elector (for this) division, and (I am) here
to congratulate (this association) on having
taken an early opportunity of showing (that
the) southeastern parts of the (United King-
dom) (are not) behind the rest (in their) strong
interest (in the) great controversy (which is
now) being waged throughout the length and
breadth of the town. (We are) sometimes told
that (in the) southeastern and southern parts
of the (United Kingdom) (we have not) ad-
vanced (to the) political intelligence (which is)
displayed in Lancashire (and the) northern
constituencies. (Let us do) what (in us) lies
to disprove the charge. The south of England
has lost some (of its) representatives, (and the)
numbers thus saved (in the) representation
(have been) distributed among more populous
neighborhoods. (Let us look) (to it) (that we)

*As to these figures, see footnote on page 38. — The Pub-

HOW DO REPORTERS PHRASE? 167

make the best use of the representation left (to
us). (I do not know) (that there has been)
any more momentous time (in the) political
history (of this country) than the present. (Not
only) has there been a new extension of the
franchise, (but the) electoral divisions (have
been) readjusted and a process (has been) go-
ing on in politics which might be likened (to
the) breaking up of the regimental system (in
the) army. Still we (must not) exaggerate.
Much is said about a transfer of power (to the)
masses. I prefer to speak of the re-partition of
power, because power must remain and I trust
will remain."

Each of the specimens of the original notes
of the foregoing text is accompanied in the ' ' Re-
porters' Journal" with a shorthand key, which,
having been prepared by the editor at his
leisure, shows far more profuse phrasing than
the hard-pressed reporter had time to think of.
There could scarcely be a better demonstration
than is thus furnished of the fact that "the
mind when pushed works by the easiest
methods"; and that phrase-invention cannot
take place to any considerable extent under ex-
treme speed pressure. In the language of the

168 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

*' Phonetic Journal," "A phrase, however useful
it may be, if it be one that the writer does not
have occasion to use frequently, will not come
to his mind when under examination [for
speed] with suflScient celerity to be available.
* * * In very rapid work there is no time
for thought, no time to recall useful devices,
no time to do anything except to write down as
mechanically as possible that which is heard.
Paradoxical as it may seem, it is true that the
more slowly one writes, the more easy it is to
use phraseography freely. The mind has more
leisure to think, and the hand more time to
form intricate combinations neatly and care-
fully."

"THE MOST INFERNAL MISTAKE
THAT WAS EVER MADE."

Though, as has been shown, the impromptu
invention of phrases cuts little figure in the
stenographer's most rapid work, thousands of
young stenographers in all English-speaking
countries are toiling to acquire the art of in-
venting shorthand phrases oif-hand. They are
taught to believe that this art is "the secret of
rapid writing" — the indispensable accomplish-
ment of every person worthy the name of a re-
porter. And the student is invited to begin the
study of this art almost as soon as he has mas-
tered the stenographic alphabet. By one author
the subject of phrase-invention is introduced in
the eighth lesson of the text-book; by another,
in the fourth; by another, in the third! The
student, it seems, is not to content himself with
learning carefully-constructed and fully-tested
phrases, as set down for him by an experienced
author or teacher. With no better equipment

169

170 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

than his own crude and immature notions, he
must plunge in and construct phrases for him-
self. He must be ever on the alert lest some
phrase combination admissible by the rules of
phrasing may escape him. "In all his practice,"
says the well-known stenographic author, Mr.
W. W. Osgoodby, "the student should carefully
watch for and study every opportunity for use-
ful phrasing that may be afforded by the matter
he is writing." And he must not be discour-
aged, if he finds himself losing time in his
attempt to construct for himself those supposed
time-savers — extemporized phrases. Says Mr.
Fred Pitman: "Let him (the student) sedu-
lously look for phrases which are of value and
employ them. If it is necessary for him to
write slowly in order to secure the use of
phrases, then without question it is proper that
the student in a considerable portion of his
daily practice should write slowly. * * *
This will confirm him in the habit of finding
phrases, of making phrases, of using phrases —
a habit, we aver, which should be cultivated in
the highest possible degree by those who desire
to write with great swiftness." Thus by bad
precept is the bad example of the excogitating
phraser reinforced.

MOST INFERNAL MISTAKE EVER MADE. 171

Dissenting, as I do most decidedly, from such
teaching as that just quoted, I cite with pleas-
ure the words of an eminent reporter of long
experience, Mr. A. P. Little, of Rochester, whose
emphatic condemnation of phrasing is, as his
language shows, directed, not against those com-
mon phrases which every reporter has, and must
have, at his pen's point for constant use, but
against the misguided and fruitless attempts to
achieve high speed by impromptu phrasing:

"Teachers of shorthand are urging pupils to
phrase. Authors are putting in their books,
'Just as soon as you get the elementary princi-
ples of this system of shorthand into your nod-
dle, go to work and phrase.' The most infernal
mistake that was ever made by authors and
teachers of shorthand \ * * * All the teach-
ers from Maine to San Francisco say, 'Just as
soon as you learn the principles of shorthand,
sit down and learn to phrase; you will have
to, if you wish to write rapidly.' I defy any
one to do it to any great extent in rapid work.
There are old stereotyped phrases which
almost all stenographers use, which represent
words that coalesce as easily as water and
whiskey; and that is the phrasing which can

172 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

be done with readiness — which does not retard
speed."

Let me state some of the objections to the
study of the art of extemporaneous phrase-
invention, as commonly practiced.

The Learner's Incompetence.

1. In the early stages of stenographic study,
when phrase-invention is too often undertaken,
the attempt to practice this art is particularly
mistimed, because the student has then too many
other things to think of. At this point his mind
is largely taxed by the effort to learn or recall
the common logograms, and to devise proper
forms for other frequently-recurring words. He
needs to have the unconnected forms of ordinary
words fixed in his mind as to both outline and
position. But in phrasing, the normal position
of many words is constantly varied. To the ad-
vanced stenographer, this offers slight embar-
rassment. He can phrase "you may think,"
"you are aware," "our rights," without dis-
turbing in his memory the normal location of
"think," "aware," and "rights" as isolated
words. But such things confuse the learner. He
has another trouble. Not only accustomed posi-
tion, but accustomed outline is, in phrasing, per-

MOST INFERNAL MISTAKE EVER MADE. 173

mitted to be varied. The commonly-recognized
practice by which, as one author expresses it,
"many words are lengthened in order that they
may be joined in certain phrases," requires
stringent limitations at the hands of even the
advanced stenographer. But even if it be not
true that "invariability of outline is one prime
factor of speed" — even if it be assumed that
variability of outline can safely be indulged in
by the experienced writer — the mere learner
cannot afford to have word-forms thus unsettled.
Who can doubt, for instance, that the too-early
writing of t-m in a phrase for the word "time"
must delay or defeat the mastering of t in the
first position as a logogram?

2. In the early stage at which phrasing is
usually undertaken, the student is incompetent,
with all the guidance that much-vaunted rules
can give him, to distinguish good phrases from
bad. If encouraged or allowed to invent phrases
for himself, he will invent many more bad ones
than good ones. "Beginners," it has been well
remarked, "take much longer time in thinking
out inconvenient and illegible joinings than
would be occupied in writing the words sepa-
rately"; they undertake to "join every word

174 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

that is physically capable of uniting with an-
other."

The stenographic beginner (and in this term
I include every one who has not attained a
speed of 80 to 100 words a minute) is no more
competent to invent phrases than to invent word-
signs. No one proposes to set the learner adrift
to invent his own word-signs; yet as between
the invention of phrases and the invention of
word-signs, the former is much more difficult.
For phrase-invention many indefinite, abstruse,
elaborate rules are deemed necessary; but the
whole science of word-sign invention might be
compressed into this single sentence: Let the
word for which a word-sign is sought be a com-
mon word of long and difficult outline ; and let
the sign adopted be brief, unambiguous and
easily written. Why should not the learner, who
is assumed to be able to undertake the difficult
task of phrase-invention, be set to work with
this simple rule to construct his own word-signs?

What is the character of the phrasing rules
which the shorthand student, with an experi-
ence of a few weeks or months, is expected to
apply for himself? He is enjoined, for instance,
to avoid phrases which involve awkward junc-

MOST INFERNAL MISTAKE EVER MADE. 175

tions; but his immature judgment is not com-
petent to determine whether a particular junc-
tion is awkward enough to be condemned by the
rules. He is enjoined not to make phrases too
long; but how many words make a phrase "too
long," he can not tell. He is told not to write
any phrase which might possibly be confounded
with a single word-form or with another phrase ;
but his familiarity with other word-signs and
other phrases is too limited and narrow to en-
able him to apply this rule intelligently.

In his early and misjudged attempts to make
phrases for himself, the student, despite the
most careful study of phrasing rules, makes and
tolerates phrases, whose awkwardness and neces-
sary slowness he is incompetent to recognize —
phrases which no reporter would or could use.
Thus his judgment is so vitiated and blunted
that in many cases the art of making good
phrases is never acquired. That "cultivated in-
stinct," which later ought to enable him to dis-
tinguish intuitively between good phrases and
bad, has no opportunity for healthy growth.

3. By reason of the pauses which he con-
stantly makes to decide whether given words
should or should not be joined, he contracts a

176 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

slow, jerky, spasmodic movement of the hand,
inconsistent with that steady, pauseless motion
which has been described in a previous chapter
as the characteristic of the speedy writer. Says
a stenographer of the widest experience and
soundest judgment : "I have seen young report-
ers laboriously stringing words together, not
flowingly and easily, but by a series of uncom-
fortable jerks and twists that were painful to
contemplate, and seemed to threaten an attack
of writer's cramp."

The Phrase=Seeking Mania.

4, In these early attempts at phrase-invention
the student is in peril of acquiring the phrase-
seeking mania — that state of mind which con-
stantly inquires, as the pen passes from char-
acter to character, whether there lurks in them
some possibility of being joined. There can be
no more deplorable state of mind for any would-
be stenographer than a ceaseless anxiety to dis-
cover, as words are uttered, opportunities for
phrasing. This habit of mind, once acquired, is
extremely ditficult to eradicate, and if not
eradicated, is fatal to speed. It might almost
be said that the question whether a person is

MOST INFERNAL MISTAKE EVER MADE. 177

to attain even moderate speed depends largely
upon whether he acquires or escapes the habit
of phrase-seeking.

The loss of time which this habit entails is
almost incalculable. Word-groups which do not
admit of any equivalent sign-groups are far
more numerous than those which do. The phrase-
seeker, as he proceeds, must give some measure
of thought to each impracticable or undesirable
joining that may occur to him; he must take
time in deciding, with more or less thought, that
it is impracticable or undesirable. Of course, a
writer who thus loses time must write slowly.

5. The phrase-seeker, though aiming to ac-
quire, is not acquiring, a correct reporting style.
He is not learning to think as reporters think
or to write as reporters write. Phrase-seeking
is not a reporting habit. The reporter uses
phrases, few or many, varying according to his
personal peculiarities and education; but the
successful reporter is never a phrase-seeker.

6. By the waste of time upon the study of
phrase-invention, the student's final attainment
of amanuensis or reporting skill is always de-
layed, often defeated. The time wastefully and
fruitlessly spent by young writers in the study

178 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

of phrase-invention accounts largely for the fact
that so much labor in shorthand study shows
generally so little result in speed acquired.
Many a student, because the phrase-seeking habit
fastens itself upon him, becomes for all time
a slower writer than he might have been if he
had never known there was such a thing as
phrasing.

7. The phrase-seeking habit prevents that au-
tomatic, or almost automatic, action of mind
and hand which must be thoroughly established
before high speed can be attained. Instead of
cultivating the habit of anxiously searching for
phrases, the young writer, if he would become
a reporter, must aim to banish, during his
attempts at speedy writing, all anxious thought
or effort, remembering that the acme of steno-
graphic success is not attained until, in the apt
language of Mr. Irland, "shorthand becomes
only a swifter longhand, as plain and as effort-
less— when the fingers become automatic record-
ing agents, making as perfect a record, with as
little effort, as the pencil of a self-registering
wind-gauge. ' '

PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS
ABOUT PHRASING.

Memorizing Phrases.

1. As the stock of phrases which the writer is
to use will consist mainly of the common-place,
every-day phrases of ordinary speech, he must
Contract at the beginning no habits which may
interfere with the ready use of such phrases.
The beginner must not allow himself, nor must
he be allowed, to write separately words which
ultimately he should write constantly together.
To this extent he not only may, but must,
phrase. There are certain commonplace phrases
which no reporter ever writes as separate words,
and which, therefore, no student should ever
thus write. If in the early stages of his short-
hand education he writes "I do," "you may,"
"will be," etc., as separated words, the habit of
doing so may later prove very hard to eradicate.
In learning from the start to write for such com-
mon word-groups their accepted sign-groups, the
student accumulates gradually that goodly stock

179

180 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

of every-day phrases which is to stand him in
good stead during every future hour of his re-
porting experience.

2. But, instead of depending upon inciden-
tally meeting the phrases which he is to memorize
as a part of his stock in trade, he should have
placed before him in special lists and in reason-
able quantity, from day to day and from week
to week, that limited number of phrases which
experience has shown it to be worth every stu-
dent's while to memorize. The gradual storing
of the memory with a limited number of useful
phrase-signs is just as reasonable and necessary
as the memorizing of useful word-signs. The
phrases selected for this purpose should be those
which occur most constantly in all kinds of mat-
ter, and will, therefore, be the most useful to the
amanuensis or the reporter — *' those stereotyped
phrases which all reporters use, which represent
words that coalesce as easily as whiskey and
water." The useful phrases which are thus to
be memorized I would not permit the student to
invent, or even select, for himself. His imper-
fect stenographic education and his immature
judgment disqualify him for deciding what
phrases are useful enough to be worth memoriz-
ing.

SUGGESTIONS ABOUT PHRASING 181

The aggregate number of phrases which the
student will need to memorize as a necessary
part of his shorthand equipment is not formid-
able ; on the contrary, I believe the number will
be found surprisingly small — perhaps not more
than four, five or six hundred, all told. They
should be such as, when learned, will be kept
fresh in the writer's memory by constant recur-
rence. As the editor of the "Phonetic Journal"
has remarked in words already quoted, "A
phrase, however good it may be, if it be one that
the writer does not have occasion to use fre-
quently, will not come to his mind [when
needed] with sufficient celerity to be available."
To undertake to memorize phrases by the thou-
sands is a sad mistake, because such elaborate
lists can never be memorized thoroughly; and
as already urged, the imperfect memorizing of
anything which is to be of use in shorthand is
always worse than never undertaking to mem-
orize it at all. Overloading the memory is one
of the most common and most natural errors con-
nected with the study of shorthand. Certain
advertisements offer to the student "five thou-
sand lightning phrases," the memorizing of
which, as the author of the book alluringly

182 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

promises, will have an almost magical effect in
making the student a reporter. The innocent
purchaser of such voluminous collections of
phrases does not know that no living reporter
has ever memorized five thousand phrases.

Premature Phrase-Invention Forbidden.

3. If the tyro is to escape the dangers of the
phrasing mania, he must not permit his mind
to be occupied while he writes, with a straining
effort to join words which come together rarely
and casually. Immature writers do themselves
great harm by premature attempts to originate
phrases. The phrasing habit which is to be cul-
tivated as a preparation for reporting is the
writin.G; of familiar phrases with the very great-
est rapidity — not the invention of phrases on the
spur of the moment. When the proper stage
has been reached, the fortunate writer who may
possess the faculties requisite for successfully
practicing the art of off-hand phrase-invention,
will find that graceful, safe, time-saving phrases
will literally suggest themselves. A "cultivated
instinct" will guide mind and hand promptly
and unerringly, though abstract phrasing rules
may never have been learned.

SUGGESTIONS ABOUT PHRASING. 183

Spurious "Reporting Style."

4. The learner should be especially on his
guard against the misleading and corrupting
influence of artificially-constructed specimens of
so-called "reporting style," abounding in far-
fetched and (in practice) impossible phrases,
gotten up at leisure by text-book makers and
"system" mongers. The student, in aiming to
join words which occur together only once in a
lifetime, is not cultivating reporting habits; he
is undertaking to do what no reporter (unless
an individual of very exceptional genius) does
or can do in rapid writing. As already pointed
out, the commonest, and, in very rapid writing,
almost the only phrases used by the reporter are
those representing the over-and-over-again com-
binations of every-day speech.

5. The student should without ceasing strive
to abandon, if he has contracted it, the habit of
phrase-seeking. Throwing to the winds such
advice as that already quoted, let him not, "in
all his practice, carefully watch for and study
every opportunity for useful phrasing that may
be afforded by the matter he is writing." Let
him pay no regard to the injunction, "If neces-
sary to write slowly in order to secure the use

184 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

of phrases, then, without question, it is proper
that the student, in a considerable portion of
his daily practice, should write slowly." Let
him avoid especially one common incident of
the phrase-making mania, — voluntarilj'^ falling
behind the speaker in order that phrases may
be thought out.

"Playful Stenographic Gymnastics."

6. Nor must the student be misled by some
remarkable phrases which he may occasionally
discover in bona fide reporting notes, taken very
slowly or at only moderate speed. Such notes,
while showing (if from the hands of an expert)
natural and artistic extemporized phrases, show
also occasionally some outlandish, inartistic
phrases, which would not be indulged in if the
speaking Avere rapid. It sometimes happens
that, merely to relieve the tedium of a slowly-
uttered speech, the reporter, in a spirit, as it
were, of playfulness or caprice, resorts to phras-
ing expedients which his own deliberate judg-
ment would not sanction and which he would be
the last one to hold up as models for imitation.
Speaking of the whim that sometimes tempts a
reporter to indulge in these fantastic and abnor-

SUGGESTIONS ABOUT PHRASING. 185

mal phrasings, Thomas Allen Reed remarks: "I
have sometimes tried my hand in actual report-
ing at writing these long phraseograms, not be-
cause I approve of the practice, but simply for
amasement ; and my note-books accordingly con-
tain here and there some of the most appalling
characters that ever met the eye. Note-taking
is generally too serious business to admit of in-
dulgence in this kind of entertainment; but it
is not, perhaps, surprising that one occasionally
endeavors to relieve the monotony of a long and
dull speech by some playful stenographic gym-
nastics. Such phrases are anything else than
aids to speed, and would not be written by any
man in his senses, except as a matter of amuse-
ment."

7. While in general the student should make
no attempt at phrase-invention, he should be on
the alert for what have been described as recur-
rent phrases. If he finds that, in any particular
line of work or practice, certain words occur
together frequently, let him join them, if they
admit of ready junction. No one should fail to
make the phrases which his daily work invites
him to make. It is important that recurrent
word-groups, which are usually spoken with

186 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

more than average rapidity (the different words
of the phrase being blended like the syllables of
a single word) should be represented by facile
sign-groups. The essence of practical phrasing
has been well expressed by a veteran reporter in
this language: "Whenever two or more words
occur in juxtaposition frequently and can be
joined without an effort, I make a phrase."

Phrasing Rules Overvalued.

8. The student should not expect to acquire
the art of phrasing by the mere study of phras-
ing rules, most of which, as already shown, are
so general, or so abstruse, or so variable as to
give very little practical aid. I do not believe
an}' accomplished reporter who phrases judi-
ciously and aptly, ever acquired any consider-
able portion of his skill by the study of phrasing
rules. Nothing but study and practice of nor-
mal phrase-models, selected by practical men
from practical work, can give one that "culti-
vated instinct" which will almost intuitively
adopt good junctions and unhesitatingly avoid
bad ones.

The Law of Automatism.

9. To achieve phrases by varying established
word-forms or elongating established word-signs,

SUGGESTIONS ABOUT PHRASING. 187

violates what I believe should be accepted as a
maxim, — "Invariability of outline is a prime
factor of speed." To allow one's self to write
a word in several different ways to gratify a
momentary whim or to achieve some tempting
phrase, entails, whenever the word is to be sepa-
rately written, a certain degree of hesitation,
which must postpone or defeat that happy con-
dition— the most favorable condition to high
speed — when mind and hand shall work, as it
were, automatically. In this matter there is
found a strong analogy between shorthand and
longhand. In the latter no one attains great
speed so long as he is compelled to think about
the spelling of the words, the distinctions be-
tween capitals and small letters, the proper use
of punctuation-marks, etc. That great desidera-
tum, automatism — "the absolute disengagement
of the mind, so far as consciousness is concerned,
from the process of writing" — cannot be at-
tained or approximated except by cherishing in
every way uniformity of writing habits. With-
out fixity of practice, there cannot be auto-
matism; and without a large degree of automa-
tism, there cannot be speed. Absolute automa-
tism may not be attainable; but the nearer the

188 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

writer approaches it (other things being equal)
the greater the rapidity he will reach.

One of the ways in which uniformity of out-
line is commonly sacrificed is by writing for
phrase purposes a full outline instead of an ac-
customed w^ord-sign. For instance, the word
"number," ordinarily expressed by a logogram,
is by some authors elongated exceptionally, in
order to make possible the phrase "this num-
ber." So, too, we read in one of the standard
phrase-books: "When 'belong' is joined to a
preceding stem, it should be written in full,
because its abbreviation hi in such cases would
conflict with 'believe.' "* The momentary gain,
if any, by writing phrases which thus violate
uniformity of outline, is much more than coun-
terbalanced by the writer's inevitable hesitation
when he undertakes to write separately, with its
briefer sign, the word which for phrase-purposes
has been elongated. The usual result is that he
finally comes to write the longer form under all
circumstances. And thus a useful word-sign is
obliterated from his system.

Uniformity of word-outline is, in the second
place, violated when a full outline of excep-

*ThPse remarks apply to Pitmanic Shorthand only. — The
PuMishers.

SUGGESTIONS ABOUT PHRASING. 189

tional construction is substituted for the out-
line which usage has established as the best.
For instance, in order to achieve the phrase "in
his letter," some authors write the last word of
the phrase (contrary to the settled form of the
separate word) with downward I. So, too, in
order to malie possible or convenient the phrase
"in this life," the downward form of I is used
in the word "life," in place of the accustomed
upward form.

One author violates the law of uniformity,
and consequently the law of automatism, by giv-
ing for phrase purposes three different methods
of writing the frequent word "him." If we
follow his authority, this very common word is
to be written, according to circumstances, either
with a hook, a tick, or a full consonant stroke.
Here is the author 's language : " If for any rea-
son 'him' cannot be conveniently indicated by
the m hook, it should be written with 'hay'; but
where the preceding stem bears a final hook, it
may sometimes be indicated by a final tick,
struck at an acute angle." Another author
gives four different methods of expressing the
very common word "to": 1, By the stem t in
the third position; 2, by halving the stem of

190 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

the preceding word ; 3, by changing the s circle
at the end of the preceding word to a small loop ;
or, 4, by dropping the form of the succeeding
word one-half the length of the t below the
third position of the same word. It seems to
me too obvious for argument that an attempt
to write by variable methods common words
like "him," "to," etc., must, with any ordinary
writer, cause hesitation and loss of speed. Un-
less one's methods of writing be reduced to set-
tled and uniform laws, automatism, with the
promptness, ease and rapidity which attend it,
can never be attained.

Needless Vocalization.

10. As another means of establishing uniform
habits and cultivating automatism, the student
should make it a rule never to use in a phrase
a form which, thus used, requires to be vocalized,
though when standing alone it needs no vocal-
ization. The expected gain from avoiding a pen-
lift becomes utterly delusive when the avoid-
ance entails an extra movement, frequently a
backward movement, for the insertion of a
vowel. In most cases the final effect of indul-
ging in such phrases is that the word is con-

SUGGESTIONS ABOUT PHRASING. 191

stantly vocalized, even when standing alone and
when vocalization is unnecessary. Thus for the
sake of an occasional phrase, time is lost in per-
haps hundreds of instances by needless writing
of vowels.

11. If a given word-group has assigned to it
a given sign-group, let that sign-group be used
uniformly. To write words sometimes as a
phrase and sometimes with their separated
forms, interferes with uniformity of habit and
nurtures hesitation.

Don't Sacrifice Safety for Speed.

12. Still further seeking fixity of practice, the
student may wisely omit to learn or practice
phrasing expedients which are recommended to
be used or not used, according as the context
may make them safe or unsafe. I extract from
various text-books illustrations of these unde-
sirable expedients:

" 'Was it' may generally be written with the
half-length zd in the first position, the same as
*as it,' with which it does not often conflict.
* * * To avoid the possibility of conflict,
some reporters always write 'was it' in full,
which interferes with fluent phrasing."

192 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

** 'Other' may be added by lengthening when
it would not be mistaken for 'there.' "*

' ' ' Had ' and ' do ' may generally with safety be
written d in any part of a phrase; but if there
should arise any conflict, 'do' should be dis-
joined, leaving the field to 'had.' "*

" 'Us,' when added by a circle to verbs, will
sometimes conflict with another form of the
verb, as 'give us' with 'gives,' 'put us' with
'puts,' etc., and should, therefore, be used cau-
tioKsly, and when in doubt as to its safety, the
writer should employ the stem s."*

"The omission of 'to' when it precedes a
stroke to which it could not properly be joined,
may be intimated in the reporting style by com-
mencing that stroke at the line of writing, pro-
vided that the word so written would not be
liable to be mistaken for some other word in
the third position."*

By such expedients as these, the young re-
porter is invited to seek brevity by dubious and
dangerous methods. He should firmly steel
himself against the temptation. Methods of
writing which are sometimes unsafe must be
avoided alwavs. Few writers can in the midst

*ThPse remarks apply to Pitmanic Shorthand. — The Pub-
lishers.

SUGGESTIONS ABOUT PHRASING. 19C

of rapid note-taking depart from their ordinary
habits. And even if the writer's mind be so
alert as to give the danger-signal whenever an
accustomed method of writing would prove
hazardous, the general habit cannot be given up
in a particular case without hesitation, with loss
of time which may be fatal.

Example is Better than Precept.

13. After zealous study the student may, and
doubtless will, find that his efforts at speed
writing show fewer phrases than similar matter
in his text-book. But this should not dishearten
him. It has been remarked by the most eminent
of English stenographers that some of the best
reporters within his acquaintance indulge in
phrasing very sparingly. It is far better to
phrase too little than too much ; and let it never
be forgotten that phonetic shorthand, though
written with a limited infusion of phrases, is in
apt hands capable of great speed.

14. In order that the student may deeply im-
press upon his mind the conservative methods
of accomplished reporters in respect to phrasing,
and realize how far they fall short of the exces-
sive and extreme methods of phrasing so often

194 THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED.

exhibited in text-book specimens of "the report-
ing style," let him lose no opportunity to study
the speedily-written notes of leading members
of the reporting profession.

Gregg Shorthand AVins

International Shorthand Speed Contest

p REGG SHORTHAND won
^^ a sweeping victory in the
Fifth International Shorthand
Speed Contest, held at Wash-
ington, March 26, 1910.

Writers of Gregg Shorthand
won first, second and third
places.

Of the eighteen contestants
who entered, fourteen were
writers of Pitmanic shorthand,
and four were writers of Gregg
Shorthand.

Every one of the Gregg writers
qualified in the transcribing.

One of the Gregg writers
qualified on two transcripts with-
in the allotted time, one of which
won second place.

Ten of the fourteen writers of
Pitmanic shorthand were dis-
qualified iox inaccuracy ox failed
absolutely in their attempt to
transcribe their notes.

World's Records Established

'T'HE winner exceeded the best
■■■ previous record on non-court
matter in the International Con-
tests for the Miner Medal by
twenty-three words per minute.
The winner of second place
made the best record ever made
by one of his age and experience.
The winner of third place es-
tablished a world s record for
The MINER MEDAL (^^curacy-^^. 4 per cent, perfect,
won permanently by Every claim for Gregg Short-

FRED H. GURTLER hand was overwhelmingly prov-

a writer of Gregg Shorthand ed in the Washington contest.

The Gregg Publishing Compeuiy

NEW YORK CHICAGO

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WORDS: THEIR SPELLING, PRONUNCIATION,
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ENGLISH— PROGRESSIVE STUDIES. By Frances
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THE FACTORS OF SHORTHAND SPEED. By David
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THE GREGG WRITER. A monthly magazine, con-
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THE GREGG PUBLISHING COMPANY

New York Chicago

THE GREGG
WRITER

^ Monthly Magazine Devoted to Shorthand,

Typewriting and Commercial Education

VOL. XII. No. 7 MARCH 1910

Contains a "Learners^ Department," with numerous helpful suggestions for students,
advanced reading and writing exercises, a "Reporters' Department," etc.

Smgle cop}; Ten Cents; subscription fyer year One Dollar

THE GREGG PUBLISHING CO.

NEW YORK CHICAGO

This book is DUE on the last date stamped below

^UG 5

2.1 '.m

^PR 1 4 1939
TEB 2 8 1941

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iUL 2 7 m

AUd 1'^ 1950

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CALlFeRNIA
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Full text of "The factors of shorthand speed; or, How to become a stenographic expert. A book of practical aids and suggestions to the student, the teacher, and the young reporter"

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