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Welcome to the Steno Wizard's Realtime Journey!






Remember when life was simple and all you had to do was make a selection on what your steno really meant? Those days are long gone.





Reporters must get themselves into top realtime form to compete in today's job market. This is my contribution toward ALL of us reaching the realtime goal.



My Steno Wizardry concept is based on the idea that writing realtime actually doesn't require magic -- just hard work, determination, and a little bit of FUN imagination.



My hope is my sharing of the ideas I've incorporated into my realtime journey will assist you in yours.



Sunday, February 27, 2011

Resolving the Stationery/Stationary Conflict

Steno Wizard within the last month has learned a one-stroke way to write stationery/stationary and a method for distinguishing which is which in steno.  Woo-hoo!

Steno Wizard pictures the word stationary more like "stationAry means stAnding still."  See the A?  The word stationery reminds Steno Wizard of "lettErs are written on stationEry."   See the E?   Never had a problem making that distinction, but how to get it right in realtime in steno is the bigger issue.  Initially, Steno Wizard would write them out in three strokes; however, that is killer when you're dealing with salespeople who sell stationery and speak no less than 260 wpm.

Anyway, here's a method to deal with the madness.  Stationary is stroked STAERGS.  Remember the Harry, Mary, carry, party, etc. inversion of the E key to get the ARY sound in a word?  Voila!  This makes perfect sense to Steno Wizard.

Now to resolve stationery, Steno Wizard is writing it on the steno machine as STA*ERGS.  Steno Wizard pictures the asterisk as the wax seal on the envelope that contains the letter.  Problem solved!



Monday, February 7, 2011

Where to begin...

Steno Wizard realizes that many of us reporters who didn't initially learn a realtime theory face realtime with trepidation and an overwhelming weight on their shoulders. Where does one begin on this realtime journey? What’s the right first step?

Steno Wizard’s first suggestion is to analyze your steno dictionary. How many conflicts do you have in your writing? Start by printing out the list and really look them over.

How many of those conflicts contain three or more choices to solve the riddle? That’s where a reporter needs to start first. As an example, Steno Wizard originally had a bang/bank/banning AND a sing/sink/sinning conflict.

Steno Wizard then had to look at all the two choice conflicts. For example, sting/stink, rang/rank, ring/rink,  sang/sank. Does anyone remember the RPR test with ring and rink in it back in the late ‘80s? What a disaster and waste of $50!

Steno Wizard’s first problem had to do with all those ng/nk endings. Good grief, the misery those caused! First attempt to resolve the ng/nk ending was the just-put-in-the-asterisk method in the least common word. What a dumb move that was. Then a wiser reporter said to apply a theory principle to the whole set, i.e., an asterisk in the nk words. Good till it got fast and fingers got twisted. Ugh! Not going to work when pushed.

Next attempt to resolve the ng/nk ending was to apply the theory principle of making the nk ending the final side –FRPBG keys. That works pretty well, but Steno Wizard also learned –FRPBG as the –nge ending in words like range and singe. Range could still be written the same old way. Singe, not so much. So to resolve this issue, singe is now a two-stroke word as much as the Steno Wizard hates to admit it. SEUPB/-PBLG. Guess the asterisk could go there if necessary.

Then the three-part conflicts like sinning/sink/sing and banning/bank/bang involved resolving the -ing word in the group.  Ing words that create conflict are now two strokers.  That's a new theory principle the Steno Wizard has incorporated also.

Good luck on your journey!