✨ WHAM! Power Phrasing with “WHEN”

 

(Because timing is everything… especially in steno.)

“When” is one of the most powerful little words in testimony.

It introduces timelines, conditions, realizations, and turning points.

And in our theory, it’s a phrasing superstar. 💥

🎯 The Anchor Stroke

WH = when

Clean. Simple. Strong.

From there, we build.

👤 WHEN + I = Instant Flow

Think of WH + EU as your “autobiography starter pack.”

• WH EU – when I
• WH EU BL – when I believe
• WH EU B G – when I can
• WH EU D – when I had
• WH EUF S – when I was
• WH EU L D – when I would
• WH EU P T – when I want   
• WH EU P T D – when I wanted

🧠 Pattern tip:

EU = I

Then just stack the verb. No hesitation. No spacing. Just flow.

👨 WHEN + HE = Smooth Narrative Writing

WH + E opens up storytelling.

• WH E – when he
• WH E S – when he is
• WH E D – when he had
• WH E BL D – when he believed
• WH E B G – when he can
• WH E B G D – when he could
• WH E P TS – when he wants
• WH E L – when he will
• WH E L D – when he would
• WH E F S – when he was

🎬 These are gold in testimony. Witnesses LOVE “when he…”

🧑 WHEN + YOU = Q&A Magic

This is where speed really matters -- those lightning-fast questions!

• WH U – when you
• WH U R – when you are
• WH U B G – when you can
• WH U B G D – when you could
• WH UF – when you feel
• WH UF B – when you have been
• WH U R L S – when you realize
• WH U S – when you say
• WH U Z – when you see
• WH U P T – when you want
• WH U RP – when you were
• WH U L – when you will
• WH U L D – when you would

⚡ Notice how cleanly these fall in line?

No extra strokes. No awkward transitions.

🏛 High-Frequency Testimony Phrases

Some of these show up constantly:

• WH T – when the
• WH DZ – when does
• WH S – when is
• WH RP – when were
• WH F S – when was
• WH * L S – when was the last time
• WH FR – whenever

💡 “When was the last time…” is asked ALL. THE. TIME.

One smooth phrase = less panic, more control. How awesome!!

🎉 Fun Big-Phrase Bonus

• WH A U L DZ – when all is said and done

Because sometimes testimony gets philosophical.  ;P

🧠 Why “WHEN” Phrasing Works

✔ It’s a high-frequency word

✔ It introduces dependent clauses (so it connects naturally)

✔ It keeps you from breaking rhythm

✔ Naturally connects to pronouns

✔ Reduces lift-offs

✔ Keeps rhythm steady

Remember:

There’s only so much speed in our fingers.

Real speed comes from grouping language the way it’s actually spoken.

 

“WHEN” is a launching pad. Once you hit WH, your brain already knows the pattern.

🚀 Practice Drill

Try this out loud on your machine:

• When I recall
• When you were
• When he is
• When I wanted
• When you tell us
• When was the last time

Focus on:

• No lifting
• Confident commitment

🌟 Closing Reminder

Phrasing “when” isn’t about being fancy.

It’s about controlling time in the record.

And when you control time…

you control the rhythm. 😉

Phrase WH and you’ll be on your way to cleaner, faster writing! 💛

 

🎉 The Magic of -SHIP = OEUP 🚢

 

Today we’re unlocking a beautifully simple briefing strategy that is going to make you feel like a steno genius.

✨ The Pattern:

If a word ends in –ship, your fingers say:

👉 OEUP

That’s it. That’s the magic.

Your brain hears “ship”…

Your fingers sail right to OEUP. 🚢

🌊 Let’s See It in Action

💡 Examples:

• friendship → TPROEUP
• leadership → HROEU P
• championship → KHOEU P
• citizenship → STKOEU P
• membership → PHOEU P
• ownership → OEU P
• partnership → POEU P
• relationship → ROEU P

Do you see it? 👀

Every single one ends the same way.

No reinventing the wheel.

No writing out S-H-I-P separately.

Just OEUP and you’re done.

🧠 Why This Strategy Works

Students sometimes think briefing is complicated.

But this one is actually:

• Predictable
• Repeatable
• High-frequency
• Realtime-friendly

Court, captioning, CART — these words show up constantly.

When you train your fingers to automatically attach OEUP to anything ending in –ship, you:

✅ Reduce strokes

✅ Increase speed

✅ Build confidence

✅ Look brilliant in realtime

🚀 Your Mission

This week, notice every –ship word you hear in your practice routine:

• scholarship
• dealership
• township
• partnership
• proprietorship

And smile to yourself because your fingers already know what to do.

OEUP = ship.

Simple. Powerful. Elegant.   How many MORE -ship words can you think of and how would you write them?   

✨ The Magic of the Asterisk: Turning Words into -LY Words

If you’ve ever wished you had a “turbo button” on your steno machine…

you do.

It’s the * asterisk.

We can use the asterisk as your adverb-maker. It’s the tiny key that quietly says:

“Hey — make this word end in -LY.”

🧠 Think of It This Way

You already know the base word:

• normal
• legal
• careful
• usual

Now you want to turn it into an adverb:

• normally
• legally
• carefully
• usually

Instead of writing a whole new outline…

👉 You add the asterisk.

That’s it.

🔑 The Pattern You’re Seeing

Looking at this list, the pattern is beautifully consistent:

Base Word	Add *	Result
normal	TPHO*RL	normally
legal	HR*EL	legally
usual	AO*URBL	usually
careful	KA*EUFL	carefully
gradual	TKPWRA*UL	gradually

  The base stays recognizable.

The asterisk signals to add -LY.”

🎯 Why This Works (And Why It’s Smart)

1. It protects your fingers.
2. There’s only so much speed in your hands. Writing full endings every time wastes motion.
3. It protects your brain.
4. You don’t memorize two completely separate outlines (normal / normally).
5. You memorize one — then modify it.
6. It builds pattern recognition.
7. Your brain starts thinking in families:

• legal → legally
• final → finally
• critical → critically
• practical → practically

One structure. One adjustment.

1. It increases speed automatically.
2. Shorter stroke = less movement = more control at higher WPM.

🪄 The Secret to Making It Stick

When practicing, don’t just drill the -ly words randomly.

Practice them in pairs:

• normal / normally
• careful / carefully
• political / politically
• usual / usually

Your brain loves contrast. It locks the pattern in faster.

⚠️ Important Mindset Shift

The asterisk is not “extra.”

It is not decoration.

It is not random.

🌟 SKILL-BUILDING BONUS!

The more you recognize patterns like this,

the less you feel buried by vocabulary.

You don’t have 500 new words.

You have:

• a base word
• a pattern
• and one smart key that transforms it

That’s not memorization.

That’s system mastery.

And mastery is what builds skill.

 

 

Tiny Endings that Pack a Punch!

 

The -LS Word Family

(a.k.a. tiny endings that pack a punch)

These words all like to end the same way, which means our fingers want to treat them like cousins. If we’re consistent, they become automatic.

Meet the Family

You already know:

unless → N-LS

The exception word
“Everything’s fine unless…”

Let’s expand upon the concept:

regardless → RARLS

I’m doing it anyway
“I’m going regardless of the weather.”

worthless → WORLS

No value
“That receipt is worthless.”

more or less → MORLS

Approximately
“It’s done, more or less.”

nonetheless → NONLS

Still true
“It was hard; nonetheless, we finished.”

nevertheless → NEFRLS

Formal cousin of nonetheless
“It was risky; nevertheless, she agreed.”

---

Pattern Spotting 👀

Notice the magic trick here:

• -LS stays steady
• The front of the word does the work
• Your fingers only have to make one small decision

Same ending → smoother writing → fewer hesitations.

---

Pro Tip ✨

When words sound alike at the end, teach your fingers to trust the pattern. Consistency now = speed later.

Your dictionary loves families.
Your fingers do too. 💛

 

 

 

🎯 One Root, Lots of Power: A High-Frequency Word Hack

Here’s a high-frequency word strategy that plays really nicely with our theory. Learn the root, then let it do the heavy lifting.

🔑 The KWR- family (Idea → Ideology)

Once you’ve got Idea = KWR-D, the rest falls into place:

• Idea → KWR-D
• Ideas → KWR-DZ
• Ideal → KWR-L
• Ideally → KWR*L
• Ideals → KWR-LZ
• Idealistic → KWR-FBG
• Ideology → KWR-LG

Same base. Small tweaks. Big payoff.

🔎 The OEUF- family (Identify → Identifiable)

Lock in the root Identify = OEUF, and you’ve basically unlocked the whole group:

• Identify → OEUF
• Identical → OEUFL
• Identically → O*EUFL
• Identification → OEUFBGS
• Identity → OEUT
• Identities → OEUTS
• Identifier → OEUFR
• Identifiable → OEUFBL

💡 Why this works:

Instead of memorizing a bunch of random outlines, you’re building families. Your brain loves patterns — and realtime loves consistency.

Learn the root. Trust the theory.

Let's conquer this! AISLE v. ISLE

 

Aisle v. Isle

I'm sharing in case it helps you.  It helped me once I focused on it.   

• Aisle (sounds like “I’ll”) is a path you walk down inside a place.
• 👉 Like the long space between seats in a movie theater or between shelves in a grocery store.
• Isle (sounds the same!) is a small island surrounded by water.
• 👉 Think of a tiny piece of land in the ocean where palm trees might grow

Easy trick to remember:

• Aisle has an A → Aisle = A way to walk
• Isle is like island →  Land surrounded by something.   Bonus tip:  Gas pumps sit on an isle (island).

So:

🛒 You walk down an aisle.

🏝️ You visit an isle.

Now here's the STENO trick :)

Even though aisle and isle sound the same, steno is closer to spelling than people think, not just sound.

Aisle — AEUFL

• In English, the word aisle starts with an A (even though it’s silent).
• In steno, we keep that A, so use A, and then keep the I by using EU.  
• So AEUFL is basically a steno way of spelling of aisle:
• A ≈ A
• EU = I
• F =  Steno doesn’t have an S on the right-hand side in the position we want, so we use -F as the S substitute.
• L = for the le ending

👉 AEUFL = aisle, spelled the steno way.

Isle — AOEUFL

• In English, isle starts with an I.
• In steno, a long I sound is AOEU.
• Steno doesn’t have an S on the right-hand side in the position we want, so we use -F as the S substitute.
• That means AOEUFL is the steno spelling of isle:
• AOEU ≈ I
• F = S substitute
• L = L for the le ending

👉 AOEUFL = isle, spelled the steno way, with -F standing in for the S.

The steno isn’t random.

• AEUFL looks like AISLE, with -F replacing the S
• AOEUFL looks like ISLE, with -F replacing the S

Same sound.

Different spelling.

We're using steno to keep the meaning straight.

Keep practicing!

Realtime Writing of First Names - Part 3

 

Enhancements to Theory - Guideline 5

There are brief forms available for common first names.

Examples:

Jennifer SKWR*EUFR

Elizabeth HR*EUBZ
Jeffrey SKWRA*EFR
Michelle  PH*EURBL
Michael  PHAO*EUBLG
Pamela PHRA*EPL
Christopher KR*EUFR

And many more!  

Over time and exposure, you will create briefs for the names that are frequently mentioned in your work, and that may be unique to you.

The working world of a steno reporter is replete with first names. 

mastery of first names will be one of the building blocks for skill building and topnotch realtime translation.

Realtime Writing of First Names - Part 2

 Enhancements to Theory – Guideline 3: Using Key Combos for Distinctive Name Endings

Use strategic key combinations to represent variations in name spellings, especially for names ending in sounds like ~ie, ~ey, ~yn, etc.

Some of these may need to be defined in your personal dictionary to translate correctly.

~ie    AO*EU                              ~ya/ia   KWRA*

~ey   KWR*E                              ~yn   KWR*PB

~ey   *ERBG (reversal of y)

~e    *E                    ~i    *EU       ~a     A*  ~o    O* 
~ee    KWRAOE                          ~en   -PB

~y      KWREU

Examples:

Vickie SR*EUBG/AO*EU              Britney PWREUT/TPH*ERBG
Vickey SR*EUBG/KWR*E            Robyn ROB/KWR*PB

Jordan SKWRORD/-PB                  Lesley HRES/HR*ERBG
Jordyn SKWRORD/KWR*PB        Roberta RO*BT/A*                  

Peyton P*ERBG/TOPB                   Paula PA*UL/A*

Payton PA*EU/TOPB                      Alberti  AL/PWERT/*EU

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Enhancements to Theory – Guideline 4: Distinguishing Feminine vs. Masculine Names

---

Some names sound identical but differ by gender. When other guidelines (such as spelling or steno differentiation) don’t clearly resolve the conflict, use the asterisk to distinguish the feminine form.

---

Guideline Summary:

• Masculine form: Use the standard stroke

• Feminine form: Add an asterisk (*) to the outline

This method ensures clean translation without conflicting with commonly used terms or names.

Realtime Writing of First Names - Part 1 of 3

I'm sharing my CRI final project.  Maybe you'll find some gems.  Part 1 is below.         

 Why It Matters:

• First names are often spelled differently than they sound.

• Some names may conflict with existing briefs or phrases.

• Accurate name entries improve translation and reduce editing time. 

  Build Your Personal Dictionary

  Key Strategy:
  Add commonly encountered first names to your personal dictionary.

  Benefits:

• Enhances realtime accuracy

• Reduces editing during transcription

• Prevents translation conflicts

Note:
This is not a one-time task—your dictionary will grow throughout your career.

Consider Your Environment

Names you'll encounter frequently are often unique to your workplace or region.

Action Step:
Pay attention to repeated names in your reporting environment and enter them proactively.

Self-Check Activity

Question:
How do you write your first name in steno?

• Is it already in your dictionary?

• If not, add it now.

• Every frequently used name should have a clear, conflict-free entry.

---

Five Guidelines for First Name Entries

Let’s walk through five practical guidelines to follow when creating first name entries.
Focus: Guideline 1.

---

Guideline 1 – Use the Asterisk

Enhance Theory with the Asterisk (*)

Why?

• Avoids conflicts with common words, briefs, and stenonyms

• Distinguishes names from similar-sounding terms

Examples of Names That Can Create Conflicts Without the Asterisk:

Name	Without Asterisk May Conflict With
Bill	"bill" (invoice)
Mark	"mark" (verb or noun)
Sue	"sue" (lawsuit)
Don	"don" (verb)
Pat	"pat" (verb)
Will	"will" (legal or modal verb)
Ray	"ray" (light ray)

First Names – Add Asterisk for Clarity

Name	Recommended Stroke (Example)
Bill	PW*EUL
Jan	SKWRA*PB
Ed	*ED
Carrie	KA*ER
Dawn	TKA*UPB
Jim	SKWR*EUPL

Quick Practice

Try this now:
Write the following names in steno using the asterisk to avoid conflict. Check if they’re in your dictionary.

• Sue

• Max

• Don

• Grace

• Trey

If they’re not already in your job or personal dictionary, add them now using clean, conflict-free strokes.
_____________________________________________________________________________

Enhancements to Theory – Guideline 2: Differentiate Similar Names with Spelling-Based Steno Adjustments

When names sound alike but are spelled differently, adjust your steno outlines to reflect those differences. This helps:

• Prevent conflicts in translation

• Ensure accuracy in name identification

• Maintain consistency in your dictionary
  

  Use spelling cues to distinguish names that sound similar.
  Modify your strokes to reflect these distinctions clearly.

  
  
  
  

Quick Tip: Smart Name Briefing Strategy for Testing and Real-World Jobs

I wanted to pass along a name-briefing strategy that’s been incredibly helpful to me—especially during tests and/or fast-paced testimony.  It's also great for maintaining your endurance. 

I first learned it from an exceptional court reporter, Anita Paul, and I use it every time I can.

If I have names ahead of time, I’ll build a job dictionary using one-stroke briefs that combine titles like Mr., Ms., Dr., and Mrs. with the last name’s initial. But this approach is also great to use on the fly.

Here’s the system:

• PHR* = Mr. + first letter of last name

  • Mr. Baker → PHR*B

• SPH* = Ms. + first letter of last name

  • Ms. Morrison → SPH*PH

• TKR* = Dr. + first letter of last name

  • Dr. King → TKR*BG

• SPHR* = Mrs. + first letter of last name

  • Mrs. Lewis → SPHR*L

A few tips to make it work:

• Avoid assigning the same stroke to different people.

• If there’s overlap, go to the next letter until you have a unique stroke.

  • Mr. Anderson → PHRA*, Mr. Adams → PHR*D

  • Mrs. King → SPHR*PB, Mrs. Kimmel → SPHR*PL

• For tricky letters like H, skip to the next letter:

  • Mr. Hennigan → PHR*E, Ms. Howard → SPHO*

• You can also write the full name the first time, then shorten it on the second or third use as you build your memory and job dictionary.

Hope this gives you a new tool to try out—especially helpful during fast-paced tests and/or testimony!