Simplifying a stroke!

Simplifying a stroke for a brief -- particularly useful when you're constantly misstroking by losing a letter or adding a letter.

I know we have a brief form for perform; however, due to my own struggles on our lovely steno machine, I simplified it.  

Maybe you'd like to explore this idea as well.  Forewarning -- I have many!   

A rather famous steno guru calls his skeletal briefs, but I call them simplified. :D

Here goes...

Think of perform like you’re stepping onto a stage 🎭 — you don’t have time to hit all those keys.  You just hit your mark and go to the next word!  So instead of writing all the sounds in per-form or trying to get all the keys for our theory brief, your brain (and fingers) take a shortcut:

👉 You write P-F — and that’s the whole performance.

Why does that work?

You’re not sounding it out anymore — you’re recognizing it as a complete idea. It’s like seeing a logo instead of reading every letter.

Now here’s where it gets even cooler:

Once you’ve got P-F = perform, you can build the whole “cast” of related words by just adding endings:

• P-F → perform
• P-FD → performed
• P-FG → performing
• P-FZ → performs
• P-FS → performance   (ABSOLUTELY AMAZING, right?!)
• P-FSZ → performances

So instead of learning six separate outlines, you learn one core stroke and just dress it up depending on the role.

Think of P-F as your lead actor.

The endings — D, G, S, Z — are just costume changes.

Same actor, different performance.

This kind of simplification is what can help you build your skill while maintaining control of the steno keyboard (KAOEBD).