IF NOT SPEED

A student with fairly clean notes may reason to herself that she could move from one speed to the next if she sacrificed some of her clarity for the sake of speed. She would be correct. She could do that. A person with generally readable notes can conquer the next level by accepting lower quality notes. The question is: Would it make her a better student? The answer is simple. No.

You can sacrifice your clarity for speed and move to the next level, but that is a one-trick pony. Once you have lost your clarity, there is nothing left to sacrifice.

There is more bad news. Your notes will continue to worsen. At first, the loss of clarity will involve the tougher strokes. Eventually, you will begin to experience problems with words that you learned in the first months of Theory.

For proof, take a look around your school. How many of your fellow students are missing tests because of simple words? How many students stumble over every third word during readback? How many would have trouble passing tests at 20 words below their goal speed? Too many.

If you give up your clarity for an increase of speed, you will end up with intolerable outlines coupled with increased hesitation and carrying. In extreme cases, you will have so much hesitation and carrying that you end up writing slower than ever.

The solution to sloppy notes is clear, basic, and undisputable: Write slow enough to write correctly. Unfortunately, this is unacceptable to a great deal of the students. They argue that they will not be able to pass tests if they slow down. If they are talking about the next test, they are correct. They will not have their normal speed while they relearn the strokes that they were taught in Theory.

However, as soon as they get into the habit of writing correctly, the speed will return. Not only that, they will be faster than ever. Those who switch to clarity after a long bout with pure speed invariably report no problems with gaining speed class after class after class. They have already learned the speed. What they needed was the clarity.

Why does it seem that they gain speed by focusing on clarity? Because a large part of the problem is that they are fighting themselves. Deep down, they know the correct stroke, but they don’t insist on it. They prize speed above all. They rush out the strokes before they have fully formed them.

Eventually, they don’t even look for the correct stroke. They settle for anything. Too bad. As the amount of misstrokes begins to rise, so do the mistranslations.

If you are not going to insist on the correct outline for a word like “what,” then you shouldn’t complain that your fingers stroked the outline for “who” or “that.”

You were taught the correct stroke. Use it. It is rolling around in your brain somewhere. If you weren’t taught the stroke, track it down and learn it. Do whatever it takes. Your writing will clear up, and you will soon surpass your previous speed.

When all is said and done, even the best reporters will have periods when their notes are not perfect. Somehow, the transcript must still be produced.

Pulling a translation out of sloppy notes is a skill that all reporters need. However, it is a last-ditch attempt to make sense out of notes that were written improperly. It should not be the normal method of transcription.

Sadly, students depend too heavily on their ability to read substandard notes. They often cannot read twenty words of normal dictation without stumbling. Sloppy notes become their standard work product. When they do write “clean notes,” it is still sloppier than should be allowed.

Many of them end up making mistakes on tests because they cannot trust their notes. We all know stories about students who have failed tests because they second-guessed themselves in the typing room. Even when they use the correct stroke during the test, they are likely to force an error on themselves during transcription. That isn’t the way to become a professional.

If you adamantly resolve to write the correct patterns that you were taught in Theory class, you will be rewarded in a great many ways.

Sheer repetition of the correct outline will help you conquer the hard strokes. By the way, this is the one and only cure for the hard strokes.

Your writing will become rhythmic and relaxed.
You will consistently produce the maximum number of strokes per minute.
You will be less likely to break down or freeze up during a test.

You won’t fall behind the dictation as much as before which means that you won’t be dropping as much either.

By stroking most words without hesitation, you will be giving yourself a little extra time to write the tough words.

With proper strokes, you will not be as likely to fall into the trap of reviewing your work stroke by stroke.
You will be focusing on stroking the words, rather than remembering the strokes.
You will gain time because your use of the asterisk key will diminish. Each time you correct a stroke, you turn a single stroke into three. First, the incorrect stroke. Second, the asterisk. Finally, the correct stroke. (Hopefully, it is the correct stroke. Oftentimes, it is not.)
With clear strokes, no confusion, no hesitation, no falling behind, no fighting to catch up, no correcting of your work, you will automatically “gain speed.” In truth, your hands aren’t moving faster; they are moving more efficiently. The result is more work is being accomplished with less effort.
With generally clear strokes, you will be able to pinpoint the few areas of your writing style that need work.
Your readback will be amazingly easy.
You will trust your notes. While transcribing, you will not change, add to, interpret or modify what you wrote. You will simply translate them.
You will gain valuable proofreading time. Clean notes are easy to read and transcribe. The result is extra time to catch typos, misspellings, mistranslations, etc.
You will write like a professional.
You will read like a professional.
You will transcribe like a professional.

You will sleep better!