Searching for steno truth!

Dear fellow stenographers and Pheonix Theorists,

Class today was, to say the least, exasperating. Words cannot express how frustrated I am with PT and with school. I squirm constantly in my seat as we do endless, mindless dictations in class, with very little actual instruction. I work hard and see no progress. Mark Kislingbury says that a lack in progress means that there is something wrong with one's practice, and I completely agree. There is something wrong with my practice--with our practice. We are taught how to practice in school, and are being misled, indeed. Most students, if not all, are getting stuck in their 100s or less and are not seeing any progress. This is not for lack of trying, but simply because there is something wrong with our practice. But I am frustrated because, as a student, I expect to have some real guidance and instruction to be able to see some progress in my writing, but instead I am getting fake guidance and fake instruction, which accounts for my lack of progress.

What I want to say to you today--yes you!--is that if you expect to make steno your career, and you are not progressing consistently in school, you MUST do some research and come up with a strategy to guide yourself. Your instructor is more than likely not helping you get faster. Are they trying to keep us in school longer? I am inclined to think that this may be the case. In fact, this sounds like a total conspiracy to me. Most of us are being told that briefs are a deterrent to writing faster. That is a shameful lie! Consequently, we are not getting any guidance in the brief department, leaving us alone before the massive task of defining thousands of briefs for ourselves with no rhyme or reason. Here's an example: The other day, we did a dictation that was clearly constructed for practicing phrase briefs. Phrases like "before the accident", "after the accident", "state you name", "my name is", "how about", and lots more, were plugged in there for practice. I'm talking dozens of them. I was shocked that our instructor didn't look over these briefs with us, and didn't even mention their existence. As a matter of fact, we weren't even told that this was going to be a dictation for briefs, nor did we take a few minutes to look at how to write them. As we were writing, I realized by myself that all these briefs existed, and had to look as many of them up as possible and write them down on my "to review" list. Gee, thanks for nothing, Instructor.

I am so frustrated with this that I feel like I should no longer be paying tuition to the school and just teach myself from now on. I have not yet found the courage to drop out, but I have taken steps to ensure I am not completely wasting my time in school. What are YOU doing for yourself? Are you wasting away in steno school, stagnating at 60, 70, 80 or more words per minute? Are you coming to class, writing those endless, mindless dictations, and getting no feedback from your instructor and just letting it be? Are you rotting in your chair, checking your various social media accounts and text messages in-between takes just because you know there's no use in trying: you just can't move your fingers any faster? Rise up, my friends! Take your future into your own hands, and do something with yourself. I know you can improve if you adopt a strategy that is right for you.

Memorize those briefs and phrases, and you will soar!

In stenodarity,

The Steno Duchess

 

25 phrases and briefs to start incorporating easily into your writing.

Hello fellow stenographers and Pheonix Theorists,

In class today, I tried to think only about how to shorten my writing using phrase briefs. I thought it would be very discouraging because I'm so used to writing everything out--Phoenix Theory is just so conducive to long writing. But I was wrong. As I was focusing solely on getting those phrases in, I realized how much slower my hands were moving and how much more control I had over my writing. Mark Kislingbury says that you should write what comes to mind first, even if that means sacrificing briefs and writing everything out, but you should try to get those briefs in if you have the time to think about it. So that's what I did. At the lower speeds, I was forcing the briefs and phrases in, and at higher speeds, I was writing what would come to mind first. With repetition, the phrases became more natural and instinctive. I even managed to create some of my own! Phoenix Theory actually isn't very complete when it comes to briefs, so creating our own is going to be a lifelong undertaking. Even Mark K. says he's still creating and learning more briefs today, and he's the speed world record holder! So I made phrases for everything that came up and that felt good, and I ended up creating 25 phrases and briefs in just one class! Here they are, in no particular order:

about him /PW*EUPL
about his /PW*EUZ
about her /PW*ER
about hers /PW*ERZ

I believe so /KWR*BLS
I don't believe so /KWRO*EBLS

for her /TPR*ER
for his /TPR*EUZ

with her /W*ER
with hers /W*ERZ
with him /W*EUPL
with his /W*EUZ

and let /SKWHR*ET

if I can't /TPAO*EUBGT
if you're /TPAO*UR
if you've /TPAO*UFB

it can't /T*BGT
it couldn't /T*BGTD
it were /T*RP

with our /WO*UR
with your /W*UR (I'm still unsure about these two. Any suggestions?)

understanding /TPHGDZ
atmosphere /APL/STPAOER
atmospheric /APL/STPAOERBG
chiropractor /KRAOEUR

Ley me know what you think and if these help!


Yours,

The Steno Duchess

Set your Phoenix free!

Hello everyone, and welcome to my blog.

If you are a Phoenix Theory stenographer trying to speedbuild right now, you may be feeling like you aren't progressing as fast as you would like. In fact, you may even feel that you have reached a point in which you don't expect to see any progress in your writing in the near future. I know I sure feel that way. I have recently been giving this a lot of thought, and I've realized that I'm not alone. There is something about Phoenix that is holding us back.

Right now I'm at the low, low, rock-bottom speed of 100wpm. Listen: 100wpm is only beginning to sound like normal speech. My hands are flying like there's no tomorrow and not even remotely achieving to write down an approximation of all the words. Just imagine when I'll be expected to do 225wpm! I can't imagine how fast my fingers will have to move to write at that speed. I'm not saying this to discourage you or to demean myself; I'm just being honest here. I'm just looking at the facts. Now, I'm not the type of person who is easily discouraged, and failing tests isn't going to stop me from achieving my goals. However, I know that no matter how much work I put in, I've got to make sure all the chances are on my side. That's where Phoenix comes into question. Is Phoenix really the right theory to ensure I become the best reporter I can be? I say no. Why? Because it is so stroke-intensive. Although there are many briefs and phrases in PT, we are not taught these in class, and in any case, there's aren't enough.

So I've been searching for an answer to my steno woes. I have realized that I am wasting my time, and I need a new plan.

Enter Mark Kilingsbury. You might already know that he is the current Guinness World Record holder in steno speed. He has a lot of interesting things to say on his website, so check it out: www.magnumsteno.com. I wanted to see what we had to say about our problem-- our inability to increase speed past 100wpm and beyond. What he says makes sense. It's what we all know but refuse to admit to ourselves: writing short is the key to faster, more accurate writing.  Mathematically this is just a fact, even though our schools try to advocate the contrary. I know what you're thinking because that's what I'm thinking: there's no way I can change theory at this point and relearn an entirely new way to write! I was considering it for a while, but I'm already do invested in PT, and everyone knows unlearning old things is often harder than learning new things.

I think it's too late for me to completely relearn a whole new theory, although I admit I am tempted to do so. I am an all-or-nothing kind of person. However, I think that it is possible to build and improve on Phoenix, like Mark did on his theory that he first learned in the early 1980s.

I know you have the talent to make it, and I certainly know that I do. What are we going to do about it? I'm taking the matter into my own hands and intend to incorporate Mark's philosophies into my writing. This is going to to require learning a LOT of briefs and phrase briefs. I'm going to approach it in a systematic way, like Mark does in his theory. I'm going to take Phoenix and make it work for ME rather than the other way around! The most efficient way to approach briefs is to learn them in categories. This is what the world's fastest reporter does, and I don't see why this wouldn't be good enough for me. So whether you are in Phoenix, StenEd or any other stroke-intensive theory, I invite you to join me on this adventure, and hopefully we can all learn and get better at what we love.

Yours,


The Steno Duchess