My steno journey part 5 + link

[estirose]

The New York Times put out an article on machine stenography! It was pretty good.

Here's an excerpt: "The most compelling case for steno may not be in its professional applications whatsoever. On Plover’s Discord server, which has over 7,000 active members, stenographers of every skill level commiserate over the common challenges of shorthand and share new ways to abbreviate words. While only a handful may go on to pursue careers that require stenography, hobbyists can seek out a sense of community that functions almost like a fandom, exchanging notes about how they’re spinning up shorthand to suit their needs."

Whole article is paywalled but if you don't access the site often you might be able to read it anyway: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/25/crosswords/steno-online-court-reporters.html

As far as my own practice goes, I am slowly adding words to my practice drills. I am now learning words that include or end in -D (the steno letter) and chorded -TS and -DZ. I'm having a little trouble with the word "Worlds" (keyed WORLDZ) and it's non-plural version "world". Basically, I need more practice.

Comments

[red_hotline]

had to google if plover teaches the Philadelphia shift. 👀 interesting to know people get along without it just fine. my teacher who's worked in federal court for like 20 years also mentioned having trouble with plural / non plural in class yesterday! so you're not alone! I used to always write dollars because remembering "dollar" was a 10 minute textbook flipping ordeal. one of life's fun little challenges...

[estirose]

I had to google what the Philadelphia shift was (and learned about the California shift as well). We definitely don't use either the Philadelphia or California shift in Plover theory and have no -TZ or -SD chording in our dictionaries.

It's good to know that even long-time stenographers have trouble with plurals! I thought it was because my brain just has trouble with the -S and -Z.