A good dictation website

Hey, I heard some members on the forum say that the 2 minute dictations used are too short, well on the Australian reporters website under this link:

http://sraa.org/reporters_speed.htm

there is a bunch of past dictations from the accreditation test which are 5 minutes and are good quality practice. >>>Some serious Aussie accents though. Even I was put off by some of them — and I’m Australian.

Here in Australia its all steno, although I think the acccreditation can be done in pen. When I get a bit faster I might have a go at the accreditation just so I can hand it to employers. Also I’d imagine a shorthand accreditation might give you weight in a court if you by chance recorded an important paragraph to the case. 

(by michael_lisitsa
for everyone)

 


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4 comments Add yours
  1. I just checked:

    An Associate Certified Shorthand Reporter:

    5 mins parliamentary material at 120
    5m court material at 140
    5m Q and A at 160

    A certified shorthand reporter is 160 – 200wpm.

    I can imagine one day I would probably try for the associate accreditation but the certified shorthand reporter sounds impossible. I imagine that written shorthand is harder to take up to the really high speeds than is steno.

  2. I don't see why it would be harder… there are people in my program that've been stuck at 160 or what have you for over a year.

    If thousands of people got up to 225 with Gregg, then so can you 🙂 It's just that the faster you go, the more tiny, picky things like posture and space between outlines get important.

  3. I'll also take the opportunity to clear up the common misconception that machine shorthand is easier than written shorthand (this is especially prevalent at my school). They both involve the mental process of translating sound into abbreviated, phrased stenography. The theories do it differently, and written/machine each have their own advantages. For instance, I *hate* phrasing on my machine since you have (consonants)(vowels)(consonants), so you have to multilate your phrase to fit that, whereas in Gregg I could phrase an entire sentence if I wanted. Then again, there are more opportunities to squish words into fewer strokes on the machine because of how the letters are… Compare "legality" (l-e-g l) two outlines, with "HRAOELT" in Phoenix, where the final -T for "ity" can be put in the same chord "leelt".

    Then there's the physical aspect… though Gregg feels more strenuous when you're speed-building, it's because all your effort is concentrated in exercising a very specific set of muscles to a great degree of speed and precision. On the stenotype, the effort is spread between both hands and all fingers, but then the physical effort is translated from one hand to both. The work required to move a pen across paper is probably equivalent to using on average four to five fingers per stroke to depress keys and often twist your fingers into unnatural claw shapes… especially in Phoenix theory, where the asterisk key is used prominently, requiring the right index finger to reach over the thumb.

    I also find the mental effort required for Gregg to be a little less than in Phoenix, since you write a sort of path through the sounds in words, whereas in stenotype, you have to stroke entire syllables/words/phrases at once. My concentration falters sooner on the stenotype than it ever did in Gregg. And there are just as many brief forms to learn!

    I think the main reason pen stenography is "harder" is because there aren't high-quality accrediting and training schools out there any more. Everyone wants machine shorthand it seems, practically because it can be translated real-time and interfaced with technology, but more likely because people have the odd misconception that it's somehow better. Technology fixation maybe?

    Just stick to it 🙂 With enough time, practice, and the right materials (I can recommend a few excellent books), you'll get however fast you want.

  4. I agree with NB. I don't think it's an impossible task — hard, yes; impossible, no. As in any endeavor, you need to train, smartly and consistently, and set realistic short and long term goals.

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