I don’t do a lot of dictation practice; I mostly practice by using Gregg in my life as a replacement for longhand, taking notes at meetings, etc.
However, from time to time, I test my speed, to see how much of an improvement I’ve made over time. I find that there can be a lot of variability in the results: on difficult literary dictations, I can manage 80wpm, on easier ones I can mange 100wpm.
So far, sounds about right. But what puzzles me is what makes a difficult dictation.
I’ve found that I do especially well, when:
- There are lots of phrases.
- There are a lot of prefixes and suffixes.
- There are lots of words that can be abbreviated.
- There are a lot brief forms and their derivatives.
Strangely I found I can do rather badly on sentences like: “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog”. “John Smith has a new blue car”. In such sentences I am forced to write everything out (apart from “over the”), and my speed drops to 80wpm or so.
I wonder how fast shorthand can be written by penmanship alone. I’m wondering whether it’s my penmanship that’s the problem. How fast are you able to write “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog”?