The Ambiguous Outline: Transcribing a Rate Committee Meeting Under Time Pressure
You are the stenographer attached to the rate committee of a state transport corporation. The committee sits for one hour and forty minutes; members speak at 110–120 words a minute and you record the proceedings in Pitman shorthand. Four problems surface when you transcribe the next morning. (i) The chairman says 'the principal amount' in one paragraph and 'the principle involved' in another; in your system both words produce the same outline, and either reading fits the grammar of both sentences. (ii) He dictates 'rupees fifteen thousand', pauses, and then says 'no - make it fifty thousand'. (iii) Halfway through he says 'this is off the record', names the bidder the committee is likely to favour, and then says 'on the record again'. (iv) A member speaks with his back turned, and you hold an outline that can be read as either 'cession' or 'session'. The minutes must be circulated within 48 hours and will be vetted by the corporation's legal adviser.
1. How should you settle the two ambiguous outlines (i) and (iv) when the chairman cannot be reached for two days?
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Do not guess silently, and do not let the legal adviser be the first person to notice the doubt.
Step 1 - decide by collocation and context, not by outline. 'Principal amount' collocates with money (a loan, a security deposit, a bill); 'principle involved' collocates with a rule, policy or dispute. Scan the rest of each paragraph: if the sentence carries a figure, a rate or a rupee sign, the reading is 'principal'.
Step 2 - test the unlikely word. 'Cession' means a surrender of territory or rights - improbable in a rate committee, which deals with sittings, dates and venues. If the sentence around the outline names a date, place or adjournment, 'session' is almost certainly correct.
Step 3 - still doubtful? Flag it. Keep a separate list of doubtful outlines, mark the spot in the draft with a pencil query (not in the circulated text), and in the covering note to the chairman ask for confirmation. If a decision must be issued before he returns, send the draft with a bracketed alternative and obtain his written confirmation before the minutes are signed. Minutes are a legal record; one wrong word can change a liability.
2. How should the correction in (ii) and the 'off the record' instruction in (iii) be handled in the minutes?
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On (ii): the recorded figure must be the corrected one - rupees fifty thousand. But check the gap: if the correction came after intervening sentences, simply substituting the figure can misrepresent what the members debated in between. Where the change is immediate, enter the final figure only. Where other discussion intervened, enter the final figure and add a neutral note such as '(figure corrected by the chair from Rs 15,000 during the discussion)'. Strike the superseded figure in your shorthand notebook and initial it so the record can be reconstructed if challenged.
On (iii): an 'off the record' direction binds you - the bidder's name must not appear in the minutes, the draft or the file copy. But the committee cannot act on undisclosed information: if a resolution followed, record the resolution and its stated grounds in neutral terms and write a short confidential note to the chairman stating that the discussion bearing on the resolution was placed off the record, so the minutes show only the decision. If the resolution itself was moved during the off-the-record segment, ask him to confirm the wording before circulation.