The Word That Sounded Like Statuary
You are appearing for a stenography practical at a state transport office. The examiner dictates a ten-minute passage at 100 words per minute, about 1,000 words, on a departmental inquiry. The passage contains M/s Deshpande and Sons, Rs 15.75 lakh, section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 30 days, and the phrase statutory audit. At one point the examiner's voice drops and you hear something like statuary audit, but the next sentence refers to the auditor's report. You have 50 minutes to transcribe and 10 minutes for revision. The answer sheet must be handed in with the shorthand notebook. You know that names, figures and statutory citations carry more weight than style. You must decide how to resolve the doubtful word, how to divide the 50 minutes, and whether to edit the examiner's slightly ungrammatical sentence.
1. How would you decide between statutory and statuary, and what would you write on the answer sheet if you were still unsure?
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The immediate context decides it. The next sentence refers to the auditor's report, and an audit can be statutory; statuary means sculptures or a sculptor's work, which is absurd in a transport-office inquiry. I would also recall that the two outlines differ in the vowel pattern, but at 100 words per minute I may have omitted the distinguishing vowel, so the semantic context is the safer guide. I would write statutory without a gap. If I were still unsure, I would write the word and add a small query in the margin, for example statutory?, rather than leave a blank. A blank loses marks and breaks the sentence; a query shows that I noticed the doubt. After dictation, I would not ask the examiner to repeat a word that has already passed, because the test rules usually do not allow it; I would use the remaining revision time to check the auditor sentence again.
2. The transcription period is 50 minutes for about 1,000 words. Set a time plan and calculate the typing rate it demands. Why is 20 words per minute not enough?
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If I left all 50 minutes for typing, 1,000 words would need exactly 20 words per minute. That leaves no time to read shorthand, check figures or revise, and reading from notes is slower than copy typing. A workable plan is: five minutes to scan the notes and mark doubtful outlines, 35 minutes to type, and ten minutes to proofread names, figures and the statutory citation. That requires about 1,000 divided by 35, or roughly 29 words per minute of actual typing. The last ten minutes are not optional: section 138 and Rs 15.75 lakh are the kind of details that decide a stenography result. I would not recopy the whole sheet to make it look neat; I would correct only substantive errors and leave a clean margin.
3. The examiner dictates the inquiry was completed on yesterday. Do you transcribe it as dictated or correct it? Give your rule for editing during transcription.
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I would correct the obvious slip to the inquiry was completed yesterday because the meaning is unambiguous and the error is grammatical, not evidential. My rule is: correct slips of grammar or repetition that do not change meaning; preserve names, figures, dates, statutory references and the substance of what was said. I would not turn completed into concluded for style, and I would not add a fact that was not dictated. If the sentence were ambiguous, for example the inquiry was completed on 15th, I would keep the date exactly and not guess the month. In a departmental inquiry, the record may later be read by an appellate authority, so a silent change of substance is worse than an awkward sentence.