Shorthand Dictation and Transcription
Shorthand Dictation and Transcription tests the full loop: hearing a passage at a prescribed rate, writing a legible shorthand record, and converting it into a correct fair copy within the allowed time. The examiner is not only checking outline speed; spelling, punctuation, paragraphing, and the sense of the passage all carry marks.
Holding the line under dictation
- Take the passage in phrase groups. Fixed phraseograms such as "in spite of" and "as soon as possible" save strokes and keep you with the reader.
- Never stop to repair an outline. Leave a small gap if a word is doubtful and keep moving; context often recovers it.
- Mark punctuation as dictated, not afterwards. A missed full stop becomes a wrong capital and a lost mark.
- Keep paragraphs visibly separated in the notebook so the fair copy can be laid out quickly.
- Transcribe in two passes: a complete rough copy first, then a proofread for spelling, tense, and homophones.
Worked example
Dictated: "The committee has decided to postpone the meeting until further notice." Under speed, "has decided to" is taken as a phrase, "until further notice" as a compact phraseogram, and "committee" is checked at transcription. Do not write "comittee"; "postpone" has one s. Reasoning: the shorthand records the consonant skeleton, while the dictionary and grammar supply the vowels and exact spelling. The singular "has" is the safe exam choice for a committee acting as one body.
Traps
Guessing a word from the first outline and forcing the rest of the sentence to fit; transcribing while dictation is still running; using private abbreviations you cannot read later; and leaving corrections so untidy that the examiner cannot decide what the word is.