Improving Your Realtime Feed

Are you not seeing sufficient improvement in your realtime feed?  The first step to getting that clean, crisp realtime feed you’re looking for is to critically review your writing. Are you continually dragging certain keys, causing unnecessary untranslates/mistranslates? If so, you’ll want to do any one or more of the following: a) change the steno outline; b) dictate practice tapes for yourself incorporating those words, and practice stroking them until you can write them cleanly; or c) enter those misstrokes into your dictionary. The problem with entering misstrokes into your dictionary is that it does not encourage you to clean up your writing, so that should be a last resort. Finally, misstrokes have been known to cause quite a stir in television and convention reporting, so reporters should do whatever they can to eliminate them.

Word-boundary issues, where prefixes and suffixes attach themselves to the wrong word, still plague many reporters who were not taught a computer-compatible theory. Eliminating word-boundary errors entails differentiating those prefixes and suffixes when writing. Phoenix offers some suggestions in this article for differentiating the word “come” from the prefix “com.” The key to eliminating this issue is to take it slowly. Begin by selecting the most prevalent prefix/suffix/word boundary issues, record yourself using those words, practice that dictation, incorporate it on the job, and when those feel natural to you, move on to the next set of “issues.”

If you realize that you’re struggling to write certain multi-stroke words, it might be wise to shorten the outline.  As suggested for the word boundary and shadowing issues, begin by targeting a few words or phrases, practice with your home-made dictation, begin using those strokes on the job, and when they become automatic, you can move on to the next set of issues.

Outputting a clean realtime feed can be a challenge, but with a little review, tweaking, patience, time, and determination, you’ll be surprised at the improvement you’ll see.