Now that I actually have time to update, I seem to be more interested in making notes about things I want to include. I was starting to feel like it was pointless because I never had time to write about anything. Maybe I'm just noticing more things now that I'm able to see more mistakes.
I picked up a cool tip from Kosmo's Korner, and it wasn't even the feature of the vlog. During one of the videos, he mentioned hitting "H" twice to mark two words next to each other, and it's an awesome hyperkey. Before when I wanted to global something, I had to navigate to the last word in the phrase, and sometimes I had to use Ctrl + left arrow to get there, and it was a huge pain.
Plus, even if I was at the beginning and I pressed "G" to global, sometimes it would only pick up the first stroke, even though it had combined two strokes into one word, and I had to hit escape and navigate to the end of the word, G, and then up arrow to pick up the first stroke. But now I can just type H, and it picks up the entire word; and if I hit it again, it picks up the next word, for as many words as I need! It's so much easier.
I had a weird problem where I couldn't get re-present (as in present again) to come out because "represent" is also a word. I tried manually writing the hyphen, so of course that didn't work. So I had to define RE/H-F/PRENT as "re-present." I also realized as I was going through a transcript that someone said "and you, Tara," and I thought they said a name I had never heard before, "Utara." There are so many names I haven't heard, and there are a lot of international students in that class. I didn't bat an eye fingerspelling "Utara," but I was so embarrassed when I figured it out later!
I learned A*B as "Alabama," but I changed it a long time ago to "an," with A*EB for Alabama. For some reason, I always think of Alabama as BA*EM, but that's not defined as anything, so when I'm writing I just have to delete it and write A*EB. And it finally dawned on me - why don't I just define BA*EM as "Alabama"? There wasn't anything strategic about using A*EB, so if it didn't work, there's no reason not to change it.
One of the things Word spellcheck catches that Eclipse spellcheck doesn't (probably because I don't have it set to) is repeated words. Sometimes I'll stroke my brief for "of the" and then I'll also stroke "the," and I don't write it when people repeat words like that, so there's no reason not to just define OF-T/T as "of the." After doing that for a long time, I finally thought, why not take it a step further? Because then I wind up writing "are the the," and I have to define "R-T/T" as "are the," but I could take all that out of the equation by just adding the the=the to my autoreplacements table, or making a text global for I I = I, both of which I did (because for some reason the I I=I didn't work in the table).
I come up with a lot of briefs, and they seem like a great idea, but then I totally forget about them, and down the line I think I need to come up with a brief for something, and stroke my idea, only to find out that I already made it. Sometimes I would put a new brief on my "to practice" list, but I never made it a routine, so I'm working on doing that now. I think it will help things "stick" a lot better.
Speaking of briefs, I learned DAOIGS for "diagnosis" in school, and I stroke it pretty much every single time when I try to write "diagnose," which comes up a lot more often than "diganosis." I decided to leave DAOIGS as "diagnosis" since that's what I was taught, thinking maybe it's ingrained somewhere, but I finally made "diagnose" DAO*IGS, and it's so nice not worrying about what's going to happen when I write DAOIGS anymore.
I also put in KPAOUNGS for communication and THAO*IVG for Thanksgiving. I have 30 different outlines for Thanksgiving, and I'm still writing it in ways that don't come out right. I put THA*FG in as a brief for it last year (and wrote it exactly 0 times), and that obviously didn't stick, so I'm trying THAO*IVG. We'll see if it conflicts with THAO*EVG for "thieving."
I had to change N-G from "inning" to -ing in, because I was stacking it like crazy. I think it might have something to do with gradually turning that minLR up, because I only just started noticing it. I still have it set below the default, though. I'm also stacking THAS a lot, but I'm not changing it from "that is" because I've written that about 15,000 times. I'm actually purposefully not making a lot of splitting-related entries, because I'm hoping to be able to reduce the splitting with the Gen O.
Revolutionary
There was a post on the Eclipse FB group about being able to search the transcript for times when multiple words had been deleted, in order to help find things that needed to be globalled/worked on. It hadn't ever occurred to me before, but Julie pointed out that you could just search for the steno **. Duh! I started doing it a couple days ago, and it's been absolutely amazing.
It takes me five or six times longer to scan through a transcript now, but I'm also finding (and fixing) five or six times more mistakes than before, so it's worth it. It makes it really easy to see mistakes that you make repeatedly, and it's also easier to pick out patterns with stacking or splitting. I'm getting a *lot* more splitting than I was aware of. When I was writing and something would come out wrong, I wouldn't necessarily know why at the time, but I figured the most likely reason was that I stroked or missed an extra key. It turns out a lot of it is splitting!
I think there are lots of settings I can adjust on the IE to address splitting. One that I know about is minLR. I had tried to adjust it down to fix stacking, but it never worked, and I started getting noticeable splitting. I've been gradually turning it up every time I recognize splitting, but it turns out there were tons of times when I didn't know it was happening. I've been turning it up more over the past few days, and I think it might be causing more stacking.
I'm interested to really look into all the things I can tweak for splitting and stacking, but I'm going to wait until I get the Gen O. Then I'll call support and have them help me out.
Tons of other things are also coming from searching for double-deletes. It reminds me about words I knew I was consistently misstroking, but never seriously thought about changing, like TEPD. It should be "tend," but it translates as "tepid." Whenever I've seen it before, I thought, "well, it's a valid outline for tepid, so I'm going to leave it." But the odds are good that I would write "tepid" as TEP/ID, anyway, and I know it's come out wrong over and over again when I meant to right "tend," so I finally changed TEPD to "tend" and made T*EPD "tepid."
Another one I did it with was APS for "Annapolis." It's a great brief, and I do IPS for Indianapolis, too, but I frequently get "Annapolis" when I was trying to write "answer." When it happens, I just think "that darn Annapolist again" and delete it, so it doesn't show up in the transcript and I don't think about changing it. But when I found it this time, it didn't take long for me to realize that I should make A*PS "Annapolist" so that APS can just be "answer."
That's the real beauty of it. There are so many mistakes that I erase, so the consumer never sees them, but that means I don't see them to fix them in my dictionary, either. And I certainly don't remember any of them by the time I'm done writing. Another "hidden" thing that I can see now is briefs that I tried, but hadn't entered into my dictionary yet. I knew I had a brief for "Boca Raton," and BO*EK/RA*T made perfect sense, so I stroked it, but that wasn't right. I wrote out "Boca Raton" instead, and I would normally have no way of remembering I should go ahead and enter in BO*EK/RA*T, too. But this way I can see things like that and enter them.
And it's not just for briefs - it works for new ways of writing things that haven't been assigned to all the words yet, like SAIRBL for the "-sational" in sensational. I had really stopped trying to write things the short way, because they never came out right. But now at least if I write them and they're not in my dictionary yet, I'll know I can catch them later and put them in.
I'm also finding tons more words to add to my practice list. It's mostly not words that were difficult to stroke, because I often misstroked those and am able to add the misstroke to my dictionary. But what I am getting is reminders about words that I forget how to write, like "upwards." I could write it as *UP/WARDZ, UP/WA*RDZ, or *UP/WA*RDZ, but because it takes more effort to include the asterisk, the last time I wrote it, I just did UP/WARDZ, which is "up wards." So I put it on my practice list, and hopefully the week of reinforcement will be enough that I reflexively include the asterisk next time. Even though I know it needs to be there, the fact that I didn't put it in and had to back up to re-write it means it needs to be reinforced.
I've already recognized some misstrokes that I make a lot, but always erase, so I never fixed them, and I just keep writing them and having to delete and re-write them all the time, like REP/SHIP for relationship. I found that twice in one transcript, and then REG/SHIP in the next one. As soon as I saw it, I knew it was one that I get wrong all the time, but it never stuck with me long enough to define it.
So now when I edit a transcript for my own improvement (which I do with every event that I write), I follow these steps:
-Do separate searches for glued A and E to find most fingerspelled words
-Search for */*
-Search for untrans and unresolved conflicts
-Spellcheck in Eclipse
-Spellcheck in Word
I could also just search for * and I'm sure I would find even more strokes to fix, but I think correcting things that really tripped me up and forced me to delete multiple strokes is a good starting place for now. I've made 404 entries in three days using that technique!
It takes me five or six times longer to scan through a transcript now, but I'm also finding (and fixing) five or six times more mistakes than before, so it's worth it. It makes it really easy to see mistakes that you make repeatedly, and it's also easier to pick out patterns with stacking or splitting. I'm getting a *lot* more splitting than I was aware of. When I was writing and something would come out wrong, I wouldn't necessarily know why at the time, but I figured the most likely reason was that I stroked or missed an extra key. It turns out a lot of it is splitting!
I think there are lots of settings I can adjust on the IE to address splitting. One that I know about is minLR. I had tried to adjust it down to fix stacking, but it never worked, and I started getting noticeable splitting. I've been gradually turning it up every time I recognize splitting, but it turns out there were tons of times when I didn't know it was happening. I've been turning it up more over the past few days, and I think it might be causing more stacking.
I'm interested to really look into all the things I can tweak for splitting and stacking, but I'm going to wait until I get the Gen O. Then I'll call support and have them help me out.
Tons of other things are also coming from searching for double-deletes. It reminds me about words I knew I was consistently misstroking, but never seriously thought about changing, like TEPD. It should be "tend," but it translates as "tepid." Whenever I've seen it before, I thought, "well, it's a valid outline for tepid, so I'm going to leave it." But the odds are good that I would write "tepid" as TEP/ID, anyway, and I know it's come out wrong over and over again when I meant to right "tend," so I finally changed TEPD to "tend" and made T*EPD "tepid."
Another one I did it with was APS for "Annapolis." It's a great brief, and I do IPS for Indianapolis, too, but I frequently get "Annapolis" when I was trying to write "answer." When it happens, I just think "that darn Annapolist again" and delete it, so it doesn't show up in the transcript and I don't think about changing it. But when I found it this time, it didn't take long for me to realize that I should make A*PS "Annapolist" so that APS can just be "answer."
That's the real beauty of it. There are so many mistakes that I erase, so the consumer never sees them, but that means I don't see them to fix them in my dictionary, either. And I certainly don't remember any of them by the time I'm done writing. Another "hidden" thing that I can see now is briefs that I tried, but hadn't entered into my dictionary yet. I knew I had a brief for "Boca Raton," and BO*EK/RA*T made perfect sense, so I stroked it, but that wasn't right. I wrote out "Boca Raton" instead, and I would normally have no way of remembering I should go ahead and enter in BO*EK/RA*T, too. But this way I can see things like that and enter them.
And it's not just for briefs - it works for new ways of writing things that haven't been assigned to all the words yet, like SAIRBL for the "-sational" in sensational. I had really stopped trying to write things the short way, because they never came out right. But now at least if I write them and they're not in my dictionary yet, I'll know I can catch them later and put them in.
I'm also finding tons more words to add to my practice list. It's mostly not words that were difficult to stroke, because I often misstroked those and am able to add the misstroke to my dictionary. But what I am getting is reminders about words that I forget how to write, like "upwards." I could write it as *UP/WARDZ, UP/WA*RDZ, or *UP/WA*RDZ, but because it takes more effort to include the asterisk, the last time I wrote it, I just did UP/WARDZ, which is "up wards." So I put it on my practice list, and hopefully the week of reinforcement will be enough that I reflexively include the asterisk next time. Even though I know it needs to be there, the fact that I didn't put it in and had to back up to re-write it means it needs to be reinforced.
I've already recognized some misstrokes that I make a lot, but always erase, so I never fixed them, and I just keep writing them and having to delete and re-write them all the time, like REP/SHIP for relationship. I found that twice in one transcript, and then REG/SHIP in the next one. As soon as I saw it, I knew it was one that I get wrong all the time, but it never stuck with me long enough to define it.
So now when I edit a transcript for my own improvement (which I do with every event that I write), I follow these steps:
-Do separate searches for glued A and E to find most fingerspelled words
-Search for */*
-Search for untrans and unresolved conflicts
-Spellcheck in Eclipse
-Spellcheck in Word
I could also just search for * and I'm sure I would find even more strokes to fix, but I think correcting things that really tripped me up and forced me to delete multiple strokes is a good starting place for now. I've made 404 entries in three days using that technique!
11.7.14
Some new briefs I've been using:
Bermuda = B*ERMD
classification = KLAFGS (thanks to Mirabai)
diagnostic = DAOIGT (one of the professors says this word constantly!)
San Diego = SA*EG
stereotype = STAO*IP
incumbent = KBAENT
affiliate = FA*ELT
I always had a problem with -nic, like picnic. I just wrote it as "NIK" and defined words that needed it, but then when I wrote "picnic" my instinct would be to use N*IK or N*K, since NIK is already "nick." But N*IK is Nick, and N*K is North Carolina, so I couldn't figure out what stroke I should use for -nic. Finally yesterday I decided I had to come up with a solution. South Carolina is SO*UK, so I made NO*UK North Carolina, and now I can use N*K for -nic. I think that's going to be a much better solution, assuming I can actually remember to do it (and remember that North Carolina is NO*UK now, too).
A weird thing that happened was I changed my definition for tri- from {tri^} to {tri-^}, which would normally just have it put the hyphen in if it made a misspelled word with out it, but for some reason then I started getting "tri-angle," which was embarrassing. I defined that one as "triangle," and hopefully everything else will work properly.
I also had a crazy word come up, I think in a speech about equality: "transmogrification." Needless to say, that one was not in my dictionary yet.
Bermuda = B*ERMD
classification = KLAFGS (thanks to Mirabai)
diagnostic = DAOIGT (one of the professors says this word constantly!)
San Diego = SA*EG
stereotype = STAO*IP
incumbent = KBAENT
affiliate = FA*ELT
I always had a problem with -nic, like picnic. I just wrote it as "NIK" and defined words that needed it, but then when I wrote "picnic" my instinct would be to use N*IK or N*K, since NIK is already "nick." But N*IK is Nick, and N*K is North Carolina, so I couldn't figure out what stroke I should use for -nic. Finally yesterday I decided I had to come up with a solution. South Carolina is SO*UK, so I made NO*UK North Carolina, and now I can use N*K for -nic. I think that's going to be a much better solution, assuming I can actually remember to do it (and remember that North Carolina is NO*UK now, too).
A weird thing that happened was I changed my definition for tri- from {tri^} to {tri-^}, which would normally just have it put the hyphen in if it made a misspelled word with out it, but for some reason then I started getting "tri-angle," which was embarrassing. I defined that one as "triangle," and hopefully everything else will work properly.
I also had a crazy word come up, I think in a speech about equality: "transmogrification." Needless to say, that one was not in my dictionary yet.
Conjunctions Are a Go
I decided not to wear my wrist supports anymore. It seemed like they were making my hands hurt more. My hands aren't pain-free, but they're kind of "medium" at this point. I'm pretty comfortable using the ReportIt, but I still have a lot of pain in my arms when I write. I think the ReportIt is the way to go, though. It just makes sense that having your arms supported would be better.
I'm still waiting for the Gen O IE. Upgrading cost about half as much as the machine I just bought in May, so I hope it's better somehow. Originally, they hoped to ship them in November, but they haven't even hardened the mold on the pods yet, so who knows when they'll be out.
There was a discussion on depoman about whether you can start a sentence with a conjuction, like "and" or "but" in order to break up ridiculously long sentences. Someone said that we're taught all of these grammar rules that apply to good writing, but we're not writing - we're taking down what someone has said, and you can't always force that to conform to what would be proper writing style. I would occasionally let a sentence start with "and" or "but," but more often than not I would even go so far as to delete a period I had already stroked and add a comma and the conjunction, leading to some truly long sentences.
So, with ease of readability for the consumer in mind, I took that advice into consideration. Now when the speaker seems to have ended their sentence and the next word is a conjuction, I let the period stand. I think it does help with readability, and it even allows me to break things into paragraphs more often. It's good to have discussions about things. It seems like I work in a vacuum a lot of the time, but I can't improve my style if I don't know what other people are doing.
I'm still waiting for the Gen O IE. Upgrading cost about half as much as the machine I just bought in May, so I hope it's better somehow. Originally, they hoped to ship them in November, but they haven't even hardened the mold on the pods yet, so who knows when they'll be out.
There was a discussion on depoman about whether you can start a sentence with a conjuction, like "and" or "but" in order to break up ridiculously long sentences. Someone said that we're taught all of these grammar rules that apply to good writing, but we're not writing - we're taking down what someone has said, and you can't always force that to conform to what would be proper writing style. I would occasionally let a sentence start with "and" or "but," but more often than not I would even go so far as to delete a period I had already stroked and add a comma and the conjunction, leading to some truly long sentences.
So, with ease of readability for the consumer in mind, I took that advice into consideration. Now when the speaker seems to have ended their sentence and the next word is a conjuction, I let the period stand. I think it does help with readability, and it even allows me to break things into paragraphs more often. It's good to have discussions about things. It seems like I work in a vacuum a lot of the time, but I can't improve my style if I don't know what other people are doing.
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