A good read for us speed builders!

​Published by Kramm.com 8/2010

Some may consider me to be one of the lucky ones since I got out of court reporting school in less than two years and took my CSR (California Certified Shorthand Reporter) test 15 months after I began court reporting school and passed the test on my first try.  Why I write “may be considered one of the lucky ones” is because I went through so quickly I picked up few briefs and was pretty naïve as a 20-year-old in a field that requires business acumen and social sophistication.  My first two years as a court reporter were really tough, a huge learning curve in many ways, (the subject of a future blog post.)
The focus of this post is to talk about hitting a speed plateau, and what to do next, in my opinion.  My speed plateau was 140 – 160.  I got out of theory in four weeks.  The rest of the speeds, 100 – 120, 120 – 140, every speed I was out of the class in two or three weeks.  I was intense, competitive, and determined.  Then I hit 140 – 160.  Ugh.

SDA203 - Machine Shorthand Skill Development All Inclusive PlusStudents have access to ev360 Live, ev360 Skill Development, and ev360 Tests.  This course offers students access to everything they need to develop their skills from speed building to testing. Students will also receive coaching and feedback from our court reporting faculty.  ​

The following is from CheapandSleazy.net

From 140 to 200 in Three Months?!?

Some years back, a student posted on the NCRA Forum an interesting tale of how she had managed to go from 140 to 200 in three months. She didn't go into specifics about her method, which (naturally) prompted an e-mail from me.

Turns out the gal who posted in that aforementioned forum was a Court Reporting At Home student, and the method she told me about in her e-mail was one her instructor put together for her (though I hear this method is common among CRAH students these days).

By way of a little history, at that time, there was a booklet someone had published with a similar name to the "title" up there, and was trying to sell for a rather high price, considering the page count ... and, of course, it didn't help much that all of the hype and rave reviews preceding the book had been written by the author's non-CR husband, but that's another tale for another time.

Anyway, you can find Steph's e-mail here:

I stumbled on this website. I love it. I know you will too. She graduated from Mark Kislingbury's School in record time.

An article in the Freestone County Times (Texas) highlighted the appeal of court reporting as a post-high-school career. The article cited a few findings from the 2013-14 Industry Outlook Report by Ducker Worldwide commissioned by NCRA, including average beginning salary and the expected availability of court reporter jobs, and compared the costs of attending court reporting school with those of a four-year college.  Article below. 

Ditch Student Debt with a Career in Court Reporting

As high school graduation quickly approaches, many students are struggling to decide their next steps. A career in court reporting offers graduating seniors an attractive alternative to the traditional four-year college degree. Lower student loan debt, high demand for court reporters, starting salaries in the mid-$40,000s and many career paths to choose from make court reporting an excellent alternative to traditional college degrees.
With more than $1.2 trillion in student loan debt nationally, Americans owe more for their post-secondary education than they do for their automobiles and credit cards. According to The Project on Student Debt, 59 percent of Texas college graduates leave school with more than $25,000 in debt. Court reporting schools typically offer two-year programs that cost, on average, the same as one year of community college. By comparison, this means a court reporting graduate will spend less than half the time in school and carry less than one-quarter of the debt of a student holding a bachelor’s degree.
An independent study 

I found this list on the ECRS Facebook page. I hope it helps. Now that i have CaseCat, another thing that i am learning is that people pronounce some words differently. Either. EEEither or IIIither. Same spelling, but my brain doesn't think EEEither when i hear IIither. So, i have both. AOERT and AOEURT, but both show up as EITHER. Get it? It is hard to explain some things in regards to steno. If you are not on Facebook, i can email you the PDF or look in the "files" part of the ECRS group for those of you who are apart of that group.  

Comma Sense: A FUNdamental Guide to Punctuation by Richard Lederer and John Shore

I bought this book from the NCRA.  It was on sale, and I love a good sale.  Being that i am not fresh out of school, actually,  i haven't thought about punctuation for quite some time. I knew that i would need to brush up on some grammar and punctuation. This became very apparent when i took my first 60 wpm test. I comma'd that transcript to death. Comma here, there and everywhere. Insert this book. It makes reading about commas fun. Not an easy task.  A used copy is about $4.00.  Morson's is another resource.  But not nearly as fun to read.  Comma Sense will give you a refresher course.  Morson's will be my go-to book for detailed questions. 

I found this on my ECRS Facebook Group. I can't take credit for it. Scroll below and check it out.  It was uploaded by 
Keith Rowan II. I know some of the readers on my site do not have a Facebook Page. I hope it helps!!!