principles." "One word in 10o," he writes, "is more than enough, as every reporter knows, to break down any shorthand writer whose training has left him unable to write the hard words promptly." Don't write the hard words in longhand; it is a slow and absurd custom. Write everything in shorthand; divide each word into syllables, and as you pronounce the syllable write it in shorthand with the consonants and vowels in regular order. "The hard words," says Mr. Brown, "must be written—they must be written in shorthand; they must be written promptly."
Small, Neat Notes. The smaller your notes, other things being equal, the swifter your shorthand. Don't let your notes be straggling, but neat and compact, written with the sole idea that they must be read with ease and celerity. Acquire a good style of writing. The more rapidly the speaker reads the smaller must be your shorthand notes. If this advice is followed it will result in increased speed. Mr. Alfred Baker, in "Reporting Hints and Practice," writes: "There is no doubt a great tendency to acquire speed at the expense of good style; this, if yielded to, results in the formation of ragged, scrawling and inaccurate ways of note-taking, which militate greatly against that perfect accuracy that the reporter should endeavor to make the primary characteristic of his work."
