Three Phonemes, One Syllable, One Lesson

Just a real quickie this week: A custom lesson for Typey Type by UnderSampled of the Plover Discord that contains single-syllable words with three phonemes apiece, a particularly satisfying subset of steno strokes to write out one after the other, particularly if you're a fairly new steno learner. UnderSampled has also been compiling automated lists of steno strokes that map perfectly to English output without requiring any knowledge reading multi-key steno letters (such as WOBLD for wobbled, PREFRBL for preferable, and THRETS for threats), which might be useful for even the most novice users, and which will probably appear as Typey Type lessons in the near future after a bit of manual review. I could definitely see myself teaching a handful of these in a beginning workshop, so I'm really grateful to have gotten a nicely exhaustive list to pick from. Many thanks to UnderSampled for the work!

NYC Plover Meetup this Monday

If you're in New York City and want to join a handful of Open Steno fans in Upper Manhattan this Monday evening at 7pm, drop me a line for location information. We're gonna be showing off our machines, maybe doing some TypeRacing, and generally enthusing about all things steno, so if that sounds fun to you, please join us!

Japanese Layout Plover Lessons on Typey Type!

From the ever-amazing Di of Typey Type for Stenographers:

For the Japanese speaking stenographers out there, there’s a Japanese steno layout available on Typey Type using Frag's Japanese steno theory. You can try out the Japanese steno theory using a custom lesson on Typey Type like one from the community’s lessons.

Seriously cool stuff! Apparently Frag is still tweaking the theory, so tune in to the Discord for latest developments, but if you're interested in a homebrew Japanese steno theory, this should be enough to get you started!

Plover on the Sensel Morph

Check out this beautiful video from ElephantEars on the Plover Discord of the Sensel Morph writing sentences from StenoJig with a custom theraband overlay, a homegrown app, and Plover's MIDI protocol. Truly magnificent stuff! ElephantEars has promised to write a guest post for this blog with all the fascinating details, but I couldn't resist sharing the video as a teaser for what's to come. The Sensel Morph is about $300, so it's not the cheapest amateur steno hardware option out there, but it sure is an elegant piece of gear.

Guest Post from Di: Typey Type Recommendations!

Typey Type Recommendations

I'm so excited to share Typey Type's new recommendations! This aims to help steno students focus their efforts: you'll know exactly which lesson to do next and how much time to spend on learning new words versus practicing previous words.

Study session recommendations

Some people ask questions about how much to revise a lesson before moving onto the next and which stories to do after which lessons. These recommendations were made to help answer those questions and guide people through.

The recommendations include suggestions for stories to practice, memorised words to drill, words to revise, new lessons to discover, and games to try. After each study session, it's recommended that you take a break before continuing on, with a little bit of randomness injected to keep you interested.

The course

The course steps you quickly through the fundamental lessons so you can practice a few words of each as you learn the theory. It then concentrates on top words and briefs to give you more bang for buck. As your vocabulary grows, you'll start to see more suggestions for stories and sentences to practice your skills.

Practice

Practice a longer lesson and mimic real usage as closely as possible. Write as fast as you can without causing misstrokes. Explore classic stories that use simple sentences and common words.

Typey Type suggests stories and lessons containing real sentences to practice, as well as tailored practice for you using all the words you've seen so far.

Drill

Regularly drill common words to build up your muscle memory and test your skills. Write as fast and furiously as you can, aiming for a high speed score. Pick specific drills that focus on a certain kind of brief or many similar words so you can associate them together.

Typey Type suggests top words and "Your memorised words" for you to drill.

Revise

Revise 50 briefs a day from a lesson with loads of words you want to memorise, like the top 10000 English words. Try to recall the briefs before revealing their strokes. Avoid fingerspelling or writing out the long forms of words, so you can memorise the best brief for every word.

Typey Type suggests top words and "Your revision words" for you to revise.

Discover

Discover 5–15 new briefs a day from various lessons, revealing their strokes as you learn to write them. Write them slowly, concentrating on accuracy and forming good habits around how you stroke word parts.

Typey Type suggests the first 15 words or so of each fundamental lesson to follow along as you learn the theory. It then suggests the top 100 most frequent words to help get you operational with stenography as quickly as possible. After that it makes smart recommendations based on what you've learned.

Play a game

You’ve been so diligent! You might take a break from drilling and try a game.

So far, Typey Type recommends two possible games to build your speed: TypeRacer to increase your speed while racing against others, and Cargo Crisis to increase your speed while breaking cargo.

Take a break

Well done! You’ve typed a lot of words today. You might rest your hands and your mind for now. Save your progress and take 5 minutes or come back in 4+ hours.

It's important to take breaks while practicing stenography. If you don't break, after a while your performance starts dropping anyway and you might reinforce bad habits. Mentally, taking a break helps the new stuff settle in. Meanwhile, taking a break can also help for ergonomic reasons, avoiding injury.

Try it out and share your thoughts

Review your progress and take a recommendation. If you want to help make Typey Type better, you can fill out this survey about Typey Type recommendations.

And remember to take a break!