A bit of a digression this week, if you'll indulge me. Recently on the Discord
someone asked if Plover Theory was good enough for professional use. Well, I use
it, I replied. And I'm a professional. Some people worried that it might not be
a "short enough" theory. I answered that most people tend to "write out" more
when they start steno and then find that their writing gradually becomes shorter
and more efficient over time, as they make their own briefs for common words
used in their own particular field of work. By way of demonstration, I offered a
paragraph that I'm able to write using my current personal dictionary (which is
several years newer than the dictionary distributed with Plover) in at most one
stroke per word:
And between heterochromatin, heterochromatin can spread on DNA. We talked a
little bit about that, I think. How H3K9 methylation can modify neighboring
histones, neighboring nucleosomes, and allow with the help of HP1 protein to
spread heterochromatin. There's something called a barrier sequence, which is
in fact related to an insulator, that will block the spread of
heterochromatin. That leaves euchromatin, the actively transcribed regions. A
key factor that works in these kinds of elements, insulators and barriers, is
an 11 zinc finger repressor protein. You know we've talked about zinc fingers,
proteins that contain multiple zinc fingers.
I caption a lot of biology material -- biochemistry, molecular biology,
computational and microbial genomics, etc -- and have made briefs that allow me
to do it quickly and efficiently. My strokes for the paragraph above are as
follows:
SKP: and
TWAOEPB: between
HO*ERPBT: heterochromatin
KW-BG: {,}
HO*ERPBT: heterochromatin
K: can
SPRED: spread
OPB: on
TK*PB: DNA
TP-PL: {.}
WAOE: we
TAUBGD: talked
PWHR-BLT: a little bit
PW: about
THA: that
KW-BG: {,}
EU: I
THEU: think
TP-PL: {.}
HOU: how
HAOEFPB: H3K9
PH*EFGS: methylation
K: can
PHO*FD: modify
TPHA*EUBG: neighboring
HO*EFPBTS: histone {^s}
KW-BG: {,}
TPHA*EUBG: neighboring
SKHROEPLS: nucleosome {^s}
KW-BG: {,}
SKP: and
HRO*U: allow
W: with
-T: the
HEP: help
-F: of
HAO*EFPB: HP1
PRAO*EPB: protein
TO: to
SPRED: spread
HO*ERPBT: heterochromatin
TP-PL: {.}
THR-S: there's
S-G: something
KAULD: called
AEU: a
PWR*ER: barrier
SKWEPBS: sequence
KW-BG: {,}
WEU: which
S: is
TPH: in
TPABGT: fact
RAELTD: related
TO: to
APB: an
SHRO*ERT: insulator
KW-BG: {,}
THA: that
HR: will
PWHROBG: block
-T: the
SPRED: spread
-F: of
HO*ERPBT: heterochromatin
TP-PL: {.}
THA: that
HREFS: leaves
KWRO*EPLT: euchromatin
KW-BG: {,}
-T: the
TAEFL: actively
TREUBD: transcribed
RAOEGSZ: region {^s}
TP-PL: {.}
AEU: a
KAOE: key
TPARBGT: factor
THA: that
WORBGS: works
TPH: in
THAOES: these
KAOEUPBDZ: kinds
-F: of
HREPLTS: elements
KW-BG: {,}
SHRO*ERTS: insulator {^s}
SKP: and
PWR*ERS: barriers
KW-BG: {,}
S: is
APB: an
1-D: 11
STKPWEURPBG: zinc finger
RERP: repressor
PRAO*EPB: protein
TP-PL: {.}
U: you
TPHOE: know
WAOEF: we've
TAUBGD: talked
PW: about
STKPWEURPBGS: zinc fingers
KW-BG: {,}
PRAO*EPBS: proteins
THA: that
TAEUPB: contain
PH-PL: multiple
STKPWEURPBGS: zinc fingers
TP-PL: {.}
I hope this example makes it clear that the briefing techniques taught by the various Plover Theory learning materials can be applied to any domain of knowledge, and that when you've got a firm grasp on the jargon that you're writing and on the mnemonic pathways of your own particular brain, Plover Theory can be used to write very short indeed.
