I’m going to start a 30-day dictionary challenge on Monday. As a student, who will soon be going out into the work-world, I’m challenging myself to build my dictionary. I am currently at, approximately, 60,450 entries. It is my goal to reach AT LEAST 67,000 entries before the year is over.
I’ll be posting details to the challenge on Monday.
Have a Great Weekend,
Elsie Villega
Being that I’m on a dictionary-building mission right now, I decide to google how many words are in the English language so that I would know how far I had to go.
According to most sources, it is difficult to determine an accurate number. This is due to there being words that have multiple meanings, and therefore can be used in several different ways…What would the count be in those situations? Would the word be counted once, or per its different uses? There are also questions on how to tally: commonly used phrases, words of non-English origin that have crept into English vernacular, slang words, common abbreviations, derivatives, and words that are no longer commonly used.
According to Wikipedia: “The Oxford English Dictionary lists over 250,000 distinct words, not including many technical, scientific, and slang terms.”
According to Oxford Dictionary, their second edition contains: “Full entries for 171,476 words in current use, and 47,156 obsolete words. To this may be added around 9,500 derivative words included as subentries.
With these listed stats, I anticipate having a good bulk of all of the English words in my steno dictionary before the end of 2013.
Happy dictionary building!
I currently have the student version of case CATalyst. I haven’t yet decided what my professional software will be. However, in using my case CAT, I have found a cool feature that will allow you to use your steno machine to write in other programs.
The StenoKeys feature allows you to type e-mails, type in chat rooms, and type in various word processing programs via your stenotype machine.
To activate StenoKeys in case CAT, you must:
1) Open up the translate dialog box in manage jobs.
2) Change the “Output To” option to “StenoKeys.”
3) Under the “Additional Dictionaries” option, choose, “PT StenoKeysV2.”
4) Then you name the file.
You will now be able to type into other programs with your steno machine.
[SIDEBAR: Don’t close out of case CAT after you have set up this function. While you can minimize the case CAT screen, you have to leave the program open for this function to operate.]
“Just look at the difference between these two love notes:
My Dear Pat,
The dinner we shared the other night- it was absolutely lovely! Not in my wildest dreams could I ever imagine anyone as perfect as you are. Could you- if only for a moment- think of our being together forever? What a cruel joke to have you come into my life only to leave again; it would be heaven denied. The possibility of seeing you again makes me giddy with joy. I face the time we are apart with great sadness.
John
P.S. I would like to tell you that I love you. I can’t stop thinking that you are one of the prettiest women on earth.
My Dear,
Pat the dinner we shared the other night. It was absolutely lovely- not! In my wildest dreams, could I ever imagine anyone? As perfect as you are, could you- if only for a moment- think? Of our being together forever: what a cruel joke! To have you come into my life only to leave again: it would be heaven! Denied the possibility of seeing you again makes me giddy. With joy I face the time we are apart.
With great “sadness,”
John
P.S. I would like to tell you that I love you. I can’t. Stop thinking that you are one of the prettiest women on earth.
You see the difference punctuation makes? The first letter is clear (albeit clunky) profession of undying affection; the second is sure to sweep Pat onto her feet. The only thing separating one document from the other is, of course, punctuation.” -From, “Comma Sense” By: Lederer & Shore
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines bilirubin as “a reddish-yellow water insoluble pigment occurring especially in bile and blood causing jaundice if accumulated in excess.”
Writing “bilirubin” on the machine, syllable by syllable, would be as follows:
BIL/LAOE/RAOUB/*IN or BIL/LI/RAOUB/*IN
However, a short cut that can be used is as follows:
BIL/RAOUB
The RMR is a certification test given by the National Court Reporting Association. In order to apply for the RMR skills test, a reporter must be a RPR and a NCRA member. In order to apply for the RMR written knowledge test, a reporter must be an RPR and have 3 years or current and continuous membership in the NCRA, starting from participating or registered member status.
The Registered Merit Reporter (RMR) examination consists of skills test and a written knowledge test. The written knowledge test is comprised of 105-110 questions that is based on the following four categories (with accompanying percentages of the questions):
Reporting Knowledge(47%)
Transcript production (41%)
Administration (6%)
Professional issues and continuing education (6%)
The written knowledge test is graded on a scaled score, with a passing rate of 70%. This test has a completion time of 90 minutes.
The skills portion of the RMR is based on three testing areas which must each be passed with 95% accuracy with an allotted transcription time of 75 minutes for each category. The categories are as follows:
1) 200 wpm Lit
2) 240 wpm Jury Charge
3) 260 wpm Q & A
