Briefing on the Fly for Faster Writing National Court Reporters Association August 10, 2013 Kimi George, CSR,RMR Today s Topic Briefing on the Fly Interactive Seminar Audience Participation Don t be shy We learn from others 1
Here is an excerpt from a neuropsychologist's deposition which you may find very Interesting from Alabama Court Reporting Association The neuropsychologist is describing the intricacies of the human brain... Neuropsychologist: May I give an example of this? Counsel: Sure. Neuropsychologist: If you look and the example is this: Our brains are a miracle. They're a miracle that needs to be protected. And if you look at the court reporter right now, as an example, okay, this is a miracle in progress happening right before your eyes. Let me just explain what she needs to do. I am speaking, so the Information has to come in through her ear into her temporal lobe, and it has to go log itself into the language center. She has to be able to comprehend what I'm saying. Then it has to get rerouted to the prefrontal cortex where it has to hold -- she has to be able to hold the information, because, you know, I continuously talk so she has to hold it. Right? Then she has to analyze it, integrate it and synthesize it. Then it has to go back to the cerebellum and she has to be able to execute this, and she has to be able to then convert my words into those little squiggly marks. Have you ever seen court reporters have little squiggly language things? So she has to convert it into a different language, and the white matter tracks allows her to reroute all of this information simultaneously without effort. We take our brains for granted. She's sitting here. I'm probably talking too fast for her, but she's able to do this simultaneously. Seamlessly. No animal on the planet can do this. 2
So What does all this mean? Right Brain vs. Left Brain A person who is "left-brained" is often said to be more logical, analytical and objective, while a person who is "right-brained" is said to be more intuitive, thoughtful and subjective. The Right Brain According to the left-brain, right-brain dominance theory, the right side of the brain is best at expressive and creative tasks. Some of the abilities that are popularly associated with the right side of the brain include: Recognizing faces Expressing emotions Music Reading emotions Color Images Intuition Creativity The Left Brain The left-side of the brain is considered to be adept at tasks that involve logic, language and analytical thinking. The left-brain is often described as being better at: Language Logic Critical thinking Numbers Reasoning 3
So, do you think Reporters are more right or left brain dominant? I think the answer has to be that we are using both sides of our brain all the time. Reporters are both right side and left side dominant! We have to use the left side for analytical and critical thinking. But we are using our right side for intuition and creativity. This is where Briefing on the Fly comes into play. We use our critical thinking (left side) to determine that we need a brief that the multi-strokers are eating our lunch. Then we use our creativity (right side) to create a shorter outline a brief! 4
So that s why some reporters are better at briefing on the fly than others. They have trained their brains to create new outlines quickly. The brain is a muscle. This is something you can work on and enhance. So let s talk now about ways to go about creating new outlines quickly! According to Gary D. Robson, there are 8,388,606 possible different steno strokes. - Journal of Court Reporting (Mar 2005) 5
So since any key combination you want to dream up can be defined to be anything, you have millions of key combos to combine for any brief you want. In other words, you can hit PWHRABG to me blue, if that s what you want! I wouldn t recommend it, but you get my point! Be consistent in your brief writing. Make your main brief the same, then add your endings. (Example: Use TKR-ending of doc s name. Like for Dr. Jones, use TKR-OEPBS) Keep it Simple Don t think too long if it doesn t come quick, move on Maybe use just part of the word or one syllable Or the first syllable or first letter and the last syllable or last letter of the word 6
The Unused "Z" key The DZ combo Leave Out Vowels By leaving out the vowels, you actually have more outlines to choose from that won t conflict with your common words. Medical Briefing Tips Use KRO as a prefix for your cardio words Use -EUPLS as a wild card for films; then make any kind of film on the left bank or vowels like BEUMS for abdominal films Use final SZ for esis words Use OPT for wild card for hospital (i.e. ST-OPT for St. Anthony s Hospital) 7
They say that the laziest reporters come up with the best briefs! Auto-Brief and Other Brief Programs Good for the day Some briefs are too esoteric Briefs may not stick for next job The Brief Exchange Steno Briefs for Court Reporters Stenedge Steno Briefs 8
For 2000 one-stroke medical briefs, you might like my new book, Flip Over Briefs - Medical It s a stand-up book that you can take to your job with you. It is divided by medical specialty, and you can flip to the specialty you find yourself in that day, and voila, there will be all the one stroke briefs you will need right there in front of you! With purchase, you also get a job dictionary with all the briefs so you won t need to add them to your personal dictionary. www.flipoverbriefs.com Q & A 9