Briefing on the Fly for Faster Writing

7/29/2013
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
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7/29/2013
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?
language, and the white matter
So she has to convert it into a different language
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.
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7/29/2013
So…
What does all this mean?
Right Brain vs. Left Brain
A person who is "left-brained" is often said to be
more logical
logical, analytical and objective
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:
`
`
`
`
`
a guage
Language
Logic
Critical thinking
Numbers
Reasoning
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7/29/2013
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!
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7/29/2013
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)
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7/29/2013
`
`
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
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
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7/29/2013
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)
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7/29/2013
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
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7/29/2013
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
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