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    Clickable dictation at various speeds is available at the bottom of this page. The transcript of the dictation appears here as well.

     Courage, this month's topic, is important not just in the business office, obviously.

     Since this is the speed building page, I'll mention that my own speed-building studies have taken me back to the initial lesson of my text book. I've been studying it as though I never had any shorthand training at all. And I will admit that it is difficult to to write the material from dictation because the usual phrasing is missing from the introductory lessons. But I think it's good practice. When we are done with this book, I'll post those. It never hurts to review the basics and firmly plant them in our minds.

     Remember, the dictation from this book are all too short for testing at speeds at of 100 wpm or higher. As I said last month, tests, to be valid, should be at least 3 minutes long.

Applied Secretarial Practice, The Gregg Publishing Company, 1934, p 341

Courage

            A study of the careers of most successful business men and women will show that courage has been one of their most striking qualities.  One may possess unusual reasoning power and yet fail of the largest success by not having courage to act on his decisions.

            It often requires courage on the part of a secretary to report to his superior matters that may involve others or himself in a question of lack of judgement.  Many times it requires courage to carry out one’s duty in spite of criticism.  It requires courage to bear censure without loss of temper, even when the censure is not deserved, but you have no immediate way of justifying your action.  It requires courage to take a decision upon yourself and be ready and willing to assume the responsibility for it.  It requires courage to acknowledge a mistake.

            In dealing with callers at the office, many of who are persistent and have no call upon the employer’s time, courage is required to render a decision that many times will be inwardly resented.

            When you have made a mistake which must be brought to the attention of your superior, courage is required to take the initiative in going to him and laying the facts frankly before him.  It is a human trait to avoid if possible being put in the position of having failed to exercise good judgement.  But courage can save many a situation of this kind.

            The lack of courage is oftentimes the result of timidity or of fear of criticism or lack of confidence in one’s own ability.

For more information on shorthand speed building, click here.

Instructions for Self-Dictation Practice:
    Copy and paste the above article into a word-processing document, using double or triple spacing and 12- or 14-pitch type.
    As always, be sure to check your shorthand dictionary for correct outlines before "drilling"!

Dictation Practice:
    Note that the material was counted and recorded for dictation at 100; all other speeds were copied from the 100 take and electronically adjusted and may therefore sound unusual.

60 wpm 80 wpm 100 wpm 120 wpm 140 wpm

The dictation material above is copyrighted, all rights reserved.


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Gregg Shorthand Pitman Shorthand Speedwriting Shorthand