SHORTHAND PRACTICE-LEGAL OUTLINE WITH MATTER

    I wonder how many thank you letters are sent nowadays. As children we had to be reminded to write them, especially as, to the child’s mind, yesterday is gone and today is much more important * . It was good training to remind ourselves of the generosity and friendship of others, even if we had to be coached through it. Maybe it is the thank you email *  or text message today, although the recipient of a thank you letter does have something to keep, which will resurface decades later, to the astonishment *  of the now adult sender * . The letters below are the ideal excuse to provide very short and simple sentences which means you have a few extra seconds at fairly close intervals to catch up. This does interfere slightly with the overall speed measurement, as more of it is blank seconds, but the purpose is easier writing and therefore neater shorthand.

1. “_____ her name Eliza?”  “No, _____ .” A) What / it isn’t           B) Is / she isn’                C) Is / it is not           D) Is / it isn’ 2. Is your surname Anderson?   A) Yes, you are.                B) Yes, it is                  C) Yes, I am.                  D) Yes, my is. 3. “Is she American?”  “No, _____ .” A) hers isn’t                B) she isn’t                 C) she is not                 D) she her isn’t 4. “____ their names Jack & Benny?”  “Yes, _____ .” A) Are / they are           B) Aren’t / there are           C) Am / their           D) Is / they’re 5. “Is your dog 2 years old?”  “Yes, _____ .” A) it’s                B) dog is                C) it is                D) its 6. “Is your elder brother married?”   “No, _____ .” A) brother isn’t                     B) he isn’t C) he is not                             D) she isn’t 7. “Are you from Senegal?”  “No, _____ .” A) I’m not                B) I amn’t                C) I are not                  D) I

ENGLISH STENO PASSAGE <script async src="https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-4957217951240873"      crossorigin="anonymous"></script> I met lots *  of old family members, now passed away, via the efforts of my uncles as youngsters taking up the new and exciting hobby of photography and home developing *  of the prints. I met a few children I ought to know very well *  but who now seemed rather distant. They were, in fact * , actually us as babies, toddlers and young ones, captured in our adventures by our ever present amateur photographers, always on the look-out for a snapping opportunity. There I was, smiling happily in my pram (baby carriage), being held by admiring grandparents, getting chased along a beach by someone with a bucket of seawater, and sitting on that wonderful tricycle in a stripy jumper. Yes, it certainly was me but not as anyone knows her now, she was a fresh unwritten sheet, entirely without a

It was a relief to have the fragile and creased ancient photos safely captured, and they could now be viewed on the screen without disturbing the originals. I also had the huge fun of digitally removing all the dirty marks and white creases from some of them * , keeping the edited version as a separate file, with the original scan untouched. I revisited all the early years holidays in Cornwall, Devon and Wales * . There was a large collection covering the years after our move to our present house, and a detailed record of the creation of the garden, from totally overgrown * , to almost park like perfection, a slow journey of path laying, trellis building, and shrub and apple tree planting, as well as several enlargements of the fish pond.   * Omission phrase "some (of) them" Note that "some other" uses doubling.   * "Wales" Special outline, to distinguish from place name "Wells" which uses the Wel stroke   * "overgrown "evergreen"

Now that I had them all in a stack I had to consider how to properly *  store and display them again. They would have to be scanned first of course. There were *  other boxes of prints, which  had never been put into albums. They would have to be scanned as well, in order to be able to *  get everything in subject and date order. I also had some boxes of very old family photos inherited from relatives, ranging from small home produced efforts to large professional prints of special events. More careful high res scanning would be required for those. The job was indeed growing by the minute, as I rummaged about for every photo I could find in the house. A comprehensive scanning session was the priority, starting with the oldest ones, as nothing could be put into books until that had been done.   * "properly" Insert the first vowel, and the diphone in "appropriately" as they are similar in outline and meaning   * Omission phrase "there (w)ere"   * "in or

Earlier in the year, I finally got round to sorting out all my old photographs. What started this marathon effort was the seemingly small task of removing photos from some old albums. They were ring binder folders containing plastic sheets with pockets, which, being now 45 years old, had begun to warp and bubble. I was concerned for the photos but fortunately they were unaffected, but it was necessary to rescue them and give them a better home. The ring binder method was ideal, as it is always frustrating to arrange photos and then find another one that needs slotting between the others.   I was very organised at the time and typed lots *  of tiny captions on sticky label strips to put alongside each pocket. These could not be removed, so I had to interleave the now loose photos with paper strips with scribbled place names and dates. The job went quite quickly and I ended up with wads of photos wrapped in sheets of paper, arranged in two shoeboxes. The albums were destroyed, and took w