54. A phrase, to be of value, must be spontaneous. It should flow from the pen smoothly and pauselessly, without perceptible mental effort. Phrases which, while being written, require close attention in following their intricacies, hamper the free movement of the hand and cause hesitation. But when it is said that phrases should be spontaneous - should indeed be written almost automatically - we do not mean that only such phrases are to be written as can be flung from the pen without thought or effort by one who has never given time or attention to the study of phrasing as a fine art. A good phrase should be spontaneous in the same sense that the speaking of correct English is spontaneous with those who have been educated so to speak. The spontaneity desired is not the spontaneity of ignorance, but the spontaneity of education and culture. Good phrasing habits do not come without cultivation. Phrasing rules, and in some cases particular phrases, are to be studied until thoroughly familiarized. "While it is true that "any conscious effort to make phrases, except as a matter of mere experiment, is a mistake," yet the absence of "conscious effort" should come as the natural result of a mastery of the phrasing art in its principles and details. That phrase which to a tyro may seem difficult, requiring him to "wrestle" with it letter by letter or stroke by stroke, may be in fact not a bad phrase, but an extremely good one, because one that comes easily and naturally (that is spontaneously) to the writer, if by study and practice he has properly prepared himself for his work.

55. But though phrases should in general be spontaneous, it is not meant that all the phrases useful to a reporter can be devised off-hand, on the spur of the moment, during the hurry of reporting. It would be a mistake to disparage certain highly-useful special phrases which the books have provided to be memorized or which the practical reporter constructs for himself. Through the labor and experience of reporters and authors there have been evolved, and placed in the text-books, to be mastered by every one who would be an expert, certain highly useful phrases which, (because they involve in their construction abstruse rules, or complex mental processes, or arbitrary or unique methods of abbreviation), could scarcely be extemporized by the most accomplished reporter. Besides these highly useful and almost indispensable phrases, others of similar nature are almost daily invented by every practical reporter to meet his personal and immediate needs. Some are not invented during the stress of reporting, but are devised deliberately beforehand, because their necessity is foreseen. Others of the same nature are gradually evolved during actual reporting work, being suggested by the continued repetition of certain verbal combinations. The reporter, as a particular group of words is spoken again and again, gradually writes it more and more briefly, achieving at last a special phrase, arbitrary perhaps in its character - following perhaps in its construction no general law - but which possibly, because of its aptness and prospective usefulness, becomes thereafter a permanent part of his reporting equipment. While insisting that phrases should in general be spontaneous, we by no means discourage or disparage the memorizing or invention of a certain number of these highly useful special or irregular phrases.