25. "The mere desultory stringing of words together is not phrasing." Even though the words may conveniently be joined, yet to phrase indiscriminately, without regard to the fitness of the words for phraseographic connection, is, especially to the young writer, a decided loss in speed and legibility. As a matter of fact, most reporters confine their phrasing almost entirely to what may be called the phrasing words. The really useful phrases of the language are made from a very limited body of words, which may be called the phrasing vocabulary. The reporter's really indispensable phrases are, in general, varied combinations of a few frequently-recurring connective words, which, by reason of their frequency in all ordinary speech, make up at least one-half of any spoken matter. It may be truly said that a few hundred words, such as take, can, shall, may, this, etc., constitute the ordinary phrase-building material of the language. From this apparently limited material the practised reporter constructs an infinite variety of colloquial and highly useful phrases. The combinations which it is possible to obtain from the joining of these comparatively few common words are practically innumerable. An eminent reporter (Mr. Edwin R. Gardiner,) has aptly said: "Common speech comprises but a few thousand words; new opportunities of uniting them are constantly presenting themselves; we may list these combinations by the thousands, and never list them all." To learn all these combinations by rote would baffle the most prodigious memory.

Fortunately no such task of memorizing is required; for when the common words which are the factors of all ordinary phrases are thoroughly familiarized, together with the principles by which these words may be joined, numberless combinations, covering the greatest variety of connections and sequences, can be readily written off-band, in whatever order they may come, as they fall from the speaker's tongue.

26. The words constituting what we call the phrasing vocabulary have certain characteristics in common:

(a.) They are words of almost constant recurrence - the language of ordinary speech - words which readily combine on the tongue and should readily combine on the pen. A phrase is generally bad if the words composing it are, in themselves or in their peculiar connection or combination, rare or unusual.

(6.) The word-forms of the phrasing vocabulary are capable of facile execution. Many words, though extremely brief in their ordinary isolated forms, have been provided for phrasing purposes with forms still more abbreviated. Thus it, written when standing alone with a single stroke of the pen, is frequently represented still more briefly in phrases - in fact, is not written at all, but merely indicated by simply shortening to half its ordinary length the preceding stroke. So will, are and have, each expressed ordinarily by a brief consonant stroke, find still more compact representation in phrases by means of the hooks for I, r and v. Again, the word their, written very compactly if alone, is often expressed still more briefly in a phrase by doubling the length of the preceding stroke. So also the word usr written when standing alone by a consonant stroke, becomes generally only a small circle when written in phrases.

(c.) The word-forms of the phrasing vocabulary are readily legible, not only because familiarized by frequent recurrence, but because in general they do not require to be distinguished by position, and hence can, without restriction, take their places in any part of a phrase.

(d.) They have a special capacity for taking on, or