Any professional writer of any system, providing that writer has done court and convention reporting, is competent to give good advice respecting study and practice ; but, as far as best outlines are concerned, no one can give you any good advice who is not a writer of the system you are studying ; because rules that would be good for one system, might seriously conflict in another. It is even dau-gerous to accept the advice of professional writers of the system you are studying, unless the adviser is, or has been, a professional court and convention reporter of experience. A mere office stenographer may never have had any difficult work in his or her position, even if it has been held for years by above, it will be seen that not all who call themselves stenographers are really so. The only office stenographers who are competent to give advice to a student who has well learned all exercises and reviews up to this page, are those who have fully fifty letters a day dictated to them. They are real stenographers, and they will not tell you to write proper names, addresses, etc., in long hand. They are loo hurried in their work to do anything of the kind. Just as soon as a person whom you have supposed to be an office stenographer of experience (because you know him or her to have held a position for several years) tells you that he or she never writes proper names, addresses, etc., in shorthand, then you may know that that person holds a position of no importance whatever, so far as shorthand is concerned, or he or she would have no time to write any longhand during dictation. Imagine a shorthand reporter trying to take a speech by writing the technical terms and names of cities and heroes in longhand with the speaker going at the rate of 150 or more words a minute ; or the court reporter at a trial every time a witness mentions the defendant or plaintiff or names of places, numbers of streets, etc., writing same in longhand !

Some office positions are only a detriment to the stenographer on account of but little shorthand work; easy letters; no variety of language ; and an employer who is ignorant, or who does not care how his work is done. All the little law firms and business agencies, with offices in big buildings, even if they have only two letters a day to write, want those letters done in typewriting, because it looks more businesslike than penmanship, and hence employ a stenographer to writethose letters, the stenographer occupying the balance of the time by merely keeping the office open and taking the names of customers or clients, while the employer is out drumming up trade. Any clerk could hold such a position without shorthand, for, as a rule, such an employer does not dictate at all, but often writes theletters himself in lead pencil, and has the stenographer typewrite them. As it is necessary that a shorthand writer have not less than one to two hours daily shorthand dictation and two to four hours typewriting practice daily to retain speed, it will readily be seen that such positions are a detriment to any shorthand writer, in a loss of both speed and knowledge, and such stenographers are certainly not competent to give advice to anyone, even if they had fifty years of such experience.

Do you imagine it could be done? Not a bit of it. And it is just so, in the kind of office positions where there are hundreds of letters to answer daily and the dictation has to be taken at the rate of 100 to 120 words a minute to get each day's work done. There is no more time to write in longhand the proper names, technical terms, etc., occurring in the body of a letter in the dictation of such offices, than there is in speech reporting. Of course, where, in letter dictation, the original letters received are numbered so that the stenographer may get from them the proper names and addresses of firms written to, there is no necessity to dictate such names and addresses at beginning of letters, and when an oddly spelled name occurs for the first time even in the body of a letter, its spelling is then given to the stenographer, but after that one time, he or she is expected to remember its spelling and to write it thereafter as rapidly as any other word, which can only be done by writing it in shorthand.

Even were it possible to write in longhand all proper names, technical terms, etc. in rapid shorthand work, it would still be better for the student, in his or her study, to write them in shorthand, because of the ability it gives the student to correctly and quickly form any shorthand combination of sounds, a facility which every student must acquire before rapidity in shorthand work can be attained. Therefore, the shorthand plates of the actual business letters of pages 145 to 159, as well as the court and convention pages throughout this book, contain the shorthand forms for all proper names, addresses, technical terms, etc., and numerals as well. Any teacher who advises the longhand writing of any words or numerals does a great injustice to pupils.

The dictators in a busy business house would be decidedly hampered and delayed, if they had to wait while their stenographers wrote in longhand all the names of goods, towns, and firms and persons referred to in the body of their letters. And, furthermore, it would be ridiculous for any stenographer worthy the name, to seek to write such easy proper names as Smith, Boston, etc., in long-and, nor are such things ever done by skilled stenographers. The most difficult kinds of words must be written in rapid shorthand office dictation when they occur in the body of a letter, just as certainly as the most difficult medical or botanical phrase, architectural or engineering term, in a court trial, convention or lecture. Any persons claiming to be stenographers, who tell.you differently, and say it is never done in business offices, just because they or their stenographic friends have never done it, are assuredly holding positions which do not require any real skill, no matter how many years they have been in the profession or how many positions they have held, or how nice they may be personally.

Teachers who have had no professional experience, or of merely the above kind, are also not competent to give any advice in opposition to directions in book you study. They may mean well, but are utterly incapable of judging or of giving advice on shorthand outlines or professional requirements to others, no matter what their teaching experience may be. As the author of this book has had over twenty years of the most difficult sort of shorthand reporting and teaching experience, it is a safe rule not to accept any advice from others in reference to either shorthand outlines or methods of practice where the advice does not agree with the directions of this book. Particularly beware of changes, or so-called "improvements" by any teacher who has not had as much professional experience as the author of this book. Every improvement made by Mr. Haven, was first proven to be practical by actual use for a number of years in his professional shorthand reporting before being printed or taught by him. Changes by other teachers without such test are both valueless and dangerous. Any teacher, even though only a beginner, with no teaching or professional experience whatever. can produce as skillful graduates as the best, so long as all the directions of this book are strictly followed, but the best teacher living will fail, if our directions are violated in any way.