The main thing is not to forget that phonography means writing by sound. No attention should be paid to ordinary spelling. Keep in mind the fact that the invisible vowel Ow does not mean the letters O and W, and can not be used to spell the word know. The Invisible Alphabet Ow is the sound of Ow, as heard in such words as bough, which word is spelled phonetically b-ow, bough, as in sign 6 in Exercise. The word know is spelled n-o, know; shows, sh-o-s, as in signs 8 and 36.

Again, do not seek to indicate the silent letter e occurring at the end of such English-spelled words as foe, chase, sale, etc., signs 2, 33 and 34 in Exercise. F and o spell foe phonographically and chay-s, chase, or S, long-A and 1, sale, just as correctly as speech can utter them.

Do not, for an instant, forget that it is the phonographic reporter's duty simply to write the sounds which drop from the speaker's lips, not to spell words. For, if all the sounds of a speaker's utterance are correctly placed on paper, the speech has actually been placed there, and simply by pronouncing the sounds thereon, in their order, the speech is heard again, and can easily be transcribed into ordinary spelling for the use of those who do not know the shorthand. Once get the sound correct and the sense is there also, for it is only sounds we hear when we speak to one another, and what is more useful or more used than speech? People do not spell nor indicate silent or capital letters when speaking, which fact is the prime reason why it is not necessary to do either in phonography. The simple presentation of the seven small letters, i c u x-1 f-e, when addressing a lady or child, would be understood quite as readily as if you had written the words which those sounds represent, and had spelled and capitalized them into the bargain. The full sentence, "I see you excel, Effie," may be better English spelling, but it means no more than the seven letters above printed.

Spelling by sound always saves time, and though it may seem strange to the beginner that it makes our shorthand Visible Alphabet longer than the ordinary A, B, C, or Roman alphabet, yet such devia tion in length is really only a seeming one, as, in the Roman alphabet, several letters have more than one sound.

The reason our shorthand alphabet commences with P, B, T and D. instead of A, B, C, is because the phonographic alphabet is arranged to suit the order of the signs, instead of their name.