573. In devising irregular phrases, the young writer may wisely bear in mind the following suggestions and cautions:

(a.) In the writing of either words or phrases, the stenographer should avoid irregular and arbitrary expedients, unless normal and regular methods involve some awkwardness, or some lack of needed speed.

(b.) Any verbal combination, in order to be entitled to irregular representation, should be, at least transiently and in reference to the particular subject, of frequent occurrence.

(c.) While words or parts of words may be freely omitted, the writer should retain those portions of the phrase which will be most significant or suggestive.

(d.) As brevity is the object sought, the inventor of a phrase-sign should assure himself that the special device is brief enough to meet the demands of the case, and especially that it avoids inconvenient junctions.

(e.) A phrase written without lifting the pen is preferable generally to a broken or an intersected phrase. In almost every case where special abbreviation is necessary, it will be found practicable to devise some rapid and legible form which can be written entire without a pen-lift. Not only is time lost in lifting the pen, but an intersecting stroke is sometimes misunderstood as a cancellation of the character through which it is struck.

(f.) An all-important and never-to-be-forgotten consideration is that a phrase-sign should be legible. This does not mean that it must be so clear as to be self-suggestive to a person who meets it for the first time. To comply with such a requirement would be impracticable, because a phrase-sign of this class is but an incomplete and more or less arbitrary expression of the words intended. Yet the special phrase should be at least unambiguous - incapable of being mistaken by the writer for another phrase or some single word. As has been remarked by Mr. Graham, "Sometimes a contraction which is suggestive and legible in one kind of subject matter would not be legible, and therefore not allowable, in another kind of matter." On the other hand, special contractions devised with reference to a particular subject-matter may be so inherently suggestive, may have such a natural adhesion to the memory, that, once learned, they can never be forgotten; so that the reporter instinctively extends them to all classes of topics that may call them into use. Two incidents of actual occurrence will illustrate some of the dangers attending special contractions devised for the purposes of a particular occasion, but not devised with sufficient care and forethought. In an investigation before a Congressional committee some years ago, "Buenos Ayres hides" were a constant topic of discussion; and the reporter, feeling the need of some special abbreviation for "Buenos Ayres," adopted for that purpose, on the spur of the moment, the longhand letters "B. A."

The notes were not written out till some time after they were taken, and, unfortunately, when weeks had elapsed, the initials "B. A." suggested to the mind of the reporter (who, by the way, was a Canadian) not "Buenos Ayres" but "British-American." And so the testimony, as now recorded in the reports of the Congressional Committees, has much to say about British-American hides and nothing to say about Buenos Ayres hides!

In another case, a youthful student of a certain shorthand text-book made himself very familiar with its reading and writing exercises, including a lecture on chemistry, in which the phrase "carbonic acid" (represented steno-graphically by krbsd) occurred again and again. Years afterward, when this youthful student had become an expe-rienced reporter, without ever having had occasion to recall this special sign for "carbonic acid," he was engaged in reporting a law case in which carbonate of soda was much talked about. Thoughtlessly, in the hurry of note-taking, it occurred to him that krbsd would be a good sign for carbonate of soda; and in this way he wrote the phrase over and over again. The law-case proceeded to its end; and no thought of carbonic acid, with its long-disused sign, ever occurred to him. Seemingly it was obliterated from his mind. But, alas, as the sequel proved, memory was cunningly lying in wait to play him one of her fantastic tricks. When the notes came to be transcribed, this phrase-sign which he had written over and over again for carbonate of soda, recalled to him, without a moment's hesitation or doubt, carbonic acid! And so it was transcribed unquestioningly as often as it occurred. Fortunately, before the transcript had passed the stage of possible correction, some good angel flashed upon the reporter's mind the consciousness of his error. What wonderful chemical absurdity might, but for this angelic intervention, have been foisted upon confiding court and counsel, only a chemical expert can tell.

(g.) Until the writer who has, in the course of note-taking, invented an irregular phrase, becomes familiar with it, (which is generally accomplished after it has been written several times), it is a wise precaution, if time allows, to call attention to the irregular and arbitrary nature of the sign, by, for instance, encircling it with the pen or by making a cross in the margin. This will prove especially useful if the notes- are to be transcribed by some other person than the reporter himself.

(h.) A final caution to the young writer may fittingly be given in the words of that eminent shorthand writer (now deceased), Thomas Allen Reed: "Nor should he (the student) be in a hurry to devise special contractions of his own. They may at first seem very convenient and unobjectionable; but the probability is that, as he proceeds, he will find it advisable, if not absolutely necessary, to discard them. Better follow the lines laid down in the instruction-books than diverge into untrodden paths, until by study and experience the writer has qualified himself to assume the role of an explorer and guide."