This section is from the book "The Science And Art Of Phrase-Making", by David Wolfe Brown. Also available from Amazon: The science and art of phrase-making.
566. When particular word-groups are uttered over and over again, in either general or special matter, the speaker becomes accustomed to their utterance, and hence they are spoken with more than his average rapidity. For their prompt expression, regular methods of phrasing seem in many cases inadequate. Hence arises an occasional necessity for irregular phrase forms, wholly or partially unauthorized by phrasing rules, and therefore in some respects arbitrary. These, being analogous in this particular to word-signs, which are abbreviated according to no settled rule, may be called phrase-signs. Though irregular and arbitrary in their character, some of these phrase-signs are so highly useful in connection with the general subjects of the stenographer's work that it is the duty of the learner to make himself as familiar with them as with the ordinary word-signs. For a list of such phrases the reader is referred to the chapter entitled "Irregular Phrases of General Utility."
567. But there are irregular phrases, useful only on certain occasions or in connection with particular subjects; and while a certain number of these are provided in many of the text-books - phrases, for instance, relating to law, theology, commercial business, etc. - yet often the stenographer is required to invent such phrases for himself, because no text-book maker can anticipate the varying needs of every individual writer. The office stenographer, dealing with the technicalities peculiar to his particular line of business, as well as the professional reporter, whose work may range over such varied topics as theology, science, medicine, law, politics, history, education, etc., is at times called upon to provide special forms for verbal combinations which, because, for the time being, they occur so frequently, and because, perhaps, they involve some special difficulty, require briefer phrase-forms than could be constructed in accordance with ordinary phrasing rules.
 
Continue to: