Unit 6. Velotype. Element 3. Typing skills.
How to practice on Velotype
and Most accurate and rapid speech to text rate.
This video lecture explains
how to practice on the Velotype keyboard
for written and spoken text
in order to reach the Most accurate and rapid speech to text rate.
Firstly we will look at how to practice written text
then spoken text and how to improve your spelling and grammar.
This is the agenda.
We will first look at practicing written text with Velotype.
Then we will look at practicing spoken text.
Followed by tips and tricks to improve spelling and grammar.
And in the end the summary.
Practicing written text
Practicing typing written text is a good support
for typing spoken text and visa versa.
Also when copying text you need to copy all the text that is written.
And you have complete control over how quickly you want to type.
It is important to use good texts
in the language you are practicing on Velotype
in order to increase your speed.
Nowadays a lot of digital texts can be found online.
At first you should concentrate on typing texts which are simple.
That way you don’t have to concentrate so much
on difficult sentence constructions or the spelling of difficult words.
And you can improve your Velotype combinations
and splitting up of words correctly.
For example you could search for (free) eBooks for children.
After that, you could search for texts or books that interest you.
If you would use a book that you would normally also enjoy reading
this could be more motivating to practice your speed.
And finally, you can search for texts that contain specific topics.
Like news, economics, politics, medicine, law.
In your work as professional intralingual subtitler
you will come across many different topics.
So it is good to have a very broad knowledge of spelling of words.
Besides this, you can see what is best for you.
Either to use digital text on your computer
or a second computer.
Or if you prefer to have a hardcopy of the text.
But as always, try to keep track of the progress.
So write down what you practiced
how long, and the improvement of your speed.
A good source for finding online texts is the Gutenberg Project
www.gutenberg.org
When practicing the written text, certainly in the beginning
it is good to practice until you get it right the first time.
Analyse yourself when you are typing
and feel if some words are difficult to get it right the first time
or if you always make a mistake with certain words.
You can decide you only want to continue to a next sentence
if you are able to type the sentence without mistakes
and without having to correct yourself.
Again, don’t look at your hands when you are typing.
Best is to only look at the text
and if you think you made a mistake, look at the result on the computer.
It is also important that you get a feeling when you make mistakes
without having to watch the result.
When you make a mistake, it is not very useful
to repeating that one word several times.
It is better to finish the sentence and start over again.
And you should concentrate on your place in the text.
When you are doing a speed test
and you look back and forth from your text to the result
you will often lose the place where you were.
It is good to stay focused on your text and only look at the result
when you think you made a mistake.
When you practice written text
you can use a metronome to filter out the difficult words or problem words.
Which you can then try to improve.
First you set the metronome at a certain speed.
For example 1 tick every second.
Then you press one stroke with every tick of the metronome.
It is important that even with easy and simple key strokes
you stay in the same rhythm!
That way you feel exactly which strokes are still difficult to type
and which ones are easier.
When you feel a stroke is too difficult to type in the same speed
write this one down on a separate piece of paper.
Later on, you can focus on those more difficult words
and go over this list a number of times
so it will be easier for you to type them quickly next time.
Practicing spoken text
As a first step of listening to spoken audio
it is important to use very easy and slow texts.
That way you can fully concentrate on the typing on the keyboard
and not having to worry about the difficulty of words
or having to remember sentences.
Since there might not be so many very slow dictations of texts online
you could ask a colleague or friend
to dictate text to you at a very slow speed.
Or of course, you could make recordings yourself.
If you want to record audio at a certain reading speed
you can do this by using marks after a number of words each time.
For example, if you would mark every 5th word in a sentence
and read those 5 words in 10 seconds
you will have a reading speed of 30 words per minute
which in English is around 30 times 5 is 150 characters per minute.
If you are practicing in a group of students
you can share the load and make recordings for each other.
A next step would be to find online audio
which is more difficult or read at higher speed.
You could browse the internet for (free) audiobooks.
It would be good if you would have
the written version of that audio as well.
That way you could compare the results with the actual text.
On the webpage of Intersteno the world championship of typing
you have an archive of texts and audio recordings in the different languages
with which you can practice.
The link is: www.intersteno.org
There is also a repository from SCIC
which is the Department for interpretation
of the European Commission.
The link is: webgate.ec.europa.eu/sr/
Spelling and grammar
Here are some tips for improving your spelling.
Even though these tips are aimed at the English language
the tips can also be applied to other languages.
Use a good dictionary.
Though memory aids are useful for memorizing difficult-to-spell words
good spellers never rely solely on memory.
They depend on a reliable, up-to-date dictionary.
Be consistent about British or American spelling.
The key is to remain consistent in your choices
throughout a single document.
Always check certain ‘troublesome’ suffixes in your dictionary.
Some English suffixes confound even the best spellers.
Make it a habit always to check these types of words
when you are editing or proofreading your work.
Create your own 'difficult-to-spell' lists.
Many writers and editors keep a list of words
that they find difficult to spell correctly
on or near their computer while they work.
If you notice that you routinely misspell certain words
consider learning from your mistakes
by creating your own personal 'difficult words' list.
Keeping this list close at hand as you write will save you time
and probably eliminate many of your common spelling errors.
Learn the standard pronunciations for frequently misspelled words.
Some common misspellings
derive not from difficult combinations of letters
but from pronunciations that do not reflect the word’s spelling.
Watch out for homophones, near-homophones
and other easily confusable words.
Many English words have identical or similar pronunciations
but different spellings.
Using the wrong word of a homophone pair
is one of the most common spelling pitfalls for all writers.
Learn to check these types of commonly misspelled words carefully
during your proofreading.
Use your computer spellchecker, but with caution.
A spellchecker can be your first proofreading tool for spelling
as it will catch any combinations of letters
that do not form a known English word.
But you should never rely exclusively on your spellchecker
because it will miss many incorrectly spelled words
that form another English word.
a spellchecker will not record who’s as a misspelling of whose, for example.
Become familiar with English spelling rules
Contrary to common perception
English spelling does often follow certain rules.
Becoming aware of these rules
can help you avoid some common spelling errors.
Many writing handbooks and style guides
contain a complete list of spelling rules.
Below are four of the most helpful.
Rule 1: i before e except after c or when sounded like /ay/
as in neighbour or weigh.
This simple rhyme helps explain the difference
between the spellings of believe (i before e)
and receive (except after c).
In general, when the long /e/ sound (ee)
is spelled with the letters i and e, the order is ie
shield, field, fiend.
Common exceptions are leisure, seizure, and weird.
When the letters i and e are used in words with a long /a/ sound
they are usually spelled ei: sleigh, feint, heinous.
When the sound is neither long /e/ nor long /a/
the spelling is usually ei: their, seismic, foreign.
Some exceptions to this rule are friend, sieve, and mischief.
Rule 2: When adding suffixes that begin with a vowel
(-able, –ible, –ous, etc.) to words ending in silent e, drop the final e.
This rule explains why a word like desire
contains an e and a word like desirable does not.
Other examples include response → responsible
continue → continuous, argue → arguing.
We do, however, retain the final e when a word ends in –ce or –ge
in order to maintain
the distinctive 'soft' pronunciation of those consonants:
notice → noticeable, courage → courageous
advantage → advantageous.
For reasons of pronunciation
the final e is also retained in words ending in a double e
e.g. agree → agreeable, flee → fleeing.
Rule 3: When adding suffixes to words ending in y, change the y to an i.
This rule explains the spelling shift that occurs in the following word pairs:
happy → happier, plenty → plentiful, body → bodily.
As English spelling does not generally allow an i to follow another i
the y is retained when the suffix itself begins with an i:
carry → carrying, baby → babyish.
Rule 4: When adding suffixes, double the final consonant of a word
only if any of the following conditions apply.
The final consonant is preceded by a single vowel: bar → barred.
When there is more than one vowel before the final consonant
the consonant is not doubled: fail → failed.
When the final consonant is preceded by another consonant
the consonant is not doubled: bark → barking.
The word has only one syllable or has the stress on the last syllable:
fit → fitted, commit → committed, prefer → preferred.
For words with more than one syllable
where the stress does not fall on the last syllable
the final consonant is not doubled: benefit → benefited, offer → offered.
The suffix begins with a vowel: prefer → preferred.
But if the syllable stress changes because of the addition of the suffix
then the consonant is not doubled: prefer → preference.
Final consonants are also not doubled
if the suffix begins with a consonant: prefer → preferment.
If the word ends in l or p
then the consonant is usually doubled in Canadian spelling
travel → travelled; worship → worshipped.
Note: American spelling does not follow this rule.
Grammar is a subject that stresses many students out
as it can be quite confusing and complicated.
However, correct grammar is important for your writing and success
both as a student and as a future employee.
It is thus crucial to know some simple methods to improve your grammar skills.
Here are seven basic tips to try!
Even though these tips are aimed at the English language
the tips can also be applied to other languages.
Read. Reading may be the number one way you can improve your grammar skills.
When you read, you reinforce correct grammar in your mind.
It can be particularly helpful to read out loud
as the combination of seeing, saying, and hearing
assists in solidifying what you have learned.
Get a grammar manual.
It is useful to have a thorough reference book nearby
that you can consult when writing.
This way, any time a grammatical question arises
you can quickly refer to the manual to obtain the answer.
Review the basics.
While classes in English linguistics and writing
may not be something you are interested in
it is vital to spend a bit of time
learning or reviewing the basic principles.
Do some research on the basic parts of speech
as well as on the common grammatical errors people tend to make.
Practice. There are many excellent resources, both online and in print
conducive to improving your grammar skills.
A quick Internet search will reveal a multitude of websites
that offer grammar games and exercises.
If you know that grammar is an area you struggle with
set aside a few minutes each day to complete grammar exercises.
Listen to others.
When instructors, writing lab staff, or writing tutors give you feedback
listen to them!
Find out if you have a consistent issue with any topics in particular.
Proofread, out loud.
Sometimes when we re-read pieces we have written
our brain fills in the gaps of missing information.
We do not always catch our own mistakes when we proofread.
Reading what you have written out loud, preferably to someone else
is an efficient way to evaluate whether or not
you have used correct grammar.
Write. Just as it helps to read a great deal
it will also benefit you to write more.
The more you practice writing with proper grammar
the more naturally it will come to you.
So the more you practice on your Velotype keyboard
the better you will get pat spelling and grammar!
The summary.
In this combined LO, tips and tricks were given
how to practice your typing skills for written text, for audio.
And how to improve your spelling and grammar skills.