Clickable dictation at various speeds is available at the bottom of this page. The transcript of the dictation appears here as well.
Here's the remainder of the word study which was started last month. These word studies were designed to be repeated many, many, many times as I said last month to help fix outlines in the students' brains. Of course you should look up any words you don't know the meaning of and should check in your shorthand dictionary for those for which you have questions about the shorthand outline. As always, you should practice until you can write the piece faster than you can take "fresh" dictation. HOWEVER, make sure you're writing something you can actually read through. Scribbling is not writing!
Shorthand Instructor, Pitman’s Shorthand, Isaac Pitman, 1905, p.175-176
Exercise 83 (concluded)
They unquestionably impress their independence upon their work and no intelligent individual will assert that payment for such services is an extravagant expenditure. Notwithstanding the improvements made by manufacturers of printing presses, both in their manufacture, the process of printing a newspaper is an expensive one. A mathematician would probably be able to inform us with mathematical exactitude what would be the cost of producing a single issue but he would have to include the expenditure incurred in advertising the paper in all places where men assemble together, whether for friendship or business; the expense of obtaining intelligence on such varied topics as agriculture and agricultural implements; mathematics; magnetism; Exchequer Bills; indentures; intemperance and its cure; democracy and the democratic party; the extraordinary proportions of a leaning tower which inclines greatly from the perpendicular; and the almost indescribable antagonism which is constantly displayed by persons of an antagonistic nature or of extreme sensibility, conducing to inconsiderate or suspicious actions, better left to sink into obscurity. The result of such an inquiry would probably astonish the inquirer who would no longer be astonished that such indefatigable efforts are made by newspaper agents to increase the number of their subscribers and to induce them to advertise as well as subscribe. The agent is sometimes suspected of being an informer and, in spite of his repugnance, he has to preserve an imperturbable good humor which must be almost impregnable. Last December, a manufacturer was summoned for assaulting a mechanic and though he produced a certificate as to character, the magistrate, William Brown, Esq., bound him over in his own recognizances to appear when called upon.
Instructions for Self-Dictation Practice:
Copy and paste the above article into a word-processing document, using double or triple spacing and 12- or 14-pitch type.
As always, be sure to check your shorthand dictionary for correct outlines before "drilling"!
Dictation Practice:
Note that the material was counted and recorded for dictation at 100; all other speeds were copied from the 100 take and electronically adjusted and may therefore sound unusual.