QUICK REFERENCE TABLE

Name Longhand Shorthand

Full stop . Never ever omit the full

Period stop.
The joined cross is much
quicker than a normal cross
and does not clash with
anything, so long as you
keep it small.
When writing longhand
numerals, use the full stop
as normal within them.

Question ? Some questions are only

mark indicated by the tone of
Interrogation voice, so always insert the
mark question mark.

Exclamation ! The tone of voice lets you

mark know whether this is
needed. Imagine someone
saying:
No – No? – No!

Initial capital None Write it upwards,

underneath the line. Place it
underneath the rightmost
part of the outline, so that
your pen does not travel any
farther backwards than it
has to.
All initial None Instead of going back over
capitals the last 2 or 3 words to
indicate initial capitals for
each of them, use this to
save time. This is a personal
suggestion and is NOT part
of normal New Era theory.

Brackets [] Make the strike-through

Parentheses ( ) quite small, so it does not
look like an intersection on
an outline.
Brackets are square and
parentheses are curved, but
the terms are often used
interchangeably.

En dash – Dashes are used to separate

Em dash sentences or parts of
— sentences. The longer you
draw the dash, the less
likely it is that it will look like
an outline.
In longhand, an En dash
(Alt+0150) has a space
either side. The longer Em
dash (Alt+0151) looks better
without the spaces.

Hyphen - Write the marks upwards.

Hyphens are used to join
two words, or two numerals
showing a range. The
shorthand mark is the same
as the initial capital mark,
but used above the line
 instead of under it. There is
no need to use it slavishly,
only use it where it serves
your purpose.
Words that have part of the
outline disjoined do not need
a hyphen to join them, they
are merely written close
together.
A hyphen in longhand
transcription does not have
a space either side.

Paragraph // may be Write the marks downwards.

mark used when Paragraph marks help with
New correcting reading back or locating
paragraph drafts by information, as they break
New line hand the page into meaningful
sections.
You can drop down to the
next line instead of writing
the paragraph mark, but this
will lose you a line of the
page each time, causing an
increase in the frequency of
page turns. The white space
on the page may help you to
keep your place when
transcribing or searching
your notes.
When pushed for time, do
not indulge in paragraph
marks, getting all the words
is far more important.
 The double slash and the
pilcrow ¶ symbol have a long
history as paragraph
markers, continuing to the
present day on your screen
to show that the Enter key
has been pressed. To type a
pilcrow that will print, type
Alt+0182.

Emphasis or None Wavy or zigzag line draws

caution your attention to the word –
for emphasis, an unusual,
foreign or nonsense word, a
word used out of context,
longhand numerals to show
they are not outlines, doubt
over the outline, or
something you need to
check or look up.

Humour None Vertical squiggle indicates

that the preceding word(s)
should be taken humorously.
In transcription you would
need to set it within
quotation marks, use italics,
or whatever is appropriate to
convey the meaning and
avoid ambiguity.
Some people make "quote
mark" gestures with their
fingers as they are saying
such things, but you will
have to rely on tone of voice
to identify the way that the
 words should be taken.

Error Scribble! Draw a large circle around

the error and then write the
correct outline. When you
transcribe, you will be
ignoring anything in the
circle. Do this in preference
to scribbling over an outline
or trying to correct it. In
one-to-one dictation, you
would do this when the
speaker changes their mind
over their choice of words.
If you are using a
pencil, never use a rubber. If
your pencil has a rubber on
the end, cut it off and
sharpen the second end,
which will be much more
useful.
If you are marking up
outlines afterwards for
future looking up in the
dictionary, then use a red
pencil or draw a square
around it – unless the
shorthand must be kept for
archive purposes, then you
should note the items on a
separate pad.

Correction of If you write an outline in the

position wrong position, correct it by
inserting some dots or
dashes where the ruled line
 ought to be. This is
especially useful for short
forms and contractions
where there is no vowel that
can be inserted. It is often
quicker than writing in the
first vowel for any outline,
as it takes less thought and
hesitation. Useful also for
notes made on unlined
paper.

Accented Dictionaries Write the cross against (or in

syllable use an place of*) the accented
apostroph, vowel. This helps distinguish
dot or desert pairs of words.
similar desert
(*It is not normal theory to
mark after
replace the vowel
the syllable