To avoid confliction with half-length consonants, always write these word-signs, and all visible vowels, about one-eighth the size of a full-sized consonant; in other words, write them as small as possible, the merest ticks being sufficient. This will serve as a perfect method of distinction between the word-signs in the foregoing list and half-length outlines.

The time-saving principle of phrasing is given considerable practice upon in the Exercise to this lesson and others which follow; and, although beginners may find at first, in their own writing, that a little extra thought is sometimes required in order to make the best junctions possible, and that it may therefore at first appear to them that longer time is required to join the words than to write them separately, yet this difficulty will diminish with each Exercise, and become more and more of a pleasure with each step, eventually being found to be a beautiful method of phrase representation, and perfectly easy to read when written, providing care has been taken not to join most of the word-signs out of position.

The circle-S can be added to the sign for who in order to make the word whose, as in sign 51. Other junctures may be made for compound words, like the adding of the word hand to the word before, spelling before-hand, as in sign 52.

Throughout these sentences, concluding our Exercises, there will be found outlines which are rather ahead of the lesson, but which, for the purpose of showing how sentences are written, it was thought best to include herewith. The word should is hardly one of these, but it might as well be described at this stage. That word is a halved-letter Ish, written under the line, when written alone, to indicate its vowelsound, as in sign 67. When joined it may occasionally be written on the line.

The phrase "I told you so," in sign 73, shows how common words may be joined together, and sometimes a common word, like so, written out of position. In sign 80, the L sound in the syllable ly is indicated by an L hook on the letter N. This is done to secure an easier juncture. In the sentence in sign 82, the syllable less of the word motionless is written downwards for the same purpose - to facilitate junctures. In sign 85 the word one is represented by the addition of an N hook to the letter Way. This makes that character resemble short-ah, but as the sign for short-ah is not used alone it will not clash. To represent Ah, as an exclamation, the sign for the ordinary Ah is used, which is written in an opposite direction. When one is used for a figure the letter Way is sufficient, as will be seen in the list given in the next lesson, but in a sentence where there are no other figures it might be mistaken for Way, and therefore the hook N is used in such cases. When we want to write ones, or one's own, the hook N is not absolutely necessary, as will be seen further on in these same sentences. Signs 85 and 87. Junctures of common words which follow easily in position, such as the concluding phrase in sign 85, "by a microscope," and that beginning sign 86, "presents the best," should be taken advantage of whenever possible, as such junctures are a great aid to both speed and legibility.

In the word energy (sign 86) Iong-E may be substituted for short-e, and there are other instances in these Exercises where this sort of substitution is done, it being in accordance with the rule for vowel substitution set forth in Lesson IV (Additional Use Of The Visible Vowels).

Many other apparent digressions may be discovered in these advanced lessons by the careful student; but, as it would require too much unnecessary space and time to explain these singly as they occur throughout this book, the student will please without demur accept all such slight digressions as being perfectly correct. They bear, ail of them, the result of years of practice, such practice having determined their present form and position to be the best for purposes of speed, and that without destroying their legibility in the least. It should, therefore, be the duty of students to memorize these somewhat peculiar outlines, and make use of them whenever possible in their own notes, and the result will be that the eye will become so accustomed to these outlines that they will recognize them unconsciously, without regard to philosophy of outline or position. Such is always the case with a professional shorthand reporter and his notes. He reads them from habit.

without stopping to think of the elements composing them, just as you, the reader of this explanation, are now doing with these printed words. You are not spelling these words as you read them. Neither are you noticing the separate letters. You unconsciously read these words as words, and you would read them aright even if a letter or two were in error omitted from the word, because you read each word at a glance, and, in the case of a trivial mistake such as the omission of an unimportant letter, the other words of the sentence would prove a perfect key to it.

Never slight the joined words. The skilled reporter executes these combinations in half the time requisite to write each word separately.

Exercise VIII