'The letter from Sruvexr regarding dictation tests in shorthand raises an interesting point which can be answered from the academic and the professional point of view. Sruoen believes that in shorthand dictation' tests for speed the presence of a familiar reader or teacher is a definite advantage and there is much to be said in favour of this view. Sitting before your own teacher whose: methods of delivery" in dictation are well known is far more favourable than sitting before a stranger who might be performing the same dictation test but does not, enjoy the familiarity of style which a student's teacher possesses if he were chosen for the task. From an office stenographer's polit of view this writer cannot quote but from years of experience in newspaper reporting the advantage decidedly goes in favour of the familiar speaker whose delivery, mannerisms and punctuation are well-known, "Take, for instance, a town council in England where thirty or forty persons are in session and most of them speaking, preferences ere naturally formed. If a stranger interjected there would be the most obvious dimMeulty unless the notetaker were in the highest rank of his profession, Familiarity breeds contempt in social relationships, but It develops advantages in shorthand tests." Speaking from memory of years ago, in Pitman ex-laminations and those conducted "by such institutions as the Royal Society of Arts, it was definitely arranged that the dictator' was a stranger to the students at 2 shorthand examin ation, although exceptions were made In small towns where talent was scarce.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.