Subj : A rule needed :)
To   : Paul Quinn
From : Ardith Hinton
Date : Sat Dec 07 2019 23:46:48

Hi, Paul!  Recently you wrote in a message to Alexander Koryagin:

 AK>  Maybe it is better to remove "position"?:
 AK>  "...but, IMHO, also there is no ground to suggest that a
 AK>  stenographer is as unique in a firm as its President."

 PQ>  You're getting a little lost.  The statement is one of fact.
 PQ>  In days long past there was a time of one-to-one direct
 PQ>  professional relationships between a senior executive (say,
 PQ>  president) and the organisation's (sole) stenographer.


          Yes... I noticed that in the school system.  The senior "secretary" 
took dictation when the principal wanted to send a letter, worked overtime to 
attend & make notes at important meetings, and typed out the results.  People 
who do this sort of work are often quite skilled at correcting other people's 
errors in spelling & grammar too, including my own... [blush].



 PQ>  A good stenographer is worth a dozen typists.


          Thankyou.  My mother was a stenographer.  Like the "secretary" at a 
small school she had various other duties as well.  But she told me that when 
she was taking "business courses" she chose to learn bookkeeping & shorthand, 
both of which were elective subjects, while the majority of people apparently 
didn't believe they would be successful or couldn't be bothered.



 PQ>  In days of old, I had a 24 year long career and knew of
 PQ>  only two stenographers at that workplace.


          As my father might have said, they're "as scarce as hens' teeth"... 
especially nowadays.  When I mentioned to one of our daughter's young friends 
awhile ago that my mother was a stenographer she didn't understand what I was 
referring to although she herself has a university degree.  Stenographers may 
have been done a disservice by the common tendency to lump them together with 
anybody who can type, use a copying machine, and answer the phone.  Years ago 
there were jokes about the "steno pool"... more likely a "typing pool" AFAIC. 
And I agree that recording devices may have changed the picture as well.  ;-)




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
 * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)

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