Customer Reviews

Brief Encounters: A Dictionary for Court Reporting

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4 star:		(2)
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WOW, WOW, WOW!!! I think this book should be required reading for EVERY court reporter. I've been reporting 21 years, have all my certifications, but I'd have to say I feel like I have just now "turned the corner" after incorporating some of these briefs!

Curious? How about MOINGS for "among other things," AEFM for "African-American," and my favorite, the 40+ pages of "is" phrases including STHR-LGS for "Is there anything else."

You'll want to make space in your carrying case so you always have this reference with you!

I can't say enough good things about Laurie's books for court reporters. BRIEF ENCOUNTERS should be on every reporter's and student's reference shelf. This book contains one- and two-stroke briefs and phrases for everyday reporting and is full of ideas which you will want to incorporate into your dictionaries. Some examples:

HOUB = how about HOUBT = how about the HOUBZ = how about these HOUBS = how about those HOUF = how far HOUFT = how fast HOUM = how many HOUFM = how many of them HOUMZ = how many of these HOUMS = how many of those

The consistency of Laurie's outlines makes it very easy to adopt new briefs and streamline your writing. Get it -- you won't be disappointed!

Laurie Boucke has written a few dynamite books for court reporters, one of which is Brief Encounters. Are you hearing the same words over and over and writing them out and falling behind and your hands hurting as a result? Well, forgetaboutit! Check out Brief Encounters for a totally sensible one-stroker for tons and tons of often-used words.

Some examples that are worth the price of admission:

regurgitate = GURJ kidnap = KIP stretch of the imagination = STREJ

And on and on and on. I say get this book and her two other books, CATegorically Speaking and the newest one, Medical Briefs.

This book is great!! I am a court reporting student. I wish I had bought this book when I first started school. It would have saved me much time. There are several options for the words, and even if they are not your theory, it can give you an idea of how to brief the word according to your own theory. I use this book almost daily in practice, and my speed has increased 40 WPM in two months. I credit it all to being able to find a brief and save strokes. BUY IT!!!

If you are a court reporting student, you can benefit from this book. I found that this book contained a lot of briefs that was not incorporated in my theory book. This book will help you gain the speed to pass speed test.

This is a great book for students to increase speed by using briefs and brief phrases, I love it!

I purchased this book while I was still learning theory. I cannot emphasize enough what an incredible resource this has been to my studies! While other students were tediously writing out long words requiring 4 or 5 strokes, I simply looked up a one-stroke brief or phrase. The great thing about this book is that the briefs are logical and consistent. For example, the suffixes are typically the same from brief to brief. There was definitely a systematic method to the way these briefs were created -- they weren't just randomly picked out of the sky. In fact, I think there should be a court reporting theory based entirely on this book. All of the briefs are logical and make perfect sense. I also don't believe that this book is theory-specific. I learned StenEd and while there are some suggestions that are foreign to my theory, I've still been able to adapt to them and incorporate them easily into my writing. On the other hand, there are also suggestions that I do not feel comfortable with, simply because my theory is so ingrained. But the good thing about this book is that there is often more than one suggestion for writing a brief or phrase. It almost seems as though the author was aware that certain briefs might conflict with differing theories, so she provided other suggestions that would not conflict. Even so, I have to say that I have encountered very few conflicts between my theory and the briefs provided in this book. In fact, this book has become such a useful resource that I find myself referring to it almost every day. I'm so grateful to the author for compiling such an extensive reference guide. I'm constantly recommending it my court reporting colleagues, but some of them have yet to realize how much they will gain from this book. Please do not hesitate to make this purchase -- you will be just as grateful and pleased that you invested in this phenomenal book.

Excellent book! I have the previous edition, but glad to have an updated version. It's so helpful when looking for a brief.

My judge uses all kinds of crazy words, things that people don't usually hear in everyday courtroom proceedings...yet I have found most of them in this book! In my efforts to reduce my overall strokes and improve my realtime, this book has been my sidekick. Not a day goes by that I don't look for some help between its covers. It's awesome!

This book will become a staple in my realtime library, love it!