STENOGRAPHERS, TYPISTS, AND COMPTOMETRISTS 9I
yho had never studied French would have great difficulty
111 copying correctly a paragraph in French and it would
undoubtedly take him a long time to do it. It takes us
uiuch longer to copy a word which is new to us or which
have seen only a few times than to copy one with which
We are familiar. To be sure, the ability to spell is not as
e ssential to the copyist as it is to the stenographer, because
the stenographer must rely almost entirely on her memory
|° r the spelling of the words she takes down. Neverthef
ss , the lack of this ability will greatly increase the typist’s
lability to error and very markedly decrease her speed as a
. Co pyist. Moreover, in the case of dictaphone typists,
spelling 3s even more important than it is in the case of
stenographers. For whereas the latter has an opportunity
to look up doubtful words in the dictionary without holdln
g up her machine, the dictaphone typist must bring
er dictaphone to a stop before she can look up the necessary
word, and when she resumes, must frequently set
* e dictaphone back so as to recover the sense of what
sue is writing. It frequently happens that the applicant
as only recently learned how to type and is therefore
ji°t yet proficient. It is very essential to distinguish
e tween a typist who is not proficient because of inexperience
but who promises to become proficient, and one
ao is naturally inept and is not likely ever to become
Ver y proficient. The spelling test is one means of discovering
this fact; for a candidate who is a poor speller
as an initial handicap which will greatly retard her
Progress.
Another test, chosen largely for this purpose, is the
stitution test. Other experimenters have already esushed
the connection between ability in this test and
act ual or potential ability in typing. If an applicant
sub
