a single dot on the upper line. These additional symbols must be learned by repetition. Rulesets Since the 1968 reform, DEK is written at three levels: , and – correspondence style, quick style and reporters' style – each building up on the lower level. A text in can be produced at a rate of 80 to 120 syllables per minute. and particularly employ contractions and other simplifications to a far greater extent, making rates of up to 475 syllables per minute possible. This enables real-time recordings of speeches. The current speed record using DEK is 520 syllables per minute and was achieved by Josef Hrycyk in 1974. Individual adjustments The grants the permission for stenographers to invent highly-personalized contractions. For instance, in a parliament most speeches start with (or respectively). A parliament stenographer may create a contraction that records this frequently used phrase in a single stroke. Another widespread optimization is to omit writing punctuation marks and indicate units of speech by blank lines instead. After all, punctuation marks are neither pronounced, nor are they heard. For example, proper German question phrases contain interrogatives, thus the question mark is redundant. Instead, punctuating is done during transcription. Reception Foreign language adaptions Shorthand writers do not usually learn shorthand systems of other languages, if they have to write in foreign languages only occasionally. Someone might get confused by totally different systems. Instead, there are several adaptations of DEK for other languages, such as English, French, Spanish, Swedish, Russian, and even Latin. The English adaptation created by Lege and Bäse (see links), which is the most popular English adaptation of DEK, allows speeds up to 300 syllables per minute and more. Criticism DEK faced a lot of criticism, especially during the prime of shorthand; for example, the heavier versions of consonant-graphemes and the complex ruleset were said to slow down learning speed. As a result, there have been efforts to create simpler shorthand systems that can be learned more quickly but may not achieve comparable speeds. One of these alternative systems is Stiefografie. Publications References External links Deutscher Stenografenbund e. V. (German stenographers registered association) Bundesjugend für Computer, Kurzschrift und Medien (vormals Deutsche Stenografenjugend) (Youth league of the German shorthand association) Verband der Parlaments- und Verhandlungsstenographen e. V. (League of parliament and conference shorthand writers registered association) Forschungs- und Ausbildungsstätte für Kurzschrift und Textverarbeitung in Bayreuth e. V. (Research and educational institution for