ROPE

AMDG

<img src="https://github.com/kburchfiel/rope/blob/master/Hastily%20made%20logo.png" alt="Hastily made logo" width="400"/>

# Part 1: an introduction to ROPE

Visit the ROPE GitHub page to download the ROPE spreadsheet, Anki decks, dictionary, and readme:

https://github.com/kburchfiel/rope

For videos I’ve made about Plover, along with videos about typing in general, visit my YouTube playlist at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYtyZPMUWeI_4i4pc0peBPGMfSV7C5Nxw

Welcome to ROPE (Remembering Outlines in Plover more Easily), my system for learning and remembering Plover outlines! ROPE is now in version 3.0.

ROPE has two main components: a single-word deck and a phrase deck. The single-word deck includes 4,201 common words; both original and added-in outlines for these words; and over 2,700 mnemonic stories to help you remember these outlines. Thanks to the roughly 3,250 added-in outlines, you can write the top 1,000 root words (by frequency) in the single-word deck in 1 stroke and 4 keypresses or less, and all of the other words in 1 stroke and 5 keypresses or less.

The phrase deck includes 1,079 common phrases. The original and added-in outlines allow you to write all of these phrases in only one stroke. This deck also includes about 625 stories to help you remember these outlines.

ROPE's two Anki decks allow you to use the power of spaced repetition to commit these outlines to memory, while ROPE's spreadsheet gives you an easy way to look up (and edit) outlines and stories. ROPE's spreadsheet also includes an incomplete list of command and punctuation strokes.

Putting these materials together has been a labor of love, and I hope that these learning tools will make your Plover learning journey both easier and more enjoyable.

—Kenneth Burchfiel

The ROPE metaphor

Picture a mountain that is 4,201 feet (or meters) tall. We’ll call this Mount Outline. Mount Outline is pretty steep, and has one foot (or meter) for every outline in ROPE.

To climb Mount Outline, you could learn each outline by trial and error, and hope that you will write each one enough times to enter it into your memory. However, with this strategy, you may find yourself slipping down the mountain quite often, as it’s easy to forget outlines if you don’t write them often enough.

That’s where ROPE comes in! ROPE is a “rope” that is meant to help you climb Mount Outline in a more efficient manner.

Happy studying!

# Part 2: ROPE's Single-Word Deck

ROPE's single-word deck can help you learn and recall Plover outlines for about 4,200 common English words. It does this in two ways: first, it relies on Anki's spaced repetition system to help you solidify the outlines in your memory. Second, it includes mnemonic "stories" to help you remember a sizable chunk of the outlines. These stories, around 2,800 in total as of 1/18/2020, serve to connect the outlines to their corresponding word by featuring words that are similar to the components of the outlines.

The single-word deck also includes many added-in outlines (around 3,270 as of 1/18/2020) that serve as alternatives to the outlines in the standard Plover dictionary. They're meant to let you write words in fewer keypresses and/or strokes, but are completely optional, and standard outlines for every word are provided when available. By using these added-in outlines (along with pre-existing outlines), you can write all of the top 4,000 English words (by frequency, according to one frequency list) in just one stroke, and in 5 keypresses or less. In addition, you'll be able to to write the top 1,000 English words in 4 keypresses or less.

If you'd like to try using ROPE to learn and practice outlines, clone these materials and save them to your computer. (If you don't have Anki on your computer, download it for free from the website.) The Anki file and the Excel document have much of the same material; Anki is just a flashcard program that lets you keep track of your learning, and the Excel file is useful to have as a reference. (However, there is not a corresponding flashcard set for the command strokes listed in the ROPE spreadsheet.) Once you've gone through the Learn Plover! exercises, you can start using Anki to learn new outlines, even if you're very new to Plover.

This system is meant to be super-customizable, so you can add in or change stories, outlines, and words however you please.

Finally, as noted above, I plan to continue to update ROPE over time. For instance, I will probably change some outlines as needed and add in extra stories. These updates will be transmitted to the GitHub page (https://github.com/kburchfiel/rope).

Disclaimer with regard to the added-in outlines:

I am a Plover enthusiast, but I am not a professional stenotypist, and I am still working on building my speed. Although I think my outline additions will help me boost my speed, I don't have any proof that these outlines will be faster than the original outlines also listed; in fact, they may end up being slower. Therefore, use these new outlines at your own risk! (This applies to all outline additions in ROPE, not just to my single-word outline additions.)

P.S: Don't assume anything I say in the mnemonic stories (for both added-in and original outlines) to be true! There's a ton of made-up information, but it's all there to help you learn the outlines for these words. In addition, mentions of products or companies in stories does not constitute endorsement of those products and services.

Source for the original frequency list and frequency stats:

The words in ROPE's single-word deck and their corresponding frequency statistics come from the New General Service List Website (http://www.newgeneralservicelist.org/ ) (Browne, C., Culligan, B., and Phillips, J). The "NGSL Stats & Frequencies to 34K" list was the main source of words and is available at http://www.newgeneralservicelist.org/s/NGSL-101-with-SFI.xlsx .

Citations for the NGSL, which also contributed material for this list:

Browne, C., Culligan, B. & Phillips, J. (2013). The New General Service List. Retrieved from http://www.newgeneralservicelist.org. Citation for the NAWL, which some of the words in this list belong to:

Browne, C., Culligan, B. & Phillips, J. (2013). The New Academic Word List. Retrieved from http://www.newgeneralservicelist.org.

**How ROPE can help you save keypresses:

The added-in outlines in ROPE's single-word deck usually let you write common words with fewer keypresses and strokes than you could with the outlines that already exist in the Plover dictionary. See the table below (copied and pasted from the ROPE spreadsheet) for more details:

Average keypresses per root word in ROPE as of 2/1/2020:

(Note: "root words" refers to those words that have their own frequency data included in the NGSL data. Words that lacked this data are considered "derivative words," even though some are not derivatives of other words. The frequency ranking for root words consists of an integer, whereas the frequency ranking of non-root words ends in a decimal value.)

(The totals below are rounded to the nearest thousandth.)

(This set of words does not include a couple of R-rated words in the NGSL top 4000. Also, there may be some errors in the count.)

Root words 1 to 100 (by frequency):

ROPE: 2.610

Original outlines: 3.680

Regular typing (e.g. QWERTY/Dvorak; includes extra keypresses for capital letters but not for the space bar): 3.540

Root words 1 to 500:

ROPE: 3.268

Original outlines: 4.804

Regular typing: 4.966

Words 1 to 1000:

ROPE: 3.502

Original outlines: 5.244

Regular typing: 5.599

Words 1 to 2000:

ROPE: 3.953

Original outlines: 5.724

Regular typing: 6.153

Words 1 to 4000:

ROPE: 4.301

Original outlines: 6.390

Regular typing: 6.624

All words in ROPE:

ROPE: 4.288

Original outlines: 6.349

Regular typing: 6.593

Number of 2+-stroke outlines per root words in ROPE:

Words 1 to 100 (by frequency):

ROPE: 0

Original outlines: 0

Words 1 to 1000:

ROPE: 0

Original outlines: 39

Words 1 to 2000:

ROPE: 0

Original outlines: 189

Words 1 to 4000:

ROPE: 0

Original outlines: 854

All words in ROPE:

ROPE: 0

Original outlines: 873

1.1. How did you choose which words to include in the single-word deck?

The roughly 4,200 words in this list came from the New General Service List website (by Browne, C., Culligan, B., and Phillips, J) (http://www.newgeneralservicelist.org/ ). Specifically, the list includes the 2,801 words in the New General Service List; many of the supplemental words in the NGSL document (such as months, days of the week, and numbers); common derivatives of the NGSL words, such as "am" and "are" for the root word "be"; and other words that were ranked in the top 4,000 by SFI (standard frequency index) in the "NGSL Stats & Frequencies to 34K" document, minus 2 curse words (f*** and s***)* (see http://www.newgeneralservicelist.org/s/NGSL-101-with-SFI.xlsx ). So essentially, ROPE includes almost all of the top 4,000 words in English (according to one frequency list), along with important supplemental and derivative words.

I should point out that this is mostly a list of root words, and many derivative words aren't included.

*These two words can still be written in 5 keypresses using the original Plover outlines. I added in outlines that overwrite these words because (A I do not need to write them in my everyday work, and (B it would be awkward to write one of them by accident. However, the outlines that overwrite these words are not part of either the single-word deck or the phrase deck.

1.2. What is the purpose of the stories and the Anki deck?

I found that while creating a list of outlines for common words was helpfu