THE SILVERTHORN BASIC VOCABULARY OF WRITTEN BUSINESS COMMUNICATION WAS REANALYZED IN ORDER TO FURNISH ACCURATE DIFFICULTY INDEXES FOR INSTRUCTIONAL AND TEST MATERIALS FOR STENOGRAPHERS AND TYPISTS. AMONG THE 11,055 DIFFERENT WORDS IN THE REANALYZED LIST, 109 OCCUR AT LEAST ONCE IN EVERY 1,000 WORDS. MEAN SYLLABIC INTENSITY (NUMBER OF SPEECH SYLLABLES PER DICTIONARY WORD) WAS FOUND TO BE 1.54. MEAN STROKE INTENSITY (NUMBER OF TYPEWRITER STROKES PER DICTIONARY WORD) WAS FOUND TO BE 6.0 (4.67 LETTERS PLUS 1.0 SPACES PLUS .3 FOR THE INCIDENCE OF PUNCTUATION). THESE VALUES SUBSTANTIALLY EXCEED AND SHOULD REPLACE THE CONVENTIONAL 1.40 AND 5.0 ESTIMATES. OTHERWISE, STENOGRAPHERS AND TYPISTS WILL BE UNDERPREPARED FOR THEIR JOBS, AND THEIR PROFICIENCY WILL BE OVERESTIMATED. IT WAS ALSO FOUND THAT THE VALIDITY OF "PERCENTAGE OF COMMON WORDS" AS AN INDEX OF DIFFICULTY DEPENDS ON THE LENGTH OF THE COMMON-WORD LIST. WHEN THE LIST IS SHORT, THAT INDEX HAS A NEAR-ZERO CORRELATION WITH FREQUENCY OF OCCURRENCE IN THE LANGUAGE. FURTHER, SHORTHAND DICTATION ON THE BASIS OF THE "STANDARD WORD" (EVEN AT SYLLABIC INTENSITY 1.54) IS AN INSUFFICIENT EQUALIZER OF DIFFICULTY. THE ADDITION OF "PERCENTAGE OF WORDS AMONG THE 1,500 (OR 2,000) COMMONEST" IS RECOMMENDED. THE PERCENTAGE DISTRIBUTION OF CUMULATIVE SEGMENTS OF THE BUSINESS VOCABULARY IS GIVEN, AND THE PROBABLE IMPROPRIETY OF USING A BUSINESS VOCABULARY AS A BASIS FOR TRAINING AND TEST MATERIALS IN PERSONAL TYPING COURSES IS DISCUSSED. (AUTHOR)