 This is Rules for Writing Braille, and Braille memory aids in one lesson. When you begin to write in Braille, there are a lot of different rules you'll want to remember. We won't go through all of them here, but we will touch on some of the more useful rules to help you get started. Probably the most important rule is that contractions should not affect the pronunciation of a word. Also, contractions generally should not overlap syllables or the prefix of a word in its base. So, if you see a word like mishandle, you would not use the SH contraction when transcribing it, because this would alter the pronunciation of the word, giving it a sh sound. Also, miss is the prefix of the word, so you would be overlapping the prefix and base word by using the SH contraction. The word standing is correctly transcribed here with the ST, A&D, and ING contractions, since these do not affect pronunciation and they do not overlap the syllables. The word pineapple uses the IN contraction, but not the EA contraction, since that contraction would overlap the syllables. The next commonly seen rule is that the contractions and for, of, the, and with should be used in preference to other contractions. One reason for this rule is because these cells do not represent anything else, so there is no chance of them being misinterpreted. So, for instance, the word office would use the OF contraction instead of the FF contraction. The word then would use the THE contraction instead of the TH and EN contractions. The next very important rule is that preference should be given to the contractions which save the greatest amount of space. In some cases, this will trump the rule above. So, the word wither would use the WITH and ER contractions instead of the THE contraction, since fewer cells would be needed. Same idea with the word bubble, using the BLE contraction instead of the VB contraction saves one cell. Our next rule is that the A cell and the contractions and for, of, the, and with should all follow one another without a space between them any time they are used together. For instance, the phrase food for the cat and the dog would not have a space in between for and the or in between and and the. This rule helps save a little space as these words are frequently seen together. Next, the contractions to, into, and by cannot be used as partial words. So, for instance, you couldn't use the TO contraction in a word like top. This part of the rule makes the next part possible, which is that these contractions should be written unspaced from the word that follows. Let's look at an example. To get into Miami by noon. You'll notice that there is not a space in between to and get, or in between into in Miami, or in between by and noon. This rule helps save a little space as these are frequently used words. The next rule relates to the words be, enough, were, his, in, and was. We'll see some different rules for a few of these contractions later when they are used as partial words. But as whole words, these contractions can have the capital sign preceding them, but they cannot touch any other words or punctuation marks. So, for instance, you can use the whole word contraction enough to start the sentence, enough is enough. But you cannot use that same contraction to end the sentence, since it would be touching the period. Instead, you have to use the EN, OU, and GH contractions the second time. Also, in the sentence that was fun, the was contraction is separated from the other words with spaces. By the way, the cell that represents the contraction was is also the cell that represents the contraction by, as we saw in the previous rule. The way you can tell these apart is if the cell is unspaced from the next word, then it represents the word by. But if there is a space after it, then it represents the word was. The partial word contractions, BE, CON, and DIS should only be used at the beginning of a word as a full syllable. So, for instance, the BE contraction can be used in the word believe because the BE is at the beginning of the word and it is the first syllable. However, it cannot be used in the word been because although the BE is at the beginning of the word, it does not take up the whole first syllable since been is a one syllable word. The rule related to the COM contraction is similar in that it must be used at the beginning of a word. However, it does not have to take up the whole first syllable as you can see in the one syllable word comb. Most of the other two letter partial word contractions such as EN, IN, CH, and so on can be used anywhere you find them in a word as you can see in these examples. Next, the BLE and ING contractions should not begin a word. So the BLE contraction does not begin the word blemish but does end the word double. One reason for this rule is the cell for the BLE contraction is the same as the numbers character as you may remember. The final rule we'll look at is that the double letter contractions BB, CC, and so on as well as the contraction EA may only be used in the middle of a word. They cannot begin or end the word. So in the examples you'll see that the EA contraction cannot be used in the word C since it would be at the end of the word but it can be used in the plural version C's since it is in the middle of the word. Now these rules should help you get started in transcribing Braille but the best way to learn the rules of writing Braille is to spend a lot of time reading Braille. Once you've been reading Braille for a while you'll be able to understand and remember these rules much more easily. In our next and final video we'll walk through a Braille example and use everything we have learned up to this point to understand what we are reading. But first to help us with that task let's quickly review some of the things we have learned in the previous videos so we can put together a cheat sheet to help us study. The first thing we'll put on that cheat sheet is the story about crossing a river that we looked at in the Grade 1 Braille video. We'll place cells A through J on top of the symbols from that story. This will be the first of our Braille memory aids. Now let's look back at the 50 out of 64 Braille cells that fit the A through J pattern. We'll take away the cells and shrink everything down to fit on our cheat sheet. But to help us remember the cells let's make a note of how the additional rows are different than the A through J row. The K row also had dot 3 raised. The U row had dots 3 and 6 raised. The CH row just had dot 6 raised. And finally the EA row has the same pattern of dots as cells A through J except they have all been dropped down one position. Now let's add the words that were represented by the Braille letters to our cheat sheet. Then we'll add the memory aids related to the 2 cell partial and whole word contractions. And finally the memory aids that helped us to remember the numbers associated with letters A through J. And that'll do it. We now have a cheat sheet that we can print and use to help us learn and remember Braille. You can find this cheat sheet along with a few other helpful images in a PDF file with this video. Next we'll wrap up our series on Braille by seeing how we can use everything we have learned to read a sample of Braille from a popular book. This has been Rules for Writing Braille and Braille Memory Aids in one lesson.