I'm constantly writing. I'm not just writing the end product - newspaper articles, for example - but through the entire process. Shorthand notes from interviews, shorthand notes and jottings during research, drafts and so on. I'll confess that I've rarely contemplated the number of plastic pens I've discarded over the years, the petroleum-based ink I've used or the countless leaves of shorthand notepaper I've run through. But I bet if somebody brought put it all on my desk I'd be horrified. As daily users of ink, paper and plastic, should we as shorthand practitioners be more considerate for the impact our work/hobby has on Mother Nature? Well, what can we do? First off, 100% recycled paper has to be the way forward. Next up is pens. Throwing used biros away has got a be a naughty thing to do, and I'm not sure they can be recycled everywhere. I've seen ballpoint pens which have been recycled from old CD cases and the like. But what do you do with them afterwards? Can they too be recycled? I haven't got an answer to that yet. So I'm thinking a refillable fountain pen has to be the answer because then you'd not be throwing anything away. ...

I remember once hearing that Woodrow Wilson, the 28th American President, was shorthand proficient. What I did not realise, however, was the extent to which his pen skills were absorbed into his professional life. Quite by chance I recently came across a newspaper cutting from the St Joseph New-Press which revealed how for the first time in history a treaty had been signed with a seal in shorthand. This, I learned, was not just any treaty either, but the Treaty whof Paris which marked the end of the First World War. This fascinating article told how Woodrow Wilson's seal ring carried his name in shorthand and how this would be used to stamp the American leader's name onto the treaty document. Here's the article: [caption id="attachment_271" align="alignnone" width="412" caption="Shorthand news story about Woodrow Wilson"][/caption] There are a great many sources of excellent information about Wilson out there. I understand he used a form of shorthand called Graham, which was derived from Pitman and now virtually extinct.

Until the release of the much-lauded film The King's Speech, George VI probably didn't feature on many people's "best known royals" list. The film tells the story of Bertie, who has suffered from a debilitating speech impediment all his life, who is suddenly crowned King George VI following the abdication (amended thanks to Laura!)  of his brother. What follows in the movie is the story of the King's quest to find his voice. So what's all this got to do with shorthand, I hear you ask. Well, quite by accident I came across an old cutting The Portsmouth Times in Ohio which tells how shorthand students at Sciotoville High School in 1937 were set the challenge of taking down George VI's coronation speech in shorthand. According to the article "A radio was connected in the classroom at 2pm. "Miss Lillick (the shorthand teacher) tuned in on the coronation ceremonies. Students took down the speech of the king as their dictation for the day. Some students went even further and took the speech of Premier Stanley Baldwin. "Miss Lillick said that the king spoke at a speed which was not difficult for the students to take, though some had difficulty in understanding the clip speech of the ...

A journalist colleague of mine asked me today what I did with my old notepads. I explained to her that I kept them for a couple of years (used to be advised to keep them for three years, later revised to just one) and then binned them. More than binned them, I explained, I recycled them, because that's the type of chap I am. And I was feeling very virtuous and superior in my greenity. "But what about data protection?" she asked. "Erm..." I replied. "It's just I've got so many people's names and telephone numbers and personal details and their stories in mine," she said. I thought about the law and remembered once being told that Data Protection didn't really apply to work as a journalist or, and I thought for a second, law enforcement. And that was what I said to my colleague. "That's true," she said, gently. "But that part of the law is to do with the use of information, not its disposal." "Erm..." Now then, I'll be honest. The connectedness of the disposal of a shorthand notebook and the Data Protection Act is not something I've ever thought about before. But I think my colleague is asking a legitimate question. What should ...

Few would argue that Sir Isaac Pitman, the inventor of the shorthand system that bears his name, should not be held in high esteem, revered even. But I was stunned to come across an article with the headline "The land where Isaac Pitman, shorthand inventor, is a god". His deification appears to have happened in the Indian city of Chennai. In his fascinating article for The National, reporter Samanth Subramanian tells how: "The entrances to many buildings in this southern Indian city are graced by small shrines, miniature temples, almost, to one or the other of the Hindu pantheon's gods and goddesses. "Among the most extraordinary of these sits in the courtyard of a building in the crowded neighbourhood of T Nagar. Resting on a plinth is a garlanded, foot-high bronze statuette of a lushly bearded 19th-century Englishman named Isaac Pitman. "The building houses the headquarters of the Stenographers' Guild, which explains the devotion to Pitman, a vegetarian and teetotaller who was knighted in 1894 and died aged 84 in 1897. In 1837, he developed the most widely used form of shorthand, a system of strokes, hooks, dots and squiggles, based on phonetics, which ...

The merits of shorthand vs tape recorders is not a new one. However, it is a debate that appears to be ongoing, with Roy Greenlade recently writing on his blog that he would like courts to allow reporters to bring in tape/digital recorders. His argument starts with an MP being caught saying something he wished he hadn't on tape. Greenslade states: "He could not deny having said it because his words were on tape." However, Greenslade asks, what would have happened if the unwise statement had only been captured in a shorthand note? If the MP claimed he had been misquoted (not uncommon), would the shorthand note be trusted? If so, by who, and to what degree? His main points are that shorthand is a less trusted means of capturing what was said than a tape/digital device, that shorthand is a pain to learn and that people develop their own shorthands as they use it (to the extent that, he says, most shorthand users gradually develop a "personal shorthand that only they really understand"). I think he is right on all three points. Shorthand is less respected than it once was. That's partly because it is less prevalent in society per se ...

Pens have always been a hot topic in shorthand circles. I myself have maintained (on the basis of evidence I might add) that pen choice can make a 10wpm difference to note-taking speed. That said the "best pen" is clearly an issue of personal choice. Some might prefer a pilot graphic pen, others a pencil, others a fountain pen with or without a specialist nib. I've seen reporters using standard ballpoints (because that's what their employers offer), nylon nibbed pens, gel pens and so on. I'm really interested to find out what we, as a shorthand community, choose to write with. I did have a poll set up but it doesn't seem to work. Please post a comment saying what you write with or drop me a line instead!