Shorthand World » Resources

What did Pitman speak like?

admin — Mon, 16 May 2011 19:06:26 +0000

Well, strangely enough, I now know. Driving back from work last week I found myself switching stations to Radio 4 when I heard an extremely unusual voice. It sounded unlike any accent I had heard before – west country, perhaps, with an American twang.

Now you can imagine my shock on learning that the voice I had just heard was a never-before-played-on-radio wax tube recording of Sir Isaac Pitman. The recording was of a message he had sent to a meeting of a phonographic society in the US which had been unable to attend.

The programme on which this appeared was Word of Mouth, presented by Michael Rosen. The entire programme was about shorthand and its uses. It can be accessed, though only for the next seven days, here. Enjoy, it is a real treat.

Can you help in tape search?

admin — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 09:06:57 +0000

I’ve been contacted by a gentleman seeking two casettes to accompany “Rapid Review and Speed Development” by Bryan Coombs. The gentleman in question is very keen to track down copies of these casettes before Christmas and has tried the usual routes of Amazon, Ebay etc. He is now hoping an SW reader might be able to help. If you can please get in touch and we’ll put you in contact. The exact items are as follows:

Rapid Review and Speed Development: Cassette 1: Pitman New Era
Shorthand

Publisher: Longman; 1 edition (2 July 1991)
Language English
ISBN-10: 0273034278
ISBN-13: 978-0273034278

Rapid Review and Speed Development: Cassette 2: Pitman New Era
Shorthand

Publisher: Longman; 1 edition (2 July 1991)
Language English
ISBN-10: 0273034286
ISBN-13: 978-0273034285

What do you write with?

admin — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 08:42:23 +0000

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!

Where can you learn shorthand?

admin — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 08:29:56 +0000

One question I get asked a lot is “where can I learn shorthand these days?”

I learned Teeline in classes with the National Council for the Training of Journalists here in the UK. Because shorthand is still THE skill editors want from new recruit reporters shorthand training remains a “live” subject taught in classes here in the UK.

The NCTJ is still thriving and each year hundreds of newly tooled-up reporters armed with shorthand head out of training ready to start their reporting careers. I know of others too who teach shorthand primarily to those entering the media.

But what if you’re not a journalist and have no interest in becoming a reporter? Are people able to sign on for a short course in shorthand whether in Teeline or Pitman?

I’m hoping to compile a database of shorthand training centres which I hope will be of use to Shorthand World visitors. If you’ve had a good (or bad) experience of shorthand courses run in the UK please drop me a line. Equally, if you are a training provider who offers shorthand training, please get in touch using the “Contact Us” button and tell us more.

Thank you to Will Smith for providing the following:

Darlington College has the answer. TEELINE (Shorthand) at DARLINGTON COLLEGE Duration: 30 Weeks Dates from / to: 13th Sept 2010 to 6th June 2010 Class times: 6pm to 8pm Tutor: Dawn Johnston Cost: £363 + Vat Exam cost: OCR speed exams are approximately £12

Free Dictation Passages

admin — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 21:16:37 +0000

Hi everybody. Just a few days until Christmas and it is now snowing in the UK. These are some passages which have been on the site before but were taken off line during a complete site rebuild. Hopefully they’ll be useful – either for those visiting the site for the first time or for those who have tried them before (though hopefully forgotten about them)…

They’re courtesy of WaveMedia and are taken, in Mp3 format, from the CDs which are available in the shop.

Speed Plateau? Break Out Now!

admin — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:04:15 +0000

Anybody who has ever learned shorthand has, at some stage, experienced the “speed plateau”. It’s not a nice place. No matter what you try, it seems you’re stuck with a certain speed. We blame our hands (they just can’t go faster), we blame our brains (it just can’t go faster) we may even blame shorthand (why did I learn this lousy system in the first place).

First things first. Plateaus with shorthand speed are natural. You’ll get them in pretty much any activity you could think of – sprinting, piano playing or ping pong. I believe plateaus are where knowledge and skill consolidate, levelling and steadying the ground for further progress. The key is to use our plateaux as a srpingboard for the leaps forward we are about to make. If we don’t do this, we run the risk of our plateaux becoming a rut.

So what’s the plan?

Essentially, breaking out of a plateau is a two-fold process – consolidating what you know and pushing yourself onto pastures new similtaneously. Sound difficult? It needn’t be.

First, establish your maximum speed – the speed at which you can only just keep up with the speaker, where you only get down a hint of an outline (the first letter, say) on some words, especially towards the end of a dictated passage. For the sake of argument, we’ll call that your plateau maximum speed.

Once you’ve established your plateau maximum speed, get it dictated to you at a significantly faster speed (either in person, or using speedbuilding CDs). By significantly faster, I mean 20wpm faster for those in the 50-100wpm range, or 10wpm faster for 100wpm-plus. You want it read to you faster than you can keep decent notes. At this speed, many of your outlines should be little more than hints of full words – partial outlines, letter strokes and so on.

After a couple of significantly faster dictations, try cutting back the speed – to 10wpm faster than your original plateau maximum speed (5wpm in the case of 100wpm-plus learners). You should notice a small improvement. An improvement which will become more noticeable the more you repeat the cycle.

Second, also do exercises based on your plateau maximum speed. The aim with these exercises (combined with the above) is to consolidate your shorthand precision and technique. We should be trying to write better notes and better outlines. Where we may previously have only got a single letter, a hint at a word, we are now aiming to get the whole word down.

Third, we need to go back to the theory when we plateau. One of the real keys to shorthand success is learning the basics well and then economising those outlines further. Depending on where you’re at with your speed, read up on word groupings and briefer outline forms.

Fourth, spend more time practising. This really is crucial to making progress. And if you’re doing the above suggestions properly, it’s bound to take up more time.

Have you got any tips to share for breaking out a plateau? If so, please leave a comment!

Out There: Shorthand Videos

admin — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:27:30 +0000

After writing a previous post I got thinking about other shorthand-related videos that might be out there on the WWW.

So, I searched for “shorthand” on YouTube and awaited the results. I’m not entirely sure it was such a great idea.

One of the top results is a slightly bizarre nine-minute advert for Edison shorthand machines. Basically the plot is this – chaos in the office, Edison machine aquired, everybody happy (and as the ad tells you, it’s not even 5pm!).

Then there’s a shorthand class, the camera work is somewhat fuzzy, dictation material is read out and then read back…

The clearest videos I came across was a lady reading back her (very neat) notes to camera, and some rather nice note-taking from Portuguese dictation (like the use of the pencil, not sure about the ever increasing shift from the left of the page, over the margin, to the right) and this one with ball-point, again, from Portuguese dictation. In fact there’s another one, from the same uploader, which gives an excellent view of shorthand being taken down – this one is actually really good, the outlines are the right side the hand movement appears exemplary.

Then there’s this very short lesson in Alpha Shorthand.
I’ll confess to knowing very little about Alpha Shorthand other than that, like Teeline, it appears to be based around an alphabet system and proponents claim it is easy to learn…

For those interested in court reporting, this might be of interest.
For those interested in court reporting, but like to see their court reporters wheeled onto a stage set with performing music, this might be of interest.

All in all, it would appear there is still scope for high quality online shorthand video content. I really look forward to seeing it in the future…!

Oh, and I must also say that my attention was drawn to a great video by the MSN Gregg Shorthand group. It’s of Michael Lista effortlessly streaming across a page at 120wpm using Gregg.

Excellent camera positioning makes his work really clear, and the audio is pretty clear too so you can actually understand his notetaking.

More vids like on the web will make the world a happier place!

Michael said in a message to the group:

“For some reason my hand is just walking really well today. I’ve usually stuck with liquid inks for writing shorthand, but theres something about ballpoints.

“Maybe the extra friction of the pigment-based ink helps to control your hand movements and you don’t ’spin out of control’ as much. Also I finally used the 2 column steno pad layout which I really think made a difference.”

Anyway, here’s the link.

Boost Your Performance in Shorthand Exams

admin — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 16:42:41 +0000

1. Sleep well the night before – go to bed early and avoid doing any shorthand the evening before.
2. Remember to check AND DOUBLE CHECK your transcriptions before you submit your script. Oh, and write your transcriptions out clearly – many students fail not on their shorthand but on their transcriptions, so make sure the transcription can be read by an examiner!
3. Half an hour before the exam, loosen and relax your hands, fingers and neck with light stretches and joint rotations. During the exam sit with a straight, but forward-slanted back. Despite the urge, don’t hunch over with bunched up shoulders – it constricts your breathing and blood flow.
4. Breathe well and try to keep your mind clear of distractions.
5. Once the passage has been read out, read back your shorthand notes before transcribing them. Mark any outlines you are uncertain of.
6. When transcribing, leave those marked shorthand outlines out of your longhand transcription – only try filling in the blanks afterwards, when you can confidently compare your notes with what you think the word might be. Remember, the context of the piece itself might just solve the riddle.
7. Triple check your transcription for any errors which may have crept in.
8. Don’t alter shorthand notes to fit in with your transcription – have trust in your original shorthand note.

Shorthand World's Favourite Books

admin — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 10:49:28 +0000

Shorthand World readers frequently ask us which are the best books for learning shorthand. There are hundreds of excellent books out there which will help you learn or improve, so choosing from them is no mean feat. But we’ll have a stab at naming our top ten books for Pitman and Teeline.
To find out more about any of the books below just hover your cursor over them!
Teeline Fast (Teeline)

Teeline Revised Edition (Teeline)

Teeline Gold: Speed Ladder (Teeline Gold)

Teeline Gold: Word List (Teeline Gold)

Teeline Gold: Student Pack (Teeline)

Shorthand Pitman 2000 (Teach Yourself)

Pitman 2000: Shorthand Short Course

Pitman New Era Shorthand: Anniversary Edition

Pitman 2000: Shorthand First Course (Pitman 2000 Shorthand)

Shorthand, Pitman’s: New Era: Facility Drills (Anniversary Edition)
But what do you think? What are your top ten books? Why not drop us a line to let us know!