The grand-daughter of the creator of Mack Shorthand is appealing for anybody who knows the system to help her transcribe her mother's journals. John Barry Mack of Kentville, Nova Scotia. invented Canada's answer to Pitman shorthand at the beginning of the 20th Century. Kate Overcash, Mack's grand-daughter, is now trying to find out what lies within her mother's journals, which were written in the Canadian shorthand system. Ms Overcash told how mother had bequeathed her the journals prior to passing away. Anybody with knowledge of the system can contact Ms Overcash by email.

Shorthand coach Nicki Jones is planning to stage two shorthand refresher courses in London. Ms Jones, who runs the east Sussex-based 21c Shorthand training school, will be laying on a morning session for those with Teeline speeds of about 60wpm and an afternoon session for those with speeds of about 80wpm. Each three hour session will focus on a combination of theory and speed-building and are ideally suited to those who want to refresh their shorthand knowledge and improve their speed. The sessions are also aimed at those keen to refresh their Teeline knowledge but do not have the time to complete one of her comprehensive four-week courses. The refresher sessions will take place in Victoria, London, on January 28 and those wanting to find out more should visit 21c Shorthand or contact her directly on (01903) 879525.

This is surely a first for shorthand on the web - a newsheet web-page rendered entirely in shorthand. Prof Waldir Cury runs the excellent Taquigrafia website in Brazil and is an expert shorthand practitioner. Keen to help his students improve their shorthand skills, he has now taken the plunge and developed an entire web page in shorthand. And he now plans to release a new newspage entirely in shorthand each month! [caption id="attachment_321" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="The Taquigrafia Shorthand Newspaper"][/caption] In his note to the MSN Gregg Shorthand group, Prof Cury said: "I invite you to take a look at the new page of my website: a whole page in Shorthand. "Its name: "Shorthand Newspaper".  Every month a new page will be launched.  The aim: to help the online students to develop their shorthand reading. "I hope you like the idea.  And I also hope that many other shorthand website owners will do the same, so that we can have in a very short time many shorthand pages like that - using different systems. "The system used in the "Shorthand Newspaper" is the Maron System, a Brazilian one.  So, I hope you will like it." Waldir - for what it is worth I think it is an inspired idea ...

Mark Tod Kislingbury, RMR, CRR, has scooped the 2008 Speed championship held at the Anaheim Marriott in Anaheim, CA. The National Court Reporters Association in the US stages its speed contest each year. See below for the complete list of place-holders. This year the event was held at the Anaheim Marriott in California. After gruelling warm up sessions the contest got underway. The event was once again won overall by Texas's Mark Tod Kislingbury, of Houston, who scored 98.711% overall. The 2008 result marks the fourth time Mr Kislingbury, author of The StenoMaster Theory, has won the championship. The way the percentage is arrived at is as an average score of everybody who qualifies in all three legs of the contest. Each leg consists of a five-minute dictation: literary at 220 wpm; legal opinion at 230; and two-voice testimony at 280. Contestants have 90 minutes for each segment to transcribe. A score of 95% or better is needed to qualify in each leg. The scores of everyone who qualifies in all three legs will be averaged to determine the NCRA speed contest champion. The runner up this year was Rita Otero, of San Diego, Calif., who notched 98.558% and the third ...

Creating online resources to help shorthand students get up to speed was a key talking point at the annual shorthand seminar run by the NCTJ in London, on June 6. Various exercises to make acquiring the essential journalism skill more accessible were discussed at the event, which drew together tutors, members of the NCTJ and its shorthand board, to share ideas and best practice, and enhance training. Making shorthand lessons and speed practice passages available online was a popular idea, allowing students to access these at any time, maximising the amount of practice they can do. The seminar, held at Bloomberg, in Finsbury Square, was the ideal opportunity for NCTJ chairman Kim Fletcher to present the two annual shorthand awards. The recipients were both graduates of the University of Sheffield’s MA in Newspaper Journalism. Lucy Ewing, 25, won the NCTJ Shorthand Award, for the best 110wpm shorthand note and transcription at 100 per cent accuracy, during the past academic year. Rick Burin, 24, was awarded the Harry Butler Award, for the best 100wpm shorthand note and transcription at 100 per cent accuracy. Lucy now works at the Bolton Evening News, and Rick at the Harrogate Advertiser. Each received a certificate and a cheque for £50. Presenting the awards, ...

Teeline is being taught to students at the London College of Fashion who want to become fashion journalists. The new course, aimed at those dreaming of becoming the editor of Elle or Vogue, is designed to prepare students for the heady world of fashion reporting and is multimedia in approach. But a key part of the LCF's BA Fashion Journalism course includes Teeline (the college's prospectus refers to T-line) which, according to the college, "underpins" a "wide range of professional writing and editing techniques". Brenda Polan, Director of Programmes (Media) at the London College of Fashion, is reported as saying the reason Teeline was introduced to the course was partly a reaction to the advent of online journalism. "All those standards are slipping as far as I'm concerned, with everybody and their dog writing their own news stories and that going out on the web - it became clear that journalists have to retrain and learn respect for the truth and accuracy. " I think it is particularly important in fashion where in many instances PRs have the upper hand. We need to rekindle investigative instinct in journalists and reintroduce some scepticism," she said. Teeline was developed in 1970 by James Hill, a teacher of Pitman ...