Two journalism students are the owners of a new text book after winning a shorthand competition.

Thomas Ireland, of Norton College in Sheffield, and Leah Smith, of Bournemouth University, were among 47 students from six different journalism colleges to enter the challenge.

It was held in November as part of the National Council for the Training of Journalists’ Shorthand Week.

The competition asked students to write their three favourite Teeline shorthand outlines and their three worst.

Entries were judged by Michael Defroand who is chief reporter at the Kentish Express and a member of the NCTJ shorthand board.

The winners receive a copy of ‘NCTJ Teeline Gold Standard for Journalists’ written by Marie Cartwright, the training body’s chief examiner for shorthand.

Michael said: “I thought all the entrants put a lot of thought into their selections.

“It was interesting to see that some selected an outline as among their best only for others to choose it as one of their worst.”