AddThis SmartLayers

Training Matters: How to succeed at shorthand

John Cary, head of accreditation at the NCTJ, reflects on the work to help young journalists as they strive to win their personal battle to succeed at shorthand.


Nervous laughter. Unconvincing smiles. General sheepishness and shuffling in seats. The reaction is always much the same when I ask journalism students one simple question about their studies.

“How’s the shorthand going?”

The responses don’t vary much because the challenge is the same for all of them. Getting from zero to 100 words per minute (wpm) within the duration of an NCTJ-accredited course is hard. Always has been, which explains the empathy that is regularly evident among the working editors sitting with me talking to students on accreditation visits.

Those editors readily confess their own struggles to get their 100 before going on to reinforce why the achievement matters so much. That magic number on a CV has the power to convince an editor that an applicant is serious about pursuing journalism as a career and has put in the hard graft to arm themselves with the skills they need.

The NCTJ’s accreditation board sees reports from courses across the country. Hundreds of candidates do pass their 100wpm each year. Some centres have excellent records in getting students up to speed. Others struggle. I was asked by the board to look at what works and what doesn’t – and to share good practice as widely as possible.

There was no shortage of help in the task. Shorthand tutors are great evangelists for the subject. They responded enthusiastically to an NCTJ survey, and I was also able to draw on ideas from the NCTJ’s annual shorthand seminar.

Attendance at classes, lack of motivation, timetabling, surroundings and prioritising shorthand in the workload on the course were among the issues that were reported back.

Morning lessons were favoured by many in the survey – but scheduling shorthand too early in the day can hit attendance levels (cue hollow laughs from working reporters who know what awaits students once they secure that first job in a newsroom).

Three-quarters of tutors prefer lessons of 60 or 90 minutes. No-one thought lessons of two and a half hours or more worked best. The tutors themselves believe streaming students by ability would produce more 100wpm successes.

From my experience visiting all the accredited courses, those that do best manage to create a pressure to succeed within a limited period. This happens naturally on a fast-track course, but is harder to produce for an undergraduate programme.

Allied to this is a culture of success. Put simply, if lots of students before you have got to 100, and it is clear that’s what expected of you too, your chances are greater than on a course where students set out on the shorthand journey more in hope than in expectation.

Above all though, students do well when they have great teachers who inspire them. Once they’ve overcome that initial sheepishness, students often tell accreditation panels of their huge loyalty to their amazing shorthand tutors. They are striving to get to 100wpm as much as anything to avoid letting their teacher down.

I know my own journey to 100wpm was helped enormously by the hard work and good humour of Christine Richardson at Richmond College, Sheffield. As a matter of fact (a phrase for which I still remember the Pitman outline thanks to Christine), one idea which the NCTJ will do more to encourage is to create a buddy system where any tutor will be able to call on a colleague working at another centre for informal support and help.

11 comments

You can follow all replies to this entry through the comments feed.
  • August 26, 2014 at 10:30 am
    Permalink

    We had shorthand for 6 hours a week during the course and after 8 months of hard work I achieved my 100 wpm. Four out of eleven of us got it, the rest with varying levels of success, some achieving 60, some not even achieving that.

    Shorthand demonstrates a commitment to your craft, working in print I use it every single day and the months of hard work were well worth it as I secured my my first job in the industry a few months after graduation. If you’re serious about your career, stick at it and practice. If you half-heartedly attempt to learn it you will fail.

    My tutor Eleanor Bryans was fantastic, she was a brilliant help and pushed us all the way. The teacher makes all the difference.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • August 26, 2014 at 10:51 am
    Permalink

    So John, you use the lovely outline for “as a matter of fact” when you are in court or doing an interview. You might use “to be honest” or “however” or “it is interesting to note that…”. Because you have been trained to take verbatim notes, you write it all up and then, in the past, a grizzled old sub would cut it all out. Now you see it in published copy all the time. Wasted words, faithfully reproduced. Am I saying that 100wpm has had its day? Yes, as a matter of fact I think I am. I read your interesting and entertaining piece and in the background all I could hear was the worrying clank-clank-clank of something going wrong deep in the engine of the outdated system. I’m sure it will keep going for a few years yet, before the head gasket blows.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • August 26, 2014 at 2:08 pm
    Permalink

    What of journalists who have disabilities which renders their handwriting, whether longhand or shorthand, illegible?
    This is an issue which does not seem to get consideration. I have been diagnosed with cerebral palsy and because this renders my handwriting illegible, I was refused work for a chief reporter’s role, and have no doubt it is a factor in not being hired for other jobs, despite having nearly 30 years’ journalism experience.
    I gave the editor in question a copy of a reference from an Irish solicitor, testifying that my court reporting was so accurate that he and his colleagues used it as a basis for appeals; he replied “With respect, this is not Ireland.”
    I am not saying all editors are like this, but why the rigid insistence on specific forms of shorthand, when a journalist’s own version can work? No wonder so few disabled people work in journalism.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • August 26, 2014 at 2:51 pm
    Permalink

    Shorthand was invaluable in countless high profile court cases/inquests etc I covered as a reporter. But even today, when I’m no longer a reporter, I still find it useful. I often employ it to quickly compile notes and lists, especially ones that my wife won’t be able to decipher….such as stocking up on, er, ‘necessities’ when the booze cabinet is depleted.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • August 26, 2014 at 4:58 pm
    Permalink

    Why is my comment edited out? I have raised a valid issue.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • August 27, 2014 at 9:15 am
    Permalink

    The fact that you can take verbatim notes doesn’t mean you have to. I was trained to take selective notes and shorthand has always and still is invaluable in my work. I’d rather refer to notes than listen to/watch recorded interviews.
    I’ve also found that people are happy for you to take notes but have seen some interviewees flinch at the sight of mobile phones or whatever thrust at them. Use whatever method works for you, but don’t dismiss shorthand. Idle Rich thinks it’s part of an engine belonging to an outdated system. My shorthand has never broken down…
    Well done and well said, Colin Armstrong. Here’s an idea for trainees – learn shorthand before you go to college or on work experience, if you can find a teacher. You’ll be laughing and future employers should be impressed.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • August 27, 2014 at 11:17 am
    Permalink

    Strange, isn’t it, how trainee journos still find it so tough to learn shorthand when these days they are taught the supposedly “easier” T-line rather than Pitman?
    Speaking as one who had to battle with the latter, I would agree that most of the problems encountered today are caused not by the system but by the students’ inability/unwillingness to get their heads down and learn.
    Shorthand can never truly be fun, but — as John Cary and others have pointed out — excellent tutors can and do help ease the pain.
    Apropos the impending demise of shorthand, why not? Good spelling and grammar are already a rarity, as are accuracy and a true news sense!
    Coming on top of the cost-cutting machinations of today’s Press barons, I really do feel for today’s trainee journalists. They will survive….I hope!

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • August 27, 2014 at 7:13 pm
    Permalink

    Good advice Hackette. I decided to do shorthand at sixth form, knowing how relevant it was to the journalistic path I wanted to pursue. I was pretty baffled by shorthand and was probably (ok definitely) the worst in the class at it. I was the only male and most of my classmates could not understand what I was doing there. But there was method in my madness.
    When I got on to the NCTJ course I was streets ahead of all those learning it from scratch. I knew what was coming every step of the way and went on to get 120wpm.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • August 28, 2014 at 3:12 pm
    Permalink

    I could always tell the rookie hacks proud of their fast shorthand. They took down everything said in even the most mundane council meeting then spent a day unravelling their notes about nothing. Hackette was spot on. Ration your note taking. It will save you hours of work.
    By way I once worked with a bloke who in about 60 years of hacking had no shorthand and never had a complaint about trials, council meetings etc that he reported. A strong pair of legs for legwork, writing ability and a big nose for news were more use to him!

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • August 28, 2014 at 6:41 pm
    Permalink

    Good comments here. I’m not saying that good shorthand isn’t an excellent tool. I did the 100wpm like everyone else, did many high profile court cases, and wish I hadn’t lost most of the skill when I went behind a screen and spent most of my time churning out pages and trying to justify myself to bean counters and protecting my staff.
    It’s just that I am not sure good shorthand is relevant anymore when the skills have gone in another direction. Good reporter picks up great breaking story on social media, gets out there, grabs sensational video/audio, files from the scene, someone back at base adds twitter/Facebook stuff and background, comments enabled, job done. Where do you need shorthand? John’s account creaks of an age-old system still desperately trying to justify itself. Harsh, I know, but true. The teachers are not teaching the right stuff. Just keeping the old machine going.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)