Shorthand summer plan
Teeline shorthand is an essential part of your NCTJ diploma - it's also notoriously tricky to learn. We recommend you use this summer plan to learn the basics before you arrive.
What is Teeline?
Teeline is the most popular shorthand system and is a key feature of the majority of NCTJ-accredited journalism courses, including MA Journalism and BA Journalism Studies here at Sheffield. You'll start by working towards 60 words per minute (wpm) before moving on to 100 wpm. Achieving a shorthand speed of 100 wpm will improve your prospects of employment in a newsroom and help you achieve your 'gold standard' NCTJ qualification. Typically, shorthand is used for dictation during interviews and taking vital notes in the courtroom.
Getting prepared
The textbook we use is Teeline Gold Standard for Journalists by Marie Cartwright. We recommend that you purchase it online before you arrive! Cheap used copies are also sometimes available and prices vary so do check before you buy.
Before you begin your shorthand journey, you will also need:
- An A5 reporter’s notebook
- A pen with black ink (although you may prefer a pencil).
All the following material is here to support you and, while not compulsory, it is advisable to do as much as you can to get ahead. History demonstrates that students who arrive on the course with the basics already under their belts tend to be the ones that achieve 100 wpm quickest.
Let's love teeline together!
To really hit the ground running with shorthand, we strongly advise watching the first five videos on a YouTube channel called let's love teeline together. This channel was created by Jo Goodall and Rosalie Watts, a shorthand tutor here at Sheffield!
Please see below links to the first five videos. Take the time to watch, digest and work through the practice provided in each video. There are also links to worksheets which will be useful though some content may be repeated in the textbook (bonus - double the practice!). If you want to practice the alphabet on the go, why not record it on your phone and play it back to yourself? You could be surprised just how quickly you pick it up, and if not - keep practicing and don't give up!
Lesson 1Lesson 2Lesson 3Lesson 4Lesson 5
Top Tips from the experts
- Read and re-read the Teeline exercises in the book and in your own notebook so that you can write the words contained in them without hesitation when they occur in dictation.
- Enlarge your vocabulary of Teeline outlines so that you encounter fewer and less unfamiliar words.
- Always try to write something for every word spoken. It is very common in shorthand tests to find yourself lagging behind the speaker and if you carry on making a perfect outline for every word, chances are you’ll end up getting completely lost. The aim of the game is to catch up as much as possible and the best way of doing this is to jot down something for words said until you’re back up with the reader. It may just be a dash of a “d” or a slip of an “e” – you might not think a “d” could mean “depends” or an “e” might spell elephant, but when you come to read over your notes and it says “it d... on the way you look at it” or “he rode along on a mighty e...”, context will help you fill in the blanks.
- Keep outlines tight and cut the amount of space between each outline. Keeping your notes compact and tidy, means less wasted time. Although spaces are necessary to differentiate each outline, every time we lift our hand, every time we are not depositing ink on a page, we are, in shorthand terms, wasting valuable time and page space. Keep non-productive hand movement (IE movement not connected to writing an outline) to a minimum and see your speed improve.
- Pen clamp is bad. There is a tendency in all of us to clamp our fingers around our pens when we are taking tests - it is a symptom of nervousness. When it comes to shorthand, it can slow you down. Try and keep a loose grip around your pen and your hand should float more easily across the page.
- Get a good pen. You should not be able to see the impression of shorthand outlines you wrote on the previous page.
- Trust yourself and what you have learned, and use it in a speed test. If you know a complex outline, prepare yourself mentally prior to the test to use the complex outlines rather than writing out each word independently. A word of warning though - if you have to think about a complex outline during a test don’t use it – because thinking/remembering in test conditions is a death knell to performance.
- Finally, don’t think, feel. Electricity flows fastest when it encounters no obstruction. In shorthand, your ability to write is at its fastest when the words are spoken, processed in our minds and delivered through our pen onto paper. As counter-intuitive as it might sound, try not to understand or think about the words spoken by the reader. Thinking about what is being said means you are carrying out a secondary complex process that is competing with your shorthand speed. For speed tests, it is best to be a simple conduit between the spoken word and your pad of paper.