Just curious - Does anyone here still use short hand at work? How or when did it become unneccesary? Was it replaced by the dictaphone?
I’ve never seen it in actual use, but I’m only 32. My mother knew it from somewhere or other - I remember her showing me it when I was a kid.
I’ve seen it used, and there are some books in my office about it, but for the most part, if I’ve had to transcribe something, it’s been with a dictaphone or the writer just writes a draft on the PC.
Robin
Working for a law firm once where we had to go through (literally) a couple hundred thousand pages of documents from the clients’ employees’ files.
Anyway, there were one- yes, one- page of what looked like a memo that was written in shorthand. What did it say? No one knew, and no one could find anyone who could read it.
Finally, the attorneys decided just to ignore it, and hope the other side didn’t find something useful in it…
I learned shorthand along with typing in high school. I wasn’t very good or fast at it, but there was enough to it that I was convinced that it would be better for many occasions than taking things down longhand.
Eventually, I discovered I could type faster than I could take reliable shorthand. And shorthand needs to be transcribed, anyhow. What with computers and voice recognition, shorthand is pretty much finished. It could be argued that many of the shorthand conventions could be adapted for typing, but there aren’t that many situations where someone needs to take down more words, real time, than a fast computer typist could manage.
The last person I saw using shorthand was my mother, back in about 1985. I’ve never really seen the advantage in it, even if you’re in a position where your only option is handwritten notes. I take notes at the DFW Dopefests in longhand, and I get along fine even with the rapid-fire conversation of over a dozen people. Of course, I don’t try to get every single word down, either.
Wow, I feel old. I learned it in high school, and had to use it at one of my first jobs.
I developed my own form of shorthand. It looks more like sloppy handwriting. Most people can’t read it. And I must confess that sometimes I can’t read it after a certain period of time. So I suppose it’s time sensitive…
Being one of the Ancient Ones[sup]TM[/sup], I also learned shorthand in school and college.
Even typing fast on a typewriter, you could not put words on paper as quickly as the Male Executive Type[sup]TM[/sup] could talk. And everyone knows the Male Executive Type’s[sup]TM[/sup] time is much more valuable that Underpaid Female Secretary’s[sup]TM[/sup] time.
It’s time is now past and is one of the things we codgers can tell our grandkids about while drinking lemonade sittin’ in our rockers on the front porch. (the same grandkids that think “BC” means “Before Computers”!)
I thought H.P. Lovecraft’s Chthulhu trademarked “Ancient Ones” 6,000,000 years ago! If they decide to file suit…watch out!
How many Malesque Executive types actually could out talk a 90 wpm typist? And what were they saying at such speeds that was worth recording?
Seriously? Well, since court reporters vying for national certification are tested at 205 words per minute, and most say that’s not fast enough for many speakers, the answer is probably quite a bit.
My understanding (no cites, so don’t ask) is that average conversation is in the 160-180 word per minute range.
Granted, the average dictation isn’t done at conversation speeds, but still…
205? WTF? I meant 220 words per minute.
I must be getting old.