Practical tips for improving your shorthand speed

So you've mastered the shorthand alphabet, know how to write the shorthand outlines for lots of words but are still struggling to get your speed up.

Sound familiar?

First off, don't panic! You will not be alone. Anyone who has studied shorthand will have been in this boat at some time or other and yes, it is hair-pullingly frustrating!

You spend hours learning the shorthand outlines, hours and hours practising writing the outlines and still you mess up. Urgh!! It's painful I know. I've been there and got the t-shirt!

But do not despair! Just like me and countless others who took ages to get to 100wpm, you will get there with perseverance and practise. 

If you’re seriously at this point though and getting really stressed out with learning to improve the speed of your shorthand, my best advice would be to put down your pen, put away all your shorthand notes and books and take timeout.
 
A change is as good as a rest, as they say, and sometimes doing something else other than slogging over your shorthand is often the key to improving your speed.

So okay, assuming you are ready to bite the bullet, here are a few of my personal tried and tested practical tips for learning to write shorthand faster:

• Use lined paper - if you understand how to write shorthand outlines this tip might seem fairly obvious but always use lined paper or write lines on blank paper before trying to write shorthand as the positioning of many outlines, on and between the lines, is key to understanding what you've written.

• Don't grip your pen or pencil tight - hold your writing tool with grace and elegance as if you were an artist, conductor or violinist. Don't grip it so tight that your fingers ache and your hands get sweaty! You are aiming to write shorthand at speed not hammering a nail in the wall!

• Get your posture right - don't slouch and pour your body over your shorthand notebook as if you're writing something that is top secret. Sit up straight in front of a non-wobbly table or desk, hold your writing tool lose and glide your hand over the page with elegance and grace as described above   

 
• Keep your outlines small and close together - it is quicker to write shorthand outlines small and near to each other rather than writing them large with wide gaps apart. You might only be saving seconds but knowing how to save crucial seconds really counts when you are trying to improve your shorthand speed

 

• Remove wrist bangles - I don't know if this is just me but I'd struggle to write shorthand if I was wearing jewellery that jingle jangled on the wrist of my writing hand. I've also caught my watchstrap on the edge of my notebook before now, so I tend to do naked hand shorthand these days!

• Divide your notebook into 2 columns - drawing a line down the centre of your reporter's notebook page and writing your outlines left to right in each column can save you time as you won't be making that sweep back and forward every time you get to the end of a line. To know more about this tip read this post

• Keep your writing tool close to the page - in a similar way to the above, keeping your pen or pencil near to the page will save you precious seconds

• Use the margin, but only if it works for you - using the margin for writing difficult words in full then leaving a gap for the outline to fill in later is something I have tried but found too time consuming, especially when the word is a long one. But it's worth giving it a go if you haven't done so already, as many people do this when they're learning shorthand

• Use shorthand shorts for words - there are several short outlines in Teeline to denote various popular words, so it is well worth learning a few. If you know them already, always try to use them, as they are a big time-saver!

• Sing after me, "silence is golden.." - you need a good dose of uninterrupted peace and quiet to practise shorthand so turn the music off, unplug the phone, switch off your cell and pray that no-one comes knocking at your front door!

• Practise, practise, practise! - I wouldn't recommend a heavy hour-long slog when it comes to practising shorthand but frequent short bursts are certainly the key to continued improvement. But, as I've said, if it's just not happening after a few tries, just put it away and try again tomorrow. Don't let shorthand get you down! You can beat it and you will.