Now I’m not picking on Teeline particularly, it’s just that it happens to be the thing that’s currently destroying my will to live. I’m equally sure that any form of shorthand, whether Teeline or otherwise would be just as much fun. Since I’m told that any journalist who wants a job these days needs shorthand, it is essential that I pass the exam.
Using Dawn Johnston’s Teeline for Journalists
Teeline for Journalists had been my bible for the last few months, but now that I’m starting to copy down short reports from the TV news and other programmes, I’ve come across a lot of words that I’m not sure of. Teeline is based on the alphabet so you can, in theory, write any word once you know the letters. The book, while being great for learning the theory, doesn’t give you all the words so sometimes I struggle with things like “F” written up or down, or some of the word endings. Using the Teeline Gold: Word List 
However, to get any speed in the Teeline shorthand I’ve found that practising the word groupings and blends are the best way to achieve this. Teeline Word Groupings gives a comprehensive list of the most widely used – and some of the not so common – word groupings.
Although three weeks doesn’t sound like enough time, I believe there are some people who have mastered Teeline shorthand in something like 200 hours. So if I was starting from scratch I’d need to do just under 10 hours a day for the next three weeks. But since I already have a reasonable grounding of the theory, and a speed of between 50 and 80 wpm (depending on how difficult the words are), it must be possible to reach the magic 100 wpm in 21 days.
Well, it remains to be seen when the time comes. Meantime, it’s practice practice practice. Teeline torture indeed!
So, how did you do on the shorthand test? We don’t have that requirement here in the states, but I’ve been looking into learning some shorthand to make my life easier (since I only write a dozen articles a year, it’s pretty easy already–I just want to have the option of leaving the recorder behind).
Regret to say I failed miserably. Although my speed was getting much better every day, I’d left it too late to reach the required 100wpm. My classmates didn’t fare too much better, with an estimated pass rate of around 10%. Teeline is a good system but you really do have to practice consistently. Looking forward to the resit in August!