Despite popular notion, journalists still use the archaic tools of
pen and paper to take notes while on assignment. With a reporter’s
notebook in hand, journalists are expected to take down every word
spoken at city hall meetings, court hearing and ribbon cutting
ceremonies. That is why journalists like shorthand.
To ensure they are quoting their sources correctly, accurately and
always in context, journalists rely on the technique of shorthand.
Every journalist has his or her own little form of shorthand. Some forms are more advanced than others.
Shorthand is a very technical part of journalism that takes years to perfect. Learning how to shorten a 15-minute tirade statement into six lines of notes is a skill journalists must possess.
Some examples of shorthand include:
- @ = at
- s/.. = showtime
- & = and
- F-dom =freedom
- B/ = because
- <>.//a = apple
- <O> ing= speaking
- dispo =diposition
- ://! = beef jerkey
- dk =Donkey Kong
So for instance a reporter’s notes may look like this:
Thur. L/k Ntire @ 9pm b4 the prez BAC s/ b/ we J will LL dwn> .//$20$ r-no
{Y} = *& 33% cash arp \|–)~M–D
What that seemingly unintelligible jargon translates to is this:
Thursday evening around 9 p.m. the entire board of trustees voted to
reinstate their president, John Jacobson, despite a recent driving
under the influence arrest. Jacobson said he was happy with the board’s
decision, but disagrees that his blood alcohol level was above the
legal limit. In Jacobson’s absence the company lost an estimated $20
million, according to the company’s annual report.
Journalists can sometimes get so carried away with their shorthand
that they can’t read it later. On occasion a journalist will mull over
some random squiggle asking what the hell is that.
Journalists go through all this effort so that their stories are
accurate and complete – only to see their 30-inch story edited down to
a brief on page A7.
-D+Y– = David Young
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Topics:
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As a very young person, I learned (against my will) the now-archaic system of Gregg shorthand. Which now is so exotic that (until my recent leave-taking from the news biz) sources would regularly interrupt themselves when talking to me to ask, basically, ‘What the hell are you writing?’” It’s a great way to keep notes secret too, because if I didn’t transcribe them within a half-hour, I couldn’t figure out what the hell I was writing either.
I too use Greg shorthand. Of course this form of shorthand was something that I’d come up with myself because of a snoopy journalist at my university’s paper. But it still works and I use it everyday. That said, I also have about half-an-hour to figure out what it says.