Shorthand Alive and Well

This has reference to the article in the Los Angeles Times of Nov. 24 with the heading “Penwriters Are Leaving Their Mark on Capitol Hill” (by Don Phillips, Washington Post) concerning the last of the pen shorthand writers.

I want to tell you that shorthand is still alive and well and at work in Beverly Hills. I am a public stenographer and my office is at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, where I run the Executive Business Center. I use shorthand in my work daily, and, as a matter of fact, attended the same school (the old Gregg School of Shorthand in Chicago), which was mentioned in the article as being the school where the Capitol Hill shorthand reporters learned their profession.

To be a proficient shorthand reporter requires years of study and practice, and would not be a practical thing in our age because there is always a margin of error. Recorders are doing an excellent job now, as does the stenotype. But here is something challenging in being able to convert words to symbols and then convert them back. It’s like knowing an additional secretive language.

EDNA R. RUBY

Beverly Hills