How to learn stenography and make a career out of it

If you excel in typing at fast speeds with minimal errors along the way, a stenographer’s job could be for you. Although most of the day-to-day operations are done on a computer keyboard in most industries and workplaces, a stenographer uses a steno machine to transcribe the speaker’s words. There’s a learning curve to it but when you’re skilled enough, there’s a large demand for stenographers in various sectors. With that said in this article, we’ll be telling you various ways to learn stenography and become job ready. But before that let’s understand what stenography exactly is.

What is Stenography?

Stenography is the process of writing in shorthand and transcribing it on a typewriter or a steno machine. Now it begs the question what is shorthand? Well, shorthand is a method of writing in which are written in abbreviated and short forms while maintaining their proper pronunciation. This type of writing is often required in situations that demand quickly jotting down a person’s verbal or non-verbal communication such as in a courtroom hearing, legal proceedings, lectures, etc. 

One instance of writing in the shortcode is that the sound of ‘ch’ is denoted by a capital C so words that contain the particular sound such as ‘each’ and ‘bleach’ will be written in the shortcode as ‘eC’ and ‘bleC’ respectively. A stenographer or shorthand writer should possess excellent typing and listening skills with quick processing of shorthand writing methods.

How to learn stenography in India

In order to make a career in the stenography field, you should first acquire the basic knowledge and skills to land a decent role in a private company, court, education institution or anywhere shorthand writing is required. Here’s how to learn stenography in India:

1. Take up an offline course

Stenography is practical and on-the-spot work. So apart from getting hands-on experience with the steno machine, it’s practically impossible to learn stenography. Enrol in an offline stenography course to get guidance from proficient professionals where you’ll get to grasp things from the ground up. Another thing to get expertise in, apart from using a typewriter for shorthand is to upscale your listening skills. Experienced stenographers are able to type around 220 to 300 words per minute in an actual environment!

2.  Go for on-the-job training

The only way to become proficient in any skill is by gaining on-the-job practical experience. When you put yourself into a working environment, there’s a significant mindset shift to grasp knowledge and expertise. In the case of stenography or shorthand writing, one can go for training programs or internships in both private and public companies, institutions, broadcasters, government agencies etc. and even get a full-time working opportunity once the training period ends.

3. Build command over language

Shorthand requires a good command of the English language. Be it reading, writing or listening a stenographer should be well versed in communication and able to tackle any difficult situation that comes their way such as fast transcribing, quickly typing unclear words or communication that is not expressed verbally such as gestures and movements. There are many online programs you can enroll in to get better in language which will ultimately make stenographing a not-so-hard task.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What are the skills required to become a stenographer?

If you possess the following skills, you can create a worthful career out of stenography –

1. Patience and persistency – Stenography may require you to sit for a long period of time in one go with any provision for breaks in between. This is because once the process starts, you are required to continuously shorthand the speakers’ words or communication on the typewriter.

2. Writing skills – A stenographer should have excellent writing skills including grammar familiarity.

3. Active listening skills – A stenographer should be able to observe the environment during proceedings and attentively listen to the speakers and quickly shorthand their communication

4. Grasping small details – Stenography involves both verbal and non-verbal communication, thus a stenographer should quickly be able to observe gestures and convert them into understandable phrases using the typewriter or steno machine.

What are the various types of stenographers?

Stenographers are demanded in different industries and sectors such as:

1. Courtroom stenographers – Such stenographers, transcribe the hearings in a court to capture the speakers’ statements from witnesses, judges and lawyers.

2. Media stenographers – Media stenographers, work in the entertainment industry to provide captions for movie and TV watchers.

3. Military stenographers – As the name suggests, such types of stenographers record the military proceedings.

4. Real-time captioning stenographers – Certain audiences prefer live captions for the particular event they are watching such as live news, sports events etc. and this is where real-time stenographers come into play.