This dissertation is concerned with the survey of the high rate of failures in shorthand. This enables the researcher to have a broad and elaborate knowledge of the problem faced by shorthand students and how they can be tackled.

Shorthand, formally known as phonograhy is an art; a time saving system of writing by sound. The advantage can be blurted due to the excessive rate of failure.

This dissertation covers the background of the study problem and signification of shorthand. It discusses some of the concepts that will be of immense help to the writer such as mastery, basic skills, aural comprehension and method of teaching research methodology and design used by the researcher in this study is also discussed.

The and it is of the data collected were also presented. A survey of the high rate of failures in shorthand were also enumerated.

CHAPTER ONE

BACKROUND TO THE STUDY

Shorthand is the art of representing spoken sounds by written signs pitman shorthand provide a ways of representing every sound heard in English words.

Samaha (1973: 112) defines shorthand as a method of writing rapidly by substituting characters, abbreviations, or symbols for letters, words or phrases.

Isaac pitman published the first edition of his shorthand system in 1837. He spent half a century improving it, and the great work has since been continued by several generations of expert writer and teachers.

Millions have used this system as a means of earning a livelihood, and today, throughout the world wherever accurate and immediately legible recording of spoken English is reguired in parliament and congresses of every size.

Isaac pitman devised his system after profound and epock making study of the phonetic structure of the English language. The system is a result of his scientific analysis. Systems before pitman and even systems in use today, could achieve speed only through the laborious memorization of hundreds of special forms and arbitrary abbreviations. In pitman shorthand speed and facility of writing and safety of reading are achieved by following a coherent and comprehensive scheme: each individual sound has its signs and sounds of the same family have signs with an appropriate family likeness, after a little practice the signs seen to produce themselves like snapshots from the sounds and the sounds themselves seem to speak from the written page.

Historians date the beginning of shorthand with the Greek historian xenophobe, who used an ancient Greek system to write the memos of secretes. In the fourth century B.C Marcus Tulluis Tiro, a secretary to the Roman Orator cecero, invented a shorthand system called Tiroman According to stoddard and scalter good (1983:93) the time that Tiro invented his system was not quite clear and some people so as far as to say that he stole a system used in Greece. However, most agree that Tiro’s notes were the first organized system that enabled a writer to take down notes as fast as they were said.

Although, shorthand writing has undergone many modifications since its invention, the gregg and pitman methods are the beast known system using symbols. About 1913, shorthand written by machine was introduced and Gregg simplified version of shorthand written by machine was introduced in 1949 revised in 1963) and in the latter part of 20^th century, the use of shorthand machines became widespread.

In 1973, institute of management and technology started offering secretarial study as a course.

In 1989, the N B Y E introduced advanced transcription in the curriculum and course specification studies lectures in this department relied on dictation and general principles and techniques of writing and subsequently transcription in type writer. Shorthand and has been the bare of most students. Shorthand as the name suggests spells terror and doom to the students with exeption of a far.

The pitman organization has carried out series of research and emerged with some teaching methods, techniques and even the publication of books, programmed to enable students so through this course with minimum rata of failure. However the government infura approved several commercial schools and colleges where shorthand is being taught attend extra classes in the evening. Like institute of management and technology, students are being divided into groups to create attentiveness and interest from the students.