Blog

How we teach shorthand today

Frances Tew is a Dickens Decoder. She has taught Teeline shorthand for twenty years to students on journalism courses. In the second of two blogs she explains how we teach shorthand today and reflects on Dickens as a shorthand teacher.

Blog

Shorthand today

Frances Tew is a Dickens Decoder. She has taught Teeline shorthand for twenty years to students on journalism courses. In the first of two blogs she tells us what modern shorthand is all about.

Blog

Chinnery shorthand: Some snakes and ladders

Our Chinnery summer transcription is proving something of a ‘staggerer’. In a second guest blog, V&A research fellow Patrick Conner provides some help, explaining how Chinnery used shorthand in his sketches, as well as recurring phrases and signs and potential pitfalls.

Past challenges

Chinnery Summer Transcription Challenge

This summer, we’re taking a break from decoding Dickens and turning attention to another user of the Gurney shorthand system: the artist George Chinnery (1774-1852). Can you crack Chinnery’s shorthand annotations?
Deadline: 15 September 2023.

Blog

Charles Dickens, George Chinnery, and Gurney shorthand

What did Charles Dickens and the artist George Chinnery have in common? Both were practitioners of Gurney’s Brachygraphy shorthand. Find out more about what connects these two fascinating figures in a guest blog by Patrick Conner.

Media

Media

For media enquiries please visit our ‘Contact’ page. Cracking the Dickens Code is a story that caught the world’s imagination. The ‘Tavistock’ letter discovery, made thanks to the efforts of the Dickens Decoders, has featured on ITV News at Ten…

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