How to Tutor Shorthand

You love teaching other people and you're an expert at writing shorthand. Combine these two interests to become a shorthand tutor. You can make money and share your knowledge at the same time. Shorthand is a useful skill, especially for kids who have college in their future.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Buy a shorthand book with all the symbols included. Even if you know all the symbols, you may want a reference book so you can copy pages for your students.

2. Be familiar with basic tutoring strategies like visual, auditory and kinaesthetic methods of teaching students. You can explain shorthand to auditory learners, use books and write on the board for visual students and writing exercises for kinaesthetic learners.

3. Know the two main types of shorthand: Forkner and Pitman. You should only teach one type of shorthand at a time, but be familiar with both so that you can teach either if asked.

4. Be patient and teach a piece at a time. Start with long and short vowel sounds and then move on to consonants and then consonant blends. Finally, teach students to write words and sentences in shorthand.

5. Give your student a shorthand notebook for practicing. The notebook should have lined pages divided in two with a vertical line down the middle. Show students how to write quickly in columns using this book.

6. Show students how to form the shorthand strokes by demonstrating them yourself. Then get the students to copy your strokes, repeating until they perfect their form.

7. Teach punctuation and theory as part of each lesson. They must know punctuation for business letters and essays. Theory helps students understand how shorthand works and why it is used.