There are things in reporting practice that I’m good at, and things that I’m bad at.

For example, I’m pretty decent at putting a story together by instinct (though I should pay much more attention to structure). I’m pretty good at maintaining eye contact and being aware of my body language and phrasing in a face-to-face interview.

In contrast, I’m terrible at writing quickly.

There have been hundreds of missed opportunities to quote a source in my reporting career. It shows in my studies, too — writing an essay or taking notes just takes me longer than other people.

I often find myself asking sources to slow down, or to jump back a few second. This is fine, as people tend to understand. Still, it is not a consistently applicable practice: not every quote I try to write is in a dialogic setting.

If someone’s walking and talking, or they are impatient or just are the sort of public figure to expect me to run with whatever I heard the first time and get it right, I can’t press the pause or rewind button.

People propose two solutions to this:

1. Use shorthand. Problem is, I get caught up in embracing existing shorthand systems (which have pre-established rules that save time and have been proven effective by the effects of consistent revision over decades but lacks adaptability to different reporting contexts), or developing my own (which has the advantage of flexibility, but lacks the systematic thinking, reviewability and consistency of a formalized system).
2. Record your interviews. I do this, but I have noticed that regardless of intent, it encourages reliance on the recording to get a given quote. I’ll dig more specifically into my issues later, but suffice it to say that I find this a rather hollow solution to the issue of not being fast enough. At best, it’s a decently reliable crutch. At worst, it’s a distraction from reporting.

I recognize that I’m way too in my head about this. I need to just develop a shorthand system and let it evolve with time. Yet I think deeply considering these questions and coming out on the other side with an idea of what the best solution is shouldn’t be discarded.

Sure, I can just get started on it, but decisions on best practices in a given situation are always relevant. I should always worry, before reporting out a given story, how to best ensure I can get the information I need.