Academic writing technique: the influence of stenography on students’ academic performance in higher education

The use of stenography writing has in the recent past been faced with challenges about how, where, and when it is appropriate to be used in the teaching and learning process. The main objective of the study is to determine whether stenography writing has any major impact on the writing ability of students and their academic performance. The study adopted a mixed method design, guided by survey questionnaires and WhatsApp focus group interviews. The study included 50 undergraduate students from 1^st to final-year who visited an academic writing Centre between 2017 and 2019 and were selected through cluster sampling. The presentation of findings is descriptive in nature and was analysed using SPSS and thematic analysis. Findings reveal that stenography writing can easily corrupt the writing ability of students, as well as result in the misconception and misinterpretation of ideas. On a positive note, however, it can facilitate the teaching and learning process by easing the flow of communication and subsequently enhancing student learning outcomes.