Shorthand had disappeared from many companies by the 1950s; the secretaries in the company I was with all had a machine to which we dictated, and had a tube with an earpiece. Forget what the things were called.
It was used for letters; our reports were all set down in our handwriting, and we were lucky that our technically trained stenographers could read our squiggles.

Material for publication went back several times for additions and corrections. Then it was sent to Editing, where two women with degrees in English cleaned it up any mistakes in language.

In grade school, penmanship was taught, but by the time we entered the 7th grade, most of us had forgotten it.