CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION
1.1              BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The introduction of the secretarial profession is as old as man and nature.  The role arose out of the natural need for a prominent person to whom confidential matters could be entrusted and who could act as an assistant for a principal.
It is known that secretaries existed in Rome prior to the establishment of the empire.  They were usually educated men who took dictations as “scribes” and often times acted as trusted advisors.
Before the invention of parchment and reed pens, tools of the trade for scribes ranged from chisels used upon stones to styluses used on clay, wood or wax tablet.  Events and works of great men during that time were recorded in one form or the other.  Like Alexander the great said, “reliable records shows that the present day secretary came from the genesis whose oldest is ‘penman’.
The first personnel officer trained was stylishly called ‘penman’ and this art is known as ‘penmanship’.  The penman originally used quill feathers as pen in making fanciful writings.  Other classes of secretaries emerged after the penman called ‘the writer’ and constituted themselves into what may be regarded as “chartered secretaries” who rendered useful service to individuals and organizations that requires their services.
A Brief History of Shorthand and Typewriting
            According to new encyclopedia Britannica (1990:1052) noted that most historians date the beginnings of shorthand with the Greek historian euphony, who used an ancient Greek recording the memories of Socrates. it was in the roman empire however, that shorthand first became generally used.  Marcus tallies tiro, a learned freedman who was a member of cicero’s household, invented the tironians notes – which was the first Latin shorthand system.  It was devised in 63 B.C. it lasted over a thousand years. t he Latin triennia shorthand became popular enough to be compiled into shorthand dictation and used by emperors and learned clergymen in speed writing contents.
            As a result, a number of shorthand systems were invented.  In 1837 Isaac Pitman published his first Latin edition of the art.  In 1840, the second edition of his work appeared, under the title ‘photography or writing by sound, being also a new and natural system of  shorthand”.  His work which was in different forms include Pitman’s shorthand Instructor and Key; New Era; Pitman 2000 and Pitman Script.  “The light line photographic of John Greeg was also published in 1888.  Soon after their publication, these systems started to flourish in America and have now spread tentacles to almost every country of the world.
            Before the invention of the typewriter, all written material was done by hand-writing. William Austine Bunt invented the first typewriter in the United States of America (U.S.A0 in 1829.  The machine, which he invented, wrote slower than a biro pen.  However, in 1874 Christopher Sholes introduced a machine, which was faster than a biro pen.  At the period under review, the typewriter keyboard was arranged alphabetically, and the improved version was made in 1872 for convenience reasons.
            Naturally, typewriters invention changed the cause of things for the secretaries because they started to learn how to manipulate it with their.