A uniform one-year vocational course in machine transcription which will build adequate knowledge and skills for immediate employment, irrespective of the makes or models of transcribing machines available in the school, requires a more comprehensive program than those currently available from commercial sources. The 180 special transcription letters comprising the document (intended for recording on the school's transcribing machines) are part of such a program, developed from objectives in an accompanying syllabus (ED 086 883), which indicates how the regular class work is systematically correlated with the required out-of-class work. A two-page guide shows how the knowledge of punctuation and English essentials should be developed on a week-by-week basis, following closely the knowledge introduced in each letter, which is keyed to five reference works to be used by students in home-study assignments. The letters teach five different functions common to most businesses: sales and advertising, credit and collections, complaints and replies, inquiries and replies, and employment and personnel. They are graded from very easy to moderately difficult and range in length from 40 words to 400 words. (Author/AJ)