3. March 2010 by admin.

Thoughts for Students/New Reporters Students/New reporters: 

You are embarking or have just begun on a path in a profession that some of you may still not realize what you’re getting into.   This profession is going to introduce you to some of the nicest, nastiest, best, worst, craziest and on and on and on people in the world.  One never knows what the day holds when they head to their jobs.  Whether you’re in court, freelancing or working in one of the fields for the hard-of-hearing, each day is a new day and most of the time, the case or hearing or whatever is different from the day before.  Unless you’ve worked on the case before, one doesn’t know just exactly what to expect.   

If you’re working in court, as we’ve seen over the last year or so, there could be a wild man on the street or in the courthouse that has decided he wants to kill people.  If you’re working in the freelance market, you could be working on a family matter case that turns very ugly.  If you’re working in the captioning field, you could be the “lucky” one to have to caption something like the World Trade Centers falling down.  You could be in a hearing or a deposition where the graphic nature of the testimony just turns your stomach so that you want to be sick, whether it’s a murder case, an accident or whatever. If you’re in court, the record that you’re making could be something that you think is not very important, but put yourself on the other side where the parties are sitting.  This could be the lifeblood of their existence or something very crucial to their livelihood or could mean they go to prison or not.  Have you ever thought about that?  We just sit there quietly and do our jobs, but put yourself in the shoes of one of the parties sometime and see if that doesn’t make what you’re about to get into or are currently doing just a bit more important. 

None of the above mentions are what you signed up for, but that’s always something that is a possibility in our profession.   The point I’m making here is that this profession and what we do is very important.  All of the seasoned reporters in the field could probably give you at least one exampe of just how important their job is by reciting some story like ones I’ve mentioned above.  You just have no idea how important sometime before you get to the job. 

If some of this is scary to you, it’s meant to be …… in a kind way.  Most of the reporters that start out in this field are in their early 20s…..now, that’s not to say all people are in their 20s when they do this……but the point I’m making is that because of the age, I think that sometimes you don’t realize how important your job is because you’re still young and happy-go-lucky and are still learning about things in life and may not have the cares about what you do as the more seasoned reporters do. As the older reporters get even older, we need to make sure that those after us feel the same importance about the job as we have come to.  If this means I feel compelled to write an article like this as a wake-up call, then so be it.  That’s exactly what this is.  I’ve discussed with many of my friends about the profession and where it’s headed and we want to make sure that the hands we leave this profession in understands the importance of the job. 

Now, before I make a few suggestions here, I am just as guilty as all of you students and newbies in not necessarily having the care about the profession as I do now.  Sure, I knew what I was doing was important, but looking back, I realize now just how important our craft is.   I’d offer a few things here that I think will help you as you progress through school as well as begin your career. 

1.  Alcohol or drugs should NEVER be consumed during the day, either before, after or during your job.  One should never, ever be in a hearing or a depo and consume alcohol or drugs during the lunch break or any other time.  I can say that after a long day or a hard week of work that I might want to toss one back to relax, but I have NEVER done that during the day….either before a job or hearing or during the lunch break or any other time.  NEVER.  This is totally not acceptable.  You are putting all of us at risk….that’s right, all of us….by doing this.  This profession is too important and we all rely on each other to protect it.   2.  Improve youself in what you do.  What I mean by this is that don’t just settle for getting out of school and never doing anything else to improve yourself.  The exit speeds at which you graduate are just the tip of the speeds that you are going to experience in the field.  Strive to get a higher certification.  Strive to improve you writing accuracy.  Strive to have the confidences to provide realtime to counsel upon request.   I’ve said this before:  “If you’re not trying to promote yourself or the profession, you’re killing all of us.” 

3.   Avoid reporters that have lost the desire to want to do better.  You may run across reporters who have lost the “desire” to want to do better or tell you that you do not have to do anything to improve yourself.  Do NOT listen to this. 4.  Avoid other students who want to gossip…..and even avoid reporters who do the same….about other students or reporters.  If you run across this, try to turn it into something different.  Don’t get caught up in school about who’s doing better or who isn’t.  You worry about your place in the school and what you’re doing.  If your best friend in school leaves you in the dust, congratulate them and then get to work on what you’re doing to catch up.  It’s not their fault just as it isn’t your fault.  Everyone advances at different speeds.  That’s just how it is.  

5.  Because of the nature of our profession, you want to be careful about how you talk about what you’re doing.  Remember, some of this stuff is important to someone and although a lot of it is public record, I think that the less it is talked about by you, the better you look to your clients and others in the profession.  I think you can mention that you worked on so-and-so case, but to get into a bunch of graphics or specifics may not be the best thing to do. 6.  Many times, attorneys are going to ask you during a break in the proceedings, “What do you think about this?”  Well, that is a tough thing to deal with.  While you’d love to say all kinds of stuff, you probably want to avoid a full discussion on the testimony, because you never know if that attorney might say later in the day, “Well, the reporter said……..”  Then, your impartiality could be called into question. 

There are a ton of other things that I could say and there are even ethics put out by NCRA as well as state associations on many other matters about how to conduct yourself, but there are just a few things to think about along the way as you prepare yourself for a wonderful career. I’m hoping that others in the field will be able to offer other suggestions to students that they know or have an influence on. 

Lastly, hang in there.   You can do it and best of luck.  Make us all proud. (tipping hat)

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3. March 2010 by admin.

YOUR KNOT GONA BELIEF THIS

Yes, sometimes that is what can happen on the above statement when you do not check your work and proofread what you’re about to turn in.  We are all human, but these are the kind of errors that one might see on a transcript from a student or a new reporter, believe it or not.

Sure, we are all trained to write these words differently, but there are still those times, because we are human, that we make little mistakes like the one above.

The point that should be made here is that if we were to see this go out and later be called on it, it would be rather embarrassing for us.  Not only for the one that actually sent it out, but for the profession in general.  It would appear that we do not know what in the world we are doing or one might ask if we were actually trained in the grammar field or trained in the English language.

There are several “catch words,” as I like to call them, that students and newbies should look for.  Ones that I find particularly troublesome are:

Your/you’re

Its/It’s

Believe/belief

there/their/they’re

a/an

right/write

Now, the above examples are only a very short list of the many words that can throw a sentence off.  One above that particularly annoys me is “its” and “it’s.”  I’ve yet to see “it’s” possess anything, but this is one word that is probably misused more in the English language than any other word I’ve seen.  “Its going to be a nice day.”  Or, “That dog sure is taking it’s time to cross the road.”  Or, “The machine, at it’s best, is perfect.”  You get the picture.

Of course, the other one that drives all of the seasoned reporters crazy when they are reading papers and the like would be “your” and “you’re.”  Those are misused in so many instances that the list is too long to even give examples of.

One other grammar area that I would like to discuss is when an attorney asks a question and the witness will answer the question with a “yes” or a “no” and then will add more to the answer that may not be responsive to the original question.

For instance, “Q.  Did you go home last night?”

“A.  Yes, I went to the store first.”

Now, that example above could possibly read that way, but I really don’t think the answer “yes” should have the rest of that statement tied in with it.  Chances are, there might have even been a pause between the “yes” and the rest of the answer.

A lot of us have our software set up, perhaps, to just automatically put a comma after the “yes” or the “no” and we may not even catch these examples.  But, I would say that cleary this is an example where proofing should have caught this, if nothing else.

I think the bottom line for students and new court reporters in the field is this:  Yes, someone actually does read your transcript after you’ve finished it.  Yes, they will probably see little errors like the ones I’ve mentioned above.  Yes, those areas mentioned above could clearly have been caught during the editing process as well as the proofing process to save embarrassment later on.

So, in short, take pride in your work, whether you’re still in school or just getting started in the field.  Remember that you are part of a profession that has a very important job and those before us have worked long and hard to make it what it is.  Let’s continue to keep this profession a respected profession and take pride in what we do.

Otherwsie, we aer knot gonig to last long and, belief mee, known of us won’t that to hapen yet.

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3. March 2010 by admin.

Students/Reporters:

I’ve been toying around with some new phrases……at least for me…..that I’ve been having pretty good success with.

I’ve been using the final -RZ for “recognize.”  It’s given me phrases like TKAOURZ for “do you recognize” and WAOURZ for “would you recognize.”  There are several others in that group I’m using and I won’t bore you with the rest of them.

Another thing I’ve been doing is using EUPT for “I want,” of course, but if I throw in the “*” key, I can also get *EUPT for “I went.”  That is also giving me options like WH*UPT for “when you went” and WHUPT for “when you want.”  With the final -PT for want and then throwing in the “*” key, it’s given me “went” for some of the same strokes I was using for the “want” phrases.  “Want” is definitely more common, but there are a few “went” phrases.

Also, another one I’ve been toying with is using final -RPT for “repeat.”  So, “would you repeat” could be WAOURPT.  Or “could you repeat” would be KAOURPT.  “Can you repeat” or “will you repeat,” etc.

Another one is using final -RT for “return.”  Or, you could perhaps using -RPBT for “return.”   KURPBT would be tough for “can you return,” because many theories use that for “current.”    Also, you could try using -RPBT for “turn.”  This comes in very handy for those document-intensive cases where the question almost always begins with “Can you turn to the next page.”  Or, “Would you turn to the next page.” 

You might possibly want to try just using the -RPB for “turn” or “return.”

I haven’t checked all the theories and it may be that I am the one that is behind the times.  Maybe not.  Hopefully not.

Lastly, you might even want to add the -D or even a -DZ for additional words to the phrases for things like “can you turn to the” (KURPBTD) or “did you return to the” (TKURPBTD). 

Perhaps others will have some other ideas or thoughts.

(tipping hat)

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