Typos in Transcripts

[Jennie Ann]

I used to believe that my transcripts didn't need to be gone over with a second pair of eyes, but I have quickly changed my opinion on this. Today, I think it is imperative. I have made some typos and booboos, for lack of a better word, that spell-check would never catch, but a second set of eyes would.

Here is one that I recently caught, thank goodness. I was transcribing a webinar for Department of Education, and they were discussing STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math). I typed this: "We need to get our youth more involved in science, technology, engineering, and meth." OMG!

This one, though, is my biggest blunder. Luckily, it was caught before it went out. I was in cruise control, tired and overworked, and didn't catch it myself. The audio sounded like this: "...I wouldn't mind for this guy praying for me. This is a real guy. So I did something better for him. We arranged to send a chauffeur in there and a tape that taught him how to blow the chauffeur and permission from the government to allow him to use the tape and to learn how to blow the chauffeur."

Needless to say, even though it sounded like "chauffeur," it was supposed to be "shofar." A shofar is a horn used for religious purposes.

The purpose of this discussion is to reinforce the need for proofreaders, but if you have any typos to share, I wouldn't mind hearing them. After all, we are not machines, and humans do fumble on occasion. ;-)

[Veronica Kubat]

My "favorite" blunder is a case where a plaintiff had pain and difficulty with their teeth and was using Anbesol (sp?), but I figured it was Anusol (sp?). Needless to say, they are not the same thing. Eeeek!

[Shelley Ottwell]

Oh, Jennie, how I couldn't agree more with ". . . cruise control, tired and overworked . . . ." I, too, have made some boo-boos. The most recent one that comes to mind is "terminator" instead of "termitor." I was trying to proof my own work when I was tired - big mistake! I just read right over the "terminate" as "termite."

I do have to say though I did have a good laugh at the biggest blunder. Thank you for the laugh!

Proofing one's own work is NOT a good idea!

[Cynthia M. Cathcart]

Jeanese, maybe it was supposed to be "if you can," which is how I used to write that phrase until I found that four-letter word in a transcript when it shouldn't have been! I changed to writing "if you can" in either two or three strokes and wrote the four-letter word in one stroke with an asterick.

[Mary Jo Cochran]

When I did workers' comp hearings, one attorney I worked with on a regular basis, one transcript had convenient store. He brought it up, how often I go to the convenient store. He was having fun with it with other attorneys around. He finally told me it's a convenience store. I told him, now, it's a convenient store - because it's convenient. I went and looked it up - and it is convenience store.

[Mary Ann Payonk]

Oooo, what a great thread where we get to say bad words on purpose! Yea! Because, you know, I would NEVER swear in general conversation. Like my grandsons, age 3 and 5. 5-year-old knows what bad words are, knows he can't say them, but he DOES say, "Ahhhh, mommie, Jayden said 'shit.'" Then when you look at him sideways, he gives this evil grin and says, "I'm just saying what HE said, mommie." Pause. "I didn't say 'shit.'"

Whatever!

I took a little class on writing for captioning about, gosh, ten years ago, but this is something I always remembered. The gal giving the online class suggested that we make swear words, e-x-t-r-e-m-e-l-y difficult to write ... like double-stroke FU*BG/FU*BG for the biggie. Then you'd have to REALLY MEAN IT if it comes out correctly. I've had a few times where SHEUT's appeared instead of "is it," or even "sit," so "shit" is now SHEU*T/SHEU*T. I do differentiate "dam" from "damn" with the asterisk, and I put the asterisk with "damn."

Also, when writing just regular words, another good suggestion was when resolving conflicts, make the most often-used word easier to write, the less often-used word more difficult. Makes sense to me, and I do that most times. But isn't it interesting how our brains work when resolving conflicts? Like "mail" and "male." I write "male" as MAEUL, and "mail" is with the asterisk, MAEU*L, because the little asterisks reminds me of the dot on the 'i' in "mail." Strange, huh? FWIW, MAEL is "mentally" for me.

So ... back to the thread topic ... this wasn't me, but a reporter told me several years ago that she was writing about "activities," and she started using something that was translating as "titties." Some got in the transcript as "activities," but there were a few "titties" in there, and was she ever glad her proofreader caught it! I can only imagine ... "So, ma'am, the titties that you were talking about before, could you describe them for the record?"

M.A.

[Chris Renegar]

One of my favorite court reporter typos was a transcript where the reporter had "Penile Code" all throughout the transcript instead of "Penal Code." I think I earned my fee with just that one catch alone. ;-)

[Jennie Ann]

LOL, Chris. I can remember seeing "Notary Pubic" in a few transcripts in the past, when it should have been "Notary Public." ;-)

[Chris Renegar]

That reminds me, Jennie...I actually saw this in a Las Cruces, New Mexico phone book years ago in the Yellow Pages, the listing for "Pubic Schools" instead of "Public Schools." Yikes.

[Glen Warner]

I read somewhere that a reporter modified the entry for f!ck to just put a blank space on the page.

Over on the Depoman forum, a new reporter had a bunch of things he used to avoid any of those "Seven Words You Can't Say On Television" ... all useful phrases, if I recall correctly.

For my CAT software to spit out the F bomb, I have to double-stroke it: TPR*EL TPR*EL.

And if I want just frell to show up (which I'm guessing is not going to happen too often), it's just TPREL, single-stroked.

(*grump*) Wish I remembered the link to that thread I mentioned ...! Most instructive.

On the plus side, it should be in the Forum Theory section.

--gdw
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"For a Good (steno) Time ....."
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[Kyung]

That's kind of funny because a couple of years ago, there was a movie called Enchanted. The heroine was named Ella of Frell. Watch out.