Scopist or Transcriptionist

[Deborah A. Cook]

Hi,

I've been transcribing legal documents since 1978, either working for attorneys, courts, court reporters, etc. Recently, I have been thinking about changing my career and taking a course to become a scopist.

Does anybody have any opinions or comments they wish to share with me regarding this career change?

I found a course that I would complete at my own pace that will cost me almost $3,000. Is a scoping career going to be worth the money I have to pay for the course, plus the additional $1,500-$2,000 I heard it will cost me for the software I will need after I complete the course?

Have any of you taken the scopist course offered by Scoping Careers International? If so, what did you think of the course?

If you would rather not post online, please free to send me an e-mail at [e-mail]

Any information you guys are willing to share with me, will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Debbie

[Diane Hickman]

Hi Mary. Now that I read your blog above, I am excited to hear you & your hubby are expecting a bundle of joy. Congrats! Is Olivia your first baby? Don't know if you ever mentioned having other children, so I have to ask. How has your pregnancy going? When is she due? Is she a "she"? write back...diane

[Mary Motley O'Brien]

No bad. It could have easily been interpreted that way =)
Thanks for asking about Olivia. She's making her mama very very uncomfortable at the moment LOL I don't feel like doing anything at all!!! I got up at 6:00 after having a hard time even sleeping and took a nap by 8:00 until 10:30 and was in my robe still at 1:00. And I thought I would be bored, ha. It takes everything just to find a comfortable position to lay. The deciding factor will be Thursday. Not sure if I had told you, but she's not gaining as much weight as she should be, partly due to my hypertension, but also my mom was two weeks late with me and I only weighed 5 pounds, 4 ounces, and my hubby and I are short, so she's just going to be a little girl, but if she's fallen more off the growth chart they follow as a guideline, they may decide to induce me at any time since at this point, she will grow faster being in the outside world rather than inside. I was going to be induced two weeks early as it is, on the 15th, so it could be a week earlier. It's all up in the air right now. So sooooon! =)

[Judy]

Mary,

My bad. I thought this comment Prior to working as an independent contractor I was employed as a paralgeal while court reporting in the evening meant she was somehow working as a court reporter in the evenings, not for court reporters.

How's Olivia coming along? Is she set to make her entrance any day now?

[Mary Motley O'Brien]

Judy, I think she probably meant doing work for court reporters in the evening, but I totally agree with you. You don't need to go to school to be a scopist. If you have good punctuation skills, then you're good to go. You just have to learn the software for whichever one you choose to go with, and they usually train you on that, I believe. You can also learn it yourself. It's not that difficult.
As far as the software, I guess again, it depends on how many you choose to be on. If you can get enough work from being on one, I know with my mine, I'm on Stenocat32 and the scopist version of that is somewhere around $300 a year. It's called a subscription. You don't buy it anymore, so you can write it off each year and you get continuous support as well. Hope that helps.
Mary

[Judy]

Debbie,

I note in your profile that you've worked as a court reporter. So why do you think you need to spend money on a scoping school? You know how to write and read steno. You're proficient in preparing transcripts. What will a scoping school teach you, do you think?