Training a Scopist

[Darlene]

I was a court reporter for 22 years. I had several scopists. When I would review the transcripts of the scopists
at the beginning during traning, I would make notes of things I would like done a certain way. Then I would
communicate this to the scopist.

Since I have not reported in three years, I would like to begin scoping. The reporter sends the transcript back to me after she's gone over it and made preference changes. She expects me to print the transcripts and compare them. This is very time consuming. Has anyone expected this of a scopist in training? Please give me your thoughts.

[Darlene]

Thank you, Jeanese. It doesn't appear we're going to work together. I emailed her and she returned an
email not mentioning anything I addressed in the email. I'm in the learning stages with the new version of
StenoCAT. I was on an old version. I made some mistakes. On the first job, I accidentially replaced
the wrong name. Well, I forgot how to correct. Go through and search for the name!!! It had been
three years since I did a transcript. And the new version is like learning a totally new software.
Hopefully, I will be able to find a reporter and scope full time after the 1st of the year. Thank you for your response. If you know of a reporter on StenoCAT, let them know.

[Darlene]

Well, she doesn't want to take the extra time now to benefit later once I learn the software. When I used
a scopist, I billed out almost double of what I did prior to using scopists. Her loss. Do you know of a
reporter on StenoCAT that would need a scopist? I don't know if you should solicit on this forum, though.
Everyone I have mentioned this to feels she is being unreasonable. Thank you for your input.

[Kathy Jack]

You are right, I proof for someone who has two different scopists and each one of them does things differently. So everyone has their own ways. If you do other work for her and you have a question, I would mark it with an ^ or whatever she can symbol she can find. I think if she wants to point things out then she can highlight them for you with an ^ or whatever, and just pop through them and see what it is. But not to have to read line by line, not's time consuming and unrealistic.

[Darlene]

I did have a preference sheet. As I stated, she sent the transcripts back to me expecting me to go through
word-by-word and line-by-line and do a comparison. I was a reporter for 22 years. When I trained a scopist,
I went over the transcript and made notes. Then I discussed the issues with the scopist. When you use a scopist, you just have to let go. The benefits of using a scopist outweigh a semi-colon or comma here and there or sentence structure. No two people will ever produce the same transcript. Even if one reporter did a transcript over, it would not be the same. Thank you for your input.

[Kathy Jack]

Hi Darlene, When you start with a new reporter, send along a preference sheet. Ask them how they like their transcripts, i.e., semi-colon before is that correct or a comma; get the idea? This way you're both on the same page.

[Darlene]

Ooops -- on the screen.

[Darlene]

Well, printing was the way I did it. I thought it would be too difficult compare the screen.

[Darlene]

Thank you. I really feel this reporter is being unreasonable to send her corrected transcript back
for me to go over and compare.