Ms. or Mrs.?????

[Erin Murray]

If an attorney says Mrs., do you still change it to Ms.? I have been advised by a proofer to always use Ms. Any thoughts on this??

[Janet]

I would put what the attorney said.

[Marge Teilhaber (TILE hobber)]

Very odd advice from a proofer. From anyone actually. There is no reason on earth to switch from Mrs. to Ms. Ask this proofer for his/her reasoning or backup for this opinion. This I gotta hear.

[Cathryn Bauer]

No. You write what the attorney said. I wonder what else that proofer is wrong about.

[Jennie Ann]

I have actually heard that the use "Ms." and not "Mrs." is preferred in transcripts, especially in colloquy, but there's always exceptions to the rule.

If you're working on a deposition of a husband and wife, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, it would look kind of odd to identify "Mrs. Smith" in colloquy as "Ms. Smith" when everybody knows she's Mrs. Smith. LOL

For Senate and House committees, the female Member of Congress is always designated as "Ms." unless specific instructions are given by the committee staff to designate her as "Mrs." So, even if the chairman of the committee says "Mrs. Smith" and everybody knows she is married, she is designated in colloquy as "Ms. Smith."

I am learning from industry professionals today that there is a lot of things that vary, depending on who you are working for, what you were taught in school, and what the State requirements are that you are working in.

I would never type syllables or partial words in transcripts, and I would never type utterances such as "uh" or "um," and I think "all right" should always be two words and never "alright," even though the dictionary offers it as a legitimate spelling. This is the style I was taught at the court reporting school I went to. In fact, "alright" was a big, big no-no. I don't know why, but that's how it was then.

That was then, and this is now, I guess.

With the advent of digital technology and improvements made to producing verbatim transcripts, rules change. In fact, there is no right and wrong. Maybe this proofer was taught that it should always be "Ms." BUT you know what they say about when in Rome.... ;-)

[Erin Murray]

Thank you very much to all who responded. Very informative! Now I can feel "all right" =) about leaving it as Mrs. Thank you!!

[Amy Harris]

I have heard from people to always but Ms., but my thought is if the attorney says Mrs., then put Mrs.

[Tami]

I agree with everyone else. I would always write what they said.

What if the attorney starts saying, "I noticed you referred to Ms. Smith as 'Mrs. Smith'"??

I did have my long-time judge correct me at the very beginning of my career with him. I had "Miss" coming up on his realtime screen -- when that's what I heard -- and he was adamant he never used "Miss" and always used "Ms."

So it never came up on his RT screen again -- whether I thought I heard him say "Miss" or not. :)

[Thomas Herman]

I am a proofer, and I wouldn't advise a change, I wonder what his/her reason was. I have one reporter and her firm owner has a couple rules I've never heard of, but this one is new to me. I'd keep what the attorney said.

[Clay Frazier]

Depending on how formal the setting is, I think "Ms." is prefered if they're appearing as a professional in business even if they're married.

I wouldn't want her name to be Ms. on one line and Mrs. on another. That's a consistency error to a lay reader.

For witnesses, I do Mrs. if it's a given she's married.
You wouldn't change Mrs. to Ms. once or twice for a married witness depending on the pronunciation, would you?
For attys, I stick to Ms. As soon as I put their speaker ID to Mrs., that married status is going to change, and then I'm really going to be in trouble.

[Sharon Waskiewicz]

Hi,
I was trained in a court reporting school in Western Massachusetts and we were taught in school to consistently use Ms., even if what they said was Mrs. Now, I don't know why this is, most particularly since verbatim reporting was what was being taught. It would be nice to know if that would count as an error on the RPR or other testing venues.

[Jill Silk]

I am just a student but what I have learned is that you write what you hear. If the attorney says "Mrs." write "Mrs.". I am interested in getting an opinion on the writing of the title "Ms" though. I have always written it without a period because it is a word and not a contraction. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

[Jennie Ann]

In a word, "MS." I always use a period with it. In fact, I don't recall seeing it without a period, unless it's for the State of Mississippi.