CSRNation

Welcome to CSR Nation

One of those doh moments

Don't you just hate it when you read back wrong. The question is perfectly correct on the screen and for whatever reason, what comes out of your mouth is not what is on your screen.

For instance, today the name was Jim so-and-so. I read John so-and-so, when the screen said clear as day Jim so-and-so. It kills me bec. then the attorney says this is how you spell the last name and by the way the name is Jim so-and-so. Of course, it's all videotaped.

It's one of those times you wish you could say, oh, that's what I had I just misread it. Bleh. Of course, nobody believes you and you just feel like a fool.

It's very small comfort to know that I had it correct.

Add a Comment

You need to be a member of CSRNation to add comments!

Join CSRNation

Comment by April McMillan, CRR, RPR, CSR on August 14, 2009 at 11:46: Coming up on my 25th year of reporting, there have been many blips in reading back and I won't even go into them here, but d-e-l-i-v-e-r-y is very important. Read it like you mean it!

Comment by Debbie Taggart on August 14, 2009 at 11:18: I misread on readback every now and then, and when they correct me, I ususally say something like: Oh, sorry, that's what I had -- can't read. If they don't believe me, tough!

I've also read back perfectly and had them correct me, which just confirms my opinion that a lot of times they don't know what they said in the first place. So if I'm not sure if I've got it perfectly or not, I just read it as if it's right. Kyung's right, a lot of times it's just about the delivery.

Comment by Audrey Ricks on August 12, 2009 at 21:37: "Garbage in, garbage out!" LOL I'm going to have to use that one!

Comment by Mary Ann Taylor on August 12, 2009 at 21:02: Yeah, even if you're not sure you have it right, it's better to sound like you know :) One of the things a court reporting teacher taught me.
I had an attorney question my read back of an answer once, and it was so nice to have the witness confirm that that is what he had said. (Granted it was a poorly constructed sentence.)

Comment by Kyung on August 12, 2009 at 9:29: It's all about delivery sometimes. I"ve had that happen when it was a really crappy sentence and I've read back what they said, and it still didn't make sense. You know what they say? GIGO - garbage in, garbage out.

After I've read a completely messed up sentence, I just look at them, make eye contact, yep, that's what you said, buddy.

Comment by Clay Frazier on August 12, 2009 at 8:43: They were going super fast and they asked me to read it back. I didn't think i had it all. I thought I knew I messed up two words or two strokes or something. It was a heftier paragraph. In a poorly articulated part, I read a couple words with a question mark connotation. There was my mistake. He corrected me saying what he should have said, but I listened to it afterwards and I had read it perfectly!
It was a garh moment.

Comment by Annette Shepherd on August 11, 2009 at 20:01: I know exactly how that feels. That has happened to me a few times actually. One of those times the atty had me read back constantly after that. I was irritated initially, but i just laughed. After about a dozen times of reading back, he stopped. I see the same atty now and he doesn't give me any grief.

But I do hate when that happens.