Transcribing improper grammar

[Kaleisha Straughter]

This is a tricky one to post, but here goes...
When you hear a witness say a word and you know he/she was meaning to say another, what do you do? Example: "ax" for ask, "messican" for mexican, "rockweiller" for rotweiller, "lawd" for lord, "no content" for no contest, etc., etc., and the list goes on and on... In instances like these, the reporter can be the one who looks incompetent if the transcript reads the way the wit says the word. But if we are truly supposed to be writing verbatim what we HEAR, sometimes I stop and think about writing and transcribing exactly what the wit says.
Any thoughts? I'd love to read some of your stories.
Thanks!

[Veronica Kubat]

K.C., I've been thinking a lot about the ellipsis lately. I've never used it, but I wasn't sure it was appropriate.

Anyone? Is ellipsis (are ellipses - ?) used regularly intranscripts? It is making more sense to me to use it rather than dashes, which usually mean there was an interruption and the speaker was cut off rather than just pausing.

V.

[Veronica Kubat]

Judy, Randy just puts a note to me to check something. That way he doesn't have to waste a lot of time on it and I can just read it again. It works out pretty well.

[K.C. Corbin]

Rarely do I use those words. One example where I would use "um" is to show a witness is thinking about an answer, then with ellipsis. For example:

Q. Where did you first see the defendant’s car?

A. Um ...

[Jennie Ann]

I am curious about "uh" and "um." What say you all about "uh" and "um"?

[Judy]

I'm going back today for a Volume 2 of one of "those" types of witnesses. Ugh. The really unfortunate part of this particular job is the semi-young attorney starts to speak the same way as the witness. Double ugh.

I thought about putting (sic) behind every incorrect word. But when there comes a point that every paragraph has a (sic) in it, you gotta (see, I'm even doing it now) decide when it's really, really necessary.

I ended up sic'ing only a few instances in a 115-page transcript. Three of them being when she said he had a G-tube in his penis and "he was seeing a regular doctor because he was asbestos" and when she was saying "glaze" for "gauze." BTW, this witness was an RNA.

But when she said, "Yes, he do," or "the one that we were to was..." or "didn't have no" or when she said he was on liquid Vicodin and the atty asked if it was drops or IV and she said, no, it was a pill, that type of stuff didn't get a (sic).

But when she said what kinda sounded like "wound back nurse," yes, I did change it to "wound VAC nurse" because I couldn't REALLY tell if she was saying a B or a V, so I gave her the benefit of the doubt on that one. And her "ax" did get written as "ask."

The part that got me is when the atty started doing "I just gotta..." Gosh, do I make that an "I've just got to..."? But I didn't hesitate one second when he said "gotcha" as that's just too far from "I've got you."

This job was so ugly that I refused to give it to my proofreader because I knew he would spend WAY too much time notating the misspeaks and it wouldn't be worth his time in the end.

[Pat Porter]

Ditto what K.C. said about syllables and partial words. Some reporters do want that (usually with videos).

[Jennie Ann]

Yikes. I say "Warshington," from what I am told, but I always spell it "Washington." LOL

[Kyung]

I put in partial words. Especially if it's video.

Gotcha is a word.
'Cause is a word. It's like a contraction.
Gotta I think is becoming widespread enough that it can be a word.

You're also taking about slang versus accent versus vocabulary versus dialect.

I once took the deposition of someone who used axed, wit', gonna, somethin'. The attorney wanted her speech pattern reflected exactl;y as she spoke.

Now, if they say Warshington and you write Washington, it's a accent thing. IF they say y'all versus you all, that's more of a dialect thing.

So it's really hard.

[Jennie Ann]

Wow, K.C. I am glad you brought this up. I am going to add this topic to my style sheet. I have a style sheet that I provide to others who are working on the same job as me, and if this is becoming an industry norm, then it is something I need to address.

I guess I can understand the reasoning for it. I won't be using this practice, though, in my transcripts.

Thanks for the input. I like learning how things are done elsewhere. There truly is a diversity of styles out there.

[K.C. Corbin]

Yes, it is.