How Court Reporting Works
Posted by Ken Adams on Fri, May 14, 2010
Court reporting involves specific equipment and equally specific skills in using that equipment to transcribe the spoken word into a verbatim written record. To the casual observer the steno machine is mystifying indeed with its 22 buttons. After all, aren’t there 26 letters in the alphabet? Not only is the equipment involved in court reporting unusual, court reporters are able to transcribe words into text at speeds that put the fastest typists to shame. Not only that, today’s modern court reporting equipment allows for real time transcriptions. Court reporting has evolved and continues to be as interesting as it is useful.
It all begins with the machine. Court reporters use a machine called a steno machine as a means of transcribing words into a type of shorthand. You’ll notice that the steno machine has far fewer keys than a typical computer keyboard. Rather than typing words based on the letters of each word, court reporting “writes” words based on the words’ syllables. The buttons on a steno machine are laid out with the keys on the left representing the beginning sound of a syllable, the keys in the middle representing the middle sound of a syllable, and the keys on the right representing the ending sound of a syllable.
Since the middle sound of a syllable is typically a vowel sound and the beginning and ending sounds are typically consonants, the vowels and consonants are grouped accordingly and positioned in such a manner where the left hand enters the beginning consonant while the right hand enters the ending consonant. Since syllables can begin with the letter “S” as well as end with the letter “S,” there are two “S” keys on a steno machine. The same is true of the “T,” “P,” and “R” keys. With only 22 keys and many letters represented twice, many letters of the alphabet are unrepresented. The court reporter uses key combinations for some sounds, such as “P” and “H” for the “M” sound.
In fact, one of the reasons that court reporting is much faster than typing is through the use of keyboard combinations. While a typist must type one letter at a time, the stenographer can press multiple keys at once. Transcription rates for registered professional reporters must be at least 180 words per minute for literary categories; 200 words per minute for jury charge categories; and 225 words per minute for testimony categories – all with 95 percent accuracy. Speeds of 300 words per minute are not unheard of. Compare these speeds to those of the fastest typists and you’ll see that court reporting services are dramatically faster than typing services.
However, the output of a steno machine is illegible to anyone not trained in the art of stenography. The printout must be translated into text, either by the court reporter or a third party. In the past, this was a tedious task. Now, newer technologies have taken court reporting to a new level. With real time court reporting, the steno machine is connected to a computer that translates the digital shorthand into legible words in real time. While this eliminates the tedious task of translating the steno tape, it offers a number of benefits. For example, since the testimony is transcribed in real time, it can be fed to the computers of the legal representatives or broadcast online where lawyers can immediately annotate the text.
Court reporting is a valuable profession requiring stenography skills, accuracy, and speed. Equipped with these skills and the tools of the trade, a court reporter can accurately write what has been spoken at lightning fast speeds.