The Court Reporter A Career Choice With Listening Skills Required

The Life of a Court Reporter

The Job Description

First and foremost, a court reporter must be an excellent and accurate listener, because a large part of his job will be listening to what others are saying. In addition, he must be well educated in the language in which he is listening to so that he understands and can accurately transcribe clearly what is being said.

He must be proficient is grammar, punctuation and prominent names of people and places where he lives, because he is going to be preparing in type-written form everything that he heard on the particular assignment. He must learn to be observant as well, because he will also record things he sees like gestures or emotional reactions.

His services will be required at court proceedings, depositions, business meetings, religious services and other events where a word for word record of the proceedings is absolutely crucial. For example, an attorney fighting a case cannot prove a witness’ testimony without the services of a court reporter.

Sometimes the court reporter will be asked by the attorney or the judge to read back what a witness said in an earlier testimony. The court reporter must know how to find exactly where that statement was made and how to retrieve this important information from his files. A court reporter is often times also required to be a member of the notary public.

Court Reporter - The Tools of the Trade

A court reporter will learn how to operate and prepare ahead of time the equipment that he will work with when he transcribes into written word what he has heard. He may use a stenotype machine to type an extremely accurate report of what was said at the particular proceeding. This machine uses a type of shorthand or special keys that mean certain words or phrases.

With this machine, the court reporter is able to hit more than one key at a time allowing for a very high speed of transcription. The stenotype machine may be connected to a computer screen that translates what was typed into text in real time. This is called CART or Communications Access Real-time Translation.

A court reporter who uses voice writing as his method for recording the event will use a special type of hand held mask called a steno mask that has a microphone in it. The mask part has a silencer in it and this makes it so that no one else in the courtroom or deposition or whatever the event is, will hear what the court reporter is saying into the mask.

He can either transcribe what was said later or he may use a type of computer that utilizes speech recognition technology so that the reporting is done instantly on a computer screen. For this method, he will learn how to operate the system and the software, as well as prepare the computer dictionary for each assignment, such as including medical or legal terminology in the computer‘s memory.

The Other Skills Required

When the court reporter’s assignment is complete, he will be asked to prepare written copies of his transcription and send them to whoever has requested them. Court reporters are usually paid a salary and/or charge a fee per page of transcription.

The skills that a court reporter possess are not only for use in the courtroom. Television stations and other forms of the media use court reporters to transcribe spoken words into close captioning for the deaf and hearing impaired. It is also possible to become a freelance court reporter and work independently within your own work schedule.

Court Reporter Resources

Court Reporter Occupational Outlook Handbook

The American Association of Electronic Reporters and Transcribers

National Court Reporters Association

United States Court Reporters Association