Court Reporter Training

A court reporter will learn how to operate and prepare ahead of time the equipment that she will work with when she transcribes into written word what he has heard.

She 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.

She 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.

Other Court Reporter Skills

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.