Credentialed court reporters and broadcast closed captioners answer these questions and more
COURT REPORTING FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How long will the training take?
Court Reporting Schools, both traditional and traditional online court reporting schools, base their full-time day program on two to two and a half years. Statistics show, however, that the actual average for traditional schools both on campus and online are closer to 33 to 36 months.Online court reporting programs are based upon the same guidelines as traditional court reporting schools, taking 36-40 months for most students. It is important to note that a quality realtime court reporting closed captioning education can be accomplished in as little as a year, through self paced homestudy.
Many traditional online colleges emphasize their associate degrees, as well as accreditation, and other approvals. Statistics from the National Court Reporters Association show that accreditation, degrees and approvals are not synonymous with quality education, or employment opportunity. Almost without exception these same accredited, approved associate degree programs take much longer to complete, many times two to three times longer than necessary, because of the non-court reporting academics the student is forced to take.
According to NCRA statistics in the year 1999, there were approximately 365 accredited approved schools teaching court reporting. Today there are about 61 NCRA approved schools in the country. There are many reasons for this, but the primary ones are lack of professional court reporters involved in teaching, outdated theories that are long and much more complicated than necessary, as well as curriculums that are over loaded with academics that do not apply to the career of court reporting, and substantially increase the length of time the student will be paying tuition.
There is one home study court reporting program that is truly self paced. The student is able to study on his or her schedule , thus allowing the student to train as quickly as possible or to take as long as necessary. Because of the new and unique methods used by this program students have completed the program, including theory, speed building, and all academics in as little as one year. How quickly a student can complete training is based upon their motivation and discipline to practice. Learning to write on the steno machine is a skill.
The National Court Reporter's Association FUTURE GROUP report detailed the problems with traditional court reporting schools, and submitted their recommendations for alternative methods of training.
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What about voice recognition technology and stenomask? How do they compare to machine shorthand and has voice recognition been successful?
An informal survey of national captioning companies, as well as realtime court reporters and court reporting firms found that the number of voice recognition realtime closed captioners and court reporters working today are miniscule. In fact the national captioning companies surveyed had none. Captioning companies surveyed in one of the largest states, both local and national, stated they only used machine realtime reporters.
Bill Gates, the CEO of Microsoft, has stated voice recognition will not replace machine court reporters in our lifetime. Many institutions and schools are promoting voice recognition because they advertise it as a six month to one year program. As a prospective student you should contact captioning companies as well as court reporting firms to determine the true demand.
Only about half of the states allow voice reporting or voice recognition.
The following excerpt was taken from www.captions.com. The entire article can be read at this Vitac website. Vitac is one of the largest and well known captioning companies in the country.
Would machines be better at captioning than people?
Voice recognition technology is not yet at a point where captions can be produced at a readable level. Indeed, this is a long way off. Some companies use “voice writers” where a trained voicer re-speaks program dialogue. Even this results in lower quality captions than those currently created by human stenocaptioners,
Do I have to attend an accredited school in order to be accepted by other reporters and employers?
No, you do not. According to a report conducted by the National Court Reporters Association, in 1999 there were approximately 360 accredited schools teaching court reporting in the U.S. Today there are only about 80. Accreditation does not guarantee quality, or employment.
Reporters must be licensed and certified by virtue of passing an examination in approximately half the states in the United States. Just graduating from an accredited school does not allow you to work. If you reside in a state that does not require you to pass a certification examination, you will still have to prove your capability by producing an accurate transcript. Employers do not care where or how you are trained. Attending an accredited school does not make you more employable or allow you to earn more income.
What is NCRA approval? Do I have to attend an NCRA-approved school in order to be accepted by employers
and other reporters?
The National Court Reporters Association (NCRA) is a trade organization that reporters and students may voluntarily join. They administer national certification examinations which are accepted in most states. A few states require you to still pass their state certification examination. The NCRA has MINIMUM standards and requirements that a school must meet in order to obtain their "seal of approval." Because these are MINIMUM requirements, it does not follow that because a school IS NCRA-approved that it is necessarily excellent education. Conversely, just because a program is not NCRA-approved, it does not mean that it is not excellent education.
Additionally, over the past 10-15 years, more than half the NCRA Approved court reporting schools in the U.S. have closed. This is ironic as the demand for court reporters, broadcast (closed) captioners, and CART providers has increased tremendously. That is one reason some non- traditional home study, distance education programs have been successful. Many states do not have even one traditional school. Is it necessary to spend $20-$50,000 to obtain a good education? No. In fact, some students have spent $40,000 to $50,000 in a traditional school setting both in online and campus settings, and have been unable to complete their training or pass a certification examination to be employable. Ask a school how many students in the last two year period of time have graduated from their school, passed a certification examination and are working. The NCRA's Future Group Report stated that their findings were "brutal," that the NCRA had been supporting a method of training students that had never been very successful, with traditional schools experiencing an 80-90% attrition (dropout) rate. And of the 10-20% of students who did graduate from the NCRA-approved schools, many of those were unable to pass any certification examination upon graduation. Theory is the method a school uses to teach you how to write on the steno machine. It teaches you where all the keys are located. One of the reasons the NCRA found that their NCRA-approved schools were rated very poorly in terms of producing sufficient numbers of graduates was due to the fact they were teaching complex, outdated theories, that are not up to date with the new court reporting software of today. Those theories have not stayed abreast of the technological advances of the court reporting software, (CAT) computer aided transcription software. There are two theories that are considered among the best. Realtime Reporting and Captioning Theory is taught in a home study program, and students who have learned this theory have had tremendous success. Herman, Walsh, Roberts is an older theory but still has been successful in training individuals. The theory you learn is directly related to the success you will have both in your training and your chosen career. CLICK HERE for detailed information about court reporting and captioning theory, the foundation of your training.
With demand for jobs in court reporting and closed captioning expected to grow by 25% over the next ten years unique, faster, more practical training programs are going to be necessary, to meet the demand.
What is theory and what is the best theory to learn?
Do I need a college degree?
No, having a college degree is nice, but it does not make you more employable or allow you to earn more income. What makes you employable is your ability to produce a transcript accurately and quickly and to pass a certification examination if one is required in your state. The most practical and best choice for a court reporting program is the one that prepares you to pass the necessary certification exam in your state, or the national RPR.
An informal poll found that the majority of court reporters and closed captioners today do not have college degrees. Our research found that the last four year college offering a degree in court reporting ceased enrolling students over two years ago.
Much more important than degrees or diplomas is a staff of credentialed court reporters to guide you through your training as quickly as possible, and with the necessary realtime court reporting skills and teaching abilities to propel you in to the court reporting or closed captioning profession, as a capable above average realtime reporter.
What steno machine should I purchase?
There are many models of steno machines available to students. One is an old-fashioned student model machine that has a manual touch to the keyboard. The Stentura SRT 200 is a realtime writing steno machine that comes with a realtime cable to allow the student to learn the court reporting software, but it still has the manual touch to the keyboard. The Stentura SRT 400 is a student model realtime writing machine that comes with a realtime cable to allow the student to learn the court reporting software. The newest student model realtime writing machine that can also be used professionally when connected by attaching the realtime cable that comes with it to a computer is the Protege` steno machine. It has wireless capability and is the top of the line machine.
Do I need to begin training with a steno machine from the first day?
ABSOLUTELY! There are some programs that will teach you academic courses for about 9 months while you pay in a small monthly payment. After you have paid in enough to cover the cost of the steno machine, then they send you the machine. The NCRA does not approve any program or school that does not begin teaching you with a steno machine from the beginning. Read the fine print and be certain to ask any school or program if you will receive a steno machine from the very beginning.
How important is it to be taught by professional reporters and captioners?
These careers are unlike any other careers out there. You should be taught by professional reporters, broadcast (closed) captioners, and CART providers. Many schools often only have one court reporter on the faculty who may only teach the court reporting procedures class. The instructors who teach you should be individuals who have been credentialed court reporters, broadcast (closed) captioners, and CART providers, and successfully performed their chosen profession. If they simply hold a CRI (Certified Reporting Instructor) credential, it means they have only attended a National Court Reporters Association Convention and attended sessions regarding how to teach these careers.
Do I have to pass a certification examination before I can work? What does the test entail?
About one half of the states require certification. For detaile information about certification CLICK HERE.
How much do court reporters and captioners earn?
The national statistic is based upon reporters of all kinds, freelance reporters who own their own business, freelance reporters who work for a firm or agency, official reporters who work in the courthouse, brand new reporters and reporters who have worked for many years. So the statistic is not reliable in terms of what an individual might earn his first year or in 5 or 10 years. However, $61,000 ?? is the figure that the NCRA has arrived at. The very low end of the scale would be about $45,000 for a reporter and $100,000 and more would be the high end of the scale.
The variables that affect how much a reporter might earn include the capability of the reporter, the kind of assignments handled by the reporter, how many copies of the transcript the reporter may sell, the services (realtime reporting) the reporter may offer, and how much the reporter works.
Do I have to be a fast typist in order to be a court reporter, captioner, or CART provider?
No, some reporters cannot type well at all. They had others type their transcripts for them over the years, and then with the advent of our CAT (Computer Aided Transcription) software that translates our steno notes into English, it has made it easy for reporters to edit their transcripts. Also, there are individuals called Scopists who will edit transcripts for reporters.
Do I need a proctor?
No. It is a waste of your time. It is very time consuming to find an individual or individuals to be present while you are taking a test. It is only to ensure you do not cheat. If you cheat, you cheat yourself, because you have to eventually prove your abilities by passing a certification exam or producing a quality transcript. Requiring you to have a proctor just assumes you are going to cheat.
