Closed captioning provided by . . .

When I decided to take classes to become a court reporter. I imagined myself sitting in a courtroom transcribing a trial, or in an attorney’s office taking depositions. I had no idea the wide array of jobs available to a court reporter that is trained and certified in real time court reporting.

Did you know that the closed captioning on television is provided by court reporters? Neither did I until recently.

In order to be able to provide closed captioning, a reporter needs to be certified in “Conflict Free Real-time Court Reporting”. This type is court reporting is designed to be mistake-free and read as it is typed. If you watch closed captioning long enough, you may see a typo. Most likely what you’re seeing is the court reporter using an incorrect “outline” for a word. Homonyms are a court reporter’s nightmare.

Look at these words:

weather/whether
weave/we’ve
medal/meddle
rain/rein/reign
metal/mettle
steel/steal
aisle/isle/I’ll
here/hear
border/boarder

Conflict Free Real-time Court Reporting is the style of stenography that I am learning. In order to get my degree and become certified, I will have to pass the test at 97% accuracy at a speed of 225 words per minute. This will take years to achieve, so wish me luck!

Oh, and the next time you see a “typo” in the closed captioning you’re reading, give the court reporter a little latitude. The English language is filled with all sorts of anomalies.