10 things court reporting students must do ~ #8

Todd Olivas just posted another video from his series about what every court reporting student must do in order to graduate.

#8 - Getting back to basics



Previous posts from the series:

#9 Do what they tell ya

#10 Show up

This is what I've been doing over the past couple weeks. I'm currently reviewing Chapter 22 of the StenEd Realtime Theory Book - words ending in -CT, -X, and the -SHUN sound.

This chapter is a wonderful review of the slight difference is words.

For words ending in -X, write -BGS

box -- BOBGS
fax -- FABGS
lax -- LABGS
tax -- TABGS

For words ending in -CTION and -XION, write *BGS

action -- A*BGS
conviction -- KON/V*IBGS
crucifixion -- KRAOUS/F*IBGS
reduction -- RE/D*UBGS
section -- S*EBGS

For words ending in -SHUN, write -GS

admission -- AD/MIGS
audition -- AU/DIGS
coalition -- KO/LIGS
propulsion -- PRO/PULGS
convention -- KON/VENGS
expansion -- EX/PANGS

Happy writing!
Show up

Video ~ Court Reporting as a Career

I found a rather nice video about court reporting as a career on the U.S. Courts' website that I'd like to share with you.

Click link to view:

Court Reporter as a Career

That's a profession I can be proud of!

Speedbuilding tip - Do not practice the same take more than once.

I like this tip. If you think about it, this is how a court reporter really works. If you are in court or at a deposition, you only get one chance to get down what's being said ~ so why not practice as if you're in court working on a trial?

From the book 61+ Ways to Write Faster:

This will help you form the habit of pressing forward against all odds, surging ahead like a swimmer going through a series of breakers, always on the verge of being swallowed up, but finally coming through. Furthermore, it forces your mind to perform more and more efficiently in hearing unexpected words and word arrangements and instantaneously organizing your fingers' writing responses to those unexpected word arrangements. It's this sense of urgency, combined with practice at the proper speed, and reading back your notes, that will help you increase your speed.

The authors of this speedbuilding tip also believe that if you practice the same take over and over that you lose the sense of urgency that's so important in speedbuilding. You may think to yourself, "Oh, I'll get that word the next time." Yes, I've thought that and perhaps you have too.

You may also have a tendency to create an "on-the-fly" brief for an uncommon word or phrase that recurs each time you listen to the take. A brief that isn't well thought out, and one that you'll probably never use again. Yes, I've done this too.

Argghh ~ all my dirty little sins are being exposed in this book! On the other hand, they give good advice on speedbuilding.

Lost my groove, my rhythm

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I've acquired some bad habits from practicing to audio that was way too fast, and then NOT READING BACK MY NOTES. In an attempt to break these bad habits, I have decided to take a deep breath, step back in time, and seriously review my theory.

I'm going to follow a tip about studying theory from the book, 61+ Ways to Write Faster.

"When trying to "clean up" your notes, follow the routine of taking one lesson from your theory book and writing it from the hard copy. Do not write an incorrect stroke; take your time to write perfect notes, Read back the same out loud. Put it on the table where you will start your practice for the next day. When you are ready to do another lesson from your theory book, start by reading out loud the lesson you did the day before. Continue the process until you have covered all the lessons in your theory book. Toward the end you will be doing more reading of your notes than writing.

Reading the perfect outlines out loud will allow you to not only hear the word from reading your perfect outline, but it will give a mental picture of that outline to store in your "computer" brain. Do this for two weeks and you will pass those tests!"

I have just completed my third day of hard copy practice from my theory book. It's a great review and I'm amazed at how much I'm re-learning about my theory. I'm sure I sound like a second grader learning to read as I read my notes out loud, but if nothing else, my read-back skills are improving!