First of all, just for the record...I do not call it typing...it is called "writing.”
You know, I am asked these questions all the time. I finally made up a little brochure to hand out to people because I would get asked this question so many times usually from witnesses during breaks of depositions and proceedings.
The Little Machine
Okay, that little machine is called a stenotype machine or stenotype computer and it was designed way back when...I think about the 1700’s, but most reporters call it their "machine". There are different models of them which carry a trade name, similar to the make and model of your car. Since 1994 I have gone through four and let me just say they are not modest in price. The most recent one I bought was $4000.
The little machine enables me to write words by their sound phonetically rather than how they are normally spelled letter-by-letter, which makes me able to "write" much faster than using a standard computer keyboard.
You can type entire words all at once by striking multiple keys at the same time. The keys, once pressed simultaneously, like musical cords, feel as if you are playing a piano, and like concert pianists, the level of talent is immediately apparent once you have seen a court reporter "write" in action! One court reporter summed it up kind of like this:
"When you press one key on a piano, it makes a sound. When you press two keys on a piano, it makes another sound. When you press three keys on a piano, it makes another sound. When you press a combination of keys and continue playing, you make music. The same theory applies to court reporting."
The left hand of the machine spells out the beginning of a syllable while the right hand spells out the end. You have to spell out syllables phonetically, but there aren't enough keys on each side of the keyboard to cover every sound.
Certain combinations of adjacent keys correspond to the missing consonants: For example, there's no "M" anywhere on the keyboard, so you have to press "P" and "H" together to start a syllable with that sound. There is a "B" on the right side of the board, but none on the left, that means it's easy to end a syllable with "B," but for words that begin with "B" you need to hit "P" and "W" together.
Even though there are many systems and individual adaptations of machine shorthand, the keyboard is configured the same on every stenotype machine. The court reporter's stenotype keyboard does not have letters or numbers imprinted upon it. The keyboard is laid out as follows:
I would like to certainly ask the group of men that made the little machine way back in the 1700's what in the heck they were thinking not putting the entire alphabet on the whole machine! And why in the world come up with such a Morse code of writing? Oh, well, 200 years later their idea was certainly a good one!
THE LITTLE MACHINE’S KEYBOARD
The keyboard contains 25 keys.
The keyboard of a steno machine is divided into a number of major groupings, shown in the illustration below. The first image is a view of the keyboard from above and to the front of the machine. The image just below it is from the same level as the key banks and to the left of the machine.
Here are four banks of keys. Starting from the "top" of the keyboard (the side farthest away from the operator), they are the:
- NUMBER BAR
- UPPER BANK
- LOWER BANK
- VOWEL KEYS
The four vowel keys are slightly lower than the rest of the keys, to accommodate the natural position of the thumbs, which rest on them. This is illustrated in the side view.
The number bar is a single key across the width of the board. It is used to change the definition of the keys just below it in the upper bank, somewhat like a shift key is used on a computer keyboard.
The Upper and Lower Banks are further divided into these groups:
The initial and final keys stand for consonants. The vowel keys produce vowels, and the asterisk keys are just that -- asterisks. The asterisk is used most commonly to denote a correction, similar in a way to hitting the back space key on a computer.
The entire arrangement of the keyboard is designed to be very compact, keeping all of the keys under the user's fingers as much as possible. Single keys can be pressed, but more commonly the keys are pressed down in groups, rather like playing chords on a piano.
The example below is of a court reporter's stenotype notes with English translation.
The Dictionary And CAT
A technology called computer-aided transcription, "CAT" for short, electronically links my stenotype or writing to my computer, which translates from my dictionary the writing on the stenotype machine to English text, which then is transferred into a transcript format for my clients. How confusing! Yes, the spoken word goes through several phases before getting to the actual hardcopy transcript.
When first starting out as a reporter you basically have a very small dictionary in your CAT system. I think I started out with a thousand words in my dictionary and now have well over 250,000 words. It takes years to build and refine your dictionary. The more words you have in your dictionary, the more accurate and efficient you can be when editing your transcripts. Each reporter customizes their system or dictionary to match their style of writing, making each reporter's "writing" unique. Because we write phonetically, we can write whatever we hear, even if the words are not familiar!
Now this all sounds really confusing but it really isn't. If you know how to play piano, read music, like cats perhaps and like to watch Wheel of Fortune, then maybe you would be a good candidate to become a court reporter. In all honesty, it does require a great deal of dedication to "practicing" to build up your speed of writing fast and an interest in language.
Back in 1993 I was sitting where you are, at my desk in a law office working for an attorney and I had just got back from the Christmas holidays and attending my daughter's father's funeral. I was thinking, how am I going to support my three-year-old with only one income and be able to work at home? A few minutes later a court reporter walked in and delivered her transcript to us for a deposition she had covered. I honestly think that an angel from above sent this reporter to me that day because that following week I found myself sitting in my first theory class and Smith Reporting was born.
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