A stenographer, or court reporter, works in a courtroom and transcribes spoken words by typing them into a steno machine. A steno machine is a kind of shorthand typewriter. Having fast and accurate typing skills are vital for a stenographer job. Stenographers must be licensed and certified in addition to passing a special exam.
Stenographers are responsible for court and medical transcription as well as live broadcast captioning for the hearing impaired and the elderly. They use shorthand and a steno machine to transcribe information and commit it to the public record. Individuals who work in the court system must be licensed and professionally certified in many states.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that the job growth in this field will be faster than average for all occupations through 2028, with the best opportunities for stenographers trained in Communication Access Real-Time Translation (CART) or those who can go with clients to medical appointments or public meetings to provide transcription services.
Stenographers are responsible for transcribing exact legal or medical proceedings for the record. Stenographers are employed primarily by courts, because lawyers and court officials need an exact transcript to use during trials. There is no room for error in the stenography profession, and most in the occupation learn to type at 225 words per minute in order to capture entire conversations quickly and accurately.
Each state has different requirements for stenographers, but all states require stenographers to pass examinations to gain their credentials before they are employed in courts. In most cases, individuals must pass a voice writer test with a written portion covering grammar, spelling and punctuation.
Stenographers must learn a special type of shorthand. It is an abbreviated language form that is designed for rapid transcription, to take notes on a steno machine in order to catch each word that is spoken. Once the notes are entered into the machine by the stenographer, they are translated by computer software into English.
The stenographer responsible for recording the proceedings takes the rough transcript and proofreads it before creating a final transcript and committing it to an official record. Stenographers must have a good grasp of legal and medical terminology as well as complete proficiency in the English language to do their jobs to employer standards.
According to the BLS, the job outlook for stenographers should be slower than the average for all professions. Court reporting was projected to grow by 7% between years 2018-2028. Court reporters with certification were expected to still be in demand, especially in some federal and state courts. Because of growing costs, courts are at times using digital audio recording to replace stenographers, but other markets, such as live captioning for the deaf and elderly, are growing very quickly.
The more efficiently and accurately a stenographer can type, the higher their chances of finding work. Some schools may even offer associate degree programs for stenographers to increase their skills.
CourtScribes.com supports all states and programs that aid in the court reporting world, and we too are ready to serve you in your court reporting, videography services, interpreters, live-streaming, and video-to-text synchronization.
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