018: Spoiler alert: Court reporters need (and want!) to work with transcript proofreaders.
Seasoned court reporter Val Melkus joins me on this episode for a frank, honest talk about why court reporters rely on transcript proofreaders and why she considers them an indispensable asset to her job.
She also shares what court reporters look for in a transcript proofreader and what's important -- and not important! -- to a successful relationship.
To grab the show notes for this episode, including any links mentioned and the transcript, visit
theproofreadingbusinesscoach.com/episode018
Connect with me on
Instagram @theproofreadingbusinesscoach
Facebook @theproofreadingbusinesscoach
Or send me an email: elizabeth@elizabethjwiegner.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
this is the proofreading business podcast
with elizabeth wigner.
For more, visit theproofreadingbusinesscoachcom.
All right, y'all, I am.
I say this every time I have aguest on.
I'm so excited and you all aregonna love this.
This is, um, I have val ontoday.
She is court reporter and she'snot just any court reporter,
(00:25):
she is my court reporter.
We've been proofing.
I was trying to think how longit's been years that we've
proofed together.
But this is a podcast episodethat people have been asking for
.
They've been asking to have acourt reporter on because, I
mean, I talk all the time abouttranscript proofreading and how
good it is, but it's like, well,let's hear from the side of
(00:46):
somebody like a court reporterwho actually wants to work with
a proofreader.
It's not just me makingeverything up.
So, val, thank you so much forbeing here.
I am so excited you took yourtime for this.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Oh, I'm so glad to be here.
It's always so good to talk toyou and yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Thank you for having me Well, kick it off, Just as a
court reporter and you've been.
I think we were talking.
You've been a court reporterfor about nine years now.
What, and I wasn't your firstproofreader that you worked with
.
What makes from a courtreporter's perspective, why do
you want to work with aproofreader?
Speaker 2 (01:22):
why do you want to work with a proofreader?
I, you know I chuckle a littlebit because it's like, in my
mind it's such an obvious thing,Like, like, for example,
somebody wouldn't like atranscript is forever right,
it's like a book or a you knowany other periodical, like, once
(01:44):
the newspaper comes out, like,that's it, it's done, that's,
that's today's edition.
Um, I mean, it's the same thingwith the transcript, and so why
would you not make sure that itwas correct and good and
readable and all of the you know, all of the above?
So so, yeah, Um, love myproofreadersers.
(02:05):
Well, I love you as myproofreader because you are
amazing and we, yeah, we do goback, but you and your students
that I've used a few of inproofreading my stuff are just
top of the line.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
So I love to hear that.
So thankful for y'all.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
So would you?
You know, sometimes when peopleare asking about transcript
proofreading, they're like, well, court reporters are really
smart people.
I'm like, absolutely, I agree.
Like your talent is amazing tobe able to take down people
going 250, sometimes 300 wordsper minute and get it all
accurate.
Sometimes I hear, well, youknow, they're really smart.
Aren't you kind of insultingthe court reporters, saying they
(02:50):
need a proofreader?
And I'm like, no, not at all.
So can you explain from yourperspective like y'all aren't
seeing Val, but she's likeshaking her head really hard
Explain why court reporters wantto work.
I mean, I kind of asked youlike why is it important?
It's because the transcript isforever, but why can't you proof
your own transcripts?
Speaker 2 (03:05):
essentially, yeah, so , and this was something that
actually, back when I was incourt reporting school, one of
my instructors told me and well,told the class, and she said
you never want to proofread yourown work.
And like, clap, clap, you know,let me get that into y'all's
heads.
And um, and I'm so thankfulthat she told me that, because I
(03:29):
I've heard that there are somereporters maybe that are like oh
, it doesn't need to be, youknow, a scopist is all I need,
or I'll just get this randomperson or a scopist to do the
proofreading and um, I'mdigressing, but that's not like,
that's not my.
I would never do it that way,because proofreading is such a
(03:52):
niche, like you have knowledgethat we don't have.
Like, I rely on you 100%,elizabeth.
When I send transcripts to you,like I like for the life of me
I don't know when a comma comesbefore, because, like, and the
few times I'm like, oh,definitely, it goes here and
I'll put the comma in and I sendit to you, and then I get it
(04:13):
back and there's a big redcircle like no comma here, val,
I'm like oh, like I was so closebut so far away.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
And um I actually I forgot what your question was,
cause I no, that was perfect.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
It was like why can't you just proof it yourself?
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Oh right, Okay.
So yes, Um, I mean, I thinkit's proven that, like, once you
are invested in this document,whether it's a transcript or a
book or you know whatever, likeyou, the way you see it and read
it is the way that your brainis used to seeing it and reading
it, and especially if it's yourown, you know, and so you your
(04:56):
our eyes that have already, youknow, know, the know, this
transcript front to back.
We'll just glaze over thingsthat are glaring to someone else
, to a proofreader, to a trainedeye, and I mean even just when
I do my scoping and I send you ajob and I'm like well,
(05:16):
Elizabeth, I scoped this onemyself, so you're going to find
zero errors, Okay, and we bothlaugh because that happens never
.
But, like I will think, you know, in my scoping and I look at
proofreading stuff too, I meanas best I can you know, when I
scope my own stuff and I'll sendit to you and I'll think it's
(05:36):
going to be perfect and you'regoing to be like hey, val, you
score a hundred or whatever,right, plus, I don't have any
corrections for you and I willget this transcript back.
That is like red, just red.
You know, marker all over, it'snot that bad, I promise.
Like oh man, I have an extraword here.
(05:58):
I got this comma wrong.
This follow-up needs a hyphenand da, da, da, you know.
But I tried my darndest and Istill.
You find all kinds of thingsthat my eyes just don't see.
So, yeah, for that reason, andI'm not even trying to proofread
, like I'm trying in my best way, but but yeah, yeah, definitely
(06:19):
that.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Eyes, that's it's.
I mean.
Typo blindness is an actual Imean it sounds funnyo blindness.
And I know proofreading isobviously.
You talked about dropped wordsand hyphens and commas and all
that.
It's more than just typos.
But typo blindness we seewhat's what we want to see on
the page, what we think is onthe page, and it's not like,
honestly, your transcripts arevery clean.
(06:39):
It probably feels like a lotwhen you get it back because
you're like I tried my best onit, but that's just the nature
of the.
I mean, I make typos in my ownwriting, whereas I'm sure if I
send it to you you'd be like ohElizabeth, yeah, you have a
dropped word here, youmisspelled episode or something
like that.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Yeah, yeah, yeah and yes, absolutely I agree Um yes,
absolutely.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
I agree.
How does your confidence, howdo you feel when you've got a
transcript back and you put theannotations in and you send it
off, Like, is that a sigh ofrelief when you're done with all
of it?
Is it a confidence booster?
How would you explain that itfeels?
Or maybe it's kind of likegreat, I've got to put all these
in.
Or what does it feel like whenyou get a transcript back from a
(07:24):
proofreader?
Like as I'm working on theannotations, or like as I'm
doing both, Like putting them inand then actually sending it
off being done with it.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Yeah, I mean it's always interesting to me what
the proofreader marks as like,incorrect or like, for example.
I mean as a court reporter andthen as a scopist, I have access
to the audio, right, and so tryas I might, if I don't hear, I
(08:00):
don't know.
You take the way people talk,like they put the emphasis on
this word so, and then theypause so you think a comma
belongs there, or you know, evenif it ends up not being a
complete sentence or they arethey left words off of their
thing, I don't know.
I write on the record the way Ihear things, and so it's always
(08:21):
interesting to me what you markas incorrect, because I'll go
back and you're like, maybethere's a dropped word here or
something, and so I'll gothrough and I'll look and I'll
check my notes.
I'm like, no, there's nodropped word, but that tells me
that something about thissentence is, I guess, styled in
a way like it's confusing to thereader, right, and so I need to
(08:44):
take another look like do Ineed to add dashes?
Was it maybe a change of thoughtthat I didn't?
You know that I didn't um, dashoff Um.
So yeah, that's always.
It's always a little, um bit ofexploring and to see what you
marked versus what it should be,and then honestly just turning
(09:06):
it in is relief.
It's usually just relief, okay.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
No, I don't blame you .
I feel that way, when I've doneproofing it's like relief I got
it done, I've accomplished thisand it's off to my court
reporter.
That was really interesting thatyou said you know, sometimes
like because we don't listen toaudio as proofreaders, that's a
scopus job, that's the corereporters job and so yeah, and I
don't know, like sometimes I'llput yeah, like dropped word or
(09:33):
double check or the threequestion marks for you to be
sure.
You know, one thing that mystudents ask a lot is they're
like you know, I don't want toannoy my court reporter by
putting a certain annotationthere and I said, well, if you
can pick up on like kind of thespeech patterns which comes with
the experience of practice,then yeah, you can usually tell.
But sometimes you just there'sno way, you don't have to read,
(09:58):
you don't have to read, youdon't have the steno, you don't
have the audio.
But I love what you said, thatit's if something's wrong.
It's not that you have to be ahundred percent know what's
impossible to know without beingthere, but it just helps, you
know, to go double check,something like look at your
notes, look at audio, I that's.
That is really.
That's encouraging to know.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Yeah, yeah, I mean it , I can start.
I'll start like saving them andsending them to you, because it
happens more often than youwould know, like you draw my
attention to, you know, such andsuch lines, such and such word
for, for whatever.
There are multiple differentthings and, um, and yeah, I'll
look at it and it won't be thecorrection necessarily that you
(10:32):
suggested and had your littlequestion mark by, like yes, is
that what it is?
It won't necessarily be that.
Sometimes it is, but sometimesit's something totally different
.
Where, yeah, where?
But I just know like, okay, Ineed to change this a little bit
because it's just not readingright.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
That will be encouraging for students and
grads to hear, and those who arethinking about it are like,
okay, this is a lot to thinkabout.
It's not that you have to.
You're perfectly imperfect,like you're not going to get
every suggestion correct, that Isend you Now some things like
commas and hyphens and periodsand question marks, things like
that, and sometimes very obvious, like going to the two is
(11:12):
really easy to drop.
Things like that are morecommon, but sometimes like that
wasn't, like that word wasactually said, but I marked it
because I wasn't sure.
So it's encouraging to knowthat you don't have to be all
knowing, because it sometimesfeels like you have to be as a
proofreader.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Yeah, yeah, no, I mean for me.
I'm just, I'm thankful that asyou're proofreading your, you
know your spidey sense orwhatever your, your, your
expertness you hit this spot andyou're like something's weird
here and you know you'll makeyour best suggestion and, um,
and sometimes that's it andsometimes it's not, but that
(11:51):
draws me to that section whichis just super helpful.
It's not, but that draws me tothat section which is just super
helpful.
And I'll say I it doesn'thappen very often, but sometimes
, when I'm doing correctionsfrom you, I will go in and I'll
correct the word, or you knowthe comma, whatever, and I'll
(12:11):
happen to notice that there wassomething else in that vicinity
that neither that I didn't catchwhen I was scoping and that you
didn't catch as the proofreader.
And then I'm like, oh my gosh,but I never would have seen it
if it weren't for yourcorrections.
And, and so that's always likean extra, like yes, I'm so glad
(12:33):
I went back to this area, um,but like I want to reiterate,
like you are an amazingproofreader and that isn't too,
that doesn't speak to your youknow expertise.
By any means, like there's thisjoke that like, if you know,
five or six court reporters weretaking down the exact same
record at the exact same time,hearing the exact same person
(12:55):
speaking, all of them would hearthings to a small degree
differently.
Right, like, that's just thehuman experience.
And it's the exact same thingwith proofreaders and scopists.
Like, none of us are perfect,like, like you can probably have
three proofreaders in a row.
Look at this one transcript andeach time somebody would still
(13:15):
find something to correct.
You know, like nothing, it'snot going to be perfect, but
we're going to get it as closeas we can.
And that's where proofreaderscome in.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
So, so I love that, yeah, because I tell my students
that that, yeah, you're goingto see me make mistakes because
human.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
And.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
I mean I've been proofing for almost 20 years and
I mean I can't even imagine howmany hundreds of thousands of
pages that adds up to.
But I tell them you know it'sand you know my grads my
students have to pass an exam toget to start to work with court
reporters.
And my thing is, it's not amatter of are you perfect?
You're not going to catcheverything, I don't catch
(13:55):
everything, but how, if youturned in this transcript to a
court reporter, would it behelpful?
And it's so nice to hear andsometimes students will really
stress well, I don't think Icould ever be a proofreader
because I'll never be perfect.
And it's so good to hear fromyou to realize it's not
necessarily the expectation, theexpectation.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
No one is going to be perfect.
I got news for y'all.
No one, you know, it's just,that's just not how it is.
But we can get darn close.
But it requires more than onepair of eyes and sometimes you
know three plus pairs of eyes.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you got the core reporter, the
scopus, the proofer, and then,when you go, back in.
Yeah, so that kind of seguesreally into a question that I
get asked a lot and I'd love tohear your perspective on it is
you know, with you hear a lotabout AI and it's kind of like
it almost seems like AI could doliterally everything for you.
(14:52):
And you know that might be niceif they could, but it's not.
Would you, as a court reporter,trust an AI program to
proofread your transcripts foryou?
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Um, well, no, Um, you know I was.
I was thinking about this andso, whenever you do like, talk
to text right Like that, thatkind of gives me an inkling of
what you know what an AI programwould be like for for
(15:28):
proofreading or, heck, for courtreporting for that matter, like
they've been talking for yearsthat you know digital AI is
going to take over.
You know our profession and thetruth is okay, maybe in
whatever you 2024, I don't know,maybe in like 2060 or something
, I don't you know what I?
mean Like if it?
If it is, I think it's so fardown the road that you know,
(15:52):
then next few generations don'thave to worry about it.
But as it is now like no, no way, I mean just just doing talk to
text, like like homonyms, likehow would you know, how would it
know, like if you were saying,like, well, to be Frank, or if
they were saying, well, I wentto see Frank the dude, you know
(16:17):
something, that comes up and I'mgoing to talk about talk to
text again.
But that's the only like, Iguess, kind of AI, you know,
texting thing that I have.
But I was.
I was doing that the other daywhen I was in the car and I was
like, oh, I'm going to thegrocery store which is next to
the you know whatever.
Oh, I'm going to the grocerystore which is next to the you
(16:37):
know whatever.
And my talk to tech said, whichis, which is like a plural of a
witch, like with the pointy hatand the shoes, which is which
is next to?
And I was like, oh, okay.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Witches have entered the chat, not what I was
planning on, but okay, they'rehere now.
Yeah, what did you conjure up?
Speaker 2 (16:56):
right, right.
So, and you know, and I alwaystalk like slowly and very
clearly for talk to text becauseof that reason and it still it
still didn't help it.
So, you know, and that's morelike audio related, but it's it
translates to proofreading too.
No, I would not trust them toget the witch versus which.
(17:18):
What do you call thosehomophones?
Like, no, I would not trust aprogram with that, um, and the
it's without an apostrophe andthe it's with an apostrophe are
hard enough for me as a reporterto like know on the spot which
is which, or whatever, and howwould like, how would a program
(17:41):
ever know that?
Like, you need eyes on that?
And they wouldn't be able totell me, like, why did you make
this change or did you?
Did you?
Did you Google search thesenames?
Ai, you know there's so manyproper names that, yeah, that,
proofreaders, I rely on you.
A lot of times, too, I'll put alittle mark and be like I
(18:03):
couldn't find this.
You know this business name.
Can you, can you help with this?
And more times than not, you'relike I found it.
We have a little cheerstogether, you know.
So, yeah, I hope that.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
No, that that yes, because like when I um, like I
was just reading a transcriptthe other day and the guy's name
, um, was spelled Ian on, likeat the end at one way and then a
in another time in thetranscript, and it's like that,
that kind of thing.
I just knew it was the samedoctor they were talking about
and suddenly it was spelleddifferently just one time.
But it's like thinking aboutthings like that is just there's
just little nuances that reallyaren't so little when you need
(18:40):
to have something.
That's to your point when youstarted.
It's permanent, like that's therecord that you're looking at
and it's there.
It's not going away.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Right, right, I mean, and I think in Case Catalyst,
there's a new option that youhave to pay for.
So I haven't tried it because Idon't want to pay for that.
But what is it called?
Check it or something.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
I don't know and it's like an AI.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
You've heard of this, okay, yeah, so it's like kind
of an AI function that issupposed to go through and look
at your transcript and like justtell you different errors.
Like, just tell you differenterrors.
And I didn't I mean, I haven'tused it personally but the
overwhelming majority of peopleI heard from that used it were
way less than thrilled with theresults and we're like why are
(19:26):
they?
Why am I paying money to usethis?
Like it's suggesting thingsthat don't need to be changed,
or and it missed this and thisand this and this.
And you know it's just no, no,would I use a proofreader who,
maybe in combination with aprogram like hand, you know
(19:47):
proofread, proofread and puttheir eyes on the whole
transcript?
Sure, you know, I think I thinka good program maybe not the
check it one yet, but a goodprogram could be a good tool you
know to use in addition.
But I would never want anythingbut like actual eyes reading
all of my pages.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
That makes total sense.
Yeah, Just like I use Googleand I'll use my other resources
spell check, to double check,Like I mean, put a sentence or
two inside Grammarly just to see, like.
But at the end of the day, I'mnot relying on spellcheck or
Grammarly or Google to tell mesomething.
I'm going to make sure formyself that it's correct for you
.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Yeah yeah exactly.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
I agree, Totally agree.
It is really.
You know, when you hear aboutAI, it does seem like it can do
everything and but even like aprogram developed for court
reporter, software is notcatching.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Yeah, I have heard some interesting things about
that.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Yeah, so just get a proofreader, you'll be happier
more confident about it Exactly.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
So, since you don't want AI touching your
transcripts as far as like theonly or fine touch, what are
things that you would look forin a proofreader, like what's
important for you?
Obviously, we've been workingtogether for a while, but make
believe I'm not going anywhere,but make believe that you've had
to find a new one.
(21:19):
What are some like experiencepoints that they would need?
Character traits that you'relooking for, like what kind of
things are important to you in aproofreader?
Speaker 2 (21:32):
I mean, as far as gosh experience, I hadn't really
thought about that.
I mean it would.
It's tricky because I I thinkthere are a lot of newer
proofreaders that don'tnecessarily have the years of
experience under their belt, butif they were properly trained,
(21:56):
like they went through yourprogram, you know, if they're
properly trained and they'reeager, I think they're going to
try really, really, really hard,you know.
So I don't know that, like,having a ton of experiences is
necessary.
Um, I think probably near thetop is going to be um
(22:22):
communication, like I know,probably my one of my most
appreciated things about you isthat every time I send you a
transcript to proof, you emailme right back that night or
within, you know, wheneveryou're available, and say got it
and and hi you know it's alwaysgood to hear from you in that
(22:43):
way too, but you always let meknow you have it, which makes me
feel better because I don'tknow there's I mean email and
technology it's like you justnever quite know.
And when there's somethingriding on like okay, this
transcript is due on this day,and then that there's always
that chance, if I don't hearback from somebody, I fear that,
(23:03):
like that day the transcript isdue is going to come and I'll
reach out to you and be like, ohmy gosh, do you have the?
You know, have you looked atthis?
And you're like, I neverreceived it.
Like that is like a nightmare,literal nightmare scenario for
me, you know, um, so the factthat you always tell me you've
got the transcript, it's in safehands, like, oh, okay, I can
(23:23):
breathe, I can, you know.
So it's a small thing, maybe,but it's a really big thing, um,
yeah, um.
And I guess another thing that Iwould look for is that I
appreciate and would look for ina proofer is just like
attention to detail, like I knowfor me when we have, you know,
(23:50):
into detail.
Like I know for me when we have, you know, we have the title
pages which I have to input alot of that stuff.
But and then the like very lastpage which was like the
reporter certificate, you know,I mean that's all, that's pretty
much the same on every singletranscript.
And but I was super impressedbecause you sent me one back not
too long ago and you were like,hey, the, the date on this
(24:12):
notary is different than thanthe last one you know you sent
me and I was like, oh my gosh, Ididn't think.
I didn't think you actuallylike read those last pages,
because they're always the same.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
I always check the date.
Two dates on there.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Oh my gosh, so that you know, just yeah, the more
stuff you can find like that,just little things like that,
just blow me out of the water,like I wasn't expecting you to
be even looking at that page.
So thank you for bringing thatto my attention.
Oh my gosh, you know.
Um, yeah, yeah, um, I guess,yeah, I guess that's it.
(24:51):
Communication thoroughness Um,you know we already talked about
how I would rather you put acomment or bring my attention to
something that doesn't seemright, rather than be like, oh
well, I don't want to bother the, I don't want to bother the
reporter or, you know, make themread too many of these or
whatever, and just not sayanything like yeah, I can't
(25:13):
speak for all reporters, but Ithink most want to turn in the
best possible product and so ifyou see, something that looks a
little weird.
You know about the way thissentence is, or?
You know?
Yeah, tell me, bring it to myattention.
I will never, I will never likebe upset.
It's like oh my gosh, why arethere so many corrections here?
Speaker 1 (25:35):
You know Would you stop actually proofreading,
elizabeth, please.
I'm tired of this.
Yeah, one thing I really likedthat you brought up was that you
don't need a like year, a tonof experience like in terms of
years, because I feel like, youknow, sometimes people asked,
well, do you need a collegedegree?
And I'm like, well, I'm acollege dropout and there's not
(25:56):
actually a transcriptproofreading degree to begin
with.
But and you know, I have yearsof experience just because I've
been doing it for a while.
But, like when my gradsgraduate, they feel like, oh,
I'm a newbie, I don't know whatI'm doing, and I'm like well,
just because you don't haveyears of experience, you have
experience proofing.
What thousand?
You add there over 3,200 pagesin my course, like of pages of
(26:17):
transcripts to work on.
So it's not like you have tohave years of experience.
My understanding was like thetraining and knowing what you're
doing is more important to you.
Was that?
Did I understand that correctly?
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Oh my gosh, yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
I don't, and you know and thisisn't I don't know how to say
this and not sound like I don'tknow but if somebody has been,
say, proofreading for, like youknow, 40 years, like a really,
really, really, really long time, I would rather, frankly, have
a new, you know out of schoolproofreader, because I feel like
(26:56):
you know it's new and they'regoing to be like so eager and
they want to get everythingright and they, you know, like
you know that, that feelingyou've got this new job and it's
like, oh my gosh, I'm going to,I'm going to wow everybody and
I'm going to try so hard and youknow like, will it take them a
little bit longer sometimesmaybe, and that's okay.
I mean, as long as you know, ifit's a rush or something, I
(27:16):
would, of course, let you know,can you take it?
But, um, but in general, yeah,and that wasn't.
I didn't mean that if somebodyhad been proofreading for 50
years, I would still use them.
It's just different.
It's just different.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
I appreciate both be slower, like you said, just like
proofreaders a little bitslower when you get started, but
(27:51):
they just want to do so welland it's almost like you can see
you can tell a difference asopposed to you've.
You've been doing it for awhile, but I mean you've been
doing it for a while.
My other court reporter hasbeen doing it for a while and I
mean transcripts are great.
I love them.
So, yes, I totally get whatyou're saying.
It's not necessarily that youjust give up and don't try after
.
I've been doing it for 10 yearsand I'm done Right.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
That's not what I meant at all.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
No, I didn't take it Because that's so encouraging.
You know anybody who's thinkingabout getting started or going
through the course or justgraduating, wherever y'all are
who are listening.
That's so encouraging to knowthat people aren't looking at.
Oh, you've not been doing itfor you've only had your
business for a month, kind ofthing.
Well, you have training andyou're ready to go and you're
(28:30):
eager to do a good job.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Exactly Like eagerness goes for me anyway,
like goes a long way, like Ihave used at least one of your
students, and they were a very,very, very recent graduate, I
believe.
When you suggested um, her, and, and I was like, okay, well, I
(28:54):
think you were going out of townor I don't know.
Anyway, I was like, yes, thatsounds great.
And um, and you told me thatshe was so excited to be able to
work with me and, um, I guessyou, you use my transcripts in
in your, in your teaching andyou said that she was so excited
.
She went back to like reviewsome of my old transcripts from
(29:16):
class and I was like, oh, mygosh, I mean that.
Just, you know, I just hit thefloor.
That's amazing.
That, like that's what I want,yeah, and I still use that
person to this day is my backup.
You know, backup proofer, ifyou've been tossing too much
stuff your way, or you know.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Yeah, I'm about to go on vacation.
I emailed her and I was like,hey, I'm going to be out and
just make want to make sureyou're here for Val.
She's like oh yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
So you know I can tell others what I've heard
court reporters say and whatcourt reporters are looking for,
but to actually hear it fromyou, a real life court reporter
who works and takes your, youtake a lot of pride in your work
and I know like the discussionslike if I send you something
and you have a question onsomething or you want to be like
(30:02):
, hey, you know, I actually doit this way.
Can you prove it this way?
You obviously really care aboutyour transcripts.
Do it this way, can you proofit this way?
You obviously really care aboutyour transcripts.
And so to hear from somebodylike what you're looking for and
what's important in a prooferis so encouraging and I think
it's nice to know.
Yes, it takes work to get there, but you have somebody who
appreciates you and like excitedto work with you and values the
(30:23):
skills you bring to the table.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
That's good.
Well, val, is there any like?
I know I didn't ask you thisquestion beforehand, but like is
there any like words of wisdomyou would give to somebody who
is thinking about becoming aproofreader or who is, you know,
in the thick of it right nowworking on mounds of transcripts
, your construction transcripts?
Oh, the constructiontranscripts.
(30:50):
I'm like have fun y'all.
Is there any words of wisdomthat you would like to close off
?
Like from a court reporterspeaking to somebody thinking
about proofreading, likelearning how to do it or who's
in the middle of it.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
Yeah, I mean, I guess just it is such an important
it's just it's so important LikeI could not do my job without,
I could not turn in mytranscripts without a good
proofreader looking at them.
And and I wanted to add thistoo, and this isn't the question
(31:28):
that you just asked me, butI've been asked on more than one
occasion by um other reportersif I could proofread their
transcripts before they turn itin, and every single time my eye
probably twitched a little bitand I was like, uh, no, no, I'm
(31:50):
not going to do that.
I'm not a proofreader Like I.
You know, do I remember, likemost of the grammar rules?
Speaker 1 (31:58):
or something, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
Yes, but, but not enough.
Like there's no way, like Irely on you so heavily for a lot
of those things that I'm like Ishould look that up.
And then I'll be like, but youknow, it's also, it's busy, it's
stressful, it can be grueling,and so, you know, time is not
always on our side when it comesto finishing a transcript and
(32:20):
getting it to the proofreader.
So sometimes I'll have thatthought in the back of my head
like I should look this up.
What is this rule?
I should know it.
But then I'm just like you knowwhat, that's what Elizabeth is
for?
Like I know she's got me, andso I'm just like, nope, I'm just
gonna leave it and she'll,she'll figure it out, you know
you know she'll tell me whetherthat comma goes there or not or
(32:40):
whatever.
So so I would just say, you know, to students, or to recent
graduates or not recentgraduates like thank you, just,
you know, keep up the thoroughgood work.
And I don't know kindness andeasiness as far as like emailing
(33:01):
, and you know it goes a long,long, long way.
Yeah, I've had some reporters.
I don't know if a proofreader,specifically, but like scopists,
will maybe say not some notvery nice things about a
reporter's skills and it justfloors me like why would you?
You don't know what their jobis like, you don't know this or
(33:22):
that, and I haven't had aproofreader.
You know, heard of them sayinganything not nice, but I would
just reiterate that and I knowyou talk about that on your, you
know on your Instagram as wellLike just don't, don't say, you
know if you see this mistake andyou know, just just correct it,
like there's no need to be.
(33:43):
You know I'm better than you,or or I'm smarter than you, or
you know that mindset.
Like no, we all have ourexpertise and we all have our
off days and let's just worktogether and create a beautiful
transcript.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
I couldn't have ended on a better note.
That was so good.
Yes, kindness is so.
There was a quote, so I can'tremember the quote off the top
of my head, but something aboutbe rare and being rare was being
kind, because it is rare butit's so valued.
Like you said, you have agrueling job.
You have witnesses andattorneys that are talking a
(34:20):
million miles an hour, sometimesfighting with each other, and
you're in their room and thelast thing you want is to come
home and work on a transcriptand then send it to a
proofreader who's not kind, andthat's not like kindness.
Yes, so much.
It goes both ways A kind courtreporter and a kind proofreader
together.
It's just.
That is such a goodrelationship, and we create
(34:40):
beautiful transcripts in themeantime.
Yes, yes, well, val, I'm gonnalet you go before before your
kitties start scratching at thedoor, start yowling, but
seriously, thank you so much.
I mean speaking of busy andyou've got a lot to do.
Thank you for taking time tocome.
Encourage my students, my grads, those who are thinking about
(35:01):
proofing.
Thank you for taking time to dothat.
That, just that means a ton, soI really appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Oh, you're more than welcome.
Appreciate you too, Elizabeth.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
Want to learn more about transcript proofreading?
Then check out my free workshop.
Is Transcript Proofreading theRight Money Making Business for
Me?
It's less than an hour and itanswers lots of FAQs around
transcript proofreading, so youcan decide if this is the
perfect side hustle for you.
You can check it out ontheproofreadingbusinesscoachcom.
Forward slash workshopregistration.
this is the proofreading business podcast
with elizabeth wigner.
For more, visit theproofreadingbusinesscoachcom.
All right, y'all, I am.
I say this every time I have aguest on.
I'm so excited and you all aregonna love this.
This is, um, I have val ontoday.
She is court reporter and she'snot just any court reporter,
(00:25):
she is my court reporter.
We've been proofing.
I was trying to think how longit's been years that we've
proofed together.
But this is a podcast episodethat people have been asking for
.
They've been asking to have acourt reporter on because, I
mean, I talk all the time abouttranscript proofreading and how
good it is, but it's like, well,let's hear from the side of
(00:46):
somebody like a court reporterwho actually wants to work with
a proofreader.
It's not just me makingeverything up.
So, val, thank you so much forbeing here.
I am so excited you took yourtime for this.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Oh, I'm so glad to be here.
It's always so good to talk toyou and yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Thank you for having me Well, kick it off, Just as a
court reporter and you've been.
I think we were talking.
You've been a court reporterfor about nine years now.
What, and I wasn't your firstproofreader that you worked with
.
What makes from a courtreporter's perspective, why do
you want to work with aproofreader?
Speaker 2 (01:22):
why do you want to work with a proofreader?
I, you know I chuckle a littlebit because it's like, in my
mind it's such an obvious thing,Like, like, for example,
somebody wouldn't like atranscript is forever right,
it's like a book or a you knowany other periodical, like, once
(01:44):
the newspaper comes out, like,that's it, it's done, that's,
that's today's edition.
Um, I mean, it's the same thingwith the transcript, and so why
would you not make sure that itwas correct and good and
readable and all of the you know, all of the above?
So so, yeah, Um, love myproofreadersers.
(02:05):
Well, I love you as myproofreader because you are
amazing and we, yeah, we do goback, but you and your students
that I've used a few of inproofreading my stuff are just
top of the line.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
So I love to hear that.
So thankful for y'all.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
So would you?
You know, sometimes when peopleare asking about transcript
proofreading, they're like, well, court reporters are really
smart people.
I'm like, absolutely, I agree.
Like your talent is amazing tobe able to take down people
going 250, sometimes 300 wordsper minute and get it all
accurate.
Sometimes I hear, well, youknow, they're really smart.
Aren't you kind of insultingthe court reporters, saying they
(02:50):
need a proofreader?
And I'm like, no, not at all.
So can you explain from yourperspective like y'all aren't
seeing Val, but she's likeshaking her head really hard
Explain why court reporters wantto work.
I mean, I kind of asked youlike why is it important?
It's because the transcript isforever, but why can't you proof
your own transcripts?
Speaker 2 (03:05):
essentially, yeah, so , and this was something that
actually, back when I was incourt reporting school, one of
my instructors told me and well,told the class, and she said
you never want to proofread yourown work.
And like, clap, clap, you know,let me get that into y'all's
heads.
And um, and I'm so thankfulthat she told me that, because I
(03:29):
I've heard that there are somereporters maybe that are like oh
, it doesn't need to be, youknow, a scopist is all I need,
or I'll just get this randomperson or a scopist to do the
proofreading and um, I'mdigressing, but that's not like,
that's not my.
I would never do it that way,because proofreading is such a
(03:52):
niche, like you have knowledgethat we don't have.
Like, I rely on you 100%,elizabeth.
When I send transcripts to you,like I like for the life of me
I don't know when a comma comesbefore, because, like, and the
few times I'm like, oh,definitely, it goes here and
I'll put the comma in and I sendit to you, and then I get it
(04:13):
back and there's a big redcircle like no comma here, val,
I'm like oh, like I was so closebut so far away.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
And um I actually I forgot what your question was,
cause I no, that was perfect.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
It was like why can't you just proof it yourself?
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Oh right, Okay.
So yes, Um, I mean, I thinkit's proven that, like, once you
are invested in this document,whether it's a transcript or a
book or you know whatever, likeyou, the way you see it and read
it is the way that your brainis used to seeing it and reading
it, and especially if it's yourown, you know, and so you your
(04:56):
our eyes that have already, youknow, know, the know, this
transcript front to back.
We'll just glaze over thingsthat are glaring to someone else
, to a proofreader, to a trainedeye, and I mean even just when
I do my scoping and I send you ajob and I'm like well,
(05:16):
Elizabeth, I scoped this onemyself, so you're going to find
zero errors, Okay, and we bothlaugh because that happens never
.
But, like I will think, you know, in my scoping and I look at
proofreading stuff too, I meanas best I can you know, when I
scope my own stuff and I'll sendit to you and I'll think it's
(05:36):
going to be perfect and you'regoing to be like hey, val, you
score a hundred or whatever,right, plus, I don't have any
corrections for you and I willget this transcript back.
That is like red, just red.
You know, marker all over, it'snot that bad, I promise.
Like oh man, I have an extraword here.
(05:58):
I got this comma wrong.
This follow-up needs a hyphenand da, da, da, you know.
But I tried my darndest and Istill.
You find all kinds of thingsthat my eyes just don't see.
So, yeah, for that reason, andI'm not even trying to proofread
, like I'm trying in my best way, but but yeah, yeah, definitely
(06:19):
that.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Eyes, that's it's.
I mean.
Typo blindness is an actual Imean it sounds funnyo blindness.
And I know proofreading isobviously.
You talked about dropped wordsand hyphens and commas and all
that.
It's more than just typos.
But typo blindness we seewhat's what we want to see on
the page, what we think is onthe page, and it's not like,
honestly, your transcripts arevery clean.
(06:39):
It probably feels like a lotwhen you get it back because
you're like I tried my best onit, but that's just the nature
of the.
I mean, I make typos in my ownwriting, whereas I'm sure if I
send it to you you'd be like ohElizabeth, yeah, you have a
dropped word here, youmisspelled episode or something
like that.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Yeah, yeah, yeah and yes, absolutely I agree Um yes,
absolutely.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
I agree.
How does your confidence, howdo you feel when you've got a
transcript back and you put theannotations in and you send it
off, Like, is that a sigh ofrelief when you're done with all
of it?
Is it a confidence booster?
How would you explain that itfeels?
Or maybe it's kind of likegreat, I've got to put all these
in.
Or what does it feel like whenyou get a transcript back from a
(07:24):
proofreader?
Like as I'm working on theannotations, or like as I'm
doing both, Like putting them inand then actually sending it
off being done with it.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Yeah, I mean it's always interesting to me what
the proofreader marks as like,incorrect or like, for example.
I mean as a court reporter andthen as a scopist, I have access
to the audio, right, and so tryas I might, if I don't hear, I
(08:00):
don't know.
You take the way people talk,like they put the emphasis on
this word so, and then theypause so you think a comma
belongs there, or you know, evenif it ends up not being a
complete sentence or they arethey left words off of their
thing, I don't know.
I write on the record the way Ihear things, and so it's always
(08:21):
interesting to me what you markas incorrect, because I'll go
back and you're like, maybethere's a dropped word here or
something, and so I'll gothrough and I'll look and I'll
check my notes.
I'm like, no, there's nodropped word, but that tells me
that something about thissentence is, I guess, styled in
a way like it's confusing to thereader, right, and so I need to
(08:44):
take another look like do Ineed to add dashes?
Was it maybe a change of thoughtthat I didn't?
You know that I didn't um, dashoff Um.
So yeah, that's always.
It's always a little, um bit ofexploring and to see what you
marked versus what it should be,and then honestly just turning
(09:06):
it in is relief.
It's usually just relief, okay.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
No, I don't blame you .
I feel that way, when I've doneproofing it's like relief I got
it done, I've accomplished thisand it's off to my court
reporter.
That was really interesting thatyou said you know, sometimes
like because we don't listen toaudio as proofreaders, that's a
scopus job, that's the corereporters job and so yeah, and I
don't know, like sometimes I'llput yeah, like dropped word or
(09:33):
double check or the threequestion marks for you to be
sure.
You know, one thing that mystudents ask a lot is they're
like you know, I don't want toannoy my court reporter by
putting a certain annotationthere and I said, well, if you
can pick up on like kind of thespeech patterns which comes with
the experience of practice,then yeah, you can usually tell.
But sometimes you just there'sno way, you don't have to read,
(09:58):
you don't have to read, youdon't have the steno, you don't
have the audio.
But I love what you said, thatit's if something's wrong.
It's not that you have to be ahundred percent know what's
impossible to know without beingthere, but it just helps, you
know, to go double check,something like look at your
notes, look at audio, I that's.
That is really.
That's encouraging to know.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Yeah, yeah, I mean it , I can start.
I'll start like saving them andsending them to you, because it
happens more often than youwould know, like you draw my
attention to, you know, such andsuch lines, such and such word
for, for whatever.
There are multiple differentthings and, um, and yeah, I'll
look at it and it won't be thecorrection necessarily that you
(10:32):
suggested and had your littlequestion mark by, like yes, is
that what it is?
It won't necessarily be that.
Sometimes it is, but sometimesit's something totally different
.
Where, yeah, where?
But I just know like, okay, Ineed to change this a little bit
because it's just not readingright.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
That will be encouraging for students and
grads to hear, and those who arethinking about it are like,
okay, this is a lot to thinkabout.
It's not that you have to.
You're perfectly imperfect,like you're not going to get
every suggestion correct, that Isend you Now some things like
commas and hyphens and periodsand question marks, things like
that, and sometimes very obvious, like going to the two is
(11:12):
really easy to drop.
Things like that are morecommon, but sometimes like that
wasn't, like that word wasactually said, but I marked it
because I wasn't sure.
So it's encouraging to knowthat you don't have to be all
knowing, because it sometimesfeels like you have to be as a
proofreader.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Yeah, yeah, no, I mean for me.
I'm just, I'm thankful that asyou're proofreading your, you
know your spidey sense orwhatever your, your, your
expertness you hit this spot andyou're like something's weird
here and you know you'll makeyour best suggestion and, um,
and sometimes that's it andsometimes it's not, but that
(11:51):
draws me to that section whichis just super helpful.
It's not, but that draws me tothat section which is just super
helpful.
And I'll say I it doesn'thappen very often, but sometimes
, when I'm doing correctionsfrom you, I will go in and I'll
correct the word, or you knowthe comma, whatever, and I'll
(12:11):
happen to notice that there wassomething else in that vicinity
that neither that I didn't catchwhen I was scoping and that you
didn't catch as the proofreader.
And then I'm like, oh my gosh,but I never would have seen it
if it weren't for yourcorrections.
And, and so that's always likean extra, like yes, I'm so glad
(12:33):
I went back to this area, um,but like I want to reiterate,
like you are an amazingproofreader and that isn't too,
that doesn't speak to your youknow expertise.
By any means, like there's thisjoke that like, if you know,
five or six court reporters weretaking down the exact same
record at the exact same time,hearing the exact same person
(12:55):
speaking, all of them would hearthings to a small degree
differently.
Right, like, that's just thehuman experience.
And it's the exact same thingwith proofreaders and scopists.
Like, none of us are perfect,like, like you can probably have
three proofreaders in a row.
Look at this one transcript andeach time somebody would still
(13:15):
find something to correct.
You know, like nothing, it'snot going to be perfect, but
we're going to get it as closeas we can.
And that's where proofreaderscome in.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
So, so I love that, yeah, because I tell my students
that that, yeah, you're goingto see me make mistakes because
human.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
And.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
I mean I've been proofing for almost 20 years and
I mean I can't even imagine howmany hundreds of thousands of
pages that adds up to.
But I tell them you know it'sand you know my grads my
students have to pass an exam toget to start to work with court
reporters.
And my thing is, it's not amatter of are you perfect?
You're not going to catcheverything, I don't catch
(13:55):
everything, but how, if youturned in this transcript to a
court reporter, would it behelpful?
And it's so nice to hear andsometimes students will really
stress well, I don't think Icould ever be a proofreader
because I'll never be perfect.
And it's so good to hear fromyou to realize it's not
necessarily the expectation, theexpectation.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
No one is going to be perfect.
I got news for y'all.
No one, you know, it's just,that's just not how it is.
But we can get darn close.
But it requires more than onepair of eyes and sometimes you
know three plus pairs of eyes.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you got the core reporter, the
scopus, the proofer, and then,when you go, back in.
Yeah, so that kind of seguesreally into a question that I
get asked a lot and I'd love tohear your perspective on it is
you know, with you hear a lotabout AI and it's kind of like
it almost seems like AI could doliterally everything for you.
(14:52):
And you know that might be niceif they could, but it's not.
Would you, as a court reporter,trust an AI program to
proofread your transcripts foryou?
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Um, well, no, Um, you know I was.
I was thinking about this andso, whenever you do like, talk
to text right Like that, thatkind of gives me an inkling of
what you know what an AI programwould be like for for
(15:28):
proofreading or, heck, for courtreporting for that matter, like
they've been talking for yearsthat you know digital AI is
going to take over.
You know our profession and thetruth is okay, maybe in
whatever you 2024, I don't know,maybe in like 2060 or something
, I don't you know what I?
mean Like if it?
If it is, I think it's so fardown the road that you know,
(15:52):
then next few generations don'thave to worry about it.
But as it is now like no, no way, I mean just just doing talk to
text, like like homonyms, likehow would you know, how would it
know, like if you were saying,like, well, to be Frank, or if
they were saying, well, I wentto see Frank the dude, you know
(16:17):
something, that comes up and I'mgoing to talk about talk to
text again.
But that's the only like, Iguess, kind of AI, you know,
texting thing that I have.
But I was.
I was doing that the other daywhen I was in the car and I was
like, oh, I'm going to thegrocery store which is next to
the you know whatever.
Oh, I'm going to the grocerystore which is next to the you
(16:37):
know whatever.
And my talk to tech said, whichis, which is like a plural of a
witch, like with the pointy hatand the shoes, which is which
is next to?
And I was like, oh, okay.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Witches have entered the chat, not what I was
planning on, but okay, they'rehere now.
Yeah, what did you conjure up?
Speaker 2 (16:56):
right, right.
So, and you know, and I alwaystalk like slowly and very
clearly for talk to text becauseof that reason and it still it
still didn't help it.
So, you know, and that's morelike audio related, but it's it
translates to proofreading too.
No, I would not trust them toget the witch versus which.
(17:18):
What do you call thosehomophones?
Like, no, I would not trust aprogram with that, um, and the
it's without an apostrophe andthe it's with an apostrophe are
hard enough for me as a reporterto like know on the spot which
is which, or whatever, and howwould like, how would a program
(17:41):
ever know that?
Like, you need eyes on that?
And they wouldn't be able totell me, like, why did you make
this change or did you?
Did you?
Did you Google search thesenames?
Ai, you know there's so manyproper names that, yeah, that,
proofreaders, I rely on you.
A lot of times, too, I'll put alittle mark and be like I
(18:03):
couldn't find this.
You know this business name.
Can you, can you help with this?
And more times than not, you'relike I found it.
We have a little cheerstogether, you know.
So, yeah, I hope that.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
No, that that yes, because like when I um, like I
was just reading a transcriptthe other day and the guy's name
, um, was spelled Ian on, likeat the end at one way and then a
in another time in thetranscript, and it's like that,
that kind of thing.
I just knew it was the samedoctor they were talking about
and suddenly it was spelleddifferently just one time.
But it's like thinking aboutthings like that is just there's
just little nuances that reallyaren't so little when you need
(18:40):
to have something.
That's to your point when youstarted.
It's permanent, like that's therecord that you're looking at
and it's there.
It's not going away.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Right, right, I mean, and I think in Case Catalyst,
there's a new option that youhave to pay for.
So I haven't tried it because Idon't want to pay for that.
But what is it called?
Check it or something.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
I don't know and it's like an AI.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
You've heard of this, okay, yeah, so it's like kind
of an AI function that issupposed to go through and look
at your transcript and like justtell you different errors.
Like, just tell you differenterrors.
And I didn't I mean, I haven'tused it personally but the
overwhelming majority of peopleI heard from that used it were
way less than thrilled with theresults and we're like why are
(19:26):
they?
Why am I paying money to usethis?
Like it's suggesting thingsthat don't need to be changed,
or and it missed this and thisand this and this.
And you know it's just no, no,would I use a proofreader who,
maybe in combination with aprogram like hand, you know
(19:47):
proofread, proofread and puttheir eyes on the whole
transcript?
Sure, you know, I think I thinka good program maybe not the
check it one yet, but a goodprogram could be a good tool you
know to use in addition.
But I would never want anythingbut like actual eyes reading
all of my pages.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
That makes total sense.
Yeah, Just like I use Googleand I'll use my other resources
spell check, to double check,Like I mean, put a sentence or
two inside Grammarly just to see, like.
But at the end of the day, I'mnot relying on spellcheck or
Grammarly or Google to tell mesomething.
I'm going to make sure formyself that it's correct for you
.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Yeah yeah exactly.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
I agree, Totally agree.
It is really.
You know, when you hear aboutAI, it does seem like it can do
everything and but even like aprogram developed for court
reporter, software is notcatching.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Yeah, I have heard some interesting things about
that.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Yeah, so just get a proofreader, you'll be happier
more confident about it Exactly.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
So, since you don't want AI touching your
transcripts as far as like theonly or fine touch, what are
things that you would look forin a proofreader, like what's
important for you?
Obviously, we've been workingtogether for a while, but make
believe I'm not going anywhere,but make believe that you've had
to find a new one.
(21:19):
What are some like experiencepoints that they would need?
Character traits that you'relooking for, like what kind of
things are important to you in aproofreader?
Speaker 2 (21:32):
I mean, as far as gosh experience, I hadn't really
thought about that.
I mean it would.
It's tricky because I I thinkthere are a lot of newer
proofreaders that don'tnecessarily have the years of
experience under their belt, butif they were properly trained,
(21:56):
like they went through yourprogram, you know, if they're
properly trained and they'reeager, I think they're going to
try really, really, really hard,you know.
So I don't know that, like,having a ton of experiences is
necessary.
Um, I think probably near thetop is going to be um
(22:22):
communication, like I know,probably my one of my most
appreciated things about you isthat every time I send you a
transcript to proof, you emailme right back that night or
within, you know, wheneveryou're available, and say got it
and and hi you know it's alwaysgood to hear from you in that
(22:43):
way too, but you always let meknow you have it, which makes me
feel better because I don'tknow there's I mean email and
technology it's like you justnever quite know.
And when there's somethingriding on like okay, this
transcript is due on this day,and then that there's always
that chance, if I don't hearback from somebody, I fear that,
(23:03):
like that day the transcript isdue is going to come and I'll
reach out to you and be like, ohmy gosh, do you have the?
You know, have you looked atthis?
And you're like, I neverreceived it.
Like that is like a nightmare,literal nightmare scenario for
me, you know, um, so the factthat you always tell me you've
got the transcript, it's in safehands, like, oh, okay, I can
(23:23):
breathe, I can, you know.
So it's a small thing, maybe,but it's a really big thing, um,
yeah, um.
And I guess another thing that Iwould look for is that I
appreciate and would look for ina proofer is just like
attention to detail, like I knowfor me when we have, you know,
(23:50):
into detail.
Like I know for me when we have, you know, we have the title
pages which I have to input alot of that stuff.
But and then the like very lastpage which was like the
reporter certificate, you know,I mean that's all, that's pretty
much the same on every singletranscript.
And but I was super impressedbecause you sent me one back not
too long ago and you were like,hey, the, the date on this
(24:12):
notary is different than thanthe last one you know you sent
me and I was like, oh my gosh, Ididn't think.
I didn't think you actuallylike read those last pages,
because they're always the same.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
I always check the date.
Two dates on there.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Oh my gosh, so that you know, just yeah, the more
stuff you can find like that,just little things like that,
just blow me out of the water,like I wasn't expecting you to
be even looking at that page.
So thank you for bringing thatto my attention.
Oh my gosh, you know.
Um, yeah, yeah, um, I guess,yeah, I guess that's it.
(24:51):
Communication thoroughness Um,you know we already talked about
how I would rather you put acomment or bring my attention to
something that doesn't seemright, rather than be like, oh
well, I don't want to bother the, I don't want to bother the
reporter or, you know, make themread too many of these or
whatever, and just not sayanything like yeah, I can't
(25:13):
speak for all reporters, but Ithink most want to turn in the
best possible product and so ifyou see, something that looks a
little weird.
You know about the way thissentence is, or?
You know?
Yeah, tell me, bring it to myattention.
I will never, I will never likebe upset.
It's like oh my gosh, why arethere so many corrections here?
Speaker 1 (25:35):
You know Would you stop actually proofreading,
elizabeth, please.
I'm tired of this.
Yeah, one thing I really likedthat you brought up was that you
don't need a like year, a tonof experience like in terms of
years, because I feel like, youknow, sometimes people asked,
well, do you need a collegedegree?
And I'm like, well, I'm acollege dropout and there's not
(25:56):
actually a transcriptproofreading degree to begin
with.
But and you know, I have yearsof experience just because I've
been doing it for a while.
But, like when my gradsgraduate, they feel like, oh,
I'm a newbie, I don't know whatI'm doing, and I'm like well,
just because you don't haveyears of experience, you have
experience proofing.
What thousand?
You add there over 3,200 pagesin my course, like of pages of
(26:17):
transcripts to work on.
So it's not like you have tohave years of experience.
My understanding was like thetraining and knowing what you're
doing is more important to you.
Was that?
Did I understand that correctly?
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Oh my gosh, yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
I don't, and you know and thisisn't I don't know how to say
this and not sound like I don'tknow but if somebody has been,
say, proofreading for, like youknow, 40 years, like a really,
really, really, really long time, I would rather, frankly, have
a new, you know out of schoolproofreader, because I feel like
(26:56):
you know it's new and they'regoing to be like so eager and
they want to get everythingright and they, you know, like
you know that, that feelingyou've got this new job and it's
like, oh my gosh, I'm going to,I'm going to wow everybody and
I'm going to try so hard and youknow like, will it take them a
little bit longer sometimesmaybe, and that's okay.
I mean, as long as you know, ifit's a rush or something, I
(27:16):
would, of course, let you know,can you take it?
But, um, but in general, yeah,and that wasn't.
I didn't mean that if somebodyhad been proofreading for 50
years, I would still use them.
It's just different.
It's just different.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
I appreciate both be slower, like you said, just like
proofreaders a little bitslower when you get started, but
(27:51):
they just want to do so welland it's almost like you can see
you can tell a difference asopposed to you've.
You've been doing it for awhile, but I mean you've been
doing it for a while.
My other court reporter hasbeen doing it for a while and I
mean transcripts are great.
I love them.
So, yes, I totally get whatyou're saying.
It's not necessarily that youjust give up and don't try after
.
I've been doing it for 10 yearsand I'm done Right.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
That's not what I meant at all.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
No, I didn't take it Because that's so encouraging.
You know anybody who's thinkingabout getting started or going
through the course or justgraduating, wherever y'all are
who are listening.
That's so encouraging to knowthat people aren't looking at.
Oh, you've not been doing itfor you've only had your
business for a month, kind ofthing.
Well, you have training andyou're ready to go and you're
(28:30):
eager to do a good job.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Exactly Like eagerness goes for me anyway,
like goes a long way, like Ihave used at least one of your
students, and they were a very,very, very recent graduate, I
believe.
When you suggested um, her, and, and I was like, okay, well, I
(28:54):
think you were going out of townor I don't know.
Anyway, I was like, yes, thatsounds great.
And um, and you told me thatshe was so excited to be able to
work with me and, um, I guessyou, you use my transcripts in
in your, in your teaching andyou said that she was so excited
.
She went back to like reviewsome of my old transcripts from
(29:16):
class and I was like, oh, mygosh, I mean that.
Just, you know, I just hit thefloor.
That's amazing.
That, like that's what I want,yeah, and I still use that
person to this day is my backup.
You know, backup proofer, ifyou've been tossing too much
stuff your way, or you know.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Yeah, I'm about to go on vacation.
I emailed her and I was like,hey, I'm going to be out and
just make want to make sureyou're here for Val.
She's like oh yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
So you know I can tell others what I've heard
court reporters say and whatcourt reporters are looking for,
but to actually hear it fromyou, a real life court reporter
who works and takes your, youtake a lot of pride in your work
and I know like the discussionslike if I send you something
and you have a question onsomething or you want to be like
(30:02):
, hey, you know, I actually doit this way.
Can you prove it this way?
You obviously really care aboutyour transcripts.
Do it this way, can you proofit this way?
You obviously really care aboutyour transcripts.
And so to hear from somebodylike what you're looking for and
what's important in a prooferis so encouraging and I think
it's nice to know.
Yes, it takes work to get there, but you have somebody who
appreciates you and like excitedto work with you and values the
(30:23):
skills you bring to the table.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
That's good.
Well, val, is there any like?
I know I didn't ask you thisquestion beforehand, but like is
there any like words of wisdomyou would give to somebody who
is thinking about becoming aproofreader or who is, you know,
in the thick of it right nowworking on mounds of transcripts
, your construction transcripts?
Oh, the constructiontranscripts.
(30:50):
I'm like have fun y'all.
Is there any words of wisdomthat you would like to close off
?
Like from a court reporterspeaking to somebody thinking
about proofreading, likelearning how to do it or who's
in the middle of it.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
Yeah, I mean, I guess just it is such an important
it's just it's so important LikeI could not do my job without,
I could not turn in mytranscripts without a good
proofreader looking at them.
And and I wanted to add thistoo, and this isn't the question
(31:28):
that you just asked me, butI've been asked on more than one
occasion by um other reportersif I could proofread their
transcripts before they turn itin, and every single time my eye
probably twitched a little bitand I was like, uh, no, no, I'm
(31:50):
not going to do that.
I'm not a proofreader Like I.
You know, do I remember, likemost of the grammar rules?
Speaker 1 (31:58):
or something, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
Yes, but, but not enough.
Like there's no way, like Irely on you so heavily for a lot
of those things that I'm like Ishould look that up.
And then I'll be like, but youknow, it's also, it's busy, it's
stressful, it can be grueling,and so, you know, time is not
always on our side when it comesto finishing a transcript and
(32:20):
getting it to the proofreader.
So sometimes I'll have thatthought in the back of my head
like I should look this up.
What is this rule?
I should know it.
But then I'm just like you knowwhat, that's what Elizabeth is
for?
Like I know she's got me, andso I'm just like, nope, I'm just
gonna leave it and she'll,she'll figure it out, you know
you know she'll tell me whetherthat comma goes there or not or
(32:40):
whatever.
So so I would just say, you know, to students, or to recent
graduates or not recentgraduates like thank you, just,
you know, keep up the thoroughgood work.
And I don't know kindness andeasiness as far as like emailing
(33:01):
, and you know it goes a long,long, long way.
Yeah, I've had some reporters.
I don't know if a proofreader,specifically, but like scopists,
will maybe say not some notvery nice things about a
reporter's skills and it justfloors me like why would you?
You don't know what their jobis like, you don't know this or
(33:22):
that, and I haven't had aproofreader.
You know, heard of them sayinganything not nice, but I would
just reiterate that and I knowyou talk about that on your, you
know on your Instagram as wellLike just don't, don't say, you
know if you see this mistake andyou know, just just correct it,
like there's no need to be.
(33:43):
You know I'm better than you,or or I'm smarter than you, or
you know that mindset.
Like no, we all have ourexpertise and we all have our
off days and let's just worktogether and create a beautiful
transcript.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
I couldn't have ended on a better note.
That was so good.
Yes, kindness is so.
There was a quote, so I can'tremember the quote off the top
of my head, but something aboutbe rare and being rare was being
kind, because it is rare butit's so valued.
Like you said, you have agrueling job.
You have witnesses andattorneys that are talking a
(34:20):
million miles an hour, sometimesfighting with each other, and
you're in their room and thelast thing you want is to come
home and work on a transcriptand then send it to a
proofreader who's not kind, andthat's not like kindness.
Yes, so much.
It goes both ways A kind courtreporter and a kind proofreader
together.
It's just.
That is such a goodrelationship, and we create
(34:40):
beautiful transcripts in themeantime.
Yes, yes, well, val, I'm gonnalet you go before before your
kitties start scratching at thedoor, start yowling, but
seriously, thank you so much.
I mean speaking of busy andyou've got a lot to do.
Thank you for taking time tocome.
Encourage my students, my grads, those who are thinking about
(35:01):
proofing.
Thank you for taking time to dothat.
That, just that means a ton, soI really appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Oh, you're more than welcome.
Appreciate you too, Elizabeth.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
Want to learn more about transcript proofreading?
Then check out my free workshop.
Is Transcript Proofreading theRight Money Making Business for
Me?
It's less than an hour and itanswers lots of FAQs around
transcript proofreading, so youcan decide if this is the
perfect side hustle for you.
You can check it out ontheproofreadingbusinesscoachcom.
Forward slash workshopregistration.
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