How To Be a Court Reporter - Using the Stenotype Machine

That Funny Little Machine

Have you ever wondered what that thing is that the court reporters type on and how it works exactly? You may have seen a court reporter a time or two on shows like “Law & Order” plucking away ever-so-slowly on the machine with paper spewing onto the ground. Though this is mostly for dramatic effect, reporters do not allow their paper to spill over, and we are hardly ever typing that slowly, unless you’re speaking about 30 words a minute. Taking down the minutes with a stenotype machine is one of the main court reporter services.

That funny little machine that court reporters use is called a stenotype machine, the use of which is taught at many court reporter schools and court reporter colleges. There are literally no court reporter jobs that don't require the use of a stenotype machine! Its first appearance was in 1830 by Karl Drais in which the machine punched a paper strip.

The one that is more closely related to today’s modern stenotype machine was created in 1913 or thereabouts by Ward Stone Ireland (Wikipedia, 2010). In the 1990s, the stenotype machine advanced to becoming more computer-like, with the addition of RAM features and real-time output plugs to be able to hook up directly to a laptop for instantaneous translation, also known as real-time. In the 2000s, the stenotype machine became even more advanced with the paper tray and steno paper becoming obsolete. Today’s modern machines are paperless, in which steno notes are directly recorded to a CompactFlash card and come equipped with their own built-in computer screens which translate the words from steno to English right there at their fingertips.

You also may wonder, well, how does a certified court reporter know what button she’s pushing since the keys are not labeled like a regular QWERTY keyboard? Any court reporter, even a national court reporter, will tell you it was hard at first. The stenotype keyboard has 22 unmarked keys. They are unmarked because the court reporter is typing so fast that there wouldn’t be enough time to “hunt and peck” for the keys. Like chords on a piano to create a single harmonious sound, reporters use a combination of keys to create a letter, a word, a phrase, speaker identification, and even punctuation.

The keyboard is designed to be used phonetically, typing from left to right. The left side of the keyboard, from the S to the “*” is called the initial side. The right side of the keyboard, from the “*” to the D/Z is called the final side. The asterisk in the middle is a multifunctional key. It can be used as a delete key, to delete the prior stroke, or as an attachment key; combined with the T key, it will create the suffix “-th” or with the S key, it will create the suffix “-st,” as an example.

At the top of the keyboard is a long, black key called the number bar. Referring to the picture on the right, you will notice that the numbers are indicated between the number bar and the key below that. In order to create a number, you must press the number bar and the corresponding key below that.

For example, the number 4 would be the number bar and letter H pressed simultaneously using your left index finger. You can also combine numbers in one stroke, so long as they read from left to right. To create the number “1209,” you would press the number bar plus your left pinkie finger on the S key, the left ring finger hitting the T key, the left thumb pressing on the O key and the right pinkie finger hitting the T key all at the same time. However, if the number was 1290, you would hit all the keys as mentioned for 1209 except the thumb/O key. Instead, you would have to hit 129 and then come back for your second stroke for the O, or zero. Remember, the keyboard is designed to read left to right.

The bottom row is the vowels: A, O, E, and U. You may be wondering where the letter I is; it’s actually a combination of all four vowels pressed together for the long I and just the /EU keys for the short I. Yes, it is also important to know if a word is, for instance, a long A or a short A, because there are different ways to write them. For example, the word “car” would be created hitting the K, the A, and the R. In this instance, just pressing A alone is your short vowel. However, if you wanted to write the word “care,” you would hit the K, the A, the /EU (which together is the I) and then your R. So it would look something like KAIR. To go one step further, if you wanted to write the word “carry,” you would write the word “care” as above, but then come back on your second stroke with a R and /EU for “RY.”

The software that accompanies the stenotype machine is called a CAT program, or computer-aided transcription. Each CAT program has a dictionary that the court reporter can define their own words and phrases. The CAT program has smart technology to know that, as used in the example of “carry” above, the “RY” is a suffix for the word “care” and it will create the correct word. In Figure 3, this is an example of what the stenotype looks like. Look at the word “example” there; the /KP represents the letter X (or “ex”) and then you have the letter A and the /PL is an M (thus, creating the word “exam”), but if you come back with the ending of /PL, that will attach to the prior word, “exam” to create “example.”

There are also what reporters call “brief forms,” such as the word “machine” in Figure 3.  The /PH is an M and the /PB is the letter N.  The brief form for “machine” is M-N.  Reporters can create their own brief forms to make their writing cleaner and faster.  For example, if the reporter is in a job and she hears the word “hydrochlorothiazide,” the reporter may, on the fly, define that word as simply the word “hide” but hitting it twice.  Once defined in her job dictionary in her CAT software, every time the word “hide hide” is recognized, the word “hydrochlorothiazide” will appear.

The reporter’s duty of making the record doesn’t just include words but also speaker identification (who is speaking) and punctuation.  Some reporters use steno mapping to create a layout of who is speaking prior to beginning their task.  For instance, if you refer back to Figure 2, you can see how the map is laid out around the asterisk key in this following example:  If Mr. Jones is questioning the witness in a deposition, he will be identified as /STPHAO.  If Mr. Smith is the attorney who would be objecting, he would be defined as /EUFPLT.  The witness is usually defined as /SKWRAO, and the judge is always defined as hitting all the keys at once (except the “*” key, the outside D/Z key, and number bar).

In a deposition setting or if a witness is being examined on the stand, once a speaker is directly in question-and-answer format, it moves a lot quicker, so the reporter is able to just hit the left bank (/STKPWHR) for the question set-up and the right bank (/FRPBLGTS) would be the answer.  The software will automatically put a period on the prior answer and a new line with a Q and five spaces if you hit the left bank/question, and if you hit the right bank/answer, it will automatically put a question mark at the end of the prior question and insert a new line with an A and five spaces, so it looks something similar to this:

    Q: Did you see the color of the light at that intersection?

    A: I thought it was green at the time I noticed it.

Most stenotype court reporters are RPRs, Registered Professional Reporters, in which they must pass a proficiency examination given by the National Court Reporters Association at speeds of 180, 200, and 225 words a minute.  The next level certification, the RMR, is given at speeds of 200, 240, and 260 words a minute.  In normal conversation, the speed of conversation usually lies around 130-150 words per minute.  The National Court Reporters Association holds an annual speed contest every year, and in 2010, the speed contest winner was Mark Kislingbury, writing 280 words per minute for five minutes (1400 words) at a rate of 99.357% accuracy (JCR, 2010).  Accurate writing at these top speeds requires incredible focus, extraordinary skills, and lots of brief forms!

The stenotype machine is a fascinating device in that so few keys can create infinite possibilities of words and phrases.  So the next time you see the court reporter on the courtroom drama movie plugging away on their little machine, you’ll have a better understanding of how the stenotype machine actually works.