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Real Realtime
ARE YOUR EXPECTATIONS HIGH ENOUGH?
As the day goes along, words that are specific to your particular case ... proper names, drug names, chemicals, medical procedures or the dreaded acornym ... may appear as gobbledegook. Sometimes when the words come out in English, even if it's not the RIGHT word, if you think about it for a minute, you can usually figure it out, like "crypt ton night." Other times, there's just no way you'll be able to read it ... although the reporter can.
During a deposition, you may see the reporter reaching up to their computer keyboard, editing the transcript during pauses in the testimony. They're "defining" untranslates and "resolving" conflicts. If someone's name is "Stackenbinder," for example, what appears in the transcript may look something like stack in [ BEUPBD ] [ ER ] - some words you can read, some still in steno.
Editing on the fly is a skill that realtime writers use to "fix" those case-specific terms quickly, while the testimony continues. And as the day goes on, the realtime just gets better and better!
When reporter edits "on the fly," the testimony continues, and the realtime just gets better and better!
Speaking of kryptonite, and contrary to popular belief, court reporters are not Superman! There, I said it. We don't have super powers that enable us to know all the words in the universe. That's why a seasoned reporter with a lot of experience can be the best choice for a complex case. But remember ... if you are just learning case-specific terms in a particular case, so are we. If you don't know how to spell someone's name, neither do we. That's why we ask, and that's why we edit all day long, making sure the NEXT time someone's name comes up, it translates correctly.!