Careers in machine shorthand
Court
or Parliamentary Reporter
The Court Reporter is a government employee on fixed salary,
conditions, and working hours. In Hansard, working hours depend on the
sittings of Parliament. In the Courts, evidence is reported verbatim,
in the parliaments, the official record, Hansard, is an edited version
of the parliamentary proceedings. Editing is performed by Reporters who
require excellent language skills, as well as high-speed shorthand
skills.
Captioner
Captioning brings the spoken word to the hearing-impaired. Most often
associated with television captioning, particularly for sporting events
such as the Olympic Games, the Captioner works also for the film and
theatre industry, and for conventions and corporate meetings. Job
opportunities have expanded rapidly since Australian government
legislation required (from 1st January 2001) that all television
programs are captioned.
Freelance
Reporter or Captioner
In the United States, freelancing represents the majority of work in
court reporting and captioning. In Australia, a growing number of
freelance reporters and captioners, is self-employed or work for
transcription bureaux. Hours and locations of work vary and range from
writing depositions in legal offices, taking evidence at remote sites,
or working on-line from home. Travel and late hours may be frequent,
but there is freedom in determining one's own work schedule and
environment. The reporter or captioner decides how much she/he will
work, and there is excellent earnings potential.
CART
Reporter
Real-time shorthand writers provide CART (Communication Access Realtime
Translation) to assist hearing-impaired students in university lectures
and other teaching institutions. Students sit alongside the CART writer
and see the lecturer’s words appear on the writer’s laptop computer as
the words are spoken.
Convention
Reporter
Convention business is booming in Australia and is closely related to
developments in the tourism industry. Machine shorthand writers are
used increasingly at International conventions, where speeches and
'question and answer' sessions are captured and printed through
computer-aided transcription in just a few minutes, thus allowing the
delegates to receive a copy of the proceedings before they leave the
convention.
Business
Reporter
The business world is discovering the speed and cost effectiveness of
rapid data input through machine shorthand, as well as the considerable
economic and time-saving benefits of instantaneous transcription of
correspondence and meetings proceedings. Machine shorthand brings an
exciting new dimension to information processing in the business world,
with possible data input speeds of well over 200 words per minute.
Medical/Legal
Transcriptionist
The demands for information processing in the health care industry are
increasing rapidly. Because of its speed advantages, machine shorthand
data input is beginning to replace typewritten input for preparing
medical records for physicians, hospitals and insurance companies.
Medical transcription is expected to be one of the most rapidly
expanding career fields over the next ten years. In the legal field,
the same skills are used to produce legal documents and the minutes of
corporate proceedings.
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