Program Overview
The Court Reporting Program is divided into two components: Theory and Speedbuilding. Each student advances individually through the Program and may complete earlier if the student excels. Theory is the most important component of your court reporting training.
The theory component is based on theory material designed to lay a firm foundation and take the beginner student from the fundamentals of machine shorthand to the writing speed necessary for a successful speedbuilding experience. The lessons cover learning the keyboard of the steno machine, principles and rules of writing phonetic shorthand and an introduction to briefs and phrases to utilize in writing. All lessons include digital dictation for student assignments. For assignment review and evaluation, students communicate one-on-one with the instructor.
StenoWave Theory is a user-friendly internet program that can be accessed 24/7. Once enrolled, students will be given a password to access the program. All lessons are available online, no text books are needed.
Once you begin this course you will be instructed on how to proceed with each lesson and when ready for testing you will have interaction with instructors who will administer the test. You are not alone. This method is designed to help you continue with confidence. Students will have access to working instructors by email or telephone. These instructors are working with the in-house students but are available to assist our online students as well. Throughout the course, all lessons, testing, and progress are available on the StenoWave Theory site.
Judicial court reporter, Freelance reporter, Broadcast captioning, Webcasting, Communications Access Realtime Translation (CART). These are just some of the exciting and rewarding career paths that are available to you in the dynamic and growing reporting field.
Court Reporting. It’s a career of a lifetime. Contact us now!
Basic Theory
This course will introduce the student to the "manual mode" operation of the stenotype machine and the basic principles of machine shorthand theory. The student will learn proper setup of the machine, an overview of the basic internal mechanisms of the machine, general care and maintenance of the machine, correct writing posture, and good fingering techniques. The course employs a multi-modality approach to skill building with hands-on exercises through a series of lesson material. In these lessons, the student will become familiar with the principles of writing spoken English phonetically on the machine, with particular emphasis on proper oral readback of shorthand notes. These principles include: Mastery of the keyboard, the alphabet, writing single- to multi-syllable words phonetically, utilizing abbreviations (briefs) and phrases, and learning number theory. Students are expected to develop and demonstrate the ability to write smoothly and cleanly along with pre-recorded dictation material, intuitively add punctuation as appropriate, and confidently and fluidly read back their shorthand notes.
Advanced Theory
In this course the multi-modality approach to skill building continues in order to take the student beyond the foundation laid in Basic Theory to the writing speed necessary for success in the speedbuilding component of the Court Reporting Program. Emphasis is on writing more difficult vocabulary, phrases, and speed, with continued expectation that the student is writing smoothly and reading back confidently from their shorthand notes. The second half of this course will serve as a bridge between theory and speedbuilding by introducing the student to 2-voice testimony (Question and Answer - QA") dictation as well as basic transcript production following NCRA guidelines. Student must transcribe successfully two 40 wpm tests in order to complete course.
Supplies and Instructional Equipment
Theory Component of the Program:
A student will need to secure the following:
A machine writer. At the start of their training, students will need to secure a machine writer. Machine writers can be rented or purchased in various markets.
- StenoRent by Stenograph at 1.800.323.4247 (stenograph.com)
- ProCat at 1.800.769.6841 (procat.com)
- National Court Reporters Association’s Journal of Court Reporting Classifieds.
- Acculaw at 800.251.5529 (specials@acculaw.com)
- eBay, Amazon.com and other online stores.
Purchase of a computer compatible machine is highly recommended at this time, because such a machine will be required when the student begins the Speedbuilding class.
ABOUT COURT REPORTING
Objectives of the Court Reporting Program
The Court Reporting Program at CRIKC is designed to produce stenographic reporters in as short and straightforward time as possible. Students who complete the program may go on to entry level positions in the following areas: Courthouse official, freelance reporting, captioning, scoping, medical transcription, conference and convention reporting, or CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation). Emphasis throughout the Program is to prepare students to pass state or national certification tests so they may work as a professional in the specialization of their choice, as soon as possible.
Philosophy of the Court Reporting Program
CRIKC is unique among court reporting programs across the county. CRIKC promotes a fast-track to success by offering a curriculum focused almost exclusively on skill building on the steno machine. Traditional academic and lecture classes required at other programs cease to be relevant if a student cannot pass the skills portion of a certification test. We operate under the philosophy that a student’s previous high school or other post-secondary educational experience serves as a functional prerequisite for a broad base of knowledge in subjects such as: English Composition, Humanities, Cultural Geography, Current Events and Computer Literacy, all of which are vitally important to the field of court reporting.
Demands of the Court Reporting Program
Court reporting education is not traditional schooling. It is a unique and intense skills-based/ mental training that can be likened metaphorically to the years of preparation an Olympic athlete undergoes. Your education will require not only demonstrating practical skills such as precision and command of the English language, computer proficiency, and mastery of machine writing, but also demonstrating such personal qualities as commitment, integrity, self-sacrifice, mental focus, a positive attitude and a sense of professional responsibility.