+  You get paid to watch sports.

-   You can’t drink beer during the ball game.

+-  Where else can you spend your work day watching cage fighting and hockey in the same day? Is there’s really a difference?

+  You don’t have to deal with attorneys!

-  You can’t stop the proceedings when it gets too fast.

-  Captioning the Home Shopping Network can be hard on the budget.

+  Where else can you work while watching your cow give birth?

-+  Every day, you get to learn new and different (bizarre!) spellings of names .

++++ Not many jobs give you the satisfaction that you’ve added to someone’s quality of life, and that you’re giving them a service that most hearing people take for granted.

The four of us will be sharing our unique experiences with captioning and CART.

Teaching

I received my teaching credential in Court Reporting from the State of California in 1989 (it has since expired). I taught the following classes both solo and with another instructor at West Valley College in Saratoga, CA.

• 1988-90 Advanced Computer-Aided Transcription
• 1987-89 History and Theory of Computer-Aided Transcription

Seminars

I have taught seminars for a number of court reporting associations, including:

• NCRA – Captioning 101: Myth vs. Reality, 2009
• NCRA – Captioning Quality vs. Accuracy, 2004
• NCRA – co-presented Alternative Realtime Careers, 2000
• NCRA – Local News Captioning, 1997
• Montana (MCRA) – Captioning/CART, 2004
• Wyoming (WSRA) – Transition from Court to Captioning, 2003
• California Officials (COCRA) – Realtime Technologies, 2003
• Central California (CCSRA) – Captioning & CART Careers, 2001
• California Deposition (DRA) – Beginning and Advanced Captioning, 1997
• Los Angeles Generals (LAGSRA) – Steno Swap, 1996
• California (CCRA) – Steno Swap, 1995
• Bay Area General Reporters Association (BAGRA) – Multiple seminars on CAT and captioning

When captioning our local news, I had the unfortunate duty of having to caption a story about an acquaintance accused of multiple murder. This man was not a close friend, but someone I knew casually. He was a big supporter of our local 4-H kids at their annual animal auction as part of our county fair, and a good friend of one of my neighbors.

I had approximately ten minutes before air time to get mentally prepared. I saw the mention of him in the script I downloaded from the station, but ended up having to write the entire story realtime. I had a very difficult time writing cleanly, and found it almost impossible to concentrate on writing, having to digest the fact that someone I knew was capable of committing such a heinous crime, and destroying three families. I was literally shaking by the end of the story. But I managed to get through it. Then the next newscast, I had to do it all over again. This went on for several days, with more coverage of the tragedy.

This wasn’t the first time this had happened to me, unfortunately, although it was certainly the most tragic. Once while also captioning the local news, they were talking about an attorney that was holed up in his office, threatening suicide. His name sounded vaguely familiar, but not someone I remembered specifically. Then they started to interview his best friend, who was an attorney that I knew extremely well from my deposition days.

On another occasion, there was a large apartment fire in the town where I lived. When captioning the news coverage, they started interviewing a woman who had been burned out of her home, and I realized it was my housekeeper! It was all I could do, again, to maintain my concentration until the end of the broadcast, when I could call her beeper to see how she and her family were, and offer whatever help I could. She asked how I had found out about her so quickly, and I told her I had been captioning her on the news.

Captioning national news, sports, etc. you (hopefully) never have to caption a tragedy involving someone you know. But in captioning local news, it is something I had never thought about until it happened to me the first time. And you can’t ask to have someone else cover for you, like you could possibly do in court or in a deposition. These things tend to happen in the moment.

I found the only way to get through it was to do what I do when captioning major emergencies — concentrate on each word itself, and try not to string them together into coherent sentences. This is, obviously, contrary to all of our training as court reporters. The only way we are able to write so quickly is to anticipate what’s coming next, to get ready for the next word. When you try not to pay attention to the context, it makes it very difficult to keep up.

Lessons

Professional detachment is an important tool for court reporters, and helps captioners to deal with tragedy, when we have to realtime stories of deaths and other catastrophes. When the story is about someone we know, professional detachment isn’t just important — it’s essential.

I began captioning the Fremont, California City Council meetings in November of 1992, onsite. I was approached several months later by some friends (Kevin & Mary Daniel) who were captioning baseball for a local TV station, and were pursuing captioning that station’s local news. They asked if I’d be interested in captioning news with them, from my home. I had done a small amount of emergency captioning for this station already, and figured “why not?!” I can’t count how many times that answer has gotten me into the most challenging and rewarding situations of my career.

Captioning from a home office with two children (and numerous pets) is indeed a unique challenge. First, I love captioning — it gives me an incredible sense of satisfaction to know I’m enriching someone’s life, whether captioning the news that could seriously affect them, or captioning sports, which is something hearing people take for granted as a part of their leisure activities. But being able to have this satisfying job, and be able to do it in fuzzy pink bunny slippers, a sweatsuit, whatever, and still be available for my children is simply amazing.

I often tell people the best and worst parts of working from home are just that — you’re always home and always at work; there’s no getting away from either. The benefits of always being home are obvious: being comfortable, not having to dress up, not having to commute, being with family more. But the main drawback may not be so obvious: you’re never away from work. Not only are you surrounded by things that need done around your home, but depending on your personality, being home 24 hours a day can leave you feeling very isolated from the world.

I’ve found you have to be able to turn off both areas of your life at certain times: When I’m working, I have to ignore the dishes, the dirty house, and the barking dogs; the kids are a little harder to ignore. But on my days off, I have found I have to physically close the door to my office, sometimes going as far as turning off my computer so that I’m not tempted to sit at my desk “just for a minute.”

When I began captioning from home, my daughter was six and my son was one. How could I possibly concentrate with children so young around? I was able to arrange my work schedule so that I was working when the children were at the sitter, asleep (late night, early morning) or when my husband was home. I was lucky enough to work with two people who were very flexible and accommodating of my family schedule, and also having a husband who has been extremely supportive of my sometimes-wacky schedule. You do need to develop a signal with your family to show when you’re “on the air.” My children learned early that when Mommy has the headphones on, they better look at the TV before they speak, and wait for a commercial. Now to get the dogs and cats to recognize the “headphones” signal.

Phone calls and workmen are another challenge of working from home and being on a rigid news schedule. People calling don’t always understand, “I’m checking my news scripts and getting ready to go on the air in five minutes,” just as the phone company doesn’t understand, “you can’t shut off my phone service, because my modem is connected to the TV station!” It’s really hard to concentrate (much less hear) when there’s a leaf blower or chainsaw being used right outside your window. And try to maintain a work schedule when you’re selling your house, with people walking in at all times. (Yes, these have all happened to me!)

Looking back, it’s a good thing I was as naïve as I was about the challenges of captioning from home, because if I’d known what it really entailed, I don’t know if I would have had the courage to do it. But on the other hand, I’ve never done anything that is so enjoyable and fulfilling, and when I look outside at the trees and the hills, and listen to the birds singing and my children playing, I can’t imagine working anyplace else.

Writing Naked

Before launching into the review of Kevin and Mary Daniel’s book, Writing Naked: Principles of Writing for Realtime and Captioning, I should preface my remarks with a bit of background.

I had the privilege of working for Kevin and Mary when they owned Bay Area Captioning, joining them in their second year of business (their first full-time year). I worked with them for five years, captioning local news and sports. I learned more about writing, period, in those five years than in all of my 15-plus-year career. When I would have problems with my writing, I had the benefit of talking to both of them.

I found that Kevin and Mary write quite differently, and approach realtime writing from quite different perspectives. But having them both available as friends (and bosses) gave me the best of both worlds. That’s exactly what you get with Writing Naked – the best advice from both incredibly knowledgeable captioners – a “two-fer.” And reading this book is like a walk down memory lane for me, writing-wise.

You’ll definitely notice different patterns of thought in resolution of conflicts. Sometimes they do the exact opposite (e.g., Kevin’s “seen” is Mary’s “scene,” and vice-versa), and sometimes you’ll see patterns in one author’s approach that fit your writing style perfectly.

This point is the main reason why I feel this is such a useful book. Having two points of view is a great help. Sometimes one person’s way of resolving problems just clicks with you, and sometimes it makes no sense. Then you look at the other viewpoint. Having the outlines side-by-side gives you a chance at a glance to get a different perspective; and there’s even space in every chart to add your own notes.

Overall, I found the advice in Writing Naked to be sound, basic advice – a lot of common sense that maybe we don’t always think of. The name of the book is appropriate, and the picture on the cover brings a grin even if you don’t know Kevin. Sometimes in our journey for realtime perfection, we don’t see the forest for the trees, unless someone hits us over the head with one of the trees!

Be sure to read Chapter 1 (“Getting Started”) first. Seems obvious, right? Many people jump right to the meat of a book of this type, thinking they’ll skip over the basic stuff at the beginning. But Kevin & Mary’s best advice is to be found in this one short chapter: Start small and don’t get overwhelmed. If you’re a new realtimer, and you start by turning to Appendix A (the list of homonyms), you’ll get discouraged so fast that you’ll probably end up rolling the book up and using it as a Yule log.

Take Kevin and Mary’s advice and read the book in order. It’s well worth the time, and you won’t be overwhelmed that way. The spiral binding is great. Keep the book open on your desk when you’re practicing.

The chapter on numbers is extremely helpful. Writing numbers in realtime is one of the scariest parts of starting realtime, and this is another place where you can benefit from the experience of both authors.

The chapter entitled “How Not to Flunk the CRR” is a gem. If you plan to take the CRR exam, rush out and buy this book. There are other places to learn how to pass the CRR, but their advice on how not to flunk comes from a completely different angle. Did you know that if you write absolutely perfect notes that translate absolutely perfectly, you can still flunk the CRR by turning in an ASCII diskette that’s single-spaced instead of double-spaced? Did you know that if your ASCII diskette has headers and footers each word of the header and/or footer counts as an error? If you’ll be taking the test, you need to know these things!

The best part of the book is the appendices. Having side-by-side listings of ways to resolve this voluminous collection of homonyms, prefixes, and suffixes is invaluable. Having these lists in one place when I started captioning would have saved me hundreds of hours of research, not to mention blood, sweat, and tears (literally)!

I tried very hard to find something negative to say about this book, because I didn’t want people to think this was just a “slam-dunk” review written by a long-time friend of Kevin & Mary’s to help them sell books. But the only negative thing I can come up with is that they should have written this eight years ago, before I spent five years picking their brains for all of these golden nuggets.

One of my most memorable depositions happened several years ago. I was taking the deposition of a Plaintiff, a gentleman who was suing his former employer for unlawful termination. There were several attorneys involved, including the Plaintiff’s attorney, who was notorious for disrupting proceedings. Whenever I encountered him, I always knew to be on guard.

Midway through the questioning of the Plaintiff, a defense attorney asked a question that the Plaintiff’s attorney thought objectionable. The defense attorney refused to drop the question, and repeatedly asked it. After about the third time objecting, the Plaintiff’s attorney said, in essence, ask another question or we’re going to leave.

     PLAINTIFF'S COUNSEL: -- my client and I are going
to leave and I'm putting him on notice right now.
     DEFENSE COUNSEL: I'm going to miss you when you're
gone.
     PLAINTIFF'S COUNSEL: You want to know something,
they didn't miss you in South Africa at all and we don't
miss you in Italy and the Spanish Inquisition and Hitler
doesn't miss you either.

The questioning attorney, a white, Jewish man born in South Africa, jumped out of his seat, and headed around the conference table, right toward me (I always sat at the end to better see everyone). The Plaintiff, a rather large man, was seated next to me. He immediately stood up and put his arms out in front of him, which just happened to be over my head. I ducked as the Plaintiff and the defense attorney pushed and shoved each other over my head. All this time, I stayed on the record, because the Plaintiff’s attorney had threatened me in the past not to go off the record unless he specifically said “off the record.” The record continued:

     DEFENSE COUNSEL: What is that supposed to mean?
What is that supposed to mean, the f***ing comment
about Hitler?
     PLAINTIFF'S COUNSEL: Let him hit me. I will have
you in jail, pal.
     DEFENSE COUNSEL: What is that supposed to mean
about Hitler?
     PLAINTIFF'S COUNSEL: Call [my son] and tell him
to get over here. Get [my son] over here immediately.

The scuffling actually caused my steno machine to fall over, but I caught it with my leg and continued writing, leaning way over in my chair to avoid the shoving above me.

To be honest, I found it all rather amusing and I was having a hard time not laughing. The conference room had a glass wall facing the receptionist, and she was jumping up and down watching us, reaching for the phone, trying to decide what to do. She looked at me panic-stricken, and I just shrugged and smiled at her.

Within a minute of so (it seemed more like an hour), another attorney in the room managed to get the scuffle stopped, and we took a short break to cool down. The Plaintiff’s attorney ended up calling two younger, large attorneys from his office to come over “for his protection.”

The defense attorney filed a complaint with our State Bar Association for the racial comments. The Plaintiff’s attorney countered by filing a suit for assault and battery. And I ended up having my deposition taken for the first (and thankfully only) time! It was very strange to be on the other side for once. I ended up, essentially, standing by my transcript, since it was all on the record, and my attorney didn’t allow me to get into editorializing. But I have to admit, I made the classic mistake – I nodded my head in response to a question! Then I looked at the reporter (who happened to be someone I had gone to court reporting school with) and shrugged.

Lessons

When things get crazy, stay on the record as long as possible. If you ever end up on the witness stand, your transcript can speak for itself.

I have been certified as a Court Reporter for 19 years, and have been captioning for 7 years. I also co-founded Cheetah Systems with my husband, Gary, and earned a teaching credential in court reporting.

None of this would have been possible if I had done what every part of me wanted to do 20 years ago — drop out of court reporting school. I was at a 200 WPM plateau, had been for months, and had been in school for over four years. I began to doubt that it would ever come. I kept saying, “My fingers just won’t go that fast!” And I really believed it. Not to mention the fact that I wanted to get a job, start making some money, and move out of my parent’s house!!!

Luckily I had an extremely supportive family, including a mother that knew me too well. She said, if you drop out now, you’ll never know if you could have done it. You’ll always feel like a quitter. She said, just stick with it, give the job a try. If you don’t like it you can always go back to school and train for something else.

She was right! I took the state certification test six months later, passed, and after my first deposition I was hooked — I loved it! And I still do!

When I first started doing realtime, I was dragged into it kicking and screaming. I didn’t want to write realtime in front of an audience of deposition firm owners, but my husband needed someone to do a demonstration. Now, I write realtime every day, often on national television! I’ve come a long way from that girl that wanted to drop out of court reporting school.

We’ve all heard of the prodigies who zip through court reporting school in a year, or the “natural” writers who win speed contests after only reporting for a couple of years. Well, you don’t have to be a prodigy or a record-setter to have a wonderful career in court reporting or captioning. You just have to stick to it.

I hate to think where I’d be if I had listened to my fears. I know I wouldn’t be loving the best and most rewarding job I’ve ever had.

A couple of years later, I got to chatting with this same attorney at an office party, and I mentioned the particular case to him and asked if he remembered it. He said, oh, yes. I said it was my first depo ever. His response was, “Wow, I can’t believe it.” He said that he had no idea. I said that had been my intention – if you act like you know exactly what you’re doing, most people will believe you!

Where Do Those TV Closed Captions Come From?

Picture courtesy of Fortune Magazine

Hey, remember the Decoder Circuitry Act of 1993? No? Well, thanks to this little-known law you can follow Friends while on the treadmill or track CNBC in a busy office. The act mandated that all TV sets larger than 13 inches be equipped with a chip that allows you to view closed captions. That has turned out to be a boon not only for the hard of hearing but also for gyms, restaurants, bars, and offices, where the blare of a TV might be unwelcome.

When the networks, which pay for the service, need to find someone who can type as fast as John Madden can talk, they often look to Canonsburg, PA. This is home to VITAC, one of a handful of firms specializing in closed captioning. VITAC employs 130 captioners, of whom 25 can do live captioning. Many of these specialists are former court reporters-which stands to reason, since captioners use the same keyboards.

The key to speedy transcription is to type in syllables rather than words, and to do so phonetically. An electronic dictionary translates such keystrokes into words, which appear on the TV screen within a few seconds of being uttered. Good captioners can transcribe 250 words per minute, which is well above the speed of normal speech.

For common words and phrases, captioners save time by devising abbreviations. Kathy Robson, who captions newscasts and sporting events, has added the abbreviations LAUNS for Lewinsky and MAUNS for Monica Lewinsky. The specialized dictionary can also be used for the opposite effect: to make vulgarities difficult to type by accident. Which is not to say accidents don’t happen. Robson admits that in keying in an obituary for Audrey Hepburn that said she’d “played with some of the best leading men,” she inadvertently lopped the p off “played.”

Still, VITAC President Joe Karlovits maintains that his live captioners have an accuracy rate above 98.5%. And thanks to new laws requiring all shows to be captioned by 2006, VITAC’s business looks set to continue its current growth rate of 25% a year. But investors looking for Internet-sized returns are out of luck: VITAC is privately held.

– Tim Carvell