The Proofreading Business Podcast
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The Proofreading Business Podcast
Do court reporters need proofreaders? A court reporter's perspective on transcript proofreading
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018: Spoiler alert: Court reporters need (and want!) to work with transcript proofreaders.
Seasoned court reporter Val Melkus joins me on this episode for a frank, honest talk about why court reporters rely on transcript proofreaders and why she considers them an indispensable asset to her job.
She also shares what court reporters look for in a transcript proofreader and what's important -- and not important! -- to a successful relationship.
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Importance of Proofreaders for Court Reporters
Speaker 1this is the proofreading business podcast with elizabeth wigner . For more , visit the proofreadingbusinesscoachcom . All right , y'all , I am . I say this every time I have a guest on . I'm so excited and you all are gonna love this . This is , um , I have val on today . She is court reporter and she's not just any court reporter , she is my court reporter . We've been proofing . I was trying to think how long it's been years that we've proofed together . But this is a podcast episode that people have been asking for . They've been asking to have a court reporter on because , I mean , I talk all the time about transcript proofreading and how good it is , but it's like , well , let's hear from the side of somebody like a court reporter who actually wants to work with a proofreader . It's not just me making everything up . So , val , thank you so much for being here . I am so excited you took your time for this .
Speaker 2Oh , I'm so glad to be here . It's always so good to talk to you and yeah , yeah .
Speaker 1Thank you for having me Well , kick it off , Just as a court reporter and you've been . I think we were talking . You've been a court reporter for about nine years now . What , and I wasn't your first proofreader that you worked with . What makes from a court reporter's perspective , why do you want to work with a proofreader ?
Speaker 2why do you want to work with a proofreader ? I , you know I chuckle a little bit because it's like , in my mind it's such an obvious thing , Like , like , for example , somebody wouldn't like a transcript is forever right , it's like a book or a you know any other periodical , like , once the newspaper comes out , like , that's it , it's done , that's , that's today's edition . Um , I mean , it's the same thing with the transcript , and so why would you not make sure that it was correct and good and readable and all of the you know , all of the above ? So so , yeah , Um , love my proofreadersers . Well , I love you as my proofreader because you are amazing and we , yeah , we do go back , but you and your students that I've used a few of in proofreading my stuff are just top of the line .
Speaker 1So I love to hear that . So thankful for y'all .
Speaker 2Yeah .
Speaker 1So would you ? You know , sometimes when people are asking about transcript proofreading , they're like , well , court reporters are really smart people . I'm like , absolutely , I agree . Like your talent is amazing to be able to take down people going 250 , sometimes 300 words per minute and get it all accurate . Sometimes I hear , well , you know , they're really smart . Aren't you kind of insulting the court reporters , saying they need a proofreader ? And I'm like , no , not at all . So can you explain from your perspective like y'all aren't seeing Val , but she's like shaking her head really hard Explain why court reporters want to work . I mean , I kind of asked you like why is it important ? It's because the transcript is forever , but why can't you proof your own transcripts ?
Speaker 2essentially , yeah , so , and this was something that actually , back when I was in court reporting school , one of my instructors told me and well , told the class , and she said you never want to proofread your own work .
Speaker 2And like , clap , clap , you know , let me get that into y'all's heads . And um , and I'm so thankful that she told me that , because I I've heard that there are some reporters maybe that are like oh , it doesn't need to be , you know , a scopist is all I need , or I'll just get this random person or a scopist to do the proofreading and um , I'm digressing , but that's not like , that's not my . I would never do it that way , because proofreading is such a niche , like you have knowledge that we don't have . Like , I rely on you 100% , elizabeth . When I send transcripts to you , like I like for the life of me I don't know when a comma comes before , because , like , and the few times I'm like , oh , definitely , it goes here and I'll put the comma in and I send it to you , and then I get it back and there's a big red circle like no comma here , val , I'm like oh , like I was so close but so far away .
Speaker 1Yeah , and .
Speaker 2And um I actually I forgot what your question was , cause I no , that was perfect .
Speaker 1It was like why can't you just proof it yourself ?
Speaker 2Oh right , Okay . So yes , Um , I mean , I think it's proven that , like , once you are invested in this document , whether it's a transcript or a book or you know whatever , like you , the way you see it and read it is the way that your brain is used to seeing it and reading it , and especially if it's your own , you know , and so you your our eyes that have already , you know , know , the know , this transcript front to back . We'll just glaze over things that are glaring to someone else , to a proofreader , to a trained eye , and I mean even just when I do my scoping and I send you a job and I'm like well , Elizabeth , I scoped this one myself , so you're going to find zero errors , Okay , and we both laugh because that happens never .
Speaker 2But , like I will think , you know , in my scoping and I look at proofreading stuff too , I mean as best I can you know , when I scope my own stuff and I'll send it to you and I'll think it's going to be perfect and you're going to be like hey , val , you score a hundred or whatever , right , plus , I don't have any corrections for you and I will get this transcript back . That is like red , just red . You know , marker all over , it's not that bad , I promise .
Speaker 2Like oh man , I have an extra word here . I got this comma wrong . This follow-up needs a hyphen and da , da , da , you know . But I tried my darndest and I still . You find all kinds of things that my eyes just don't see . So , yeah , for that reason , and I'm not even trying to proofread , like I'm trying in my best way , but but yeah , yeah , definitely that .
Speaker 1Eyes , that's it's . I mean . Typo blindness is an actual I mean it sounds funnyo blindness . And I know proofreading is obviously . You talked about dropped words and hyphens and commas and all that . It's more than just typos . But typo blindness we see what's what we want to see on the page , what we think is on the page , and it's not like , honestly , your transcripts are very clean . It probably feels like a lot when you get it back because you're like I tried my best on it , but that's just the nature of the . I mean , I make typos in my own writing , whereas I'm sure if I send it to you you'd be like oh Elizabeth , yeah , you have a dropped word here , you misspelled episode or something like that .
Speaker 2Yeah , yeah , yeah and yes , absolutely I agree Um yes , absolutely .
Speaker 1I agree . How does your confidence , how do you feel when you've got a transcript back and you put the annotations in and you send it off , Like , is that a sigh of relief when you're done with all of it ? Is it a confidence booster ? How would you explain that it feels ? Or maybe it's kind of like great , I've got to put all these in . Or what does it feel like when you get a transcript back from a proofreader ?
Speaker 1Like as I'm working on the annotations , or like as I'm doing both , Like putting them in and then actually sending it off being done with it .
Speaker 2Yeah , I mean it's always interesting to me what the proofreader marks as like , incorrect or like , for example . I mean as a court reporter and then as a scopist , I have access to the audio , right , and so try as I might , if I don't hear , I don't know . You take the way people talk , like they put the emphasis on this word so , and then they pause so you think a comma belongs there , or you know , even if it ends up not being a complete sentence or they are they left words off of their thing , I don't know . I write on the record the way I hear things , and so it's always interesting to me what you mark as incorrect , because I'll go back and you're like , maybe there's a dropped word here or something , and so I'll go through and I'll look and I'll check my notes . I'm like , no , there's no dropped word , but that tells me that something about this sentence is , I guess , styled in a way like it's confusing to the reader , right , and so I need to take another look like do I need to add dashes ?
Speaker 2Was it maybe a change of thought that I didn't ? You know that I didn't um , dash off Um . So yeah , that's always . It's always a little , um bit of exploring and to see what you marked versus what it should be , and then honestly just turning it in is relief . It's usually just relief , okay .
Speaker 1No , I don't blame you .
Speaker 1I feel that way , when I've done proofing it's like relief I got it done , I've accomplished this and it's off to my court reporter .
Speaker 1That was really interesting that you said you know , sometimes like because we don't listen to audio as proofreaders , that's a scopus job , that's the core reporters job and so yeah , and I don't know , like sometimes I'll put yeah , like dropped word or double check or the three question marks for you to be sure . You know , one thing that my students ask a lot is they're like you know , I don't want to annoy my court reporter by putting a certain annotation there and I said , well , if you can pick up on like kind of the speech patterns which comes with the experience of practice , then yeah , you can usually tell . But sometimes you just there's no way , you don't have to read , you don't have to read , you don't have the steno , you don't have the audio . But I love what you said , that it's if something's wrong . It's not that you have to be a hundred percent know what's impossible to know without being there , but it just helps , you know , to go double check , something like look at your notes , look at audio , I that's
Importance of Human Proofreading & AI
Speaker 1. That is really . That's encouraging to know .
Speaker 2Yeah , yeah , I mean it , I can start . I'll start like saving them and sending them to you , because it happens more often than you would know , like you draw my attention to , you know , such and such lines , such and such word for , for whatever . There are multiple different things and , um , and yeah , I'll look at it and it won't be the correction necessarily that you suggested and had your little question mark by , like yes , is that what it is ? It won't necessarily be that . Sometimes it is , but sometimes it's something totally different . Where , yeah , where ? But I just know like , okay , I need to change this a little bit because it's just not reading right . Yeah , yeah .
Speaker 1That will be encouraging for students and grads to hear , and those who are thinking about it are like , okay , this is a lot to think about . It's not that you have to . You're perfectly imperfect , like you're not going to get every suggestion correct , that I send you Now some things like commas and hyphens and periods and question marks , things like that , and sometimes very obvious , like going to the two is really easy to drop . Things like that are more common , but sometimes like that wasn't , like that word was actually said , but I marked it because I wasn't sure . So it's encouraging to know that you don't have to be all knowing , because it sometimes feels like you have to be as a proofreader .
Speaker 2Yeah , yeah , no , I mean for me . I'm just , I'm thankful that as you're proofreading your , you know your spidey sense or whatever your , your , your expertness you hit this spot and you're like something's weird here and you know you'll make your best suggestion and , um , and sometimes that's it and sometimes it's not , but that draws me to that section which is just super helpful . It's not , but that draws me to that section which is just super helpful . And I'll say I it doesn't happen very often , but sometimes , when I'm doing corrections from you , I will go in and I'll correct the word , or you know the comma , whatever , and I'll happen to notice that there was something else in that vicinity that neither that I didn't catch when I was scoping and that you didn't catch as the proofreader . And then I'm like , oh my gosh , but I never would have seen it if it weren't for your corrections . And , and so that's always like an extra , like yes , I'm so glad I went back to this area , um , but like I want to reiterate , like you are an amazing proofreader and that isn't too , that doesn't speak to your you know expertise .
Speaker 2By any means , like there's this joke that like , if you know , five or six court reporters were taking down the exact same record at the exact same time , hearing the exact same person speaking , all of them would hear things to a small degree differently . Right , like , that's just the human experience . And it's the exact same thing with proofreaders and scopists . Like , none of us are perfect , like , like you can probably have three proofreaders in a row . Look at this one transcript and each time somebody would still find something to correct . You know , like nothing , it's not going to be perfect , but we're going to get it as close as we can .
Speaker 2And that's where proofreaders come in .
Speaker 1So , so I love that , yeah , because I tell my students that that , yeah , you're going to see me make mistakes because human .
Speaker 2And .
Speaker 1I mean I've been proofing for almost 20 years and I mean I can't even imagine how many hundreds of thousands of pages that adds up to .
Speaker 1But I tell them you know it's and you know my grads my students have to pass an exam to get to start to work with court reporters . And my thing is , it's not a matter of are you perfect ? You're not going to catch everything , I don't catch everything , but how , if you turned in this transcript to a court reporter , would it be helpful ? And it's so nice to hear and sometimes students will really stress well , I don't think I could ever be a proofreader because I'll never be perfect . And it's so good to hear from you to realize it's not necessarily the expectation , the expectation .
Speaker 2No one is going to be perfect . I got news for y'all . No one , you know , it's just , that's just not how it is . But we can get darn close . But it requires more than one pair of eyes and sometimes you know three plus pairs of eyes .
Speaker 1Yeah , yeah , yeah , you got the core reporter , the scopus , the proofer , and then , when you go , back in . Yeah , so that kind of segues really into a question that I get asked a lot and I'd love to hear your perspective on it is you know , with you hear a lot about AI and it's kind of like it almost seems like AI could do literally everything for you . And you know that might be nice if they could , but it's not . Would you , as a court reporter , trust an AI program to proofread your transcripts for you ?
Speaker 2Um , well , no , Um , you know I was . I was thinking about this and so , whenever you do like , talk to text right Like that , that kind of gives me an inkling of what you know what an AI program would be like for for proofreading or , heck , for court reporting for that matter , like they've been talking for years that you know digital AI is going to take over . You know our profession and the truth is okay , maybe in whatever you 2024 , I don't know , maybe in like 2060 or something , I don't you know what I ?
Speaker 2mean Like if it ? If it is , I think it's so far down the road that you know , then next few generations don't have to worry about it .
Speaker 2But as it is now like no , no way , I mean just just doing talk to text , like like homonyms , like how would you know , how would it know , like if you were saying , like , well , to be Frank , or if they were saying , well , I went to see Frank the dude , you know something , that comes up and I'm going to talk about talk to text again . But that's the only like , I guess , kind of AI , you know , texting thing that I have . But I was . I was doing that the other day when I was in the car and I was like , oh , I'm going to the grocery store which is next to the you know whatever . Oh , I'm going to the grocery store which is next to the you know whatever . And my talk to tech said , which is , which is like a plural of a witch , like with the pointy hat and the shoes , which is which is next to ? And I was like , oh , okay .
Speaker 1Witches have entered the chat , not what I was planning on , but okay , they're here now . Yeah , what did you conjure up ?
Speaker 2right , right . So , and you know , and I always talk like slowly and very clearly for talk to text because of that reason and it still it still didn't help it . So , you know , and that's more like audio related , but it's it translates to proofreading too . No , I would not trust them to get the witch versus which . What do you call those homophones ? Like , no , I would not trust a program with that , um , and the it's without an apostrophe and the it's with an apostrophe are hard enough for me as a reporter to like know on the spot which is which , or whatever , and how would like , how would a program ever know that ? Like , you need eyes on that ? And they wouldn't be able to tell me , like , why did you make this change or did you ? Did you ? Did you Google search these names ?
Speaker 2Ai , you know there's so many proper names that , yeah , that , proofreaders , I rely on you . A lot of times , too , I'll put a little mark and be like I couldn't find this . You know this business name . Can you , can you help with this ? And more times than not , you're like I found it . We have a little cheers together , you know . So , yeah , I hope that .
Speaker 1No , that that yes , because like when I um , like I was just reading a transcript the other day and the guy's name , um , was spelled Ian on , like at the end at one way and then a in another time in the transcript , and it's like that , that kind of thing . I just knew it was the same doctor they were talking about and suddenly it was spelled differently just one time . But it's like thinking about things like that is just there's just little nuances that really aren't so little when you need to have something . That's to your point when you started . It's permanent , like that's the record that you're looking at and it's there . It's not going away .
Speaker 2Right , right , I mean , and I think in Case Catalyst , there's a new option that you have to pay for . So I haven't tried it because I don't want to pay for that . But what is it called ? Check it or something .
Speaker 1I don't know and it's like an AI .
Speaker 2You've heard of this , okay , yeah , so it's like kind of an AI function that is supposed to go through and look at your transcript and like just tell you different errors . Like , just tell you different errors . And I didn't I mean , I haven't used it personally but the overwhelming majority of people I heard from that used it were way less than thrilled with the results and we're like why are they ? Why am I paying money to use this ? Like it's suggesting things that don't need to be changed , or and it missed this and this and this and this . And you know it's just no , no , would I use a proofreader who , maybe in combination with a program like hand , you know proofread , proofread and put their eyes on the whole transcript ? Sure , you know , I think I think a good program maybe not the check it one yet , but a good program could be a good tool you know to use in addition . But I would never want anything but like actual eyes reading all of my pages .
Speaker 1That makes total sense . Yeah , Just like I use Google and I'll use my other resources spell check , to double check , Like I mean , put a sentence or two inside Grammarly just to see , like . But at the end of the day , I'm not relying on spellcheck or Grammarly or Google to tell me something . I'm going to make sure for myself that it's correct for you .
Speaker 2Yeah yeah exactly .
Speaker 1I agree , Totally agree . It is really . You know , when you hear about AI , it does seem like it can do everything and but even like a program developed for court reporter , software is not catching .
Speaker 2Yeah , I have heard some interesting things about that .
Speaker 1Yeah , so just get a proofreader , you'll be happier more confident about it Exactly .
Speaker 2Exactly .
Speaker 1So , since you don't want AI touching your transcripts as far as like the only or fine touch , what are things that you would look for in a proofreader , like what's important for you ? Obviously , we've been working together for a while , but make believe I'm not going anywhere , but make believe that you've had to find a new one . What are some like experience points that they would need ? Character traits that you're looking for , like what kind of things are important to you in a proofreader ?
Speaker 2I mean , as far as gosh experience , I hadn't really thought about that . I mean
Ideal Qualities of a Proofreader
Speaker 2it would . It's tricky because I I think there are a lot of newer proofreaders that don't necessarily have the years of experience under their belt , but if they were properly trained , like they went through your program , you know , if they're properly trained and they're eager , I think they're going to try really , really , really hard , you know . So I don't know that , like , having a ton of experiences is necessary . Um , I think probably near the top is going to be um communication , like I know , probably my one of my most appreciated things about you is that every time I send you a transcript to proof , you email me right back that night or within , you know , whenever you're available , and say got it and and hi you know it's always good to hear from you in that way too , but you always let me know you have it , which makes me feel better because I don't know there's I mean email and technology it's like you just never quite know .
Speaker 2And when there's something riding on like okay , this transcript is due on this day , and then that there's always that chance , if I don't hear back from somebody , I fear that , like that day the transcript is due is going to come and I'll reach out to you and be like , oh my gosh , do you have the ? You know , have you looked at this ? And you're like , I never received it . Like that is like a nightmare , literal nightmare scenario for me , you know , um , so the fact that you always tell me you've got the transcript , it's in safe hands , like , oh , okay , I can breathe , I can , you know . So it's a small thing , maybe , but it's a really big thing , um , yeah , um .
Speaker 2And I guess another thing that I would look for is that I appreciate and would look for in a proofer is just like attention to detail , like I know for me when we have , you know , into detail . Like I know for me when we have , you know , we have the title pages which I have to input a lot of that stuff . But and then the like very last page which was like the reporter certificate , you know , I mean that's all , that's pretty much the same on every single transcript . And but I was super impressed because you sent me one back not too long ago and you were like , hey , the , the date on this notary is different than than the last one you know you sent me and I was like , oh my gosh , I didn't think . I didn't think you actually like read those last pages , because they're always the same .
Speaker 1I always check the date . Two dates on there .
Speaker 2Oh my gosh , so that you know , just yeah , the more stuff you can find like that , just little things like that , just blow me out of the water , like I wasn't expecting you to be even looking at that page . So thank you for bringing that to my attention . Oh my gosh , you know . Um , yeah , yeah , um , I guess , yeah , I guess that's it . Communication thoroughness Um , you know we already talked about how I would rather you put a comment or bring my attention to something that doesn't seem right , rather than be like , oh well , I don't want to bother the , I don't want to bother the reporter or , you know , make them read too many of these or whatever , and just not say anything like yeah , I can't speak for all reporters , but I think most want to turn in the best possible product and so if you see , something that looks a little weird .
Speaker 2You know about the way this sentence is , or ? You know ? Yeah , tell me , bring it to my attention . I will never , I will never like be upset . It's like oh my gosh , why are there so many corrections here ?
Speaker 1You know Would you stop actually proofreading , elizabeth , please . I'm tired of this . Yeah , one thing I really liked that you brought up was that you don't need a like year , a ton of experience like in terms of years , because I feel like , you know , sometimes people asked , well , do you need a college degree ? And I'm like , well , I'm a college dropout and there's not actually a transcript proofreading degree to begin with . But and you know , I have years of experience just because I've been doing it for a while . But , like when my grads graduate , they feel like , oh , I'm a newbie , I don't know what I'm doing , and I'm like well , just because you don't have years of experience , you have experience proofing . What thousand ? You add there over 3,200 pages in my course , like of pages of transcripts to work on . So it's not like you have to have years of experience . My understanding was like the training and knowing what you're doing is more important to you . Was that ? Did I understand that correctly ?
Speaker 2Oh my gosh , yeah , absolutely , absolutely . I don't , and you know and this isn't I don't know how to say this and not sound like I don't know but if somebody has been , say , proofreading for , like you know , 40 years , like a really , really , really , really long time , I would rather , frankly , have a new , you know out of school proofreader , because I feel like you know it's new and they're going to be like so eager and they want to get everything right and they , you know , like you know that , that feeling you've got this new job and it's like , oh my gosh , I'm going to , I'm going to wow everybody and I'm going to try so hard and you know like , will it take them a little bit longer sometimes maybe , and that's okay . I mean , as long as you know , if it's a rush or something , I would , of course , let you know , can you take it ? But , um , but in general , yeah , and that wasn't . I didn't mean that if somebody had been proofreading for 50 years , I would still use them . It's just different . It's just different .
Speaker 1I appreciate both be slower , like you said , just like proofreaders a little bit slower when you get started , but they just want to do so well and it's almost like you can see you can tell a difference as opposed to you've . You've been doing it for a while , but I mean you've been doing it for a while . My other court reporter has been doing it for a while and I mean transcripts are great . I love them . So , yes , I totally get what you're saying . It's not necessarily that you just give up and don't try after . I've been doing it for 10 years and I'm done Right .
Speaker 2That's not what I meant at all .
Speaker 1No , I didn't take it Because that's so encouraging . You know anybody who's thinking about getting started or going through the course or just graduating , wherever y'all are who are listening . That's so encouraging to know that people aren't looking at . Oh , you've not been doing it for you've only had your business for a month , kind of thing . Well , you have training and you're ready to go and you're eager to do a good job .
Speaker 2Exactly Like eagerness goes for me anyway , like goes a long way , like I have used at least one of your students , and they were a very , very , very recent graduate , I believe . When you suggested um , her , and , and I was like , okay , well , I think you were going out of town or I don't know . Anyway , I was like , yes , that sounds great . And um , and you told me that she was so excited to be able to work with me and , um , I guess you , you use my transcripts in in your , in your teaching and you said that she was so excited . She went back to like review some of my old transcripts from class and I was like , oh , my gosh , I mean that . Just , you know , I just hit the floor . That's amazing . That , like that's what I want , yeah , and I still use that person to this day is my backup . You know , backup proofer , if you've been tossing too much stuff your way , or you know .
Speaker 1Yeah , I'm about to go on vacation . I emailed her and I was like , hey , I'm going to be out and just make want to make sure you're here for Val . She's like oh yeah , absolutely .
Speaker 2Yeah .
Speaker 1So you know I can tell others what I've heard court reporters say and what court reporters are looking for , but to actually hear it from you , a real life court reporter who works and takes your , you take a lot of pride in your work and I know like the discussions like if I send you something and you have a question on something or you want to be like , hey , you know , I actually do it this way . Can you prove it this way ? You obviously really care about your transcripts . Do it this way , can you proof it this way ? You obviously really care about your transcripts . And so to hear from somebody like what you're looking for and what's important in a proofer is so encouraging and I think it's nice to know . Yes , it takes work to get there , but you have somebody who appreciates you and like excited to work with you and values the skills you bring to the table .
Speaker 2Yeah , yeah , definitely .
Speaker 1That's good . Well , val , is there any like ? I know I didn't ask you this question beforehand , but like is there any like words of wisdom you would give to somebody who is thinking about becoming a proofreader or who is , you know , in the thick of it right now working on mounds of transcripts , your construction transcripts ? Oh , the construction transcripts . I'm like have fun y'all . Is there any words of wisdom that you would like to close off ? Like from a court reporter speaking to somebody thinking about proofreading , like learning how to do it or who's in the middle of it .
Speaker 2Yeah , I mean , I guess just it is such an important it's just it's so important Like I could not do my job without , I could not turn in my transcripts without a good proofreader looking at them . And and I wanted to add this too , and this isn't the question that you just asked me , but I've been asked on more than one occasion by um other reporters if I could proofread their transcripts before they turn it in , and every single time my eye probably twitched a little bit and I was like , uh , no , no , I'm not going to do that . I'm not a proofreader Like I . You know , do I remember , like most of the grammar rules ?
Speaker 1or something , I don't know .
Speaker 2Yes , but , but not enough . Like there's no way , like I rely on you so heavily for a lot of those things that I'm like I should look that up . And then I'll be like , but you know , it's also , it's busy , it's stressful , it can be grueling , and so , you know , time is not always on our side when it comes to finishing a transcript and getting it to the proofreader . So sometimes I'll have that thought in the back of my head like I should look this up . What is this rule ? I should know it . But then I'm just like you know what , that's what Elizabeth is for ? Like I know she's got me , and so I'm just like , nope , I'm just gonna leave it and she'll , she'll figure it out , you know you know she'll tell me whether that comma goes there or not or whatever .
Speaker 2So so I would just say , you know , to students , or to recent graduates or not recent graduates like thank you , just , you know , keep up the thorough good work . And I don't know kindness and easiness as far as like emailing , and you know it goes a long , long , long way . Yeah , I've had some reporters .
Speaker 2I don't know if a proofreader , specifically , but like scopists , will maybe say not some not very nice things about a reporter's skills and it just floors me like why would you ? You don't know what their job is like , you don't know this or that , and I haven't had a proofreader . You know , heard of them saying anything not nice , but I would just reiterate that and I know you talk about that on your , you know on your Instagram as well Like just don't , don't say , you know if you see this mistake and you know , just just correct it , like there's no need to be . You know I'm better than you , or or I'm smarter than you , or you know that mindset . Like no , we all have our expertise and we all have our off days and let's just work together and create a beautiful transcript .
Speaker 1I couldn't have ended on a better note . That was so good . Yes , kindness is so . There was a quote , so I can't remember the quote off the top of my head , but something about be rare and being rare was being kind , because it is rare but it's so valued .
Speaker 1Like you said , you have a grueling job . You have witnesses and attorneys that are talking a million miles an hour , sometimes fighting with each other , and you're in their room and the last thing you want is to come home and work on a transcript and then send it to a proofreader who's not kind , and that's not like kindness . Yes , so much . It goes both ways A kind court reporter and a kind proofreader together . It's just . That is such a good relationship , and we create beautiful transcripts in the meantime . Yes , yes , well , val , I'm gonna let you go before before your kitties start scratching at the door , start yowling , but seriously , thank you so much . I mean speaking of busy and you've got a lot to do . Thank you for taking time to come . Encourage my students , my grads , those who are thinking about proofing . Thank you for taking time to do that . That , just that means a ton , so I really appreciate you .
Speaker 2Oh , you're more than welcome . Appreciate you too , Elizabeth .
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