| Scoping Made Affordable (SMA) |
For those of you who don’t know me, my background is in education. Because I spent many years learning and applying
how our brains work, I bring to scoping the understanding of how our brains can be trained to learn to scope.
Most people who are entering the field of scoping (both men and women) are in a middle-aged bracket or even
approaching their senior years of living. Scoping fits many different people at different stages in their life. And
regardless of when one begins scoping, each of us brings a unique repertoire of experience which can only help us in
our scoping work.
Because many who are entering the scoping field are at least in the middle or later stages in life, they may not have
been using the basic skills of the English language and punctuation for many years and their last experience in working
with those skills was in high school or college.
Well, anyone who has knowledge of how the brain works and how it does not work will have full awareness that those
skills will need to be revisited, studied and put into practice before that person can become a qualified scopist. I feel this
lack of awareness is a detriment to prospective students who may be misled in thinking that it’s just like riding a bicycle.
Even though you haven’t done it for years, once you hop on it, it all comes back easily. If only that were the case.
There is a common phrase used in the field of brain development that says “use it or lose it.” If one does not use the
skills, the brain, in its processes in efficiency, will slowly eliminate those synapses which were established when we were
being taught that information in high school and college.
In this case, most adults entering the scoping field will need to relearn some of the basic English language and
punctuation skills in order to recall how they function but also need to learn them as they apply to the court reporting
world, as Ms. Lillian Morson has done so well in her Lillian Morson’s English Guide for Court Reporters. She
profoundly recognized the need for this kind of guidance in working with the spoken word, which as most scopists and
court reporters know, often needs to be punctuated a bit differently based on the tone and pace in which those words
were spoken in comparison to a standard written paper for history class.
So studying those rules of guidance and applying them are necessary steps to becoming a successful scopist. But
there is another step that is of equal importance that is oftentimes overlooked in the training process. This is a process
that becomes two-fold.
One is the ability to listen carefully to the audio-recorded information that often accompanies the work scopists do.
Unless one has been a transcriptionist for years, most of us do not have that ability to listen for the little things. It has to
be taught and captured.
Some may argue that court reporters that require scopists to listen to the audio recording word for word simply use the
recording as a crutch. Personally, in my experience with many official court reporters, I’ve found that the court reporter
wants to provide the best work possible and willingly accepts his/her limitations. Those reporters desire the best
possible transcript imaginable and are likely an overachiever in life. They become very good at what they do and are
recognized for their level of professionalism presented through their work. I feel that that is to be commended and
appreciated.
The second critical part in this learning process is the ability to read contextually, reading for content, in other words. In
our hurried pace of life, we think we’ve mastered this skill but too often have to relearn this skill as most of us have not
performed this skill of looking for the tiny details. This particular skill is unique for the middle-age or senior adult
because by this time our brains have become so patterned to “think” what is supposed to be there which in reality is not
what the written text was recorded as.
For instance, when you take the common phrase in transcript dialogue of “for the record,” more times than not, the new
scopist will not be able to detect the “the” missing in this text: for record. The “the” is missing but our brain tries to tell
us it is there.
So, in essence, we have to create those synapses or connections and put them into practice to increase that skill. It is
not necessarily a skill that comes overnight.
These two skills, listening for detail and reading contextually, have to be taught and mastered in order to become a
successful scopist.
So if you happen to be a recently trained scopist and feel that you are struggling in your new profession, you may need
to practice up on those two particular skills. Once you have mastered them and know how the English language
functions and how to apply punctuation based upon that knowledge, you will be successful for the rest of your scoping
career.
Animal studies show that the structure of the brain changes with experience. Based on imaging experiments in people,
we also know that the ability to use parts of our brain changes over time. People who learn how to play the violin, for
instance, have different brain connections than people who don't play that instrument. And as people become expert at
playing music (or another such skill), the theory is that their brains become more efficient and use less "bandwidth," so
to speak, for that task.
how our brains work, I bring to scoping the understanding of how our brains can be trained to learn to scope.
Most people who are entering the field of scoping (both men and women) are in a middle-aged bracket or even
approaching their senior years of living. Scoping fits many different people at different stages in their life. And
regardless of when one begins scoping, each of us brings a unique repertoire of experience which can only help us in
our scoping work.
Because many who are entering the scoping field are at least in the middle or later stages in life, they may not have
been using the basic skills of the English language and punctuation for many years and their last experience in working
with those skills was in high school or college.
Well, anyone who has knowledge of how the brain works and how it does not work will have full awareness that those
skills will need to be revisited, studied and put into practice before that person can become a qualified scopist. I feel this
lack of awareness is a detriment to prospective students who may be misled in thinking that it’s just like riding a bicycle.
Even though you haven’t done it for years, once you hop on it, it all comes back easily. If only that were the case.
There is a common phrase used in the field of brain development that says “use it or lose it.” If one does not use the
skills, the brain, in its processes in efficiency, will slowly eliminate those synapses which were established when we were
being taught that information in high school and college.
In this case, most adults entering the scoping field will need to relearn some of the basic English language and
punctuation skills in order to recall how they function but also need to learn them as they apply to the court reporting
world, as Ms. Lillian Morson has done so well in her Lillian Morson’s English Guide for Court Reporters. She
profoundly recognized the need for this kind of guidance in working with the spoken word, which as most scopists and
court reporters know, often needs to be punctuated a bit differently based on the tone and pace in which those words
were spoken in comparison to a standard written paper for history class.
So studying those rules of guidance and applying them are necessary steps to becoming a successful scopist. But
there is another step that is of equal importance that is oftentimes overlooked in the training process. This is a process
that becomes two-fold.
One is the ability to listen carefully to the audio-recorded information that often accompanies the work scopists do.
Unless one has been a transcriptionist for years, most of us do not have that ability to listen for the little things. It has to
be taught and captured.
Some may argue that court reporters that require scopists to listen to the audio recording word for word simply use the
recording as a crutch. Personally, in my experience with many official court reporters, I’ve found that the court reporter
wants to provide the best work possible and willingly accepts his/her limitations. Those reporters desire the best
possible transcript imaginable and are likely an overachiever in life. They become very good at what they do and are
recognized for their level of professionalism presented through their work. I feel that that is to be commended and
appreciated.
The second critical part in this learning process is the ability to read contextually, reading for content, in other words. In
our hurried pace of life, we think we’ve mastered this skill but too often have to relearn this skill as most of us have not
performed this skill of looking for the tiny details. This particular skill is unique for the middle-age or senior adult
because by this time our brains have become so patterned to “think” what is supposed to be there which in reality is not
what the written text was recorded as.
For instance, when you take the common phrase in transcript dialogue of “for the record,” more times than not, the new
scopist will not be able to detect the “the” missing in this text: for record. The “the” is missing but our brain tries to tell
us it is there.
So, in essence, we have to create those synapses or connections and put them into practice to increase that skill. It is
not necessarily a skill that comes overnight.
These two skills, listening for detail and reading contextually, have to be taught and mastered in order to become a
successful scopist.
So if you happen to be a recently trained scopist and feel that you are struggling in your new profession, you may need
to practice up on those two particular skills. Once you have mastered them and know how the English language
functions and how to apply punctuation based upon that knowledge, you will be successful for the rest of your scoping
career.
Animal studies show that the structure of the brain changes with experience. Based on imaging experiments in people,
we also know that the ability to use parts of our brain changes over time. People who learn how to play the violin, for
instance, have different brain connections than people who don't play that instrument. And as people become expert at
playing music (or another such skill), the theory is that their brains become more efficient and use less "bandwidth," so
to speak, for that task.
How SMA prepares You and Your Brain for Your New Career
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The brain creating new
synapses
or paths to recall a skill
it has recently learned.
If those paths are not
used regularly,
the brain will slowly
eliminate them.
Which explains the
phrase, "Use it or lose
it."
synapses
or paths to recall a skill
it has recently learned.
If those paths are not
used regularly,
the brain will slowly
eliminate them.
Which explains the
phrase, "Use it or lose
it."