First

It's a good idea to create a new user area in your CAT software and name it captioning or something like that.  Then copy your dictionaries there and make alterations in the captioning area so the changes don't affect your reporting work.  As the changes become automatic, you can make the changes in your reporting dictionaries as well.  If you don't use the following techniques, you probably should begin incorporating these into your writing style.

Inflected endings

I counsel my trainees to always place inflected endings on a separate stroke.  Most of the NCRA-approved theories now require this, but many reporters who are re-training to become captioners may still include inflected endings when possible.  These endings should be placed on a separate stroke:

-s         for plurals of nouns and singular forms of verbs

-ed      for past tenses of verbs

-ing      for present tenses of verbs

-er       for comparatives of adjectives

-est      for superlatives of adjectives

-en       for some verb forms

-ers     if operator desires to include -s with the -er suffix

-s forced into lower case - for plurals of numbers and letters

~' (apostrophe, connected left)        for plural possessives

~'s (connected left)   for singular possessives

'~ (apostrophe, connected right)     for contractions of dates ('95)   

I use these strokes for the above:

-s         -S        defined as <delete space>s

-ed      -D        defined as <delete space>ed

-ing      -G        defined as <delete space>ing

-er       ER       defined as <delete space>er  (-R is also an option)

-est      *ES     defined as <delete space>est (EFT may be used)

-en       -N        defined as <delete space>en (don't include -s with this for -ens if

-NS is used for ~ness

-ers     ERS    defined as <delete space>ers

-s forced into lower case      -Z defined as <delete space><force lower case>s

~'         P-F      defined as <delete space>'

~'s       P-FS   defined as <delete space>'s

'~         S-PF   defined as '<delete space>

New line formatting symbol after all ending punctuation

You need to search your dictionary for all of your ending punctuation marks and place a <new line> symbol at the end of each.  In captioning, each sentence begins on a new line on the margin.  You also need to actually write all of your ending punctuation.

Write out phrases

I discuss two things with my trainees:  first, throw away most of those nice "court" phrases.  Why?  They show up at the most inopportune times and are very difficult for a caption consumer to figure out.  One trainee sent me a transcript with this in it:

STEVEN IS HE GALL   

Obviously, Steven Segal was not in her dictionary, which for training purposes is no crime; however, if SE had not been defined as "is he," the translation may have looked like this:

STEVEN SE GALL   

A caption consumer could have figured out that this name should have been Steven Segal.  Captioners call this a "readable untranslate."  Many of our nice court phrases cause word boundary problems like this or conflict with other possible more useful definitions for the steno stroke involved - for instance, I no longer use DAOUPT for "do you want" - now it translates "dew point," which comes up much more frequently.

In contrast, brief forms are very much acceptable in writing captions.  Many captioners use brief forms for names and terms that are either difficult to write or that the captioner doesn't wish to misstroke.  Usually a steno stroke without vowels is selected for the brief form; that stroke is written twice for a last name and three times for both names.  For example:   

Y-FT/Y-FT                   Arafat

Y-FT/Y-FT/Y-FT         Yasser Arafat

S-BT/S-BT                 Sabatini

S-BT/S-BT/S-BT       Gabriela Sabatini   

This can sometimes be taken a step further:

S*X/S*X                     Secretary of State

S*X/S*X/S*X             Secretary of State Colin Powell

Speaker I.D.s

Redefine Q symbols as >> (change of speaker)

Redefine A symbols as >>> (change of topic or story - also used when the topic and speaker change simultaneously)

R-RP for >> Reporter:  (used when the station reporter is speaking in his "package" - don't forget the space between >> and Reporter - if possible, force "eporter" into lower case - consult your software manual)

TR-N for >> Translator:  (used when a person is speaking in a foreign language and another is translating into English - don't forget the space between >> and Translator- if possible, force "ranslator" into lower case)

 Stacking problems

The stenowriter doesn't completely release one stroke before the next stroke is written.  These most frequently occur when the operator is using a one-letter brief form such as T- for the or F- for if when these are preceded by periods or separately stroked inflected endings.

There are usually two types of stacking errors - one type might be solved through a simple dictionary definition - another may require a theory change.  Examples of each:

A stenowriter is attempting to use -D for an inflected ending and trying to write the word "in" with N- immediately following, yielding an untranslate, N-D.  This untran can be defined as <~ed in>, and the problem is solved (as long as N-D is used for nothing else.)

A sentence ends with a period and the next sentence begins with the word "if."  The stenowriter writes "if" with F- and writes the period with -FPLT; their fingerspelling alphabet with periods is also defined as initial side letter plus

-FPLT. A stenowriter is not releasing their period (FPLT) completely before writing F- for "if," and they are getting "F." instead of "if."  Since F-FPLT is already defined as "F.", a simple dictionary definition cannot solve the problem.  Most people with this kind of stacking error also stack their period with other one-letter brief forms as well; therefore, it may be advisable for this person to change their period to P-P, use P*P for preponderance, P*PD for preponderance of the evidence, etc. 

A writer is leaving the S- off of their question mark, STPH, and getting "in" instead of a question mark.  Change the question mark to Q-M.   

A writer writes "today" TOD; they are stacking -D with the word "to," written TO.  This kind of problem requires several changes:

TOD    define as ~ed to

TOEDdefine as today

TO*ED define as toad

TAUDor TO*D define as Todd   

Another example - a stenowriter's theory uses AND to translate as "and," but the writer doesn't consistently depress the -D of the AND stroke and gets "an" instead of "and."  The solution is to have the writer change the outline for "and" to AEN or something similar that doesn't conflict with anything else in his theory.  If the writer uses SKP- for and, but doesn't consistently depress the P- with the stroke, try changing the stroke to SK-P.  Some say to use SKW-, but this stroke could be subject to stacking errors, whereas it is much more difficult to stack

SK-P with another stroke.

A good rule of thumb to follow when suggesting these changes is to create a stroke that uses both the initial and final sides of the steno keyboard.  Strokes that use both sides of the keyboard are rarely stacked.

Some good ways to make these changes:  for changing ending punctuation, the court shows are good.  Remember, many captioners write all ending punctuation.  A good way to make the change in the final example is for the person to create a list of words they have difficulty writing; then write the list from hard copy, inserting the new stroke for the word they are trying to change after each word in the list; or write a paragraph from a magazine from hard copy, again inserting the new definition after each word.  They should "think" each word as they write.

If I see an untran in a file, I counsel the person to define it as the word intended (as long as no conflict or possible word boundary problem is created).  My philosophy is if I write it incorrectly once, I probably will again; so I have many "error corrector" definitions in my dictionary.

How should you manage your dictionaries?   

There are probably as many ways to manage dictionaries as there are captioners .  However, this is one way to do it:   

Captioner's main dictionary        largest dictionary

Temp dictionary or update areaholding tank for defines to be placed into other dictionaries

Cap job dictionary                         contains captioning-specific defines, political and entertainment figures, common names - e.g. Osama Bin Laden

Current job dictionary                   contains info that may be discussed for five years or so, but not forever - e.g. name of boy in Florida that was bitten by a shark two years ago; edit this dictionary annually

Sports job dictionary                    contains names of team members, venues, coaches, etc.

Session specific job dict              contains local news talent, local names and places, shopping network info, etc.   

I use the first five dictionaries for each captioning session; I change the last one for each session depending on the type of show.               

I place the dictionaries in this hierarchical order, with the dictionary the software uses first at the top:

Session specific job dictionary

Sports job dictionary

Current job dictionary

Cap job dictionary

Temp or update area

Main dictionary

How should you practice?

Tape 1/2 hour of news.  Select an intro, package, and tag (or a 2-3 minute

section of the tape). 

Write that section.

Edit that file.                                                              

Write the section again. 

Edit that file. 

Continue this process until you have three or fewer errors in the file.

Move to the next section and perform the same process. 

Write the two sections successively to build endurance. 

Continue in this manner through the tape.

If this routine becomes boring, concentrate on writing the weather.  There are many brief forms for the weather, and that is many times the area that cleans up first for a trainee.  Then concentrate on news, and finally on sports.

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