Why Request a Voice Writer? The reasons are obvious: unparalleled accuracy, unrivaled professionalism and unquestionable reliability. Augmenting technology with the discerning ears and observant eyes of a human reporter, voice writing produces the perfect blend of machine and man.
Comparisons In states where voice writers and stenographers are tested under identical conditions, comparisons show that voice writers are more than twice as likely to pass these tests than stenographic reporters. And training to become a voice writer not only takes much less time, but the successful completion of training is much more certain, assuming the reporter possesses the requisite educational background to begin with.
The higher passing rates experienced by voice writers doesn't in and of itself constitute proof that voice writers produce more accurate transcripts, but one might reasonably conclude that it is easier for them to do so. And isn't accuracy what transcripts are all about?
Technology Proponents of stenography often point to their technology in an attempt to establish stenography's superiority over voice writing, but such comparisons are improper. The technology of stenography is CAT systems; the technology of voice writers is speech recognition. CAT technology is over 20 years old, and even after 20 years not enough stenographers can produce realtime to meet the demand for captioning and realtime transcript production. Why? Because the method is simply too difficult to master for most people.
Speech recognition is a comparatively new technology, and improvements are being made daily. Every day more and more voice writers are deploying voice realtime systems. There is little doubt that speech recognition is the future technology of court reporting. |
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Fact Sheet |
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Automated Speech Recognition (ASR)
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Stenography |
Cost of Equipment
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$3,000 – 4,000
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$10,000 – 12,000
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Duration of Training
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9 months
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33 months
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Dropout Rate
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10% or less
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90% or more
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Training Programs
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Few, but Growing
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134 and Declining
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Accrediting Organization
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National Verbatim Reporters Association
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National Court Reporters Association
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Accuracy Rate
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90-99%
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90-99%
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| Speed |
200-260 WPM Depending on CPU Speed |
180-260 WPM Depending on Manual Speed | |
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