Reporter Rescuer says:
Hey voice writers! The time is here. Dragon Naturally Speaking is so advanced nowadays that there is no reason for you not to be attempting to do realtime for yourself, at the very least. You can better your skills in order to be more competitive and to definitely be more productive!
329 Forest Brook Boulevard
Mandeville, LA 70448
(985) 264-4330
How do you feel right now about yourself as a VOICE reporter? Do you feel like you are working as efficiently as you can? Perhaps now is a good time to review the most important three necessities -- your mask, your computer, and your Voice Recognition software -- to find out what you can do to improve your worklife.
THINGS TO DO THIS YEAR TO MAKE YOURSELF A VOICE SUPERSTAR!
VR
SOFTWARE
MASK
COMPUTER
Okay my voice-writer friends. You too can make your career much more enjoyable. It's time to venture out and assess where you are with technology. Voice recognition has come a long way and we must take advantage of it.
We are on the cutting edge of what I think the future holds for court reporting. We have some great steno writers out there, but there just aren't enough. Folks are retiring, many current reporters aren't teching-up and bettering themselves to be more competitive, steno schools are closing due to lack of attendance and how long it's taking students to graduate, and young faces are just not showing up in the reporting industry fast enough to replace those that leave it. Voice reporting is becoming the fastest-growing segment of reporting these days, but I'm not talking mask reporting. YOU HAVE TO BE WILLING TO TAKE THE NEXT STEP AND WORK TOWARDS REALTIME.
Realtime Voice Writing is the future!
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO TO BECOME A VOICE WRITER? LET'S BREAK IT DOWN INTO BABY STEPS . . .
MASK: To help your software translate what you say as accurately as possible, the first thing you need is a really good mask made for the computers of today. You also need to be sure that you have a mask that helps keep your voice undetectable in a depo. You know what the big complaint is about maskers from attorneys? Noise. Yes, they hate noisy voice writers. Silence is golden!
COMPUTER: Well, unless you are using a typewiter, most of us must have a computer to put out transcripts. Computers are cheap. I recommend buying a new computer every two years, at least. Plus it's a great tax write-off, as are all the other accessories we buy to make our work easier to do. You will need a good laptop with a dual-core processer, lots of storage for your audio files, and one that can hold up to 8 gigs of ram. Some computers are very noisy when they run fast so make sure your computer doesn't become the centerpiece of the room.
SOFTWARE: I cannot stress enough how important it is to have up-to-date technically sound software that YOU KNOW HOW TO USE. Knowing how to use your software will take hours off your production time and that means more time for you and for whatever fun stuff you like to do. Did you know you can get NCRA and state continuing education credits for learning your software? Check out my software link to help you get on the right track
Bringing up Draggy
Learn Dragon Naturally Speaking
Come join us in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to learn how to use your Dragon software. First workshop is March 26 and 27. If you can't make that one, we have another one scheduled for April 30-May1.
How to raise a healthy dragon!
