Tag Archives: legal editing

A week in the life of a transcript proofreader

Since moving to the USA, freelance editor Christina Petrides has picked up a more unusual type of proofreading work. She tells us what a typical week proofreading legal transcripts for court reporters looks like.

Court reporting in the USA

Unlike in the UK, the US legal system still relies on human court reporters – also known as stenographers – to accurately record what is discussed. (The UK system has moved to digital recording.) Think of any American TV courtroom drama and there is usually someone quietly typing away on a funny-looking typewriter – the stenotype or stenograph machine – and you’ve got the idea.

Similar to shorthand, the machine has a series of keys that are programmed by a court reporter to reflect the phrases they come across most often. These could relate to the types of cases that they report on, their location or the sort of cases they take on – eg trials, depositions, hearings (arguing legal motions) before a judge or even company board meetings – making it easier for them to quickly record what is being said.

Once a hearing or deposition is over, the court reporter will translate the text, transforming the shorthand text into English, and do a first edit. Then it’s ready for proofreading. There are specific software programs that court reporters use and proofreading can be done either

  • directly into the software program
  • in PDF format using annotations on the full file, or
  • in PDF but returning only an errata sheet.

Proofreading depositions and hearings

I work with three court reporters, two of whom work full time. They are based in Utah, Illinois and Florida but often work with lawyers or on cases filed in other states. Between them they work on depositions and hearings on injury law, corporate disputes, property tax and local planning meetings. They all send me a PDF file for proofreading and expect a full marked-up file in return.

The critical element of proofreading a verbatim transcript is that you cannot make any changes for bad grammar or incorrect phrasing. What you can do is ensure that a transcript is readable and clear. Nowadays, searchability is also important since lawyers will often do a search with specific words, so consistency is crucial. I use the iAnnotate program on my iPad to work and have created stamps for the most common issues or words that I encounter or use. It also allows me to type in words where I think something may be missing and to highlight text to draw attention to something that is unclear.

Is there such a thing as a typical week in court reporting?

Not really! While there may be similarities across the types of cases, each one is unique because each involves different individuals. After three years, I am a little more familiar with the lawyers that engage my court reporters most often. So I’m more accustomed to how they speak – short, pointed sentences or long, rambling trains of thought.

But the plaintiffs and defendants in every case are different. They have their own way of expressing themselves, and more often than not this is their first deposition so they’re nervous. In many cases an interpreter is involved. Some people mumble, making it harder for the court reporter to pick up the correct words, while others nod and shake their heads or say ‘It hurts here’ not realising this won’t make any sense to whoever is reading the transcript. Then there are those who don’t have English as a first language but don’t need an interpreter and have an unusual way of getting across what they want to say.

Empty US courtroom

Proofreading throughout the week

Copyediting and proofreading are so different that I find I can switch between them throughout the day and week and reset my brain, keeping it fresher and getting more done than if I only worked on long projects. I tend to start my day with a strong coffee and a transcript – the double whammy fires up my mind! – and come back to it as and when I need to switch things up.

The most common issues I find are typos (which could be a mistranslation or reporter error) and misplaced or missing punctuation. Readability is key, so punctuation matters. Without changing the meaning of what a deponent is saying, I try to ensure a sentence is clear and understandable. Occasionally, if a proposed comma could alter the meaning, I add a note in the margin so the reporter knows to check against the audio; after all, they were there so will know better than me what a deponent was trying to say and they must certify this is an accurate transcript. Otherwise, inverted words crop up, homophones creep in, and double words make an appearance in most transcripts.

Scheduling transcripts into my workload

After three years, I’m comfortable with how many pages I can proofread in an hour, so it’s easier to schedule the transcripts I need to turn around into my week. The tricky part is that I rarely know what’s in the pipeline. Regular turnaround is three days, so unless I’m inundated from all three court reporters, it’s manageable. A few times a month there will be a rush job that needs a 24-hour turnaround, but my reporters will always check my availability first. Then there is the odd occasion when I need to drop everything and get a transcript proofread.

The best part about this type of work is that I have learned so much about life here: the geography of different states, linguistic nuances from one region to the next, new expressions I’d never heard of before, and how different people live their lives. I can’t live without my online Merriam-Webster dictionary link, and Google is my best friend for checking new place names and proper nouns and sleuthing for clues of what something could possibly mean or how it may be spelled. This often happens when people use industry jargon.

I got started with this work after my husband (a former proofreader who specialised in this field) trained me on the characteristics of verbatim legal transcripts and passed on some of his clients, and I’m glad I did. There are rare times when the details of a case are difficult to read about, but I love it. How could I not when I’ve got the odd malapropism to keep me amused – like the deponent who kept saying that people did things ‘of their own fruition’ – and I can literally work from anywhere on my iPad?

About Christina Petrides

Christina PetridesChristina Petrides is a digital nomad and spends much of her time working on the road. She switched to editing and proofreading in 2017 after a career in environmental consultancy. As well as proofreading for court reporters, she edits non-fiction texts for academics and publishers, specialising in the environmental and sustainability fields.

 

About the CIEP

The Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP) is a non-profit body promoting excellence in English language editing. We set and demonstrate editorial standards, and we are a community, training hub and support network for editorial professionals – the people who work to make text accurate, clear and fit for purpose.

Find out more about:

 

Photo credits: header image by WilliamCho on Pixabay, empty US courtroom by David Mark on Pixabay.

Posted by Eleanor Smith, blog assistant.

The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of the CIEP.

A week in the life of a legal editor

Nadine Catto used to work as a divorce lawyer, and now edits legal materials for publishers and other legal content providers. In this article she describes how she got into legal editing, and what her work typically involves.

My path to legal editing

When I was at school, I was told that the best career for someone who loved words was a lawyer. Although I had some niggling doubts, it seemed like a good idea at the time and I excitedly started my career as a divorce lawyer. For someone who hates confrontation, this may not have been the smartest career choice. While others loved the rough and tumble of the courtroom, I wished everyone would just stop arguing and I could curl up in the corner with a book!

My wish came true (sort of) when a conversation in a creative writing class led to some work experience with a publisher. Books, words, more books – I loved it! I saw an advert for a job as an assistant editor for a legal publisher who was looking for someone with a legal background. We made the perfect match! Fast forward eight years and two children later and freelance work beckoned.

 A typical day

  • School run and answering my twins’ endless questions, followed by a morning walk by the river to shift from Mum-mode to editor-mode.
  • Check I’ve received the batch of articles from the legal content provider.
  • Prioritise article work for the week according to the editorial manager’s schedule.
  • Several hours of focused copyediting and rewriting articles on international law, and trying to stop the cat from jumping on the keyboard and deleting all my work!
  • Afternoon school run and more questions from the twins. Put finishing touches to the day’s articles and write a summary of the articles.
  • Send the articles back to the editorial manager and feel happy that they are now in house style and easier to understand for the busy legal professional.

This is just an example of a typical day. But my working week could be proofreading a 3,000-page legal reference book (this took longer than a week!), copyediting how-to guides for corporate lawyers or copywriting articles for a DIY legal publisher. For me, it’s the variety that makes freelance work a joy.

I’ve been fortunate to have quite a steady flow of work since I went freelance, and I work part-time to fit in with the school day. But in order to make this work, I do often work at weekends and in the evenings to free up more time during the working week to fit in family commitments.

Legal editing tasks

When I receive an article from the editorial manager, the first thing I do is format it according to their requested house style. I re-style the headings and change footnotes to endnotes. The articles can be from anywhere in the world on any area of commercial or corporate law. So, I also check which language it’s set to – it could be US English, Peruvian, Spanish or any other language! I set it to the client’s preferred language, which is often British English, and run a spellcheck. Some style issues that I always have to be aware of are case names, citations, the names of judiciary, legal terminology and the names of courts. I usually have a long house style to work with, so I make sure that I’m really familiar with it, and I go back to the editorial manager with anything that the style guide doesn’t cover.

I then read through the article to get a sense of what it’s about – perhaps making a few small corrections as I go. This can also involve quite a lot of head-scratching about what the author is trying to say under layers of legalese! I try to ensure that the article is in plain English; however, with legal writing, it is sometimes important to keep certain terms of art, so it’s a fine balance. Rather than wading in with corrections that could potentially change the author’s meaning, I make suggestions about rewording and write very diplomatic queries.

The end goal is to produce an article with a clear message that’s easy for a busy legal professional to understand quickly. Sometimes I do a bit of legal research to understand the subject so that I can make better suggestions for rewording. Lastly, I write a summary of the article – something that will entice a reader to read it (not always easy to make the law sound enticing, but I try).

If I’m copyediting, I work in Word using Track Changes. If I’m proofreading, I work in Adobe Acrobat using the comment tools.

Marketing and professional development

It can be difficult to fit in marketing, and it’s something that I do struggle with. I know I should be promoting myself, but it’s always the last thing on my to-do list. I try to make time in the week to attend a networking group, investigate new opportunities and send my CV to other legal publishers or law firms. We’re lucky in the CIEP to have the legal editing special interest group (SIG). This is a newly created SIG, and I hope it will be a great place to learn from each other and share concerns and queries.

The joys (yes, really!) of legal editing

Yes, law can be a dry subject, but I’ve learned so much about different areas of law and it’s so interesting to see how different jurisdictions deal with similar issues. The biggest joy for me is to take a manuscript filled with dense legalese and tease out the meaning to improve the readability. I was once that busy lawyer with little time for professional development, so it’s great to know that I’m helping them out. Plus, I’ve worked for some genuinely lovely clients and that’s a real bonus.

About Nadine Catto

Nadine Catto edits and proofreads articles, how-to guides and books for legal content providers and publishers. Nadine is a qualified lawyer who worked in-house for a legal publisher for eight years. Nadine is an advocate for plain English in legal writing, and is a Professional Member of the CIEP.

 

About the CIEP

The Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP) is a non-profit body promoting excellence in English language editing. We set and demonstrate editorial standards, and we are a community, training hub and support network for editorial professionals – the people who work to make text accurate, clear and fit for purpose.

Find out more about:

 

Photo credits: scales by EKATERINA BOLOVTSOVA on Pexels, Lady Justice statue by Tingey Injury Law Firm on Unsplash.

Posted by Harriet Power, CIEP information commissioning editor.

The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of the CIEP.