Create Captioning Briefs the Natural Way

To prepare for my transition to captioning, I have been writing the news since February of 2013. Towards the latter part of the year, I really got serious about becoming a captioner, and since October of 2013 I have practiced nearly everyday writing CNN.

At first, I felt completely inept. Remember your first day in speed class? Yeah, that was me in the beginning.

Slowly but surely I have improved to the point of feeling almost capable. I mean, captioning feels like an attainable goal now.

I've heard through court reporting and captioning forums that you should, "never brief. If you can't write it out, you're not good enough."

Well, I'm sorry. I'm just not a superhuman. The only way I have made any progress has been through briefing words and phrases that are repeated over and over.  And over.

When I first began incorporating briefs into my practice, I would think of off-the-wall combinations. Some of them really didn't make sense, and it took me a long time to make them automatic.

Remember school? If it doesn't come automatically, don't use them. (Now there's some good advice!)

I shared with you in my last post how I emailed captioning legend Dee Boeneau. One of the tips she gave me was to take your misstrokes and stacks and actually make them briefs for what you're attempting to write.



Why didn't I think of that?
 

Oh, my gosh. It's like a light bulb has gone off.

When you're writing, have you ever noticed your fingers just want to go someplace they shouldn't for some words? Don't fight it, make it your brief!

These are some of the briefs I've come up with this week. You may already have briefs for these. If you do, hey, sorry, I'm a slow learner.

state of the union = stao*upb
year old = kwro*eld
dramatic = dra*plt
consequence = kwe*pbs
press conference = pro*pbs
Edward Snowdon = stpho*ed

So whether you're a working reporter or a wannabe captioner, turning your stroking mistakes into briefs is a great way to shorten your writing and increase speed.

Man, I wish I'd known this sooner. Like, in school?

Do you have any captioning briefs you'd like to share?

Reach Out and Touch a Working Captioner



Broaden your captioning horizons by reaching out and touching a working captioner

I started my transition to captioning at the beginning of 2013. I didn't get serious about it until July though. Why did it take me so long to really get into it? I had no direction because I wasn't sure exactly how to become a captioner. I finally got serious because I found a working captioner that I could connect with.

Together you and your mentor can achieve your goal

I had so many questions. What is a typical day like? How hard was it for you to switch? How do you write so fast when the speaker doesn't even breathe? Vicki answered every question I had, and even those I hadn't thought of yet.

And thus began our weekly email exchange. I always had questions, and I would tell her about my progress (or lack of it) and my frustrations about my not being where I want to be. I don't have quite so many questions now, so our emails have gotten less frequent. I still keep her updated in my progress, and she's always there if I need some encouragement.


A mentor can be great for captioning, but you shouldn't restrict yourself to just one. Everyone has different experiences and different advice to give.

In the January 2014 JCR, there was an article by Dee Boenau in which she talked about her career and about transitioning to captioning.

In case you haven't heard of her, Dee is a multi-tasking speed demon! She co-owns Americaption, which is a company based down in Tampa. She's went up against Mark Kislingbury and gave him a run for his money. She's been featured on multiple TV shows. She's been the NCRA champ, and even came in second in the world in Intersteno. She has now officially become my captioning idol. I want to write as fast and as accurate as she does one day.

You can get to know her better in this YouTube video where she talks about how she got started in captioning:

In her JCR article she wrote about her personality and her fears before she started captioning, various contests, etc. In particular, her fear about dropping and not getting every word really spoke to me because I feel the same way! A lot!

Her article spoke to me so much, I decided to reach out to her and shoot her an email. I wasn't really expecting an answer, but two days later I received a really nice reply from her. She gave me a few pointers during my transition period and a lot of encouragement. Her email definitely lifted my spirits and brought a smile to my face.

Training for captioning is a lot like going to court reporting school. You sit for hours in speed classes getting next to nothing and your notes stink. After it's been that way for a while and you don't feel you're progressing, it gets really depressing. An encouraging word from an instructor or fellow student goes a long way and tides you over until you hit your speed goal. That's what Dee's email was to me.

So if you're training to become a captioner, I encourage you to find a working captioner to communicate with. And don't just stop at one! Talk to as many as you can who will encourage you and give you tips.

After all, our goal is to go from wearing high heels and pantyhose to muumuus and fuzzy slippers!

Closed Captioning Accuracy: OMG, Everything's Got to Translate!

99% accuracy? Help!

When you're contemplating switching from court reporting to captioning, everything spitting out of your fingers has got to translate. No ifs ands or buts about it.

In reporting, if a sound alike pops up during a depo, it's no big deal, we just change it when we're editing.

This just doesn't work in captioning when you'll be flying by the seat of your pants wearing your fuzzy slippers. The right word has got to go up on that screen no matter what.

So if you're a wizard of realtime, you're probably saying about now, "yeah, so, what's the problem?" If you're like the rest of us, you're probably thinking captioning is just out of your league.

Luckily, the old "you can't teach a dog new tricks" saying is a bunch of bunk. You can learn to change the way you write IF you want to and IF you do it in small steps.

I was lucky. When I started court reporting school in late 2001, I learned a realtime theory. Albeit it was Phoenix Theory -- which is a topic for another post -- it still enabled me to write realtime right out of the gate.

However, I have came across some sound-alikes in my journey to be a captioner that I'm learning to change.

While I was practicing the other day, a television commercial came on and was talking about a 14 karat ring. Well, up on my screen popped carrot. Okay, no big deal. I used the R-R stroke I learned in Phoenix, and up popped caret. Huh?

There are actually three conflicts here, one of which I didn't know about.

Carrot - Bugs Bunny's dinner
Karat - Gold is king
Carat - Diamonds are a girl's best friend
Caret - A proofreader's mark

Who Knew?

It turns out there's a lot of homonyms out there that are rarely used, but, as a captioner, we're still going to have to know how to write the right word. I'm listing just a few to help you out. If you can think of others, please add them in the comment section so all of us old dogs can learn some new tricks.

carol - Christmas song
carrel - study enclosure

clack - noise
claque - hired applause

fain - willing
feign - pretend

gage - security deposit
gauge - measuring instrument

gorilla - ape
guerrilla - soldier

nice - friendly
gneiss - rock

For a list of more homonyms, visit Alan Cooper's Homonyms.

Realtime Every Job!

The steno screen doesn't take the place of your laptop!

I decided I wanted to transition from court reporting to captioning in December 2012. I wasn't exactly sure how to do that, and I was just shooting in the dark as to how to go about it.

One thing that I did decide to do was to hook up my computer and realtime EVERY job. Up to that point, I would never realtime because, as a court reporter, I already lugged around enough equipment. I didn't want to carry a laptop everyday. I only brought it if I knew I was going to have downtime and I'd work on transcripts.

I thought I was a pretty good writer and I thought I'd translate everything. Wrong! It turns out I was horrible. I used to read in court reporter forums about how realtiming jobs improves your writing. I thought they were just talking junk, but it's really true.

I started realtiming everything since about March or April of 2013, and I can really tell the difference. On Eclipse, you can turn on brief suggestions. I really suggest using them. I've learned a lot of briefs, which has really shortened my writing, which is essential in building speed for captioning.

I didn't realize how bad my writing had been until today. My office called and told me I had a trial backorder from 2011. I loaded it onto my laptop, and, oh, my gosh, it looked like I was still in school. Untranslates were everywhere. It showed me really how far I've come in less than a year.

So even if you're not considered captioning, please, please, please start realtiming everything. It helps you become more accurate, saves on editing time, and it can really improve your writing speed.