The Maryland Court Reporters Association has several tips for Maryland court reporters on their web site. These ideas help both new and experienced deposition reporters improve their speed and accuracy.

When Practicing, Quality Is More Important than Quantity

The path to better court reporting is simple: practice, practice, practice. Like any skill, the more you do it the better you become. Studying, learning terminology or reading court reporting newsletters may all be important but nothing takes the place of pounding the keys.

All practice is not created equal however. Casually tapping away while your mind drifts to what you are going to have for supper that night isn't going to do much for your skills. Concentration is critical to court reporters and a few minutes of tightly focused practice will do far more than an hour of playing with the machine. In each practice session, turn your attention to one particular skill such as speed or accuracy. Alternating speed drills with accuracy drills will generate the best overall skill improvement.

Keeping Practice from Getting Boring

Practice is not the most interesting activity, which is why some court reporters make excuses to skip it. Finding ways to vary your routine not only helps keep practice from being as tedious, but it broadens your skill set.

The suggestion above to alternate speed and accuracy is a good example. During one session, push yourself to produce text as fast as possible. The next time, deliberately keep your speed down and try to get 100% accuracy. It's like a physical workout where you alternate muscle groups rather than doing the same exercises all the time.

Court reporters are constantly exposed to new words and terminology. Every time you come across a word or phrase you don't know how to write, jot it down in a notebook. Develop a keystroke for it and practice that stroke until it becomes second nature.

Realtime Makes Better Court Reporters

More clients are asking for realtime reporters but there is still plenty of work for non-realtime court reporters. However there is another reason to consider trying realtime. Court stenographers who make the jump consistently report it improves their abilities even when doing non-realtime work.

Realtime pushes you to new levels of ability. It forces you to try for perfection the first time because you know your mistakes will be right there on the screen for everyone to see. While this may be intimidating, once reporters get past the initial learning curve they report their accuracy and speed both improve dramatically.

These tips for Maryland court reporters will benefit reporters no matter where they work. The best and most successful reporters never accept that their skills are good enough. Even occasional practice sessions help keep their skills sharp and improve their abilities. The more you work, the better you will be and the more lucrative assignments you will be able to land.