Court Stenographer School Online

It is estimated that career opportunities in court reporting will grow 18-25% by the year 2018. In this economy that is great news, but what kind of schooling is required to become a court reporter? You will need between two and four years of education at a stenography school. Stenography is usually offered as an associate's degree in court reporting. Course topics generally include legal terminology, machine shorthand,transcription and auditory language skills. To graduate you will need to pass all of the speed tests on your stenography machine. This will include tests such as the deposition test, which is a question and answer session that simulates an attorney questioning a witness. To be a court reporter you will need to be able to concentrate for long periods of time and meet very tight deadlines while ensuring the utmost accuracy. Court reporters spend hours taking down testimony and creating a written transcript. They must spend prep time programming their software and equipment for legal cases.

Many students specialize in a particular area, such as closed captioning for the hearing impaired; this would help them become broadcast captioners. Medicine, as well as engineering, is another specialty a student might specialize in. Learning the terminology for these specialties is a requirement. Students who want to specialize in a particular area need to make sure the specialization is emphasized within the training program of their choice.

Court Reporting School Locations

Job opportunities for a court reporter tend to be in urban areas, so school locations are an important factor when considering a stenography school. Internships are usually a requirement, so you should check to see if the program offers supervised internships with practicing court reporters. Students should also look for stenography programs that are approved by the National Court Reporters Association (NCRA).

There are numerous schools across the country and many of them offer both on campus and online programs. So, whether you are enrolling in an online court reporting program or an on campus program please carefully review the school and the training offered. Proper training and certification will help you to become a successful stenographer.