Brief Addiction Part 1: Turning Key Strokes Into Dollars
Presented by Kathy Zebert, RPR
Kathy Zebert, RPR, freelance court reporter and owner of Stenedge, is a strong believer that creating briefs is essential in the court reporting profession. In her recent e-seminar, Brief Addiction, Zebert talks about how creating briefs can not only save a court reporter time and money, but also stay healthy. Zebert discusses how creating briefs means court reporters move their hands less. This may cut down on the chances of developing carpal tunnel or other physical ailments. The bottom line: the less you have to write, the better you are physically.
Zebert shares ways to develop briefs and gave examples of how certain briefs can help formulate even more briefs. She also provides tips on how to cut down from six strokes to one and how important brief families are when creating these shortcuts. Zebert says there’s no need to struggle with a long word when it is possible to create a brief for it.
A writer’s software also plays an important role, and Zebert says court reporters should get their software to work for them. “Sometimes it will recommend a brief for a particular word. And sometimes it will remind you that you have a brief, so make sure that you know your software! You pay a lot of money for it and tech support, so take advantage of it.” In the end, some briefs will come naturally and some will take more practice. No matter how you get there, creating briefs is a great advantage to a court reporter’s success.
This e-seminar, as well as Brief Addiction, part 2, is now available in NCRA’s online collection.
