The informative vendor e-seminar Syllables: Count on it! teaches court reporting students and instructors how to accurately count syllables to help with dictation. The e-seminar is presented by Janice Plomp, who, after 28 years as an official court reporter and CART provider, became a full-time instructor at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology.
Plomp presents a software product called Syllables, which was created by Plomp and her brother. Their website states that Syllables provides a fast and simple method of creating accurate dictation materials.
At the beginning of the e-seminar, Plomp discusses how different sentences can be. For example, there could be the same number of words in two sentences but completely different number of syllables, which makes a huge impact in the world of court reporting. She then reviews syllabic density, the Syllables product, and the advantages and features offered. Plomp says, “It’s eye-opening to students to see how many syllables and repetitive words there are in a document. [With Syllables,] you can add syllabic breaks that you can save, and you can adjust the ease or difficulty of your document.”
Plomp spends time showing how Syllables works and ways court reporting students can benefit when practicing by using its functionality available in the library. Plomp states, “I got started [developing Syllables] because I thought there has to be a better way to count syllables. I can’t imagine my teaching career without it.”
This e-seminar is now available here.
