What is the function of a scopist?
A. A scopist receives a rough transcription of a proceeding, usually along with audiotapes and underlying documents, such as exhibits which were discussed during the proceeding. A scopist uses these resources, as well as their inherent understanding and experience, to produce a clean transcript for the reporter. A scopist may help maintain a reporter’s dictionary by making “global” entries in the software. A reporter may make a typo, or write something several different ways, or may take new terminology, and none of this will exist in their dictionary. As a scopist edits a transcript, they either replace bad strokes with the correct record, or they “define” these strokes on the computer by making a “global,” or global search and replace. This tells the computer to add this stroke or combination of strokes to the dictionary, as well as maintaining the clarity throughout the transcript. This drastically speeds up the reporter’s work and the scopist’s work. A good scopist should be fairly