Reading against the audio.

Play the clip, find where the draft and the audio part ways, and fix only that.

Practice only4 drills in this lesson.Read against audio

Read first.

Scoping is line-by-line work in the CAT file, and Lee’s instruction on audio is plain: “Replay audio passages however many times is needed for accuracy’s sake (even for immediate copy, the tightest of time frames).”

Sources: JCR, what does a scopist do? (Linda M. Lee); The guide: Pass 1: scope against the notes and the audio.

Numbers need the audio most. The Eastern District of Washington warned counsel in August 2026 that “Numbers run together, digits get dropped, and a single transcription error in a financial figure can create a significant record problem.” Its example pairs “Exhibits 110, 11, 12, 13, 14” with “Exhibits 110, 111, 112, 113, 114.”

Source: E.D. Wash. attorney newsletter, August 2026.

Know which side of one line your job is on. California’s Court Reporters Board writes that “The stenographic/voice notes are the official record” and tells reporters “do NOT rely upon backup audio media for transcript production.” Full-audio scoping elsewhere uses audio as a checking aid, not as the record.

Sources: Court Reporters Board of California, Pointer No. 1; Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 2025.510, (g).

In the proofread, audio has a smaller role: “While spot-checking the audio can be helpful, listening to continuous audio is not recommended.” If you speed playback up, know what the research measured: a lecture study found little cost up to 2x, but it measured gist, not word-for-word checking.

Sources: JCR, proofreading tips: a baker’s dozen; Murphy et al., Applied Cognitive Psychology, 2022; The guide: Doing it well for years.

The clips here are synthetic: invented lines read by two computer voices, one for the attorney and one for the witness. They are flatter than a real room. Use them to practise the habit, not to judge your ear.

Drills.

Read against audio: play the clip, tap the word in the draft that differs (or say it matches), then fix it.

On a page, the arrow keys move between words; Enter or Space taps one.

The drills answer back with JavaScript on. Without it, every sample is here, and each drill’s answers and reasons are in its key.

Your progress stays in this browser only. There is no account, and nothing you tap is sent anywhere.

Drill 1: A run of numbers

Read against audio

Play the clip. Tap the word in the draft that differs from the audio, then fix it.

Synthetic audio Synthetic audio, read by a computer voice.

Synthetic testimony Page 41

Line 3 Q. Which exhibits did you bring with you
Line 4 today?
Line 5 A. Exhibit 110 and Exhibit 11.

Play the clip, then tap the word that differs.

Answer key

The word: line 5, “11.”.

Change “11” to “111” (the answer)

The witness said “one eleven,” and a dropped digit is the machine’s error the audio confirms. It is the newsletter’s warning exactly: in a run of numbers, digits get dropped.

Sources: E.D. Wash. attorney newsletter, August 2026; The guide: Pass 1: scope against the notes and the audio.
Leave “11”; the witness may have meant it

The clip settles it: “one eleven.” When the audio confirms what was said, the fix is yours.

Source: The guide: The one rule: fix the machine, never the witness.
Flag it for the reporter

A flag is for what you cannot confirm. The clip is clear, so fix it, as Lee’s rule for numbers asks.

Source: JCR, what does a scopist do? (Linda M. Lee).

The clip, word for word

Q. Which exhibits did you bring with you today?

A. Exhibit 110 and Exhibit 111.

Drill 2: A word that reads as English

Read against audio

Play the clip. Tap the word in the draft that differs from the audio, then fix it.

Synthetic audio Synthetic audio, read by a computer voice.

Synthetic testimony Page 41

Line 9 Q. Did you sign the contact that day?
Line 10 A. I signed it that afternoon.

Play the clip, then tap the word that differs.

Answer key

The word: line 9, “contact”.

Change “contact” to “contract” (the answer)

“Contact” is a real word, so spellcheck passes it; the clip says “contract.” Practitioners list contact/contract among these slips, and real-but-wrong words are the harder kind to catch: 81 percent caught against 89 percent for misspellings, in two experiments with different readers.

Sources: JCR, proofreading tips: a baker’s dozen; Schotter et al., Cognition, 2014.
Leave it: the sentence reads fine

It reads as English, which is why it slips past. The clip says “contract.”

Sources: Schotter et al., Cognition, 2014; The guide: Pass 1: scope against the notes and the audio.
Flag it for the reporter

The clip is clear, so the fix is yours. Flags are for what you cannot confirm.

Source: The guide: The one rule: fix the machine, never the witness.

The clip, word for word

Q. Did you sign the contract that day?

A. I signed it that afternoon.

Drill 3: A draft that matches

Read against audio

Play the clip. If a word in the draft differs from the audio, tap it. If nothing differs, say so.

Synthetic audio Synthetic audio, read by a computer voice.

Synthetic testimony Page 42

Line 1 Q. Who was at the dock when the van left?
Line 2 A. Me and him was the only ones there.
Line 3 Q. Nobody else?
Line 4 A. No.

Play the clip, then tap the word that differs.

Answer key

Nothing differs: the draft matches the clip.

It matches the audio: leave it (the answer)

Word for word, the page is what the witness said. “Me and him was” is the witness’s grammar, and the federal rule keeps it: grammatical errors “must be transcribed as spoken.”

Sources: Guide to Judiciary Policy, Vol. 6, § 520.40.10(b)(1); The guide: The one rule: fix the machine, never the witness.

The clip, word for word

Q. Who was at the dock when the van left?

A. Me and him was the only ones there.

Q. Nobody else?

A. No.

Drill 4: A word lost under noise

Read against audio

Play the clip. One word in the answer can’t be made out. Tap the draft’s word there, then decide.

Synthetic audio Synthetic audio, read by a computer voice.

Synthetic testimony Page 42

Line 7 Q. Where did you put the receipt?
Line 8 A. In the top drawer of the desk.

Your check. The steno notes show an untranslated stroke at this spot. An earlier pass typed “top” into the draft.

Play the clip, then tap the word that differs.

Answer key

The word: line 8, “top”.

Keep “top”; it fits

It fits, which is the danger: a likely word is still a guess. Never fill a gap with a likely word.

Source: The guide: The hard cases at a glance.
Change it to “bottom”

Nothing you can hear says “bottom” either. Any word you choose here is a guess.

Source: The guide: The hard cases at a glance.
Flag it: neither the notes nor the audio confirm the word (the answer)

A gap goes back to the reporter, who heard the room. As one official reporter put it, “if you didn’t hear something, your scopist is not going to hear it.” Leave a hidden note rather than choose a word.

Sources: JCR, get time and a teammate with a scopist; JCR, what does a scopist do? (Linda M. Lee); The guide: The hard cases at a glance.

The clip, word for word

Q. Where did you put the receipt?

A. In the [a word lost under noise] drawer of the desk.

Recap.

Replay as often as accuracy needs; numbers need it most.
Fix only what the audio confirms. When neither the notes nor the audio settle a word, flag it.
A draft that matches the audio stays as it is, grammar and all.
In California the notes are the official record and backup audio is not the source; elsewhere, audio is a checking aid.

Free practice, not a credential. No certificate or credential: this course awards none, and we found no recognized credential for steno scopists.