Hello!
Glad you asked! Scoping is the art of using specialized software, opening a computerized file written by a court reporter of a witness's testimony in a deposition or several witnesses in a courtroom trial, etc., following along usually by listening to the audio accompanying the file, and editing or "cleaning up" the errors. Obviously, missing punctuation would be added, but all grammar remains intact. In other words, whatever was spoken is written, grammar mistakes included.
An example might be that a witness actually said, "I ain't got none" instead of "I don't have any." Whatever the witness speaks remains and is not changed.
Scopists follow one or more of the main industry-standard punctuation rule books and/or each court reporter's personal preferences. Conflicts can arise between the various "authorities" out there, and so a scopist must quickly learn to adapt to the particular reporter for whom they are scoping. Many scopists purchase and use several different guides as part of their reference materials, and I will discuss in a future blog the main English guidelines that a scopist would follow.
In short, the scopist "edits" a court reporter's transcript. The finished scoped file should be ready for proofing either by the court reporter, by a professional proofer hired by the reporter, or sometimes by both.
Stay tuned for future blogs regarding software, training, equipment needed, etc., by scopists.
Until next time ...
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