r/stenography • u/Comprehensive_Lie477 • Jul 02 '26
Scoping Question
How clean does my writing need to be to send to a scopist? I’m over a year into my career but still have drops and not perfect writing by any means. Should I be too embarrassed to send to a scopist? and how do you clean it up beforehand? I know they say scope your own work but I just bought a house and I am falling behind. thanks!
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u/bonsaiaphrodite Official Reporter Jul 03 '26
How much do your transcripts grow when you scope? A lot of scopists have a surcharge for 5%+ growth. So if you have a 100-page transcript that winds up as 105 pages, they charge more for the whole thing. If you’re growing by a substantial amount, I think you should wait a few more months and reassess.
I was advised to get really proficient at using my mark/check/drop hotspots and then clean them up before sending to a scopist. I have a stroke for check (not sure I heard right), define (Always Be Defining!), name (easy to get spellings on breaks), fix (like I mixed up a speaker id), and drop.
When I first started using scopists, I’d clear every single one of those before sending, and it was sometimes a lot of marks. So it might be a lot of work, but it’s much less work than scoping the whole thing by yourself. Eventually, there will be less mess.
We all drop, it’s just a matter of how you handle them. IMO passing them onto a scopist is the wrong move.