CRC Vocabulary Building & Dictionary Management 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is the recommended approach for handling proper nouns (names, places, organizations) in realtime captioning?
- Add them only after they appear as untrans during a live event
- Research and pre-load anticipated proper nouns into a job dictionary before the assignment (Correct answer)
- Fingerspell every proper noun during each occurrence in the live feed
- Leave them as untrans and correct them entirely in post-production
Correct answer: Research and pre-load anticipated proper nouns into a job dictionary before the assignment
Pre-researching and adding proper nouns to a job dictionary before an assignment ensures accurate real-time output and maintains professional captioning quality.
Question 2: What is a 'phrasing stroke' in stenography?
- A single steno outline that writes multiple words simultaneously as one unit (Correct answer)
- A special stroke used exclusively in legal depositions and court reporting
- A keystroke combination that inserts punctuation marks automatically
- A stroke that temporarily pauses output in the CAT software
Correct answer: A single steno outline that writes multiple words simultaneously as one unit
A phrasing stroke combines multiple common words (e.g., 'I would like to') into a single steno outline, dramatically increasing writing speed during realtime captioning.
Question 3: How do captioners typically manage homophones (words that sound alike but have different meanings) in their steno dictionaries?
- Always default to the most common spelling regardless of context
- Create distinct steno outlines for each homophone to differentiate them during writing (Correct answer)
- Leave all homophones as untrans and correct them manually in post-production
- Avoid captioning speakers who use homophones frequently
Correct answer: Create distinct steno outlines for each homophone to differentiate them during writing
Creating distinct steno outlines for homophones (e.g., 'there,' 'their,' 'they're') minimizes errors during live captioning by allowing context-driven output.
Question 4: What does comprehensive 'dictionary maintenance' involve for a professional realtime captioner?
- Only adding new words as they are encountered during live assignments
- Regularly reviewing, updating, and cleaning dictionary entries to improve accuracy and resolve conflicts (Correct answer)
- Deleting completed job dictionaries and client files after each assignment
- Upgrading the CAT software to the newest version every year
Correct answer: Regularly reviewing, updating, and cleaning dictionary entries to improve accuracy and resolve conflicts
Dictionary maintenance involves ongoing review to add new terms, resolve conflicts, remove incorrect entries, and optimize outlines for speed and accuracy over time.
Question 5: What is a 'suffix stroke' in a steno dictionary?
- A stroke appended to a root word to produce common endings such as '-ing,' '-ed,' or '-tion' (Correct answer)
- A keystroke used only at the beginning of a new sentence in the transcript
- A stroke that signals the end of a captioning session in the CAT software
- The final entry recorded in a steno dictionary file
Correct answer: A stroke appended to a root word to produce common endings such as '-ing,' '-ed,' or '-tion'
Suffix strokes allow captioners to attach common word endings automatically to root words, reducing the need for a separate dictionary entry for every word form.
Question 6: When building vocabulary for a medical captioning assignment, which source is MOST appropriate to consult?
- A general English dictionary as the sole reference
- Social media posts and forums from medical professionals
- Authoritative medical references such as medical terminology textbooks or the PDR (Correct answer)
- The captioner's own recollection of terminology from previous medical assignments
Correct answer: Authoritative medical references such as medical terminology textbooks or the PDR
Authoritative medical references ensure that terminology is spelled correctly and used in proper context, maintaining the accuracy required for professional captioning.
Question 7: What is the primary benefit of writing a phonetic steno outline for an unfamiliar word encountered during a live captioning event?
- It captures the word's sound in the transcript so it can be identified and corrected afterward (Correct answer)
- Phonetic outlines always produce an accurate English translation instantly
- It automatically adds the word with correct spelling to the master dictionary
- It pauses the live output so the word doesn't appear on screen until it is corrected
Correct answer: It captures the word's sound in the transcript so it can be identified and corrected afterward
Writing phonetically captures the approximate sound of an unfamiliar word, giving the captioner or editor enough information to identify and correct the term in post-production.
CRC Vocabulary Building & Dictionary Management 2
What is the recommended approach for handling proper nouns (names, places, organizations) in realtime captioning?