Do some reporters not use a scopist and scope all their own work?

I am a new reporter who has been working just under a year. I have had my fair share of messy jobs that I am embarrassed to show to anyone else and hold back from using a scopist. I also am scared that he or she won't do the job as well as I can.  By doing this, I have had to turn down other jobs because I am left scoping my own work and I have added stress to myself.

Is this a common fear or do some seasoned reporters scope everything themselves?

I've been reporting for 15 years and have never used a scopist.  I always use a proofreader, though, and still proof my own work on paper while my proofer has the transcript.  Nobody is perfect, so it is always a good idea to check your work.  I'm your scopists see really good jobs and really horrible jobs.  I have good days of writing with less clean up, and then I have really bad days of writing where I can't even bring myself to edit the job.

I, too, have that fear, April, that a scopist is going to think I'm the worst reporter they've ever seen, and how horrible of me to send such a messy transcript for them to clean up; this isn't what they signed up for, etc. I think it's our nature of being perfectionists.  I do try to implement job dictionary entries or clean up really  messy spots before turning it over to a scopist.  And I always read over what they send back.  Never, ever turn in a transcript that you haven't either scoped yourself & sent to a proofreader for suggested corrections or, in the alternative, proofread a scopist's work.

Okay, now, give yourself a pat on the back for making it this far.  You're a court reporter!  You made it through school when others didn't and you've been working for a year.  Time to become a better business person.  You're turning down jobs because of your fear of using a scopist.  Go to Depoman.com and check out how many scopists/proofreaders are looking for work.   They would most likely tell you they are hungry for work and they don't mind what you consider messy.  That's what they're there for, to help you be more productive and a better reporter.  You'll learn a lot.  You'll probably find out that you're missing some small things because proofing your own work is not such a great idea, especially on harder/messier jobs.  Your eyes "see" what is supposed to be correct but isn't because you've heard it, written it, edited it, and now are trying to proof it.

I have found that using a combination of a scopist for some jobs and a proofer for others has enabled me to dramatically increase my income and has allowed my schedule to be freed up so I can take some really good jobs.  Also, a lot of reporters, understandably, cannot justify the expense if it's an 0&1 transcript.  I don't look at it that way.  If I send a 200 page 0&1 to a scopist, and it enables me to push it out fast, get that job off my backlog faster, free me up to take a great paying job, it was a good business decision.  I go by what I make during the month as a whole & not weekly, let's say.  In other words, if I need to make $5,000 that month and I bill out $6,500 because I used a scopist, but I had to pay the scopist $1,000, even though some of the transcripts were 0&1s, well, I'm $500 ahead of the game.  If I said, oh, no, I'm not going to make but x amount on this 0&1, it doesn't make sense to send it out, now it sits there on the backlog for three more days because I've decided my time is not worth the $1.25 or whatever a page, guess who's sitting at her desk saving $1.25 a page instead of out taking a job.

Just my opinion; I hope this helps. :D

I do all my own work and proofing.  My mom self taught herself how to scope my work, and I would pay her to do it, too.  Of course she didn't want to be paid, but I insisted!  She loved it!  After she passed away, I ended up scoping all my work.  It's pretty clean, so I can scope through it quickly.  I would use a proofreader, but I'm not busy enough.  I've also been doing this for 26 years, so my dictionary is pretty big.  I would suggest adding a lot of words to your dictionary so if you ever mistroke the word again, it will be in there.  Even if you think you won't, you probably will.  This makes future jobs cleaner, and your work will fly off your desk.  I also recommend getting a proofreader so it will free up time to take more jobs.  If I were more busy, I'd love to hire a proofreader and take more jobs.  I miss the days of my desk being overloaded with work and wishing for a day off to scope it all.  Take all the work you can, you're very lucky!  Good luck to you!