PDC Test - Blue Ribbon Commission Report

You can earn 0.25 PDC by passing the exam following this article, which has been approved for publication by NCRA's Council of the Academy of Professional Reporters.

The questions are based on the material in the article but some may require additional research. Send your answer sheet to NCRA's Continuing Education Office, 8224 Old Courthouse Road, Vienna, VA 22182, and enclose a check for $40 (member) or $50 (non-member) to cover the processing fee.

Blue Ribbon Commission on Voice Technology Report

NCRA’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Voice Technology has released its Final Report, which offers a fact-based review of current developments in the realtime voicewriting field. The Report is in Adobe Acrobat PDF format.

• Click Here to view the Final Report

CEU Exam

1. As defined by the Blue Ribbon Commission, stenomask reporters record their voices for later transcription. They do not make use of realtime technology.
True
False

2. As defined by the Blue Ribbon Commission, realtime voice writers employing voice computer-aided transcription create a rough draft of a proceeding for later review and edit.
True
False

3. As defined by the Blue Ribbon Commission, realtime voice writers employ voice recognition technology to produce a stream of text intended for realtime display.
True
False

4. What percentage of respondents to a Web-based survey sent to NCRA firm owners stated that a reporter's success (whether stenographic or stenomask) primarily depends on the individual reporter's skill, training and knowledge.
a. 50
b. 65
c. 75
d. 98

5. Based on a survey of NCRA firm owners, 72.5 percent of reporters define themselves by:
a. the products and services they provide to their clients
b. the method they use to provide products and services to their clients

6. Based on responses to a survey sent to NCRA firm owners, almost ____ percent stated that the ability and willingness to provide realtime regardless of method was more important than the method used to provide realtime.
a. 20
b. 40
c. 60
d. 80

7. Realtime voice writers are offering their services in which of the following environments?
a. educational setting
b. courtroom
c. convention setting
d. all of the above

8. Voice realtime software does not allow the voice writer to add words or phrases that are frequently mistranslated to the realtime translation software dictionary.
True
False

9. Which of the following statements is false?
a. The stenographic reporter's "theory learning" is to the voice writer's "software learning."
b. The stenographic reporter's "dictionary building" is to the voice writer's "vocabulary file building."
c. The stenographic reporter's "job dictionary" is to the voice writer's "acoustical files" to train the system.
d. Stenographic reporters depend on their hands. Voice writers depend on their vocal chords.

10. Which type of reporter must be more conversant with Windows in order to ensure the success of their methodology?
a. realtime stenographic reporter
b. realtime voice writer

11. How can realtime voice writers compensate for changes in voice caused by fatigue?
a. There is no need to compensate. Realtime voicewriting systems can automatically adjust to changes in voice during the day.
b. Separate technology add-ons can be purchased to allow for better translation of changing voice patterns.
c. Voice writers can retrain the recognition system to the specific physical circumstances of the day.
d. Realtime voice writers can't compensate. The technology currently doesn't have this capability.

12. When a voice writer holds back words so he or she can dictate whole sentences or phrases into the recognition engine at the higher speed for which the software is trained, this is called:
a. the hold-back approach
b. pause dictation
c. alternative speech training
d. speed dictation

13. The phenomenon in which full sentences or paragraphs appear on a screen rather than a word-for-word translation is known as:
a. text dumping
b. pause dictation
c. block text appearance
d. paragraph translation

14. How does a realtime voice writer initially create a grammatical model for a job assignment?
a. By feeding transcripts typical of the work to be done into the system in ASCII format or via optical character recognition.
b. By entering the expected terminology with his or her voice.
c. By training the system based on job-specific dictionaries prepared by vendors.
d. By developing rules for how contextual relationships should be handled by the software.

15. Realtime voicewriting offers a clear benefit of improved efficiency for transcript production.
True
False

16. Which piece of equipment is believed to offer a more accurate translation for the voice writer?
a. mask
b. headset

17. Speech recognition engines can more easily distinguish between:
a. short words such as "and" or "end"
b. long words such as "psychiatrist" or "chrysanthemum"

18. While most observers acknowledge (and the Commission concurs) that voice realtime fails to achieve the same levels of accuracy as the best stenographic writer, it must also be noted that speed and accuracy of transcript production is possible at levels equal to that of the average stenographic reporter.
True
False

19. Time lags in the display of voice realtime on long jobs can result from:
a. lack of computer memory
b. a corrupt voice translation file
c. the integration of too many computer programs
d. the computer processing speed

20. Voice writers cannot attain accurate translation when they have colds.
True
False

21. Just as with stenographic realtime translation, voice realtime translation accuracy will diminish, often substantially, the faster the speed of dictation. For voice realtime, this diminution will occur at lower speeds.
True
False

22. A phoneme is a:
a. one-syllable word
b. multisyllabic word
c. a basic unit of speech sound
d. a mistranslation that appears when using voice recognition technology

23. At this time, realtime voice writers reach lower speed levels faster than stenographic reporters but presently cannot match the accuracy levels at the high speeds regularly achieved by realtime stenographic reporters.
True
False

24. Realtime represents a tremendous advance for voice writers. Though voice writers have not yet demonstrated the quality required for realtime output in various settings, that is expected to change as the technology improves.
True
False

25. Voice computer-aided transcription offers the same benefits of improved productivity as stenographic computer-aided transcription did 20 years ago.
True
False