RPR cheat sheet

The NCRA Code of Professional Ethics obligates reporters to preserve the confidentiality of proceedings and to disclose any conflict of interest before accepting an assignment.

A reporter may not accept compensation contingent on the content or outcome of testimony; payment is for transcription services, not for a favorable record.

Impartiality is the core duty: a reporter may not give legal advice, interpret testimony, or advocate for any party, and must withdraw when neutrality cannot be preserved.

The reporter's certificate attests that the transcript is a true and accurate record; a reporter may certify only work personally produced or directly supervised.

RPR certification requires 3.0 CEUs (30 contact hours) during each three-year certification cycle to maintain the credential.

Alleged ethical violations proceed through NCRA's professional ethics review process, which may impose sanctions ranging from reprimand to revocation of certification.

A reporter may not vary rates based on the substance of testimony, but may charge separately for expedited delivery, rough drafts, ASCII copies, and additional originals.

Ex parte discussion of a pending matter with a represented party is improper; the reporter functions as a neutral officer of the proceedings, not as an agent of counsel.

Latin maxims: res ipsa loquitur (the thing speaks for itself), prima facie (at first sight), sua sponte (of its own accord), nunc pro tunc (now for then), pro se (for oneself), inter alia (among other things), per se (by itself).

Subpoena duces tecum compels a person to appear and bring documents; subpoena ad testificandum compels appearance to give testimony only.

Party designations: plaintiff and defendant in trial court; appellant and appellee on appeal; petitioner and respondent in special proceedings.

Procedural stages: arraignment (reading of criminal charges), voir dire (jury or witness examination), deposition (sworn pretrial testimony), adjudication (judgment).

Suffixes: -ectomy (surgical removal), -otomy (incision), -oscopy (visual examination), -itis (inflammation), -osis (condition), -algia (pain), -emia (blood condition), -uria (urine condition).

Prefixes: hyper- (excess), hypo- (deficient), tachy- (fast), brady- (slow), dys- (difficult or painful), a-/an- (without).

Combining forms: cardi/o (heart), hepat/o (liver), nephr/o (kidney), oste/o (bone), my/o (muscle), neur/o (nerve), derm/o (skin), pulmon/o (lung), gastr/o (stomach).

Directional terms: anterior/ventral (front), posterior/dorsal (back), superior (above), inferior (below), proximal (nearer the trunk), distal (farther from the trunk).

A semicolon joins two independent clauses not already joined by a coordinating conjunction; a colon follows a complete clause to introduce a list or explanation.

"That" introduces an essential (restrictive) clause without commas; "which" introduces a nonessential clause set off by commas.

In American usage, periods and commas fall inside closing quotation marks; colons and semicolons fall outside, and question marks fall outside unless they belong to the quoted material.

Use "who" as the subject of its clause and "whom" as the object of a verb or preposition; "whoever" and "whomever" follow the same test within their own clause.

Affect is normally a verb meaning to influence; effect is normally a noun meaning result (and a verb meaning to bring about); principal means main or head, principle means rule or belief.

Lie is intransitive (lie, lay, lain); lay is transitive (lay, laid, laid); use fewer for countable nouns and less for mass nouns.

Hyphenate compound modifiers before a noun ("well-known author") but not after it ("the author is well known"); never hyphenate an -ly adverb to its modifier.

Apostrophes: singular possessive adds 's; a plural ending in s adds only the apostrophe; possessive pronouns (its, whose, theirs) take no apostrophe.

Collective nouns such as jury, court, and panel take a singular verb when acting as a unit; each, either, everyone, and nobody are singular.

Standard transcript pages carry 25 numbered lines set at nine characters per inch with uniform margins, so pagination matches across all originals, copies, and electronic versions.

Transcript components appear in this order: title page, appearance and counsel page, index of witnesses and exhibits, body of the proceedings, reporter's certificate.

Objections, colloquy, and stipulations are transcribed verbatim; the reporter records rulings but never rules on objections or characterizes testimony.

Exhibit handling: note the exhibit number, the offering party, and any objection or ruling, and reference the exhibit at each subsequent mention in the record.

Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 30(e), a deponent ordinarily has 30 days after notification to review the transcript and submit changes with reasons; the reporter then files errata.

Computer-aided transcription converts stenotype strokes to machine shorthand, translates them through the reporter's dictionary, and flags conflicts and untranslates for editing.

The number bar combined with letter keys writes numerals; the asterisk key handles functions such as canceling a stroke and marking corrections.

RPR skills testing consists of five-minute dictations at 180 wpm literary, 200 wpm jury charge, and 225 wpm testimony, each requiring 95 percent accuracy.

Electronic transcripts are delivered as PDF files with embedded text, bookmarks, and a digital signature or hash for integrity; ASCII files carry text only, with no formatting or page images.