The Do’s and Don’ts of Transcript Punctuation

Delivering the intended meaning of testimony demands the correct usage of punctuation, which, of course, is the responsibility of the court reporter. Punctuation was originally developed in Greece and Rome by speech writers who were attempting to convey when the orator was to pause and for how long. The period symbolized the longest pause (or beat), and the comma, the shortest. Each punctuation mark has its own history, and the rules of punctuation have evolved and continue to evolve over time.

What reporters need to keep in mind when punctuating transcripts is that the rules are not altogether the same as those put forth in the Oxford Dictionary. Let’s begin with quotation marks. We use them to quote material cited or read into the record.  The Oxford Dictionary guide suggests using a colon followed by a single inverted comma, or quotation mark. Another guide suggests using the colon before quoted material if the material citation is more than three lines in length.

Reporters vary in their styles of handling quoted material. For instance, some reporters choose to avoid placing quotes around material that is read into the record and opt instead to place commas around the quoted material. Other reporters choose to verify the quote from the document read and place quotes around it. As for the words “quote/unquote,” some reporters choose to apply the quotation marks, while others choose to include the words as spoken, including the words “quote” and “unquote” with no quotation marks.

Reporters do not use ellipsis in transcripts to indicate an interruption in thought or incomplete sentence; instead, we use the double hyphen or dash. Remember, when inserting the dash, do not capitalize the word following the dash unless the word would otherwise be capitalized, such as a proper name.

Commas are used: (a) to separate elements in a series with three or more items. The comma before the conjunction is optional; (b) to set off tag clauses, introductory and parenthetical elements; (c) to separate cities, states and countries and coordinating adjectives; and (d) to set off quoted elements, contrasting phrases, and to avoid confusion.

Although many courts ask that reporters italicize or underline case names, some court reporting translation programs have difficulty identifying italicized and underlined elements in keyword searches and indexes; so reporters should learn the software limitations, if any, and work around them with quotation marks.

One missed comma can change the entire meaning of a sentence, so it is important that reporters include as much punctuation as possible while taking the testimony, thus reducing the possibility of a comma catastrophe. When in doubt, dashes are a wonderful tool.