Skills
Court Reporter Skills & Tools
The technical skills, people skills and tools employers look for in court reporters, and how to build and show them.
What skills do court reporters need?
Court Reporters need technical skills such as stenography, realtime writing, and legal and medical terminology, plus people skills like concentration and accuracy. They also use tools such as Stenotype machines and CAT software.
Technical (hard) skills
- Stenography
- Realtime writing
- Legal and medical terminology
- Transcript production
- Proofreading
- Captioning software
People (soft) skills
- Concentration
- Accuracy
- Discretion
- Professionalism
Tools, equipment and technology
- Stenotype machines
- CAT software
- Audio backup recorders
- Captioning software
- Laptops
- Dictionaries
Skills in action: common tasks
These step-by-step guides show how court reporters put their skills to work:
How to show these skills on a resume
- Lead your skills section with the technical skills from the job posting, for example, “Stenography” and “Realtime writing.”
- Prove soft skills with results: instead of listing “concentration,” describe a situation where you used it.
- List credentials such as Registered Professional Reporter (RPR) near the top, with the issuing organization and date.
- Use the employer’s vocabulary. Our court reporter glossary covers the terms hiring managers expect.
How to build these skills
Formal training, supervised practice and certification are the most direct routes. Our Court Reporter training introduces each of these skills with plain-language lessons, procedures and a final knowledge check: a strong foundation before hands-on training or your first day.