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https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19690009766 2018-06-29T00:29:58+00:00Z
INTERAGENCY REPORT: ASTROGEOLOGY 10
A TEST OF COURT-STENOGRAPHIC TECHNIQUES FOR
RECORDING GEOLOGIC D E S C R I P T I O N S
L
N o v e m b e r 19 68
CONTENTS
Page
A b s t r a c t . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
I n t r o d u c t i o n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
T e s t p r o c e d u r e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Test cond i t ions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
R e s u l t s and a n a l y s i s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
T i m e l a g s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
E r r o r s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Conc l u s ions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
TABLES
. Table 1 . Represen ta t ive e x c e r p t s reproduced from tes t
t r a n s c r i p t . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2 . Represen ta t ive speech r a t e s . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3 . Observed t i m e l a g s ve r sus number of p r a c t i c e
runs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4 . E r r o r s i n typed t r a n s c r i p t . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
iii
A TEST OF COURT-STENOGRAPHIC TECHNTQUES
FOR RECORDING GEOLOGIC DESCRIPTIONS
David Sch le i che r
ABSTRACT
Court-s tenographic techniques of f e r a means f o r making a typed t r a n s c r i p t of o r a l comments w i t h v e r y l i t t l e de lay ; they may thus prove u s e f u l f o r immediate s tudy of geologic desc r ip - t i o n s t r ansmi t t ed by a s t r o n a u t s exp lo r ing t h e Moon. A t es t w a s held t o e v a l u a t e t h i s p o s s i b i l i t y . One c o u r t r e p o r t e r t r an - s c r i b e d o r a l geologic d e s c r i p t i o n s on a shorthand typewr i t e r ( s t enograph) , and a second r e p o r t e r t r a n s l a t e d the s t enograph ic no te s i n t o a typed t r a n s c r i p t . For the e n t i r e t e s t , t h e average observed l a g between the t i m e a word w a s spoken and the t i m e i t was typed w a s about 72 seconds, and s e r i o u s e r r o r s a f f e c t e d fewer than 4 percen t of t h e words spoken i n t h e test. No o t h e r tech- nique t e s t e d has produced so a c c u r a t e a t r a n s c r i p t so promptly.
INTRODUCTION
An ear th-based da ta - r educ t ion c e n t e r has been proposed
(Sch le i che r and Goldberg, 1967) t o record and s tudy geo log ic de-
s c r i p t i o n s radioed by a s t r o n a u t s from the Moon. A qu ick and in-
t ens ive s tudy of such d e s c r i p t i o n s i s f a r more e a s i l y made from
a w r i t t e n t r a n s c r i p t than from t h e r a d i o t r ansmiss ion o r a mag-
n e t i c record ing of it.
There has been a problem i n f i n d i n g a technique f o r qu ick ly
making a n a c c u r a t e w r i t t e n t r a n s c r i p t t h a t i s i n t e l l i g i b l e t o
laymen. I n p r a c t i c e , two ope ra t ions must be performed s imul ta -
neous ly , t h e f i r s t record ing each word ( e i t h e r magnet ica l ly o r
by some form of shorthand) a s i t i s spoken, and t h e second, i n
t u r n , t r a n s c r i b i n g t h i s immediate bu t hard- to-use record i n t o
p r i n t e d Engl ish. Two techniques have been t r i e d u n s a t i s f a c t o r i l y :
typ ing d i r e c t l y from an audio tape and typ ing from a s tenogra-
p h e r f s manually w r i t t e n shorthand.
An u n t r i e d technique t h a t appeared promising w a s immediate
t r a n s c r i p t i o n and typ ing of t h e s tenographic no te s made by a
1
c o u r t r e p o r t e r from o r a l d e s c r i p t i o n s . This r e p o r t d i s c u s s e s t h e
procedures and r e s u l t s of a b r i e f test of t h i s technique he ld on
18 A p r i l 1968. The aims of t h i s test were t o see 1) how q u i c k l y
a w r i t t e n t r a n s c r i p t could be made by t h i s technique , 2) how ac-
c u r a t e t h e t r a n s c r i p t would be , and 3) how t o use such a t r a n -
s c r i p t most e f f e c t i v e l y d u r i n g luna r geo log ic exp lo ra t ion .
TEST PROCEDURE:
For t h e tes t , p a r t s of a magnetic t a p e were s e l e c t e d from a
previous e x e r c i s e , i n which a f i e l d man had rad ioed geo log ic ob-
s e r v a t i o n s t o a d a t a cen te r . Two c o u r t r e p o r t e r s t r a n s c r i b e d the
o r a l obse rva t ions ; one t r a n s c r i b e d them ve rba t im on t h e s teno-
graph (shor thand t y p e w r i t e r ) , and the o t h e r t r a n s l a t e d t h e notes
as they emerged from t h e s tenograph and typed them.
TEST CONDITIONS
There were two k inds of f i e l d obse rva t ions ( s e e t a b l e 1);
t h e f i e l d man used a c h e c k l i s t f o r both: (1) d e s c r i p t i o n of
l i t h o l o g i c u n i t s and (2) answers t o s p e c i f i c ques t ions formulated
from aer ia l photographs of t h e f i e l d area and b e a r i n g on i t s geo-
l o g i c h i s t o r y ( f o r example, "DO t h e c r a t e r s have e j ec t a?" ) .
Two vo ices were heard on the audio tape: dominant ly t h a t of
t h e f i e l d man (Bob), and v e r y subord ina te ly t h a t of a communi-
c a t o r (Dave) i n t h e d a t a c e n t e r , who spoke, on the average , more
than twice as fas t as the f i e l d man (see t a b l e 2) .
The c o u r t r e p o r t e r s were g iven a l i s t of terms l i k e l y t o be
used d u r i n g t h e t e s t , i n o r d e r t o a c q u a i n t them w i t h geo log ic
terminology. No a t t empt w a s made t o inc lude a l l u n f a m i l i a r terms,
because the r e p o r t e r s ' t r ea tmen t of such terms w a s one of t h e
test v a r i a b l e s . The r e p o r t e r s had had no previous p r a c t i c e i n
r ead ing one a n o t h e r ' s s t enograph ic n o t e s , so b e f o r e t h e t es t ,
t hey p r a c t i c e d t r a n s c r i b i n g p a r t s of t h e aud io tape t h a t were
used la ter . Because t h e tape w a s made from r a d i o t r ansmiss ions ,
p a r t s were no i sy , and some words and phrases were u n i n t e l l i g i b l e ,
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typed t r a n s c r i p t w a s double-spaced, and a n 8- inch (95 - s t roke )
l i n e w a s used.
du r ing t h e test .
The t y p e w r i t e r space b a r d i d no t work p r o p e r l y
RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
The test produced a typed t r a n s c r i p t of approximate ly 2,100*
words on a cont inuous r o l l of paper about 6 f e e t long. The re-
s u l t s are analyzed i n t a b l e s 3 and 4 , and r e p r e s e n t a t i v e e x c e r p t s
from t h e t r a n s c r i p t are reproduced i n t a b l e 1.
S ince t h i s test w a s in tended on ly t o e v a l u a t e t h e g e n e r a l
f e a s i b i l i t y of cour t - s t enograph ic techniques f o r prompt t r a n -
s c r i b i n g , t h e r e w a s no a t t empt t o c o l l e c t enough d a t a f o r a r i g o r -
ous s ta t i s t ica l a n a l y s i s of t h e tes t act ivi t ies . And s i n c e t h e
test w a s t o e v a l u a t e the o v e r a l l t r a n s c r i b i n g technique, the
act ivi t ies of t h e two c o u r t r e p o r t e r s were n o t analyzed s e p a r a t e -
ly. The r e s u l t s d i scussed below, then, show approximate ly how
w e l l t h i s technique can work. There are no s ta t i s t ica l d a t a t h a t
would enab le comparison of t h e s e r e s u l t s w i t h those of prev ious
e x e r c i s e s u s i n g o t h e r t r a n s c r i b i n g techniques. But no previous
technique has produced r e s u l t s so r e a d i l y u s a b l e n e a r l y so prompt-
1 Y * Time Lags
The average observed l a g between t h e t i m e a word w a s spoken
and t h e t i m e i t was typed w a s 69 seconds f o r t h e f i r s t traverse
and 79 seconds f o r t h e second. The maximum observed l a g w a s 95
seconds, and t h e minimum, 45 seconds, which is roughly the t i m e
needed f o r t h e s tenograph t ape t o emerge from t h e s tenograph
machine and become v i s i b l e t o t h e t y p i s t .
t h e e n t i r e test was 72 seconds.
The ave rage l a g f o r
The g r e a t e r average l a g i n the second p a r t of t h e tes t may
*This i s a count of t h e t o t a l number of words a c t u a l l y spok- e n du r ing the test.
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8
r e s u l t from t h e g r e a t e r speech rate* corresponding t o t h e las t
two observed t i m e l ags ( t a b l e 3 ) , o r i t may show the e f f e c t of
f a m i l i a r i z a t i o n wi th t h e aud io t ape from t h e p r a c t i c e runs , which
were made predominantly from t h e f i r s t traverse. ( A s i n g l e prac-
t i c e run had no s i g n i f i c a n t e f f e c t on the average t i m e l a g f o r
t he f i r s t traverse, however; c f . average l a g s , t a b l e 3 ) . A l -
t e r n a t i v e l y , i t might be due t o the s l i g h t l y g r e a t e r rate of
d a t a i n f l o & (69 words pe r minute as opposed t o 61 words p e r
minute f o r the f i r s t traverse). The i n c r e a s e i n l a g i s probably
no t due t o f a t i g u e : t he l a g s of t he f i r s t t r a v e r s e show no
clear t rend t h a t would sugges t f a t igue . The second traverse w a s
t r ansc r ibed immediately a f t e r a rest pe r iod , and i t w a s much
s h o r t e r and more s t r a igh t fo rward .
There i s a s l i g h t tendency f o r g r e a t e r l a g s t o be a s soc ia t ed
wi th g r e a t e r rates of speech, bu t i t i s s i g n i f i c a n t t h a t the
g r e a t e s t speech rates do not correspond t o the g r e a t e s t l ags :
t he f i r s t r e p o r t e r d i d no t a l low himself t o f a l l hope le s s ly be-
hind because of a s i n g l e p a r t i c u l a r l y d i f f i c u l t d e s c r i p t i o n , bu t
r a t h e r abandoned t h a t d e s c r i p t i o n so as t o ca t ch those t h a t f o l -
lowed. Longer d e s c r i p t i o n s are a l s o weakly a s soc ia t ed wi th g rea t -
e r l a g s , bu t t he weakness of t h e c o r r e l a t i o n sugges ts t h a t o t h e r
f a c t o r s more s t r o n g l y a f f e c t e d the lag: e .g . , the t y p i s t e i t h e r
w a s s t i l l busy wi th the prev ious d e s c r i p t i o n o r w a s w a i t i n g f o r
t h e s tenograph tape t o emerge from the machine. There i s apparent-
l y no c o r r e l a t i o n between the l eng th of t he l a g and t h e percentage
of e r r o r s .
E r r o r s
E r r o r s i n the t r a n s c r i p t may have stemmed from several
sources: (1) from poor o r u n i n t e l l i g i b l e audio on the magnetic
t a p e ; (2) from mistakes made by the f i r s t r e p o r t e r i n stenograph-
i c a l l y t r a n s c r i b i n g the o r a l d e s c r i p t i o n s ; (3) from m i s t r a n s l a t i o n s
*"Speech rate" i s c a l c u l a t e d as 5 -cha rac t e r words p e r minute du r ing un in te r rup ted speech ( c f . t a b l e 2) , whereas "data inflow" i s c a l c u l a t e d as the number of a c t u a l words spoken du r ing t h e e n t i r e traverse d iv ided by the l eng th of t he t r a v e r s e i n minutes.
9
made by t h e second r e p o r t e r owing t o h i s u n f a m i l i a r i t y w i t h the
f i r s t r e p o r t e r ' s s t enograph ic no te s ; and ( 4 ) from r o u t i n e typo-
g raph ic e r r o r s , aggrava ted , i n t h i s case, by machine malfunct ion.
The v a r i o u s types of e r r o r s are enumerated i n t a b l e 4. The
f i g u r e s are only approximate; ' i t was i m p r a c t i c a l t o employ a com-
p l e t e l y c o n s i s t e n t set of d e t a i l e d r u l e s f o r count ing e r r o r s , be-
cause the o v e r a l l u se fu lness of t h e t r a n s c r i p t w a s of pr imary con-
c e r n and because t h e e r r o r s were n o t s t r i c t l y comparable--miscon-
s t r u e d words, f o r example, be ing f a r more s e r i o u s than mis-spacings.
"Typographic" e r r o r s i nc lude t r a n s p o s i t i o n of l e t t e r s , mis-spacings,
obvious m i s s p e l l i n g s , and g ross punctua t ion e r r o r s ( f o r example, I a m going t o v i enow ( t o g i v e now) a more d e t a i l e d desc r ip - I f
t i o n . . , "); they do n o t inc lude s t r i k e - o v e r s . Because t h e
space b a r w a s mal func t ioning , e r r o r s of spac ing were a l s o counted
s e p a r a t e l y from o t h e r typographic e r r o r s .
construed words: . . . a s u b s t a n t i a l ( a c t u a l l y "subtle") sug-
g e s t i o n of l a y e r i n g . . . . I f "Missed" words were noted by s teno-
graphers : "Missed one s ta tement by Bob. It w a s s h o r t . " They
d i d n o t no te t h a t they 'd missed "omitted" words. "Added" words
were those e r roneous ly i n s e r t e d i n t o t h e t r a n s c r i p t .
"Wrong" words were m i s -
Many misspe l led words could be e a s i l y recognized because
they were s p e l l e d phone t i ca l ly : " a f i n i t i c " f o r "aphani t ic" and
v i c i c u l a r " o r " v i s i c u l a r " f o r "ves icu lar . Other m i s t r a n s c r i b e d II
words were r e l a t i v e l y e a s i l y recognized by t h e i r con tex t ("NOVO"
f o r "Bravo"-- le t ter "B" i n t h e m i l i t a r y phone t i c a lphabet :
. . . my l o c a t i o n be ing . . . Novo two, f i f t e e n ate."; o r even
"crotology" f o r " l i thology": "The predominant c ro to logy seems t o
be b a s a l t i c c inde r s . It).
II
Because t h e on ly s e r i o u s e r r o r s were those l ead ing t o am-
b i g u i t i e s t h a t could n o t be e a s i l y r e so lved , a n a t t empt was made
t o enumerate "ser ious" e r r o r s , such as those shown above. The
most s e r i o u s e r r o r s of a l l are those t h a t l ead t o wrong i n t e r p r e t a -
t i ons . These are p r i m a r i l y wrong words, e. g. , " subs t an t i a l " f o r
"subt le" above. Both "ser ious" and "mis in t e rp re t ab le" e r r o r s are
a l s o presented i n t a b l e 4 .
10
The communicator spoke f a r less f r e q u e n t l y than t h e f i e l d man
(about one- ten th as many words-- table 4 ) and much more r a p i d l y
( t a b l e 2) ; accord ing ly , t h e e r r o r s made i n t r a n s c r i b i n g h i s speech
w e r e t abu la t ed s e p a r a t e l y from those f o r t h e o v e r a l l traverse.
Both speed and inf requency probably con t r ibu ted t o t h e h ighe r pro-
p o r t i o n of e r r o r s .
CONCLUSIONS
The cour t - s t enograph ic techniques employed i n t h i s test ap-
pea r t o be p o t e n t i a l l y ve ry u s e f u l f o r immediate s tudy of geologic
d e s c r i p t i o n s made du r ing l u n a r missions. Even on t h i s f i r s t t r i a l ,
t h e t r a n s c r i p t w a s a c c u r a t e enough t h a t t h e r e would be l i t t l e need
f o r r ev i s ion : "ser ious" e r r o r s f o r t he e n t i r e tes t average 4 per-
c e n t , and e r r o r s l ead ing t o s e r i o u s m i s i n t e r p r e t a t i o n s less than
1 percent . The maximum observed 1ag.between t h e t i m e a word w a s
heard and the t i m e i t w a s typed was 95 seconds, and a r ep resen ta -
t ive average l a g w a s about 72 seconds. Both speed and accuracy
f a r exceeded those obta ined i n prev ious e x e r c i s e s w i t h o t h e r t r an -
s c r i b i n g techniques.
The c o u r t r e p o r t e r s suggested t h a t s e v e r a l hours of p r a c t i c e
toge the r would inc rease t h e i r p ro f i c i ency . They were n o t g r e a t l y
hampered by u n f a m i l i a r terms; t h e terms they d i d m i s t r a n s c r i b e were
g e n e r a l l y recognizable , and t h e r e p o r t e r s s a i d t h a t they could
l e a r n such terms wi thout much t rouble . A " spo t t e r " ve r sed i n
geologic terminology could h e l p them wi th un fami l i a r terms dur ing
traverses.
The t y p i s t had some d i f f i c u l t y unders tanding t h e f i r s t re-
p o r t e r ' s n o t e s , b u t p r a c t i c e would e l i m i n a t e t h i s problem. Some
t y p i s t s are t r a i n e d s p e c i f i c a l l y t o type from s tenographic notes .
The t y p i s t a l s o had t r o u b l e reading t h e no te s as they emerged from t h e s tenograph , b u t t h i s problem would be so lved by u s i n g a de-
vice t h a t d i s p l a y s the no te s and advances them a t a rate c o n t r o l -
l e d by t h e t y p i s t . ( I n a la ter e x e r c i s e , t h i s dev ice w a s success-
f u l l y used.)
s tenographic no te s i n t o a s e p a r a t e typ ing room. Modi f i ca t ion of A s t i l l more e l a b o r a t e system might p r o j e c t t he
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t he s tenograph machine might reduce t h e t i m e ( rough ly 45 seconds)
needed f o r t h e s tenograph t a p e t o become v i s i b l e t o t h e t y p i s t .
The r e p o r t e r s f e l t t h a t t hey could work e f f i c i e n t l y f o r a maxi-
mum of about a n hour and a h a l f . (The later e x e r c i s e confirmed
t h i s estimate.) Double spac ing made the t r a n s c r i p t e a s y t o read
and moved the paper through the typewr i t e r a t a s a t i s f a c t o r y rate
wi thou t r e s u l t i n g i n a t r a n s c r i p t t h a t w a s unwieldy because of i t s
length.
The t y p i s t commonly t r i e d t o c o r r e c t minor mis takes ; i f t h i s
h a b i t i s e a s i l y broken and i f i t i s a cause of d e l a y and(or)
f u r t h e r inaccuracy , i t should be discouraged. The b e s t approach
probably depends on the i n d i v i d u a l t y p i s t .
The h igher percentage of e r r o r s made i n t r a n s c r i b i n g the
communicator's speech p o i n t s up the need f o r p r a c t i c e between t h e
r e p o r t e r s and a l l speakers . The communicator's speed would prob-
a b l y n o t have r e s u l t e d i n as many e r r o r s i f t he r e p o r t e r s had
been more accustomed t o h i s d e l i v e r y .
The s t enograph ic team could probably l e a r n e i t h e r t o record
a l l pauses , c o r r e c t i o n s , and changes of thought i n mid-sentence , o r t o e d i t them out . Much he re depends on how d i r e c t l y t h e
speaker p r e s e n t s h i s da t a .
I n c o u r t t he r e p o r t e r s are accustomed t o s topp ing t h e d i s -
cuss ion momentarily i f they f a l l behind. On miss ions , t h i s w i l l
be i m p r a c t i c a l , b u t t h e geologic d e s c r i p t i o n s should be presented
and acknowledged i n such a way t h a t no key informat ion i s l o s t . For i d e n t i f i c a t i o n and f i l i n g , s t a t i o n numbers and times
should be marked on the t r a n s c r i p t du r ing t h e traverse, i d e a l l y
by some s o r t o f au tomat ic p r i n t e r .
A magnet ic- tape typewr i t e r would f ac i l i t a t e r e v i s i o n of t h e
t r a n s c r i p t , i f needed, d u r i n g a traverse. The t r a n s c r i p t s could
be made a v a i l a b l e t o t h e d a t a - c e n t e r t e a m by t e l e v i s i o n d i s p l a y s
o r , p r e f e r a b l y , by remote typewr i t e r s wherever needed t o provide
copies f o r a n n o t a t i o n and s tudy. These remote typewr i t e r s would
have t o be fast enough to keep up w i t h t h e t y p i s t and q u i e t
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enough no t t o i n t e r f e r e w i t h o t h e r a c t i v i t i e s i n t h e d a t a cen te r .
Accordion-folded "computer" paper would probably be most conveni-
e n t t o work with.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The coope ra t ion of c o u r t r e p o r t e r s Donald R. Thacker and
Kei th E. Welch, Supe r io r Cour t , Coconino County, A r i z . , i n plan-
n ing and conduct ing t h i s test i s g r a t e f u l l y acknowledged.
REFERENCE
S c h l e i c h e r , David, and Goldberg, J e r a l d M. , 1967, Geologic ex-
p l o r a t i o n of the Moon: Ob jec t ives and some recommendations:
U.S. Geol. Survey Tech. Letter: Astrogeology 3 1 , 22 p.
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