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Marie for understanding what I was talking about.  I am not saying that the school I have decided to go with is the greatest or anything, but I just can't believe that it is the worst. If I turn out to be wrong, then I will just have to get into a program that is a good one. You know what I mean.  Well, again thank you for your support on this issue.  Hope everyone out there that has gotten into a program of this sort has good luck with it all.

Thanks very much for your response.  You really lifted my spirits.  I think working all alone at home causes me to loose perspective and to forget the bigger picture.  In some ways, I miss being in an office each day where I can talk to my coworkers and feel connected through the work that we do.  Being an MT at home can get pretty lonely.

I immediately related to all that you shared.  Yes, I do look up a lot of stuff, and I probably spend more time than I should.  I'm afraid of typing something senseless into the report, so I look up the stuff I have never heard of just to make sure it fits with the context of the sentence.  I ask myself, "Did he really say femoral hernia?  Yes, I think he did say that because I looked it up and it fits with the dictation."  Over time, I suppose I will stop doing that so often.  It will really speed me up when I can confidently type what I am hearing.

I still have trouble with drug names, but I am little better than I was when I started 6 months ago.  I am slowly learning the more common drugs.  Yesterday, I had a doctor rattle off about 20 drugs for his patient, and I was able to spell and type them without looking them up.  For me, that was a milestone, and it made me feel good to accomplish it.

Thanks also for your thoughts about speech recogntition editing.  My employer has not offered to train me, and I have not volunteered.  I feel like I have enough to learn without adding even more.  Maybe I can start editing someday in the future, but for now, I hope they just forget about me and let me learn to transcribe the old way.  I will remember what you said about Clinic work.  I had not thought about the very short dictations consuming just as much time with ADT and lookups.  I see that really would be slower, now that you mentioned it.

In school, all of the talk about jobs and income was rosey, and they had me believing that I could be earning a decent wage in a few short months.  Brother, was that overly optimistic!  Hearing that you struggled so long to get some speed and worked very long hours each day makes me feel a little less alone.

I really like what I am doing, and I really don't want to quit my job.  I was just depressed last night.  I am going to keep plugging along at minimum wage, and hope that things look better a year from now.

You've added some sanity to my thinking.  Your response was just what I needed.

DMK -

I am interested in working with you. I have a wave player and am willing to obtain Word Perfect. Please contact me.

Thank you,

wrc

Which schools are considered the "better schools"?  I've been researching but keep getting conflicting info.

1.  When a job post indicates that a resume is to be pasted directly in the body of the message, why would you attach it? Do you have a specific reason for doing that?

I, personally, wouldn't attach if requested not to do so (as has happened in other responses from me to non-MT companies).  However, I can see the OCCASIONAL error of doing so, but not as a 'norm.'

2.  If the job post states that you must have your own equipment specific to the job (i.e. foot pedal for *wav files, C-phone) or provide your own high-speed ISP), why would you apply for the position if you cannot afford to buy the equipment?

The only possible explanation for this is ...... frankly, I can't think of an explanation.  Personally speaking, I wouldn't apply for an IC position if I didn't have the correct equipment (or I might ask if I'm considered can I have 'x' time to acquire that equipment, if not, its the MTSO's prerogative to say no).

3.  Is there a reason you submit an application with spelling errors, poor punctuation, etc.?

Hmmmm, I check mine, unless we have a conversation going (i.e., exchanging letters, IM's, etc) and I'm not horribly serious about the job (at least in the beginning of the conversation, that might change dependant on the information I've received).

And, now, a statement/question from me ...

4.  ... Do you feel that I have the right to ask you, the newbie, to re-listen to the original dictation and read the “new report” with all the blanks filled in, but not pay you for this time? Would you be willing to do that?

I think this is a perfectly reasonable request, and any newbie (like me) who wouldn't choose this option is short-changing her/himself in learning and expanding their knowledge base and allowing him/herself to grow and become more valuable to the current MTSO (or a future one).

Maybe they don't read all the posts b/c some of them can get pretty long.  They are just trying to help, thats all.  They don't mean any harm as far as I can tell.  I don't think its anything to get anxious about though.

How much info goes on second page depends on the document itself. It is highly unprofessional to have only two lines only or two lines and then a signature. If that's the case, change your margins and put it on one page or push more of it over to the second page. Only two lines in a paragraph or on a page is considered orphan or widow lines; there is not enough information to know for sure that the information on the other page really does go with those two lines--it leaves room for the possibility of confusion or switching of documents--which is way bad.

Left justify should be on your toolbar across the top of Word and looks like several lines which are even at the left side and uneven along the right side. The center key will be the next one and the left justify will be next, then--if it is on your toolbar with be left and right justify. This key looks like several lines, which are perfectly even along the right and left sides (like the newspaper).

Hope this helps.