In this new age of telecommuting, and with the revival of the stay at home mom, more and more people are searching to find work from home professions that will make them enough money to sustain a household income. In this article we will explore the work-at-home profession of scoping.

What is a scopist? The leading scopist and court reporter directory, Scoping Central, defines scopists as those who "edit the imperfect transcripts created by court reporters from their stenographic notes.” In more basic terms, scopists work for court reporters and their responsibility is to take their rough drafts of the notes taken by the court reporter at a legal proceeding, translate it into the form of an editable electronic document, and through a computer program to clean up the spelling, punctuation, grammatical errors and formatting so that the final transcripts look more perfect.

Once the scopist has done their job, the next step is the transcript is re-read for final proofing either by another hired individual called a proofreader, or by the court reporters themselves. Once the transcripts have been scoped and proofread they are finalized, printed, and then become official court documents.

Scopists can earn a lot of money if they are proficient, professional, and can find the right scopist-reporter relationship. Some scopists earn more than the average paralegal or legal secretary, all from the

You may be wondering how to enter the field of scoping, or how scopists are able to find work. There are several websites dedicated to helping people gain the knowledge, training, and materials required to become a successful scopist and to find work. For example at Scopists.com court reporters can join the discreet query system to send private emails to scopists looking for work. At ScopingCentral.com both scopists and court reporters can register a free account, build their own web page, list in the searchable database as accepting or offering work {or booked up once they find a job) and post job opportunities on the private job board only viewable to members. These sites also offer helpful articles to get you started, salary averages, and links to schools and other information about scopists.