My poor handwriting and my reporter’s shorthand have sometimes made deciphering my notes time-consuming – much to the bafflement of my wife who, as a one-time High Court reporter, could take down and transcribe legal proceedings at 160 words per minute.

Most of the time, I need only short, accurate quotes rather than a full verbatim transcription. For a more extensive word-for-word transcription, I have typically relied on a mini tape recorder, or more recently a digital recorder that captures sound on flash memory chips.