The 17 NVRA Error Types Every Voice Writer Needs to Know
The 17 NVRA Error Types Every Voice Writer Needs to Know
Write "I have lived in Atlanta, Georgia since 1985" when the dictation said "I have lived in Atlanta, Georgia, since 1985" and you have just lost a point. Drop both commas and you lose two.
You heard every word. You typed every word. You still gave back two of the 45 errors allowed on the literary leg.
That is what candidates learn too late about the Certified Verbatim Reporter exam. NVRA does not grade how much of it you heard. It grades your transcript against a numbered rubric of 17 error types, and roughly half have nothing to do with your ears.
Everything below comes from NVRA's official certification policies manual, revised February 22, 2026, pages 15 through 19. Standards get revised, so confirm the current version at nvra.org before you test.
The 17 Error Types, As NVRA Lists Them
In NVRA's notation, D is what was dictated and W is what you wrote.
1. Each wrong word. D: "He used a key to access the building." W: "He used a key to excess the building." One error.
2. Each added word. Anything you inserted that was not dictated. One error each.
3. Each dropped word. Anything dictated that you left out. One error each.
4. Misspelled word. Bigger than it looks. It covers "docter" for doctor, but also "Its" for "It's," "The Johnson's" for "The Johnsons," and "self employed" for "self-employed." Apostrophes and hyphens live here.
5. Each wrong name. Johnson written as Jones. One error.
6. Transposed words. Swapping word order. The sting is in NVRA's note: if a phrase moves within a sentence, every misplaced word counts separately. Their own example, flipping "I checked my luggage and I went for coffee," costs four errors on one line.
7. Each omitted, added, or misplaced Q and A. On the two-voice leg, speaker designations are graded content. Merging an answer and the next question into one paragraph is an error even if every word is right.
8. Wrong punctuation. The largest category, and the one that decides more exams than speed does. It covers improper end-of-sentence marks, omitted periods and question marks, omitted commas in dates, city and state pairs, series, and direct address, omitted or misused colons before a list, and inappropriate semicolons. "Each" is literal: two missing commas in one date is two errors.
9. Each missing space. "thepaper" instead of "the paper." One error.
10. Each compound word written as two words and vice versa. "pickup" for "pick up." One error.
11. Each omitted capital letter when clearly needed. "Dr. smith." "Miami, florida." One error each.
12. Each contraction written as two words and vice versa. This one runs both directions. Writing "will not" when the speaker said "won't" is an error. So is writing "don't" when the speaker said "do not."
13. Incorrect verb tense. "Do you needed additional credits" for "Do you need additional credits." One error.
14. Each plural incorrectly written as singular and vice versa. "five check" for "five checks." One error.
15. Each acronym which contains hyphens, or words. "P-T-A" for PTA is an error. So is "P tea A."
16. Dates must be expressed as numerals. "July eight, 19 eighty" instead of "July 8, 1980" costs two errors on a single date.
17. Each wrong or incorrectly rendered number. 1966 for 1996. Or "700 twenty" for 720.
The Families Behind the List
Seventeen items is a lot to hold mid-dictation. They collapse into four families:
Content errors (1, 2, 3, 5). Wrong, added, dropped, misnamed. Listening and dictation-control problems.
Structure errors (6, 7). Word order and speaker designation. These show up when speech outruns you.
Mechanics errors (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17). Punctuation, spacing, compounds, capitals, contractions, acronyms, dates, numbers. Eight of the 17, and the most fixable group on the list.
Grammar errors (4, 13, 14). Spelling, tense, number agreement.
Notice where the weight sits. Eight of the seventeen are decided after the audio stops, while you edit with a dictionary and spell-check available. NVRA settles spelling and compounds by Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary and punctuation by The Gregg Reference Manual, both of which you may consult during the 75-minute transcription window.
What Is Explicitly Not an Error
NVRA also publishes 14 things graders will not count, and knowing them stops you from wasting exam time on the wrong problems:
- The serial comma before a conjunction is optional. "A cat, a dog, three birds and some fish" scores zero errors.
- Fractions can be words or numerals. So can "$117" or "117 dollars," "30 percent" or "30%." Dropping the word entirely is a dropped-word error.
- "December 5" or "December 5th," either is fine. So is a missing hyphen in "15 page report."
- Misplaced commas are fine except for the cases named in guideline 8. Paragraphing is not required.
- Proper name spelling is fine if it sounds similar, has the same syllable count, and stays consistent.
How the Count Works Against 95%
Each five-minute leg is scored on its own. Literary at 180 WPM allows 45 errors, jury charge at 200 allows 50, two-voice Q&A at 225 allows 56. Miss on one leg and that leg fails, regardless of the other two.
Graders also stop counting once they hit 15 errors past the maximum, so a failed segment does not come back with a full error map. For $25 per segment, the Test Administration Committee will critique your errors and name the types you made. If you have failed once and cannot figure out why, that is the cheapest diagnostic in the process.
Why Error-Type Feedback Changes How You Practice
An accuracy percentage tells you that you failed. An error-type breakdown tells you what to do tomorrow morning.
Two candidates can both land at 92% on a literary passage and need completely different work. One dropped 30 words because 180 WPM is above her comfortable speed, so her fix is volume. The other heard every word and gave back 34 errors on date commas, city-state commas, and PTA-style acronyms, so her fix is one evening with The Gregg Reference Manual.
Speed practice will not repair a punctuation problem. It will just make you faster at producing the same defective transcript.
This is exactly what VerbatimPrep scores: practice dictation graded against the same 17 error types NVRA graders use, tracked by type over time, so you can see whether your comma errors are trending down before you spend $185 to find out. The speed ladder holds you at a WPM tier until your accuracy holds.
What To Do Next
Take your last practice transcript and hand-code every discrepancy against the 17 categories above. Twenty minutes. Whatever category has the most tally marks is your real bottleneck, and it is probably not the one you assumed.
Then stop doing that by hand. Start free at verbatimprep.com and get the breakdown automatically on every session.
Ready to start? Practice voice writing free with real courtroom audio. VerbatimPrep scores your accuracy in real time and coaches you through every mistake. No credit card. No equipment to buy.
Source: NVRA CVR, CVR-S, CM and CM-S Certification Rules, Policies, and Procedures (rev. Feb. 22, 2026), grading guidelines pp. 15 to 19, nvra.org. Confirm the current standard with NVRA before testing.
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