Students with physical or disabilities may require assistance with the transcription of verbal information into written form. Scribes are also used to assist students with learning disabilities who have difficulty with the mechanics of essay writing within the context of an essay-format exam. When appropriate, scribing may be done on a word processor.
Scribe Responsibilities
- Scribes writes verbatim only information provided by the student.
- Spelling and grammar is the responsibility of the student and should not be done by scribe. Student should proofread and dictate changes and spelling.
- Scribes insert all marks of punctuation (including new paragraphs) at the request of the student. This can be accomplished while the student is dictating his responses or may be done after the initial draft is complete and the student is making final revisions.
- Scribes must clarify all questions using non-leading statements, such as, “Where shall I place the journal entry?” or “How shall I spell that word?”.
- For exams that include computation (e.g. carrying of numbers, adding and subtracting digits, etc.), scribes must follow the instructions provided by the student.
- If a student needs to have his response read back, scribes do so verbatim (or word-for-word) once the exam is complete. Any changes to the original draft are made at the request of the student.
- Scribes do not provide explanations or interpretations of exam questions. Requests of this nature are directed to the instructor.
- Scribes are careful not to react on occasions when the student dictates a response thought to be incorrect.
- On occasions when there is a disagreement between scribes and students regarding the scribe’s responsibilities, the Disability Advisor should be immediately contacted.