Free transcription guidelines

In the free transcription guidelines I will outline areas that you need to ascertain before you commence a piece of transcription work.

So you need to know:

. how many people will be speaking
. is it a focus group, a presentation, a Q&A, etc
. do you know the names of the speakers
. does the client need names specified in the document?
. where in the world is the client situated, ie: which form of English will you use, American or British, you know: colour/color, specialise/specialize, check/cheque, etc, etc.
. how does the client want you to deal with inaudible words, unsure spellings, tape/audio glitches, etc.
. margins, page numbering, spacing, double/single, will there be headings, etc.

Basically I will expand on the above and more in the free transcription guidelines below:

Layout of particular transcription

This depends on how many people are speaking in the audio, what kind of an audio it is,etc. Check out free transcription templates for most common formats that I have used in the past. The templates do not include layouts for straight letter typing or templates on particular individual report formats that clients may need.

Most commonly Q&A is used. But your transciption template will change if the client wants speaker names put in, it's a focus group, it's a presentation, etc. Most clients supply speaker names, but this can get awfully difficult if there are lots of speakers and they forget to introduce themselves before they speak each time. Don't worry you're not a mind reader.

No matter what template or layout I am using I always put END OF TRANSCRIPT at the bottom of every document. Sometimes a transcript ends abruptly and without these words at the end it won't be known if there is information missing or not.

Time stamping for digital audio files

Time stamping is used to enable the document to be edited. Audio files display their file length in numbered format on your transcription platform and you can track every second of the audio. So for example I type through the document and time stamp anything that I didn't get, hear or understand or know the spelling of. So if I type and get to say the 24:22 minute mark in the document and I can't understand something there, I put *24:22 in place of the missed bit.

Then I go back at the end of the typing to see if I can get the missed word. 50% of the time you get it the second time around. Google is your best friend for place names, difficult terminology, etc. Then if I am left with some time stamps in the document, which is highly inevitable, I highlight the 24:22 in yellow for the client. The client may then wish to listen to the audio on his end and see if he can get the missed word.

Inaudible words

Some clients know some audio is not good so may just instruct you to put (inaudible) in place of missed words. I also time stamp inaudibles the first time around for myself and if I then hear the word properly the second time around I type it in and if I dont, then I change the time stamp to (inaudible).

Inaudibles are subjective and difficult to define. You can waste a lot of time here trying to decide if it's an inaudible word or a word worthy of a time stamp. Basically if the word/phrase is clear but you don’t know what it is, then time stamp it and if the word/phrase is not clear, then (inaudible) it.

Then sometimes clients want the inaudibles time stamped as well as they may be able to fill in the blanks.

Glitches

Sometimes there is an audio glitch (or tape glitch for cassette transcription) and I just put [glitch] or [tape glitch] in that section of the document.

Spelling and grammar

If you do not know how to spell a name put '[name]' and time stamp it, eg: '*[name]12:16'. If you can get the start or part of the name put eg: '*[Sandra name]12:16 or [S name] if you can hear the first letter. There is no need to time stamp all occurences of a name, only the first occurence and just use the square brackets for subsequent uses of this name. The client may globally replace the name when they receive the transcribed document.

If there is a difficult name and I can hear it, but I don't know how it is spelt, then I type it phonetically and still time stamp it.

Make sure you are using the correct spelling according to your client requirements, ie: British or American English.

Take care with your spelling, ie: their/there, your/you're, its/it's, council/counsel, principle/principal, etc.

Verbatim or not

Sometimes a client may want the document typed verbatim, ie: word for word, exactly what you hear. This is necessary in anything legal, police files, insurance investigations, etc. And they mean everything, ums,ahs, hm, etc.

Most of the time clients would not want these words typed. And also ask if the client wants word like 'you know' and words like that typed, that people tend to use all the time throughout their speaking.

Formatting

See if the client needs footers, page numbers, heading, double spacing, etc in the files. I think as a general rule always page number on the bottom right or top right anyway.

Hopefully these free transcription guidelines can assist you when it comes to providing a quality professional transcript back to your client.

These free transcription guidelines are not the be all and end all of guidelines, they are just that, a guide.

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