General Transcription: Creating a Reader-Friendly Document

If you are a general transcriptionist, what do your clients expect from you?

Many of our clients use their transcripts as standalone documents, i.e., training manuals, as part of their product. This is particularly important for companies who offer online audio/video programs where transcripts are bundled into the final package offered to their students.

Sometimes this may pose a challenge to the general transcriptionist because while their transcript is perfect in the sense of accuracy of the spoken word, it may not be perfect in the sense of readability.

There is usually an agreement between the transcriptionist and the speaker as to how the final transcript is to be offered as a paid product. The transcriptionist is normally expected to edit for clarity, reduce repetitions and make the speaker sound as intelligent as possible, without losing the speaker’s personality or the use of excessive paraphrasing.

Here are a few tips:

Chunk up your paragraphs as much as possible. Six to eight lines is much easier to digest than 14 to 18 lines. Having said that, if it’s not possible to reduce the paragraph to such an extreme degree, never try to break up a single, logical thought. It’s okay to have longer paragraphs when necessary.

Put yourself in the reader’s shoes. If what you just typed doesn’t make sense to you, it likely won’t make sense to the reader either. Listen again. If you still don’t get it, don’t just type in any old thing… mark it as [inaudible] with the time stamp, of course, so the speaker can fill in the blanks as to what they had originally said.

When you are given a template, use it to its full advantage. Make sure you maintain the proper font, paragraph spacing, line spacing, etc. according to the instructions you were given.

Use your common sense. As you listen to the speaker(s), make sure you understand the essence of what they are saying. When you do your final proofread (which you should always do, by the way) sometimes you may need to proofread to your own audio as well.

It doesn’t really matter whether you can type 40 words per minute, 60 words per minute or 90 words per minute. Your success as a general transcriptionist and your ability to turn an audio/video into a reader-friendly document depends more on your listening ability and your comprehension skills than it does on your typing speed.

Typing 100 words per minute, while impressive, doesn’t really mean much if the reader can’t grasp the overall gist of the content or you can’t portray the main points in your transcript.

As always, I invite your comments and suggestions.

Karen

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