How To Type What Is Being Said

In transcription, it’s important to type what is being said as accurately as possible while still making the transcript readable.

In this lesson, we’ll go over some common transcription terms and how to mark things like stutters, side conversations, speakers talking over each other, and more.

Each company has its own style guide and way of marking speech. And so, while these are some common ways to transcribe text, always use your own company’s style guide and follow their directions.

There are two ways that most companies want their files transcribed: modified verbatim or strict verbatim.

Modified or clean verbatim is where you type out everything that is said, except for the uhs, ums, stutters, and repeats.

This is how the majority of files are transcribed. Sometimes, clients will ask for strict verbatim files, where you include the uhs, ums, stutters, and repeats. Some companies will differ on what is strict verbatim versus modified verbatim.

In this course, all projects will be transcribed using modified verbatim. It’s very common for people to switch their thoughts mid-sentence. You just indicate that with a dash. If it’s a complete thought within a thought, you indicate it with a dash at the beginning and a dash at the end.

A false start is when someone starts a thought but quickly changes it at the beginning of a sentence. I ignore the false start if it’s less than five or six words and doesn’t add any meaning to the transcript. If it adds meaning to the sentence or is longer than five or six words, then I type it out and add a dash at the change of thought.

A side conversation is when a speaker is talking with someone either not involved with the conversation, or having a conversation when the interview isn’t active. These usually occur at the beginning or end of the transcript before or after the interview has begun. They also happen when someone is interrupted by a phone call or something outside of the topic.

Most of the time, you can indicate side conversations with brackets around [side conversation]. Each company handles these differently, and so you need to follow their directions about how to handle them and ask them if you have any questions about whether something is a side conversation or not. Crosstalk is when you have two or more speakers who are talking over each other.

Again, companies handle these differently, but how I mark them is with dashes showing the interruption between speakers. It is also hard to hear both speakers when they talk over each other, and so there are often inaudibles with crosstalk, as well. As you transcribe your audio, you will come across words that you are unfamiliar with the spelling, or words that you think you heard one word, but you’re not sure.

Each company will lay out the style guide for dealing with these. But in these practice files, go ahead and put brackets around words you are unsure of, including the spelling of names or companies. If you can’t make out a word at all, put [inaudible] in brackets.

A good rule of thumb is to listen to a word or phrase three times, and if you still can’t make it out, move on. You are responsible, however, to take the time to research terms like company names and people’s names, as well as things like scientific words, to find out the correct spelling. The best way to do this is through Google or another search engine. We’ve talked about how to type out the audio. Now, we need to talk about polishing the transcript.

If you are serious about becoming a professional transcriptionist, then proofing to audio is a must. This simply means that after you’ve typed out your file, you listen to it again, often at a higher speed, and fix any mistakes or add any inaudibles that you have caught at the end.

This will raise the quality of your transcripts, and as you gain more speed, you will find that it is well worth the time.

When you have finished proofing the audio, the last step is to spell-check your file. You may find that the spell checker is recommending changes, especially grammatical changes, that don’t reflect what was said. This is because Word is used to dealing with written thoughts, which are more formal than speech.

So, feel free to ignore some of the changes that they recommend if you know that it doesn’t reflect the conversation. I know that we’ve gone over a lot of terms and examples in this lesson, but this will help lay the base on how to transcribe.