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Posts Tagged ‘transcription’

Verbatim transcription is not always needed or wanted, but it is sometimes very important to the ‘feel’ of the interview or the project at hand.

Verbatim transcription includes the, ‘ah’s', ‘ooh’s', false starts  and even annoying elements like, ‘you know’ or ‘like’.  These elements appear in natural speech for many hundreds of people, but to keeping it in written material is not always necessary.

A false start can also be included in these.  For instance, an individual starts the sentence with one subject, “With the price of food today…” and then change their mind half way through that thought process and restart the idea with, “Essentially cost of food will effect your recipe ingredients.”

As a rule, we don’t normally include those false starts, but can incorporate them pretty easily and will if you request it.  Be prepared to pay just a little extra on verbatim transcription though, as it does take more time to transcribe and definitely more time to proof read. Make sure you let us know if you need that element in your transcription, we would be glad to incorporate that in your pricing and in your final product.

Transcriptionists work hard, and they work diligently. The amazing facts are that their fingers are flying to keep up with your speach, which is in essance, just slightly over half as fast as you can talk.

Get this… the normal human speaks English at approximately 140 words per minute. Most typists clock their skills in at about 60-70 words per minute. Some may be lucky to exceed that but what we are not taking into consideration is the characters that we don’t use in speech. Periods, question marks, quotes, and so much more. These can add up as well.

Most words used are averaged at 4.5 characters per word, that multiplied by the 140 words per minute in speech equals at whopping 630 characters per minute. Figure into that all the characters that typists need to include to make your projects English compliant (approximately 150 extra characters) and you will see 780 characters per minute that your transcriber puts to paper/computer screen.

Now, transcriptionists will type about 60 wpm and multiply that times the average length of a word at 4.5 and we see only a character amount of 270. This doesn’t include the punctuation which might equal around 50 extra characters in that. A total of 330 characters.

The ratio now is more than double of the spoken word vs the written word for each piece of audio we get. A normal transcriptionist will count on spending more than 2 minutes on each minute of transcription. Remember that next time you have a job that requires a quick turn around, your transcriber will appreciate it!

If you had the chance to make an investment that would essentially pay for itself would you do it?  That’s exactly what transcribing does for you.  Essentially giving you a viable product that gives those who use it wisely could pay off in unlimited amounts in many creative ways.  Transcription of speakers lectures, seminars, educational endeavors, personal memoirs and so much more can and does provide an element that some may not be aware of.

Speakers with the ability to transcribe their lectures can essentially turn it into an e-book to sell on their website.  With a bit of work, the information they provide can be offered as a teaching tool that some can pass along.  More and more people today want to find easy ways to get direction in what ever subject they are learning. E-books have been extremely popular and there are many good sites that provide even the sales and download capabilities for those who write them.  Your lectures could populate not only the convention hall, but it can also invade the offices and living rooms of those who want to learn more.

Once your lectures and seminars are transcribed, it also gives you a great opportunity to quote yourself through out your website giving tidbits of crucial information that can lead to sales of other products that you offer.  Essentially, making your words the proof-in-the-pudding for those who need to know more about you.  Those quotes can also be shared through your social networking giving you and your followers food for thought and passing on the words of advice and wisdom to others giving you the ability to extend your network beyond what you might have possibly thought.

Written words, transcribed, also provide an extensive element for your blogs and quality website content.  Why re-invent the wheel when you already have the wheel in front of you. Use it… Extend your blogs into parts giving your readers the need and want to return to your site to read more.  An Internet saga if you will that not only educates but produces a loyal following, a strong network, quality website content and best of all, a great way to supplement your income.

We welcome new ways that people have used their transcription to help make them successful.  Feel free to drop us a line at support@protypists.com.

All transcriptionists have different elements and coding that they can use to help make your manuscript or document read easier.  In order to get what you need from your transcriber, offering the following information helps us identify what needs to be done for your particular project.

1. Time stamp:  Do you need or wish us to time stamp your document?  Where would you like it done, beginning of each page, each speaker?
2. Spacing: Would you like your document double spaced for easier editing?
3. Names: Providing us with the names and spelling of those names of not only the speaker but those listed or named in the document provides us with a key to go by making our job to transcribe seamless. Do you want the speakers to be identified?
4. Number of Speakers:  The number of different individuals that you will be hearing in on the audio.  Any accents or language elements of each one that might help us identify the speaker helps as well.
5. Verbatim or Grammatically:  Do you want the transcription to be verbatim (word for word, noise for noise) or would you like those false starts and “um’s” and “ah’s” to be edited out for easy reading?

Net time you talk to your transcriber, make sure you give them any special instructions up front.  These are just guidelines, but make sure that if you have something in particular you need done or transcribed in a particular way, let us know right away.  This helps us handle it once and we make sure you get a perfect document.

Transcriptionists in the industry all have different ways of handling their own elements, and these are just guidelines to know what you can ask for. We aren’t limited and so don’t be afraid to ask if we can do something special for your transcribing project.