Many Helpful Articles
I’m just going to go ahead and hijack these articles when I have a moment. With the unpredictability of my schedule, I want to provide some very helpful info for anyone hiring someone for transcription. Believe me, following these tips could make your life easier and your transcription cheaper. 
Number One: Podcasts
There are a variety of reasons why you might want your podcast transcribed so that you have a written as well as an audio/video version on your website. These include diversity (a hearing-impaired person can read the transcript), searchability (someone looking for a specific point won’t be able to search the audio, and the search engines will also ’see’ the transcript but not see the keywords in your audio), and speed (it’s quicker for someone to read through, skipping to the bits that interest them, than to listen to the entire audio).
This article provides tips on recording a podcast, some of which relate to the general process including the broadcast, and some of which specifically relate to a future transcription.
- Follow all the general guidelines for recording for transcription given in my other articles.
- Permissions. Get permission from your interviewees to be recorded, broadcast and transcribed. You should have their verbal permission on the recording (even if that part isn’t broadcast)
- Music. If you intend using music in the edited final version of your podcast, ensure that you have the necessary licenses.
- Brief the transcriber – You need to tell your transcriptionist what kind of transcription you require from your podcast (see the transcription type page on our website) and also whether you need the verbal confirmation of acceptance to be recorded, any general pre-interview chat or instructions transcribed, musical interludes noted, etc. Most transcriptionist have a standard format for the transcript, but if you have a specific format used on your website they should be able to work to that if briefed.
- Phones. Make sure you and your interviewee both have mobile phones turned off, and make sure that if you’re in your office your phone is diverted so that you won’t be disturbed.
- Prepare your interview carefully. Divide your questions into logical sections , make sure you have plenty of open questions (questions that can’t be answered as yes/no or in one word), and do your best to cut down on the ‘filler’ words like ‘um’, ‘er’ etc. They can be edited out of the transcript but they will still appear on your broadcast.
- Brief your interviewees – tell them the subjects you’ll be covering in the podcast and maybe give them a copy of your planned questions, while letting them know that you might not stick strictly to the script as you want the freedom to follow the conversation. (It’s useful to give the transcriptionist a copy of your interview guide as well.)
- Editing pauses During the recording try and pause for a few seconds between each answer and the next question, or when you go on to a different topic. If you make a mistake, just pause and start again. This is a hard technique to master but it will make any later editing much easier. The pause also makes sure the interviewee has said all they want to say.
- Clarify any visuals – if the interviewee shows you a diagram, photograph or document, say what it is for the interview, as of course it won’t be visible on the transcript, and if you’re sending out an audio only broadcast it won’t work there either; so say what it is.
- Names and places: You obviously don’t want to stop the interview to ask people to spell things out so that they can appear correctly in the transcript, so make a note of them and then ask for spellings at the end of the recording.
This article is copyright, Anne Hickley, 2007.
Number Two: Dictation
- Use a noise-cancelling microphone if available. These cut down any background noise and aim to record only the voices speaking near to them.
- Dictate in a quiet room, preferably alone and with as little background noise as possible. Avoid shuffling papers or tapping a keyboard while dictating as this can obscure your voice.
- Speak clearly and don’t rush, although there’s no need to deliberately slow down from your normal speaking voice
- You may not need to give any punctuation at all, as the transcriptionist can put this in for you, but if you’re going to give punctuation make sure you give ALL the punctuation. It’s quite disconcerting for the transcriptionist if you read a couple of paragraphs, then throw in the odd comma and full stop and then stop punctuating again. You can give all punctuation or just give full stops, quote marks and paragraphs, and allow the transcriptionist to decide where to put in commas, semi colons etc.
- If you want the work produced to a standard format, send your transcriptionist a template or a copy of a piece of work formatted in the say way that you want this transcript formatted. Your transcriptionist can work to a variety of different templates provided by you. Just state which one at the beginning. E.g. ‘This is an email’ will tell the transcriptionist to use your email template.
- Spell all names (at least the first time) including people’s and place names. Remember even ‘obvious’ names might be spelt more than one way e.g. Stephen Brown or Steven Browne.
- If you require capitalisation of words that are not names do say so. Try to say the capitalisation before the word (e.g. ‘The (capital R) Regulations state that …’ instead of ‘The Regulations (capital R) state that …’ If you have words that, in your context are always going to be capitalised, you can say so at the beginning. ‘In the transcription the word Act will always be spelt with a capital letter.’
- State ‘new heading’ when you want a new heading put in, prior to giving the heading title. E.g. ‘New heading: Focus Groups. To transcribe focus groups you will need …’ The Transcriptionist will then understand that ‘Focus Groups’ is the heading, and continue the remainder in a new paragraph below this.
- If you want numbered paragraphs or a numbered list, state this before starting the list. E.g. ‘Numbered list. One. The bride’s veil. Two, the groom’s buttonhole’ will be transcribed as:
- The bride’s veil
- The groom’s buttonhole
- If you make a mistake you can rewind and speak over the error to correct it, but if it’s only a small error it may be easier and less time-consuming to simply correct it on the tape e.g ‘Focus Groupings, sorry, Focus GROUPS, are easier to control if you …’ will be understood as ‘Focus groups will be easier to control if you …’
This article is copyright, Anne Hickley, 2007.
Number Three: Disciplinary Hearings
First and foremost it is vitally important to explain to the person in the hearing that you want to record the meeting, and get their permission to record. In some cases they may also wish to record the meeting, and you may be able to agree to make one recording and have it transcribed by an independent outsourced transcription agency, who then sends a copy back to both parties. Such an agreement may actually help to start to repair what has seemed like an irrevocable communication breakdown between the two parties.
It is also important to make the best quality recording possible, because as a rule a verbatim transcription (in which every um, er, laugh, cough etc. is transcribed) is required. This is because it helps to appreciate the finer nuances of what’s being said; it may also help to distinguish truth from lies, and will clearly indicate any hesitations and faltering. In order to have your transcript as complete as possible you will need a good quality recording, because where the recording is poor quality the transcriptionist will be unable to hear all the words. If words are missing in areas that could be significant, the whole point of creating a transcript will have been defeated.
In order to produce a good quality recording I would strongly recommend using a digital recording method. Please see our website or some of the other articles I have written for full information on digital recording, why it is the best method and how to get started.
It is very useful to start the meeting in a formal way, stating who is present and their roles in the meeting. An example might be: ‘ The purpose of the disciplinary hearing is to discuss the incident of the 12 July 2007, which may have constituted a breach of the disciplinary procedure. Present at the meeting are: June Clements, Chief Executive, MyCompany; John Doe, General Manager; Jane Smith, PA to the Chief Executive and note taker; Mark Alumbi, observer and representative for John Doe.’
Assuming everyone knows each other then you clearly don’t want to start a disciplinary procedure by asking everyone round the table to introduce themselves, in the same way as you might in a more informal situation, so this introduction helps the transcriptionist to clarify who’s speaking. It can also be helpful to include a note when you send your recording on the lines of ‘the person who has had the hearing brought against them is John Doe. He and the Chief Executive, June Clements, do most of the talking. Jane Smith only makes the occasional comment to clarify an issue and Mark Alumbi only speaks twice near the end.’
Confidentiality is obviously a major issue with disciplinary procedures. Most outsourced transcription companies will have their own policy on confidentiality, but will also be happy to sign a specific confidentiality agreement with you.
Make sure you agree a specific turnaround time with the outsourcing agency – bearing in mind that it might cost you more if you need a very fast turnaround time, and also that verbatim transcription will cost more than otherwise. You may choose to have what we call ‘intelligent verbatim’ instead, but please make sure you discuss this with your chosen agency so that they know what is required.
And finally, if you have started to build bridges in a small way by agreeing to send the transcript to the person in the hearing, make sure that you do it – or you’ll be in worse position than when you started!
This article is copyright, Anne Hickley, 2007.
Number Four: Verbatim or Not Verbatim?
Here are some brief examples.
Verbatim
So, anyway, you know, I ‘m planning to start the um IT project in er … round about … no definitely on the er, 13 September this year. It’s tricky though – know what I mean? So it’d be good if you could all er sort of confirm kind of thing. Know what I mean?
Intelligent Verbatim
I’m planning to start the IT project on the 13 September this year. It’s tricky though, so it’d be good if you could all confirm.
Edited
I’m planning to start the IT project on 13 September this year. It is tricky though, so it would be good if you could all confirm that you are able to make that date.
You can see that considerably more typing is required to complete the verbatim transcript, and in the context of a business meeting it is far more of a hindrance than a help when reading it back. It’s much easier to make sense of the intelligent verbatim version, so it’s easier to transcribe, cheaper and a more useful end product. A real win-win situation!
There are occasions when verbatim is required – perhaps for legal reasons, or in a training course where you’re looking at the language used, but if you really don’t need it, don’t end up paying for it!
This article is copyright, Anne Hickley, 2007.
Number Five: Retainers
The way a retainer contract generally works is that you agree to send in a certain amount of work per month, which you pay for in advance at a slightly discounted rate. You would need to establish a working relationship with a transcription service first, to make sure that you were both happy with working together. This also helps you to establish with a greater degree of certainty how much transcription you may have each month.
Suppose you anticipate having about ten hours of transcription recording every month. You would first work on a pay as you go basis with the transcription service, who may charge work in a variety of ways – per line, per character, per key stroke, per page, per audio minute or per hour of time taken. At Penguin Transcription we charge per audio minute for digital recordings or per hour of time taken for analogue tapes. However the time taken can vary depending on the quality of the recordings and a number of other factors (see my other articles for more information on this) so your transcription service will need to establish how long your recordings take on average. If your recordings are clear it will probably take about four hours to transcribe each hour of recording, so in this example you are looking at 40 hours of work per month. Or if based on an audio minute basis you’d be looking at 10 hours of recording = 600 minutes of recording, so 600 multiplied by the per audio minute rate.
You would then sign a retainer agreement stating that you agree to pay that amount in advance each month, at a discounted rate agreed with your transcription service. Some services will agree to carry over a small percentage of those hours to the following month if they are not all used, while others will require you to start afresh each month. Normally any extra hours you require, over and above the number stated in the retainer contract, are charged at the standard rate, which is why it’s so important to establish the amount you’re going to need before going in to the retainer agreement.
Retainer agreements will vary with different providers so, as with any contract, do check carefully and be prepared to negotiate for the right agreement for your organization.
This article is copyright, Anne Hickley, 2007.
Number Six: What’s in a Bargain?
When pricing up your options the most important thing to remember is that it’s just not possible to type as fast as you speak. Even an experienced transcriptionist will be able to average four times as long for a good, clear one-to-one interview – so an hour of recording will take an average of four hours to transcribe. (Industry standards obtained from the Industry Production Standards Guide (I998), published by OBC, Columbus, OH, USA). But a poor quality recording will take much longer. So how can you make sure that your transcript is clear, in order to get an affordable transcription price? Basically, the easier you make the transcription for the transcriptionist, the more likely they are to be able to give you an affordable transcription quote.
First of all, use the best transcription equipment you can afford, and make sure it’s right for your needs. This means that for interviews you should have a recorded with an external microphone rather than one built into the recorder, which is only designed to pick up dictation. For focus groups you should have several microphones so that all participants are audible, and for conferences the speakers should have good microphones and there should also be people in the audience with ‘roving’ microphones to take around to any audience members wanting to ask a question.
Always try to make sure that you are recording in a quiet environment. Open windows can cause big problems unless you have a ‘noise cancelling’ microphone, which many digital ones are these days. So can air conditioning, so if you do have an air conditioning unit in the room try to ensure your speakers are not situated close to it. If conducting interviews by phone, and assuming that you have arranged these in advance (and asked permission to record, of course) then it’s helpful to ask your interviewee to try to make sure they’re in a quiet environment too!
If you are interviewing and you want the names included then it is helpful to spell out your interviewee’s name at the beginning of the recording, before starting the interview, and speak out any information you would like on the transcript header e.g. the date, the job title of your interviewee etc. For conferences a speaker list and also a delegate list, if there will be audience questions, can save the transcriptionist a lot of time in trying to work out names and organisations.
During the interview, unless you need to interrupt in order to take back control of the interview, try not to speak over your interviewee. Often in a normal conversation we say ‘yeah, yeah, yeah’ or ‘right’ or ‘OK’ more to indicate we’re listening than for any other reason. Every time you say that you are likely to be obscuring a much more important word or group of words spoken by your interviewee. And in conferences or panel discussions, if one speaker is giving a talk (i.e. without interruptions, not a discussion) make sure everyone else’s microphones are turned off. I have, in the past, had to mark whole sentences or even paragraphs of a talk as inaudible, because all I could hear were two panel members chatting about their holidays or little Jonny’s operation, and not the speaker!
Most transcriptionists work in a standard format, whether that be tabular, tabbed, interviews shown as initials or full names etc. Again most are happy to work to your specifications, but the standard format might well be cheaper, so think carefully about whether you need something different or not. Find out what the standard format is in advance if it concerns you, and you may be able to adapt it to your needs.
Finally, give some serious thought to whether or not you need a verbatim transcription. Verbatim transcription includes every repeated word, every ‘um’ and ‘erm’, all those ‘filler’ phrases like ‘you know’ and ‘know what I mean’ that may be repeated a hundred times in one interview, and can also include pauses, coughs, throat clearing etc. if required. Needless to say, this takes longer. If the transcriptionist can filter out all this stuff the transcript is quicker. In my company the cheapest level is what we call ‘intelligent verbatim’ which cuts out all these fillers but leaves the rest exactly as it’s spoken. Different transcriptionists work this differently though, so always check when you’re phoning for your quote. You can find detailed information about our editing levels on our website.
There are, of course, occasions when verbatim is required – depending on your topic it might be required for legal reasons, or you might be studying the language. But if you really don’t need it, don’t end up paying for it!
And finally, remember that the cheapest transcription quote might not be the most affordable one in the end. There is an oft-quoted phrase: if you pay peanuts you get monkeys. Will it really be cost-effective to send your hard-won interviews to the cheapest service if what comes back is gobbledygook and you have to go through the whole thing correcting every other word? How much time will you then waste that could have been spent more productively? Recommendation is always the ideal way to find a service, but if no one you know can recommend a transcription service then look for testimonials. A good company with a strong track record should always be able to provide these. If you’re still not sure, ask questions and base your decision on the quality of the answers. Things you might like to ask are: turnaround time (when will you get the transcripts), confidentiality procedures, whether they have experience in your field, what the standard format is etc.
This article is copyright, Anne Hickley, 2007.
Number Seven: General Transcription Info
What does a transcriptionist do?
A transcriptionist takes audio recordings, whether they be on tape or digitally recorded, and creates a typed transcript of the recording. Such recordings may be dictation (one person speaking), interviews (one or two people being interviewed), focus groups (a group of people under guided discussion), meeting recordings etc.
What’s so special about that?
A transcriptionist is more than ‘just’ a typist because s/he is doing more than just typing what’s on a written page. The transcriptionist has to understand the content of the recording in order to be able to punctuate it correctly and correctly spell homophones (words that sound the same but are spelt differently). The transcriptionist may also need knowledge of a particular vocabulary (e.g. for medical or legal transcription) and a general transcriptionist still needs a better than average vocabulary and general knowledge, in order to correctly pick up on things like place names, names of events, technical details etc. A transcriptionist these days is probably also an expert researcher on Google – a great way to fill those general knowledge gaps provided you know how to do it properly! Of course this person is also an expert typist with a fast typing speed – audio typing takes longer than copy typing for precisely the reasons listed above, but the industry standard for a fully experienced transcriptionist is that it takes about an hour to transcribe fifteen minutes of good quality interview recording (a bit less for dictation and more for groups or for recordings with ‘issues’ as indicated below.) Even someone who touch types may find that without transcription experience it takes much, much longer. Finally the transcriptionist also needs to have excellent attention to detail in order to proofread the work thoroughly before handing it over to the client.
Why outsourcing works
If your staff are not trained transcriptionists and you have transcription required on an ad hoc basis, then the reasons listed above should make the answer obvious. A meeting transcription might take a trained transcriptionist a full day to transcribe, so a non-trained member of staff could easily take two days – two days when they are unable to complete their normal day-to-day functions. The results may also be disappointing if their grammar and ability to punctuate is not up to scratch. The outsourced transcriptionist will complete you work without taking anyone away from their normal duties.
It is also useful where company politics might come into play! I have recently transcribed a number of disciplinary interviews etc. for a variety of clients who preferred that their secretarial staff were not party to the contents of the meetings. Also if you do not require transcription on a regular basis you may not have the relevant equipment, and this can be quite costly. If recording on to digital formats there is freely available software that will allow your staff to listen to the recording, rewind, play it back at varying speeds etc. but without a transcription foot pedal the time taken to transcribe is increased even further.
Finding a good transcription company to outsource your work to
Anyone can call themselves a transcriptionist so how do you know if you’re going to get a decent service? There are a number of things you can do – and some you shouldn’t! One of the don’ts is asking for a CV. Why not? Because a transcription service is a business, not your potential employee. You wouldn’t ask a solicitor, estate agent, builder or chiropodist for a CV, so why ask a transcriptionist? Instead go by recommendation, just as you would do for another business, or if you don’t know anyone who can recommend a good transcriptionist look for testimonials. Many transcription services show these on their websites.
Another don’t is to ask for the transcriptionist to take a test – frankly, if they have time and inclination to do this they’re probably not very busy – and while that might be because they’ve just started up a business but have years of excellent experience (if you’re lucky!) it might also be that they’re simply not very good. If you do require a test then you should expect to pay for it at the normal rate.
If you have a significant number of recordings that are going to need transcribing in a short period of time then you might want to ask what procedures the service has in place to project manage large jobs like this, whether they employ people directly, subcontract etc. If they subcontract, you might need to check their confidentially procedures to ensure that this won’t be an issue. If all your questions are answered quickly and positively then the chances are you’re talking to someone who is familiar with working with such projects!
Other things you should be asking are price (obviously) and turnaround time (when they can get the recordings back to you). Do bear in mind that a good service might well be a busy service so if you can book in advance of wanting to send your recordings, so much the better.
Questions your potential transcription service should be asking you include: what kind of transcription is it (interview, focus group etc.), how long is your recording, what kind of recording (e.g. standard cassette tape, digital recording in .wma format), what’s the recording quality like, is the speech clear, do you need a verbatim transcription and when do you need your transcription returned?
If you have a specific requirement regarding formatting now is the time to say so, as most services have their own standard formats which will be used unless you state otherwise, although they’re very happy to format in any way you require.
This article is copyright, Anne Hickley, 2007.
Number Eight: Telephone Recording
- ALWAYS make sure you ask the interviewee’s permission before you record. It is illegal in many countries to make a telephone recording without doing this first. It’s sensible to do this prior to starting the interview itself … in case they say no!
- Although these tips are not about recording equipment, do make sure that whatever equipment you get is right for the phone you will be recording from!
- Make sure the person you’re planning to interview is expecting your call at a particular time, and make sure you know who’s ringing who and what the preferred number is e.g. office, home or mobile.
- In order to save everyone time and yourself telephone costs, send your interview some information in advance about your research topic, perhaps including a rough interview guide. This can also save transcription costs because you won’t be having the initial preamble transcribed, although a good transcriptionist will always start and finish the transcription in a specific place if you remember to ask in advance!
- Try to include in your advanced information, especially if you are contacting your interviewee by mobile, a suggestion that s/he finds somewhere quiet to conduct the interview, and make sure you do the same. Background noise will severely reduce the quality of the recording and may actually mean it’s not possible to transcribe it with any level of accuracy.
- Test your equipment! Whether you’re using an analogue or digital landline, a mobile or VOIP make sure you’ve tested in advance, preferably calling the same type of phone that your interviewee has asked you to call on. E.g. if they have asked you to call their mobile, call a friend’s mobile prior to the interview and check that you get a successful recording. The most likely problem is echo, especially when calling internationally, so check out your recording equipment to see if there’s anything you can do to reduce this.
- If the recording is not going well due to signal problems don’t be afraid to ask if it’s OK to call them back on another number for the remainder of the interview.
This article is copyright, Anne Hickley, 2007.
I think that’s enough for now. I know I’m giving this woman some publicity and she is the dreaded competition, but hey, she’s giving me lots of material that I believe helps ALL of us in this business. Plus, this will help any professional that may need a transcription service in making some decisions that will help bring down your cost and up the productivity of the person you hire for your transcription.
Thanks for reading!
Anne Hickley said,
January 22, 2008 at 8:36 pm
Hey Heather, ‘this woman’ and ‘the dreaded competition’ here. I’m delighted to see that you found my articles so helpful and I just wanted to say thank you for reposting them. I’m really enjoying having a browse around your blog!
FYI I’ve been in the business about five or six years now and I’ve managed to totally avoid Elance, Guru and all these other bidding sites. A good active blog (and yours is great), a good search-engine friendly website and away you go … eventually. ;o) Mind you, at the start I was lucky enough to make friends with a wonderful transcriptionist who was overloaded with work and happy to pass it on to me for a while! That eased the painful start.