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Advanced Transcription Writing

Posted 1 Week Ago at 04:00 PM by wingman  
Transcription companies are often handed assignments which require more attention than their regular tasks. Good online transcription companies hire staff with advanced language skills to meet these demands. The staff members make use of all of the equipment, software tools and editing equipment necessary in order to present the company’s clients with flawless masterpieces.

Advanced transcription writing techniques can be likened to making a pizza! The raw data is punched and pummeled until the consistency is just right before being rolled, tossed, leveled and decorated ahead of the subjection to intense heat. The final product still hot off the presses is hand delivered by email or to the client’s account! Let’s examine these transcription (pizza making) techniques a little closer.

A client has just decided to convert a digitally captured event like a legislative meeting, university lecture, medical conference, media broadcast or interview to a text document. They search online and painstakingly chose an online transcription company that offers audio to text conversions where large files (raw data) of varying file formats can be uploaded complete with all notes and instructions for handling, up to a maximum uploading capacity of 800 megabytes.

Each time-stamped online request with delivery times has been categorized as follows:


RUSH -> 4-hour turnaround with same day delivery
9AM delivery -> Delivery next business morning at 9AM
1 day -> Next business day within 24 hours
Regular -> Delivery in two business days
Economy -> Delivery within five business days

Depending on the content, file formats received and expected turnaround timelines, a competent transcriber is assigned the task of capturing a high-quality verbatim version of the digitally recorded piece that is an accurate reflection of what was said on the audio and the way in which it was delivered to the audience.

Good transcription writers especially with rush jobs have to depend on various software packages and other devices for speech recognition, scribe transcription, audio playback and dictation aids. This is the first writing stage (punching and pummeling) and the first draft of the transcriptions document is checked against the original audio to ensure that all the audio has been transformed to text. Unclear segments are replaced by the ListenLink™ feature which allows a link to the actual audio to be inserted at the unintelligible point. The audio to text converted document is then forwarded to the editor.

In situations where the customer prefers the text to read like a book and is not inclined to have the verbatim version, the editor’s task is extensive (rolling, tossing, leveling and decorating) and advanced transcription editing techniques are employed to clean up the first draft.

These techniques include:-
· General correction of grammatical structure, punctuation and the spelling version for the intended location.
· Keeping the reading level, point of view and style of the audio consistent with the use of language that is appropriate for the intended reader.
· Minimizing the use of modern-day jargon and verbosity while clarifying with text any ambiguity in the vocabulary or syntax.

Editing transcripts is a labor of love and most editors are meticulous and pay attention to even small details. The final stage of fire (intense heat) comes when the project manager reviews the Work-in-Progress and gives the transcribed document their seal of approval.

Transcriptions are difficult for anyone who has not been well trained in this field. There are too many areas where significant errors can be made. It is best to contract out any advanced transcription writing to the transcription professionals.
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The Perfect Word's Avatar
This is interesting. I've never heard transcription referred to as "transcription writing."

This sounds like a large company with many transcriptionists, but there are a lot of one-person VA-type transcription companies out here that handle things very differently as well as VAs who offer transcription as part of their service offerings. And I think the smaller businesses can offer a much more personal approach with targeted support, making the client (whether individual or business) feel more like a person than just another project.

I've never had a client want a sound file put in for unintelligible or inaudible notations, but do have one client that loved my idea of inserting a time stamp into the transcript for these instances.

I do believe that if someone has a large project that needs a quick turnaround (multiple focus group recordings, for example), that the larger transcription companies are probably the way to go most of the time.
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Posted 1 Week Ago at 07:48 PM by The Perfect Word The Perfect Word is offline
 
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