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Transcription - how to guide
Thread poster: Kristin Fischer
Kristin Fischer
Kristin Fischer  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 05:26
German to English
+ ...
Nov 9, 2014

I know this might be a rather menial question but I just wanted some clarification on the topic.
How do you do a proper transcription?
I am especially being confused by the term 'verbatim'. To me this means writing everything down exactly as it is being said but:
- do you really do that? including repetitions (stutters) and uns and errs or do you try and even out the sentence (without altering meaning and grammar of course)?
- and what to do about dialects? Do you just sp... See more
I know this might be a rather menial question but I just wanted some clarification on the topic.
How do you do a proper transcription?
I am especially being confused by the term 'verbatim'. To me this means writing everything down exactly as it is being said but:
- do you really do that? including repetitions (stutters) and uns and errs or do you try and even out the sentence (without altering meaning and grammar of course)?
- and what to do about dialects? Do you just spell out what the say or do you convert it to the standard spelling of the word?

Thanks a lot for your help. ▲ Collapse
 
José Henrique Lamensdorf
José Henrique Lamensdorf  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 00:26
English to Portuguese
+ ...
In memoriam
This is the client's call Nov 9, 2014

They should tell you what they want ir for.

Is it an interview for a magazine?

Is it a sample of what/how people say in a dialect's region?

Or is it (as I saw on a job offered to me) a telephone tap recording? It had 100 hours of pristine audio. If all foul language interjections were removed, possibly some 80 hours would remain.
 
kmtext
kmtext
United Kingdom
Local time: 04:26
English
+ ...
Discuss it with your client. Nov 10, 2014

Unless otherwise instructed, I would include all suttering, repetitions, ums and ahs, and if the speakers are using slang, I would retain that.

It's always best to discuss it with the client beforehand, because there have been times when a client has asked for a verbatim transcript and then asked why I'd included repetitions and false starts. It would seem that verbatim doesn't mean the same thing to everyone.
 


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Transcription - how to guide







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