What You Need to Know About Transcription and Transcribers?
19 July 2016

What You Need to Know About Transcription and Transcribers?

If you have some files that you need to have in a written format, like interviews, radio shows, lectures, presentations, or even a simple conversation, all you need is a good transcriber. I have been working as one for quite a long time, and transcribing is one of those tasks that I am eager to take up every time.

The job of a transcriber consists of converting an audio file to a written file, in other words, a document. It can be a hard and tiring job sometimes because the audio quality and/or the accent of the speaker may be a bit difficult to understand, and it becomes really tiring when timestamping is required. Nevertheless, all of this makes it even more satisfying to hand out a fully transcribed document to a client.

All new transcribers should keep in mind that you can’t really predict the time you are going to spend working before actually opening the audio file to listen for a bit. Some factors have a huge influence on your work, for example:

  • How many people are talking
  • How fast their speech is
  • How clear the audio recording is (a lot of noise, connection problems, etc.)
  • How clearly the people speak (overlapping voices, accents, mumbling, yelling, etc.)

When I first started working ages ago, the transcribing process was not as convenient as it is today. Because tapes were used, we had to come up with a way to conveniently stop or rewind the recording while typing. As a result, a pedal was used to help us speed up the writing process. Fortunately, present-day transcribers have an abundance of modern technologies to aid them. At the moment, all you need is a computer because the keyboard can serve as a good replacement for the pedals and there are all kinds of software that can help a great deal. I personally use https://gotranscript.com/tool, which even saves the file every 30 seconds and can pause the recording while typing.

It’s important to keep in mind that a professional transcriber will do their best to transcribe a file as accurately as possible and will make sure that you have a text that’s a pleasure to read. If there is a presentation, a talk show, a lesson, a lecture or anything else that you want to be made into a text document, don’t hesitate and contact a transcriber who will be gladly up for the task.

You can find all the prices right here: https://gotranscript.com/pricing.