Speaker 1: Hello, everybody, welcome back to my channel, Jennifer Marie Veo, where I teach you different ways that you can make money online working from home. If you are one of my subscribers, you know that a lot of my videos focus on transcribing, and how to become a paid transcriptionist. This here is my channel. And if you scroll down, you can see I have playlists on transcription jobs for beginners, improving your transcription, English and writing skills, transcription tools, tips and tricks to transcribe faster and get more jobs. And I also have specific playlists on both transcribe me and Rev. Now transcribe me is one of the most popular transcription websites. And that is because they pay higher and they pay more than most other platforms. But it is one of the most difficult platforms to get accepted into. However, it's not impossible. I did get accepted into this, you'll see and I have three different videos. And in two of them, I show my proof of being accepted into transcribe me. So in order to get accepted into transcribe me, you have to pass the test with in the high 90s. And there's like, I believe three or so different audio files, you need to transcribe three or four. And you have to have a percentage of being correct in the high 90s. So like 97 98% for each file. And if you fail one, you have to do it again. And I believe you have three tries. Now I passed it straight away, I didn't fail. And the audio is not difficult to understand. But what people have difficulties with is knowing how to punctuate. And so it is so important to follow the transcribe me style guide to a T and punctuate correctly, because this is why you're probably losing points, because you're not transcribing correctly using the punctuation guide that they want you to use. And that is why I have decided to release this video, it's my punctuation and grammar guide, part one, and all of these rules and guidelines are taken from the official transcribe me style guide PDF. And I've changed it, of course, in my own wording, and added my own examples. So there's extra examples that you can use as you're reading the style guide. And I'm just going to go through four different grammar and punctuation topics in this first part of this video, and that you need to follow these in order to become a transcriptionist for transcribe me. So we're going to discuss run on sentences, sentence fragments, commas and conjunctions, and plurals and possessives and the use of apostrophe s. So let's get started. The first one we're going to talk about is run on sentences, or sentences that go on and on and on forever. And you need to split these up and make them shorter, so that it is easier to read the transcript. So you must do your best to break up run on sentences into several full sentences. In transcripts, it is okay to start a sentence with a conjunction, do your best to ensure sentences are transcribed as smoothly as possible. Okay, so when you are transcribing a file, you cannot control what the person says. If you were writing, you would not start a sentence with a conjunction almost you you shouldn't do that. But because we're transcribing what a person is saying, we can't control the flow of how they speak. So someone might continue a sentence and not never stops using 10 different conjunctions in one sentence. But that is extremely difficult to read. So you need to split it up in a natural way. And I'm going to give you some examples of how you would do this. So let's say we're listening to an audio. And it says, I had a meeting with Tom in the afternoon. And we spoke about what we wanted to do for the conference next week. But Tom said he didn't have many ideas. So I have to do most of the brainstorming. You can see here this is a really long sentence. And it has several different conjunctions we have and we have but we have so. So if we were transcribing this, what we would do is transcribe it as I had a meeting with Tom in the afternoon, comma, and we spoke about what we wanted to do for the conference next week, period. Now you might wonder why I've put a comma here. And that's because these are two different independent clauses or full sentences. And when you're connecting two full sentences like this to complete thoughts, we have to use a comma before the conjunction. Don't worry, I will discuss this later on in the video. Okay. But Tom said he didn't have many ideas. So I have to do most of the brainstorming. So as you can see here, we have split it up into two different sentences. We've used one conjunction here with and, and here we've put a period and capitalize the B and but and started this sentence with but even though you normally wouldn't do that when you were writing, when you're transcribing, it is okay to start a sentence with a conjunction. Okay, the second topic we're going to discuss is sentence fragments. Don't break up long sentences by separating a dependent clause by itself. Dependent clauses are marked by words like because, although or whenever, you might be confused about what is an independent clause and what is a dependent clause. And I will teach you that in a second. Let's first look at this example. So the first one is an example of what you would not do. I love my new job in accounting period, because I have a great boss. This because I have a great boss. So this here is a dependent clause, I'll put a D for dependent clause. And you can separate this sentence from the independent clause and I love my new job in accounting is an independent clause, I'll put an I n for independent clause. Because that sentence can stand alone by itself. You can say I love my new job in accounting period. And that's a complete thought a complete sentence. But because I have a great boss is not a complete sentence. I have a great boss is a complete sentence. But because I have a great boss is a dependent sentence, it needs to be combined with I love my new job in accounting with the independent clause in order for the dependent sentence or the dependent clause to make sense. Okay, so you cannot separate the dependent clause from the independent clause. And when you see words like because although or whenever, this will help you know when the sentence is a dependent clause. So you would transcribe this as I love my new job in accounting because I have a great boss, period. Another example, my husband gets along with his manager, period, although they share many different opinions. Again, this here, although they share many different opinions, what do you think this is? Is this a dependent clause or an independent clause? It's a dependent clause. Again, you see here, these words because although or whenever, give you a tip or some help on when to know if a sentence is a dependent clause or independent clause. So we need to combine my husband gets along with his manager with which is an independent clause with the dependent clause. So we would transcribe this as my husband gets along with his manager, although they share many different opinions, period. Okay. Okay, so now we're going to go over commas and conjunctions. And this is one of the most difficult topics for people. I think a lot of people fail their exams because they don't know when to use commas and commas you use a lot of commas for a lot of different reasons. So you need to know these rules. And specifically the rules that transcribe me wants you to follow for their guidelines. Okay. Before I go into all of these different rules, I want to show you, you can check out my English teaching channel Sparkle English. I was an English language teacher for over seven years in Spain, teaching English to teachers here to students in high school, elementary school. So I've decided to build this channel to help you learn English and improve your level of English. And if you scroll down here, I have three different videos, English Writing Essentials to help you learn how to properly punctuate. I have one video here on eight different comma rules. I have an apostrophe rules video and a quotation marks rules video. And I will be releasing other videos on how to use dashes, hyphens, colons, semicolons, and so forth. Also, I have a whole bunch of different lessons on homophones and homonyms, different words that people spell incorrectly words that sound the exact same, but when people are transcribing, they don't transcribe them properly, like which which which to to to here, here, right, right, through, through, etc. So make sure to subscribe to my channel here for more help, specifically on English writing and listening. So one of the most common transcription mistakes is knowing when and how to use a comma with a conjunction. Here are some of the transcribe me guidelines. Number one, no comma after conjunction. So never use a comma after a conjunction unless it is required for a dependent clause that follows. In this case, you should use a pair of commas surrounding the clause. So for example, here, so my brother decided to move to New York, you can see here, there's a comma after so do not do this. Okay, transcribe me does not want you to put a comma after conjunction. So you would transcribe this as so my brother decided to move to New York. Okay, another example. But comma, I really regret breaking up with him. Again, no comma after conjunction. So just put, but I really regret breaking up with him. Now the next two are both accurate. So and comma, although she was most qualified, comma, Lauren didn't get the promotion. Because we have a dependent clause, remember, we just talked about dependent clauses, you can put a comma, a pair of commas at the beginning and at the end of this dependent clause. Because this is some extra information. And although she was most qualified, Lauren didn't get the promotion. However, you do not have to use a comma here, if you don't want to, okay. So you either have to use two commas, a pair of commas, one to open it and close it, the dependent clause. Or you can do it like this. And although she was most qualified, comma, Lauren didn't get the promotion. Just make sure not to put a comma after the and okay, you can either do it in the beginning and the end of the dependent clause, or just after the dependent clause, but you can't just put it after the end. Okay. Okay, now this is also something that's very important and gets asked a lot. Some interjections and adverbs included at the front or end of your sentences often do require commas. So an adverb, you often know an adverb when a word ends with ly, not all the time, but many different adverbs. So all of these, for example, are our adverbs, fortunately, unfortunately, sadly, okay, and they all end in ly, as you can see. So here are some examples of when we would use a comma after an interjection or an adverb. Well, comma, I'll think about it over the weekend. Fortunately, comma, it didn't rain when we went to the beach. Unfortunately, I can't make it to your wedding. Sadly, he couldn't fly home for the holidays. So in this case, we would use commas after all of these. Okay, the next one is we have to use a comma between two complete sentences. For example, I went to the store, comma, and I bought all the ingredients we need to make dinner. If you're struggling to know whether or not to use a comma, ask yourself, is this a complete sentence? I went to the store. Yes, it is. Is this a complete sentence? I bought all the ingredients we need to make dinner. Yes, it is. So we will put a comma because these are two complete sentences. Now another note that transcribe me has in their style guide, is that this comma can be left out for very short sentences of five to 10 words total. So for example, I went to the store and I bought pizza, you would not have to put a comma here, because it's a really short sentence. And there's only what nine different words. It's a small little sentence. So you don't have to put a comma here. The next one is don't separate the subject and verb. Never separate the subject and verb from each other by a comma. So my boss looked over my contract, comma, and signed it. This here is the subject, my boss. And the verb, we have two verbs, we have looked and signed. We cannot separate the subject, which is my boss, and the verb signed. So we will not use a comma here. Instead, we would transcribe this as my boss looked over my contract and signed it with no comma here, because we can't separate this verb from the subject. Okay, comma splices. A comma splice occurs when two or more complete sentences are joined together without using a conjunction. Do not use comma splices, they should be separate sentences. So some people will add in a comma to join two different sentences, instead of making them two separate sentences. For example, today is a beautiful day, comma, it is really sunny outside. You cannot do this because these are two separate sentences. If you were writing this in a book or something, you would combine it with a conjunction like and but if someone is just saying this, you have to put a period and capitalize the next word because it's a the first word of a new sentence. So this becomes transcribed as today is a beautiful day, period, capitalize the I in it, because we have to capitalize the first letter of the first word in a new sentence. It is really sunny outside. Here's another one, a tomato isn't actually a vegetable, comma, it is a fruit. Again, this is a comma splice. We need to make these two separate sentences. Okay. A tomato isn't actually a vegetable period. It is a fruit. Now a side note, you could also use a semicolon if there is a logical connection between the two independent clauses. So you could say a tomato isn't actually a vegetable, then use a semicolon, it is a fruit. And again, you would not capitalize the first letter of the next sentence, unless it was a name or something or a word that has to be a capital, regardless of where it is in a sentence. I will talk more about colons and semicolons in the next part of this video. Okay, our final topic is plurals and possessives. So many people struggle knowing when to use an apostrophe with an S. Here are some tips to know when to use an apostrophe with an S. So first rule plurals, when you have several of something, there should be no apostrophe. So a lot of people when they're talking about plural, they will, for example, let's say I was talking about all of the new bags I bought. I see a lot of people even on my WhatsApp or my Facebook say go like this bags. Well, this is incorrect. Because if it's a plural, and you're talking about, you're just talking about I have a lot of bags, you don't need an apostrophe, you just write bags. Okay. So examples, all of my friends have dogs. We have three TVs in our apartment. My mom was born in the 1960s. A lot of people will do something like this, the 80s, or TVs, but that's incorrect. You would just put the 80s or TVs. Okay. When we're talking about several of something, we just add an S. Okay. So when you want to show possession or ownership, use an apostrophe. So this is my mother's favorite dress. We use the apostrophe S, because we're not talking about more than one mother, we're talking about one mother, my mother's favorite dress, the favorite dress of my mother. So we use an apostrophe S to talk about when something belongs to someone. Jack's best friend is George. Again, apostrophe S, because it's the best friend is Jack's best friend. It's his best friend. So we use apostrophe S. The last one, my dog's leash is red. We're talking about one dog. My dog's leash is red. It's the dog's leash. When showing ownership of a group of things or people where the plural of the word ends with an S, put the apostrophe after the S. So this one is where people get really confused. So look here. All of our friends birthdays are in the summer. If you said my friend's birthday, this is okay. But this would refer to one friend. It wouldn't refer to multiple friends. But let's say I have three friends and all of my friends have birthdays in the summer, then I would say friends. And I would put the apostrophe after the S and my friend's birthdays are in the summer. Okay, because the plural of friend ends with S. So we're not going to go friends with another S, we just put the apostrophe after. So all of our friends birthdays are in the summer. Again, this is referring to multiple friends birthdays. Both dogs leashes are red. Let's say we're talking about two different dogs and both of their leashes are red. Whereas in the first example up here, we're just talking about one dog. So we put apostrophe S. Now this rule applies when the plural of the word ends with an S. So friend, friends, dog, dogs. But if the plural doesn't end with an S, we're going to add the apostrophe S as normal. So for example, the word child is singular, one child, and plural is children, two children. So because the plural of child is not childs, it's children, we can just use apostrophe S, like normal. Okay. Same with women. We don't say woman's, we say one woman, two women. And because of that, we can go women's apostrophe S, because the ending of the plural form of the word ends in an N, not in an S. So these examples, what are your children's names? The women's club has a lot of fun events. Okay, so because the plural doesn't end with an S, we can add the apostrophe S as normal. Okay, I know that that is a little tricky and a little confusing. But the more you practice, the more you will get used to it and learn the rules. In the next video, I'll release part two of my transcribe me punctuation guide I will discuss the following hyphens, dashes, colons, semicolons, quotation marks and ellipses. So make sure to subscribe to my English learning channel Sparkle English for more in depth lessons on punctuation and grammar. And the better you become at understanding these rules, they will become more natural to you. And eventually you will become good enough at punctuating properly and at English grammar, and you will pass these tests. And this is also a good guide for those who have passed the test and just want a refresher about how to punctuate correctly when you are listening and transcribing. These tips will help you not only with transcribe me but with other different transcription platforms as well, like Rev or Scriby, and so forth. So thank you once again for watching this video. If you liked it, please click like make sure to subscribe to my channels and I will see you in my next video. Thanks for watching.