An introduction to the transcription industry

Transcription is the process of converting recorded sound of the spoken word into a written transcript of the spoken word. Sounds just like regular typing? In actual fact, transcription is a difficult and time consuming job, and as with most things, it is best undertaken by a professional such as Star Transcription. Also like many other jobs, technology is starting to encroach on the human transcriptionist – voice recognition software has made great progress in recent years, but it will never be able to replace the subtlety of human hearing.

Who uses the services of a transcriptionist or transcription service? The most common need for transcription, is for the medical and legal professionals. Legal transcription involves the conversion of audio recordings of legal proceedings - for example, police procedures or hearings – into a full transcript. Medical transcription involves the conversion of recorded medical data, such as an audio recording of a patient examination – into a written document. In both the above cases experience counts for a lot, since the transcriptionist will be dealing with complex and difficult material. More importantly, medical and legal transcription involve some very technical and complex vocabularies so, again, expertise and professionalism are essential. It should go without saying that much of that material in these two segments are highly confidential.

Of course, medical and legal transcription are not the only kinds of work that transcription companies like Star Transcription have. Many people need to have audio recordings turned into written transcripts, and the professional transcriptionist should be able to turn their hands to a variety of different subjects without compromising on quality or turnaround time at all. One of the most common transcription requests is the interview, whether academic, business or media and the transcriptionist must expect to encounter multiple voices, coffee cups and all kinds of strange accents and other imponderables in this format.

Transcription can vary in the closeness that it bears to the actual words that are being spoken. Many people believe that they want their audio completed in the style known as verbatim, or word-for-word, but in fact what they require is Intelligent Verbatim. This is because human beings do not speak with the clarity and the diction of the written word, and the transcriptionist would find that there are hundreds of stutters, misspeaks and noises to work around. Intelligent verbatim sticks very close to the actual spoken word, but erases most of the misspeaks, stumbles and pauses so that the written transcript reads fluently. Other types of transcription can vary immensely in their accuracy, going all the way to bullet point summaries of the spoken word – this is commonly used for things such as lectures.

Perhaps the biggest change in the transcription industry today is the rise of the homeworker, the freelancer of the second-income worker, or however you want to term it. Many people believe that transcription is any easy home job, because they think it is just typing, so how hard can it be? Secondly, most people do not realise that transcription is immensely time consuming, with an average conversion of 4 hours typing for one hour of audio, with all technical aspects such as sound quality in your favour. So many times people have attracted by what seems like very cheap prices and expertise from so freelancers, and have been left with a poor quality transcript that is worthless to them.

In transcription as with any other business service, always choose a professional like Star Transcription – the cheapest option is rarely the best.

Paul Willoughby - About the Author:
Star Transcription provide professional transcription services.
Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/