Reasons for academic transcription
Did you know that transcription dates back to the Egyptian land? During the ages of Pharaohs transcriptionist were known as scribes. Their duty was to ensure that records were in place and taken care of.
From the Egyptians we have seen apps and even software that have replaced the scribes. Today this technology is being used together with the knowledge of transcriptionist to offer high quality services. Though, most of the organizations prefer to use professionally rather than the softwares. This is because it guarantees them accountability and authentic.
The world is slowly embracing this form of service. It is being used in business, learning institutions, and various organizations. This enables them to reach their target market easily not locally but also internationally.
Academic transcription services
This kind of transcription is beneficial to an individuals who are in learning institutions. They include lectures, students, professors, authors, and publishers who are in the field of academics. Even though there is software that can offer such services, we urge you to seek services from transcription agency.
Reasons for academic transcription
- Saves time
You must admit that it takes a lot of time to transcribe your work on a software. More so if you’re working on a thesis and time is of value. Therefore, you cannot afford to lose even a single minute.
We recommend that you seek academic transmission services to pull this off. Plus having delegated this project to a professional you will be able to concentrate on other things.
- Accuracy
In Academics, what you want is to maintain that perfect score. This can only be done by hiring a qualified transcriber. He or she will ensure that your content is accurate and contains all the relevant information.
Some of them even go more in-depth and research about the topic to ensure you have the correct data. We agree that technology has given you an upper hand, and you can use a software to do this. But the quality of the work will be low. Hence we urge you to subscribe to academic transmission services.
- Accessibility
An academic project is usually transcribed into a PDF or a word document. This makes the content to have a smaller size and can be stored in your laptop or phone. This, in turn, makes it easier to obtain the content anywhere anytime using your phone.
Moreover, you can also share the document with easy through WhatsApp, email, and other social media platforms. This ensures that you use minimal data to send the PDF to another user. On the other hand, it is faster compared to its video or audio formats.
- Secure storage
Academic transcription is necessary because of storage. This is because the transcription service company can store the document in their server. It means that when you lose the document, you can easily retrieve it from the agency.
It is crucial that you select a company or a professional transcriber whom you can trust. This will protect you and also your work since the information can be used against you. Always remember to encrypted your data and avoid using public Wi-Fi since it offer a back door that can be used to hack you.
- Improve languages
We all have grammatical errors that we may see to be correct. This is the more reason why you need to subscribe to an academic transcription service. It helps in eliminating the small grammatical errors. A professional transcriber is able to spot even the tiny details left out and correct it. This improves your language, sentence structures and makes the content readable to anyone.
Types of academic transcription
There are various kinds of services that you can subscribe to. They include
- Academic research transcription.’
- Academic interview transcription
- Academic symposia transcription
- Dissertation transcription
- Lecture transcription
- Essays transcription
- Thesis transcription
- Oral history transcription
Focus group transcription
If you are running a business or a company, then am sure you have used these services before. If not, then it is high time you consider it, to remain afloat and profitable. Focus group transcription is a market research tool.
This is used by most organizations today to find out how consumers perceive their products or services. The group is usually made up of 8-15 members. We advise that you have a partner or an assistant with you when out for this kind of transcription service.
Reasons for focus group transcription
- The research gives you or our company an avenue to evaluate the current services or products.
- The focus group transcription helps you in designing and marketing of a new product or service
- You can obtain information about what consumers think about our product or services
- It gives you an insight into developing strategies for outreach.
Types of focus group transcription services
- Meeting transcription
- Survey and market research transcription.’
- Group discussion transcription
- Strategic Planning session transcription
How to conduct the focus group transcription service
Carrying out the transcription service requires a level of expertise. This will ensure that you obtain the desired data or information. To be successful, here are some of the things that you are to follow.
- Identifying a Location
This is an essential part of the discussion. The place selected has to be quiet, and no constant noises should be heard. This ensures that what is recorded is free from background noises that might interfere with the recordings.
Plus the room should be well arranged, and the individuals are to be seated in a round table or a circle. This seating arrangement will make it easier for you to record the information.
- Recording
Every word spoken by the group member has to be recorded for future references. This will help in decision making about a brand or services. With such information, you are able to improve on your products and even bring new ideas to the firm. This will help in making a decision.
- Etiquette
Order is something important when carrying out group focus transcription services. Therefore you need to set ground rules that they must flow. You can give them numbers to be used when they want to speak or contribute to the discussion. This maintains order, and you can record a clear voice from each of the participants.
How to carry out your focus group transcription
Even though this is a service that you can seek for professional transcription. You can still pull it off but you need an assistant it alone. To be successful, here are the steps to follow.
- Transcribe Verbatim
This form of translation involves the inclusion of all the background noises, laughter, coughs, emotions, filler words, among others. These parameters should be included in the text. The content should be grammatically corrected, and the meaning should remain the same.
- Let the transcript be
This form of conference transcription is where the content remains the same as just like the individual was speaking. This means that if the English used is not grammatically correct then you are not to make any changes.
- Use time stamps
You can use timestamps to mark points, after every 2 minutes. This helps in locating a particular period when an item was talked about. In a recording, you will be able to find the specific section that you had not understood within seconds.
- Identifying the speakers
Here you can use an audio identifier to capture every speaker in the discussion. If the identifiers are not available, then you can use symbols to differentiate each speaker.
- Proofreading
After you are done with the transcription, you have to read through the content and ensure it is the quality desired. This allows you to correct the mistakes and making the content flow perfectly.
Verbatim transcription
It is the process of converting spoken word into a document. The content captured in the transcription should be the exact words, and nothing should be altered. Therefore, the message should remain the same.
Types of verbatim transcription
There are three kinds of transcriptions services that you can choose from. They include
- Verbatim
This is slightly different from the intelligent verbatim transcription. In this kind of transcription, every word on the recording has to be transcribed. It consists of the false starters and grammatical errors, but the repeated words and stutters are removed from it.
- Intelligent verbatim
This is also referred to as clean editing. This because the transcription has been done keenly, removing all the grammatical errors and even fillers. The content is also usually paraphrased to make sure that it is easier to read and understand.
- True verbatim
This form of transcription is different from the other two. It is because all the details from the recording are to be written into text or document. No word or emotion is left out. This is the most preferred mode of transcription for people who are doing academic research and even caring out an analysis.
The rules of verbatim transcription
- You are not to leave out any non- verbal communication such as laughter, sounds, pauses among others
- You should capture every word and do not paraphrase
- You are to make sure that fillers and false starters that are found in the audio or video recording.
- Also, include the external sounds in the verbatim transcription. These sounds include that of a door opening among others.
How to choose the best transcription services
- Confidentiality
The privacy of your work or that of the company can be protected by signing a contract. This particular document will protect your work from being shared with the public. If the company trades your secrets out, then you can take them to court.
Hence, before signing, the contract ensure that you have read the whole document. The section that isn’t clear you can, ask the third person to interpret it. From this document, you will also be able to know if there are hidden charges.
- The delivery time
The turnaround time is a crucial part that has to be analyzed. This is because it is the expected time you are to receive the work from transcriptionist or the agencies. You need to know the time frame involved so that you can prepare. Plus the turnaround time also influences the price, hence make sure you are aware of the delivery time.
- Cost
An affordable transcription service is what you are after. Therefore nothing should be left to chance. You must carry out a market survey to find out who is the best dealer in this line of business.
Some of them care about the quality of work done while others are after your coin. Take time before deciding on the kind of transcription agency you want to use. It is also vital that you have a budget that you can work with.
- Quality
If it is quality you are in search of, then we suggest that you use human transcriptionist instead of software. The human transcriptionist is free from errors, and you will receive a high quality work. Though it will take longer, the wait would be worth it. Plus you are assured of authenticity and uniqueness in the content transcription.
- Different languages
Transcription services can be done in various languages depending on your target market. Therefore it is equally important to know the kind of languages being offered by the transcription service company. This is because it helps you during the translation of the languages. The firm might also give you a discount when you ask for their services sine you are a regular consumer. This is beneficial to you as it will cut cost.
Final word
Transcription services is a culture that is slowly setting roots in the world. Even though it was first discovered in Egypt, it remains an essential part of the digital world. Also, academics seems to start to embrace this form of art.
It has proved to be a necessary part of educating the students. As it is known that people tend to remember what they read than what they see. This is the more reason why such services should be included in the institution. Plus it increases the rate of employment in a country.