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Transcription Guidelines

Please make sure you follow these guidelines when providing transcription services, unless
otherwise instructed by your Project Coordinator.

General

 Listen to the audio carefully in order to comprehend, which involves understanding the
context so that you can use words correctly (e.g. “they’re” vs. “their”)

 Transcribe everything being said in the recording without omission, addition or

distortion.

 You may use footnotes when completing a cross-language transcription, if you find it is
important to include some explanation that will help the reader understand the transcript
better.

 Go over passages that are hard to understand several times before you conclude a passage
is “inaudible”

 Make sure you use correct spelling, grammar, punctuation. Just because the speech in the
recording may be colloquial, does not mean the transcript can be sloppy. Follow proper
grammar, spelling and punctuation rules, including capitalizing the first word in
sentences.

 When doing a cross-language transcription, also remember that you are transcribing and
translating at the same time. Listen to full passages first, before starting to transcribe to
avoid literal translation that results in awkward-sounding English text.

 Research word or phrases that are mentioned in the audio that you are not familiar with,
especially names and acronyms.

 After you are done with the transcription, you must proofread it against the audio. Listen
to the entire audio again and make any corrections

Formatting:

 Use the template provided below.

 Set up the language of your document to make sure you are taking advantage of spell
check options in MS Word.

 Make sure to add the title of the transcription. You should include the client’s name (the
person being interviewed or speaking), following by the type of audio that it is. For
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example, it can be an interview, a hearing, a testimony or a statement. (See sample and

template below)

 Immediately following the title, you should include the total amount of audio time of the
file.

 The start time should be indicated below the title of the transcription. This will let the
client know when the speaking begins – it may not always be at 00:00:00.

 List the speakers on the left in the template table. You should include their full names. If
you do not know or are unsure of the correct spelling, please consult your project
coordinator. If the speakers do not identify themselves, it is common practice to use
Speaker 1, Speaker 2 and so forth.

 Insert the transcription in the right hand column of the template.

 Transcribe everything that is being said, including every interruption and stutter by each
speaker, profanity, interrupted sentences etc.

 Use a new line whenever someone new speaks.

 Include a time stamp approximately every 5 minutes, or when there is a natural break
closest to that time.

 At the end of the transcription, you should indicate the end, followed by the final time
stamp.

 Make sure to include page numbers

Common Challenges:

 Spell-outs: When someone spells a word, use dashes to indicate individual letters.
Separate the complete word from the spell-out with a comma and transcribe the letters in
uppercase.

E.g.: Joe: His name was Bobby, B-O-B-B-Y.

 Interrupted speech: Use double dashes (--) when there is an interruption in the sentence
or a if a speaker trails off and does not complete the sentence. Do NOT add what you
think should be the continuation of the sentence. Only what is specifically spoken on the
recording should be transcribed.

E.g. I think his name was Fre--no, his name was Frank.
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Then we decided to go see a doctor and that was--

 Stutters: Use double dashes (--) when someone stutters.

E.g. The road was w--wet

 Non-verbal communication: Make sure you include non-verbal utterances such as

“Uh”, “Um”, “Um-Hum”.

Identify other types of non-verbal communication such as laughter, pauses, crying,

sighing etc. using square brackets:

e.g. My father is so funny. [laughter]

Always be consistent with how the same behaviour is identified. For example, don’t write
[laughing] in one place and [laughter] in another.

 Inaudible passages: If, after you have listened to a certain passage a number of times,
you still cannot make out what the speaker is saying, indicate that with: [inaudible].

 Punctuation: Make sure to use proper punctuation, following the usage rules of the
language you are working in. Even though the source document is an audio document,
with spoken language, proper punctuation needs to be used when transcribing to help the
reader understand the transcript. Remember, the reader of the transcript will not know the
intonation with which a certain utterance was spoken and therefore they will need to rely
on punctuation.

 Incorrect Speech: If the speaker uses structures that are grammatically incorrect, type
[sic] immediately after the error to indicate that it’s actually what was said rather than an
error in the transcription.

 Profanity/Obscene language: Recordings may sometimes include profanity/obscene

language. These have to be translated and transcribed. The transcript must include
everything said in the recording, without omissions, additions or distortions. If you are
not comfortable working with this type of language, inform your Project Coordinator
immediately.

 Numbers: For numbers nine or less, write out the number. For numbers 10 and up use
figures.
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Transcription Sample

John Smith’s Interview – 7:08 Minutes

[00:05]

Person(s) Transcription
Inspector Ok, because we have an interpreter here, I’m going to read this in English,
and then he’ll read it in Spanish.
John Smith Ok.
Inspector Ok. I understand your English is better than your brother’s, but...
John Smith Right.
Inspector ...but, we have the interpreter for that, right?
John Smith Yep.

[05:08]

Inspector And you saw him afterwards?

John Smith Yeah, like, right in the basement.
Inspector Yeah.
John Smith And he just went down.

End of transcription

[7:08]
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Transcription Template

[Client Name] – [Type of Audio Statement] – [Total audio time]

[time stamp of start of speaking time]

Person(s) Transcription

End of Transcription

[time stamp of end of audio time]