Some tips on Transcribing interviews Transcribing interviews are important if you are a person doing research, or if you are a person working on a thesis/Dissertation etc. Whatever the purpose may be, it is always good to transcribe an interview. It is really time-consuming to sit and listen to the recording every time you need it. Transcribing interviews enables you to refer the material (transcript) whenever there is a need (may be a number of times). If it is teamwork, the members of the team can have a copy of the transcript and discuss the information obtained from the interview. It enables the members of the team to analyze the data independently and come to a conclusion regarding the research. You can transcribe the interview by yourself or you can give it to the interview transcription services to get it done professionally. If you are doing it yourself then you will need a notepad/notebook and a tape player. It would be better if you have foot pedal and headphones with the tape player. You can use the regular tape also, but the pausing and restarting the tape with your fingers would further delay the transcription. First, you have to play the audio and get familiarized with the content. You can either listen to a few sentence, pause the tape using the foot pedal and then write down/type the notes, or you can write as the audio plays, pausing in between to catch up with the audio. It is important to note down the name of the interviewer, interviewee, the topic, location, time and duration of the interview before you start the transcription process.
You have to use block format and space should be inserted when the conversation in made by a different speaker. When you are done with the interview transcript, play the tape and go through the drafted transcript simultaneously. Note the errors, play the tape again and correct them. Add the punctuations and filter out the unnecessary words like err, um, eh, etc. check for any spelling mistakes and then draft the final transcript. You have to transcribe the interview exactly as how it is in the audio (mind it).
Interview transcription services Transcribing interviews all by you would take a great deal of time. It is always better to give that work to people who are professionally trained to do it and they are the interview transcription services. Getting interviews transcribed by interview transcription services can benefit you in many ways. You can save your time and money, your transcript would have a professional touch to it, your transcripts would be of high quality and accuracy and your transcript would be delivered to you on time.
You can also look out for : What Is Verbatim Transcription Services ?