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Transcription Skills Style Guide

The document provides style guidelines for transcribing audio files, including formatting instructions, guidelines for paragraph structure, handling single versus multiple speakers, verbatim versus non-verbatim transcription, formatting timestamps and inaudible sections, and conventions for marking breaks in thought, crosstalk, false starts, and side conversations. Key details include using Times New Roman 12-pt font, putting one space between sentences, keeping paragraphs to 3-5 sentences, indenting and labeling multiple speakers, removing filler words for clean verbatim, and including disfluencies and repeats for strict verbatim.

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Mariana Marins
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96 views4 pages

Transcription Skills Style Guide

The document provides style guidelines for transcribing audio files, including formatting instructions, guidelines for paragraph structure, handling single versus multiple speakers, verbatim versus non-verbatim transcription, formatting timestamps and inaudible sections, and conventions for marking breaks in thought, crosstalk, false starts, and side conversations. Key details include using Times New Roman 12-pt font, putting one space between sentences, keeping paragraphs to 3-5 sentences, indenting and labeling multiple speakers, removing filler words for clean verbatim, and including disfluencies and repeats for strict verbatim.

Uploaded by

Mariana Marins
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Course Style Guide

Please use this style guide for all of your practice files.

Page Formatting:
Please use the templates that we have provided unless otherwise noted. If for
some reason the formatting gets altered, use Times New Roman, 12-pt font
with single spacing. If the file has more than one speaker, add 1" left indent.
Please put one space between sentences, not two spaces.

Paragraphs:
Each paragraph should start on a new line, with a one-line break between it
and the previous paragraph. Paragraphs should contain between three to
five sentences, depending on the length of the sentences. Each speaker
should be a new paragraph.

Single Speaker Files:


For single-speaker files, do not indent the text or add speaker tags. Again,
keep the paragraphs to three to five sentences.

Multiple Speaker Files:


When there is more than one speaker, indent and label each speaker with a
colon. Try to be as specific with your labeling as possible. Use the speaker’s
name, if given, in the file name or spoken in the audio. If there is no speaker
name given, use Interviewer/Interviewee where applicable. If there is more
than one interviewer/interviewee, label Interviewee 1, Interviewee 2, etc. in
the order that they speak. You may also use Male/Female for non-tracked
group files.

Verbatim and non-verbatim


Clean Verbatim:
The majority of our files are clean verbatim which means that we take out uh,
um, non-relevant like and you know, and stutters.
1

Transcription Skills
Course Style Guide
If a speaker is using words such as uh or okay to indicate they are listening
but it adds no value to the transcript, leave it out. Also remove any false starts
shorter than five or six words that don't add any meaning to the transcript. A
false start is when a speaker starts speaking and quickly changes their train
of thought.

Please use uh-huh or mm-hmm for positive confirmation and mm-mmm for
negative confirmation. Do not include any confirming uh-huh or filler
statement from a speaker responding to another speaker unless it adds to
the conversation.

Strict Verbatim:
If a file is marked strict verbatim, include uh, um, stutters, false starts, and
repeated words.

Handling Slang and Speechy Words:


Transcribe the speaker's words as you hear them even if they are
grammatically incorrect. For a cleaner transcript, please change words like
gonna to going to. Use because instead of ‘cause.

Run-on Sentences:
Try not to let sentences become too long. It is acceptable to begin a sentence
with and if a speaker goes on too long and begins every phrase with and.
Start new sentences as places that make sense.

Marking the audio:


Timestamps:
Please follow the directions on the file for how often to timestamp. Place the
timestamp on in between paragraphs.

Transcription Skills
Course Style Guide
Format the timestamps as [hh:mm:ss]. For example:

I went to the store.

[00:15:32]

Then I went home.

Inaudibles:
Mark [inaudible] if you can't make out a word. If there is more than one word
you can't make out, mark [inaudible phrase]. If you can make an educated
guess on a word – for example, it sounds like blue – mark it as [blue]. If you’re
not sure of the spelling, and you’ve researched it without finding the spelling,
type it out phonetically like [blue].

Background Noises:
If there are background noises such as a telephone ringing, applause, or
other noises that the speakers comment on or that interrupt the audio,
please italicize and mark as (phone), (applause), etc.

Break in Thought:
If someone has a break in thought mark with an em dash. You may have to
change these settings in Microsoft Word. Example:
I started to go to the restaurant – my mother's favorite one – when it
started raining.

Crosstalk:
If two speakers are talking over each other please put (crosstalk).

Transcription Skills
Course Style Guide
If two speakers interrupt each other, but you can make it out please
transcribe as follows:
Interviewee: I went to the store to –
Interviewer: What day was this?
Interviewee: – buy some eggs. This was Thursday.

False start:
A false start is when someone starts a thought but quickly changes it at the
beginning of the sentence. Ignore if it’s less than five or six words and doesn’t
add meaning to the transcript.
Spoken: “I like to – When it’s summer I like to go swimming.”
Transcribe as: When it’s summer I like to go swimming.

Side conversation:
A side conversation is when a speaker is talking outside of the interview or
official subject. This may be casual talk before or after an interview. It could
also be an interruption where a participant is speaking with another person
outside of the relevant conversation. Mark all side conversations as (Side
conversation).

Ellipses:
Use ellipses when a speaker is trailing off.
I suppose that's what he meant to do…

Transcription Skills

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