Guidelines

Don't italicize; we have used italics here solely to highlight what is right and wrong in the
example
● Omit unnecessary filler words, for readability
● Omit false starts, stutters, repetitions, etc
● Omit interjections, unless a direct response
● Never omit meaningful words or entire sentences
● Never omit or correct expletives
● Never correct the speaker's grammar*
● Never paraphrase
● Never substitute words
● Never rearrange the order of speech
● Save the file as a Word document

Naming Finished Files

Source:
Transcript:
Interview with Andy.mp3
Interview with Andy.docx

specific terminology
● Google proper spelling of names and brands
● If answer not easily findable, use a common or
phonetic spelling and mark with timestamp
● Spell words consistently

Researching Difficult Words*

Speaker 1: Ozzy Osbourne can't sing a cappella to save his life.
Speaker 1: What poetry! What [yoo-foo-iz-uhm 00:32:10]!

Acceptable phonetic spelling of actual word used: "euphuism"

Speaker 1 Hi, I'm Rich Thornet, the founder of Dribble.
This is researchable.
Correct spellings: "Thornett" and "Dribbble"
Speaker 1: Did you get Stephanie's memo? I'll ask Steffany for more info.
We expect you to put in a reasonable effort to research terms but do not expect
you to devote excessive time to this.
1. Produce transcripts that are readable and accurate. This is what our customers want.
2. Transcribe all relevant audible detail. Do not paraphrase or omit audible speech.
3. Omit filler words - e.g. "um", "uhh", "like"
4. Do not substitute words - write down the exact word choice of the speakers.
5. Always use spell check.
6. Do not edit for grammatical correctness.
8. Use your best judgment.

Document File Type

All transcripts must be submitted in Microsoft Word .docx format.

Speaker Identification
The speaker ID is aligned with the left edge of the margin and all other text is indented by one
inch (1”) using a hanging indent.
Lines are single-spaced with a blank line inserted between speakers or paragraphs. The font is
Calibri 12 pt. Use the Word
template we provide to ensure you have the margins set correctly.
● Don't use tab instead of a hanging indent. This makes editing documents during the review
process much more lengthy and time consuming for the quality assurance agent. Tab should
only be used after the colon at the end of a labeled speaker.
● Don't use page numbers, headers, or footers.
● Don't mark the end of the file with “End of Audio” or the duration.
● Set your margins to one inch (1”)
● Set up a one inch (1”) hanging indent
● Ensure font type is set to Calibri, 12 pt, black.
● Use single spacing, with a full line between speakers and paragraphs.
● Keep paragraphs to 8-10 lines, and look for natural points in the speech (a shift in topic,
emphasis, or reference) to start a new paragraph.
● Be sure you understand and implement any customer requests or special instructions.

Basic Transcript Formatting

Good Formatting Be Careful Of
Follow each speaker’s ID with a colon and a tab before starting to type their speech, for
example:
Speaker 1: I went to the store the other day.
ID speakers consistently throughout the transcriptions. Speakers are to be labeled as Speaker 1,
Speaker 2, Speaker 3, etc. except in the following situations:
A) Speaker names are clearly indicated. For example, if a speaker is recorded saying, “Hi, this is
Tom,” please use the name “Tom” in place of “Speaker 1”. It is ok to name one speaker and
have a second labeled "Speaker 2".
B) Speakers cannot be distinguished consistently. If individual voices cannot be accurately
distinguished throughout the entire transcription, then simply indicate a new speaker by using
“Speaker”. If it is a mixed-gender group, use “Male” and “Female” where possible to help guide
the reader. Do not add numbers to "male" and "female".
Occasionally, the Speaker ID interferes with the document formatting. Abbreviate the speaker
ID appropriately, for example:
Prof. Mor.: You must stand clear, Mr. Holmes, or be trodden underfoot.
If this is not possible due to a customer special request, adjust the hanging indent until it can
accommodate the ID. For example:
Market Respondent: What I’d really like to see is this watch in the color blue.

Brackets:
Notation on the transcript, used as a comment by the transcriptionist. Should not be used as
actual spoken text. For example:
Speaker 1: Sometimes I think it could have been expanded, it was never my intention [inaudible
00:45:08] would be good.

Commas:
Used in a pair in the middle of a sentence to set off clauses, phrases, and words that are not
essential to the meaning of the
sentence. They are not used to indicate a pause.

Contractions and Abbreviations

Use your best judgment on whether or not to write out contractions and common
abbreviations.
● “Do not” and “don’t” are equally ok.
● “Doctor Doe” and “Dr. Doe” are equally ok, however, writing “I went to see the dr.” would
not be an appropriate use of an
abbreviation. This should be written as “I went to see the doctor.”
● Percent or % is fine, just be consistent and be sure you match the numbers: "fifty percent" vs.
"50%".

Diacritical Marks:
These marks that aid in pronunciation are nice to include but are not required. For example:
fiance vs. fiancé
uber vs. über

Ellipses:
Use ellipses to indicate a speaker has trailed off or paused in the middle of a statement, or has
been interrupted by another
speaker. Please treat ellipses like a word with a space before and after. For example:
Speaker 1: John wanted to say he cared but … I guess he could not do it.
Speaker 2: Do you think I could …?
Speaker 1: … he didn’t have the mental stamina.

Hyphens:
Hyphenate two or more words that precede and modify a noun as a unit, especially if the words
include a past participle, a present
participle, a single letter, or a number. For example:
line-by-line scrolling
read-only memory
Note that hyphens are not used to indicate pauses or changes in mid-sentence.
Quotation Marks:
Use quotation marks when a quote is directly stated or implied. The quote can be of themselves
or others. For example:
Speaker 1: Arnold said, “Annie, um, that’s a joke.” Can you believe it?
Speaker 1: Then I told him, “I don’t think I can,” and he said, “Okay then.”
Speaker 1: I said, "What is going on?" Then Sarah goes, "I don't know. Maybe we should find
out." Of course, no one ever told us. We still don't know.

Tagging
[song] You should not transcribe song lyrics.
[foreign language hh:mm:ss]
For any non-English portions of audio, please indicate where they begin with a timestamp and
either the name of the language (if known) or simply ‘foreign language’. If at the beginning of a
sentence, it is capitalized [Foreign language hh:mm:ss], otherwise it is written with the
lowercase [foreign language hh:mm:ss].
[inaudible hh:mm:ss] Used when unintelligible or inaudible words are stated. If at the beginning
of a sentence, it is capitalized [Inaudible hh:mm:ss], otherwise it is written with the lowercase
[inaudible hh:mm:ss].
[crosstalk hh:mm:ss] Used when multiple people speaking over each other causes the audio to
become unintelligible. These should be labeled within the text as they occur. If at the beginning
of a sentence, it is capitalized
[Crosstalk hh:mm:ss], otherwise it is written with the lowercase [crosstalk hh:mm:ss].
['phonetic' hh:mm:ss] When you are unsure of the spelling of a word or name, include your
attempted spelling in brackets with the timestamp. This allows the reviewer to easily double
check the audio during review. For example:
Speaker 1: He is totally a [brony 01:04:48]. Watches it every day.
[hh:mm:ss] Standard format for timestamps indicating the hour, minute and seconds at which
the speech is heard.
Please do not include milliseconds. See below for more information.

Special Tags
Please pay attention to the use of parentheses () vs. brackets [] for each tag type.
Here we demonstrate how to use ellipses, crosstalk, and inaudibles in broken conversation:
Speaker 2: 7th Street and Balfour? That's right where [inaudible 00:00:13] ...
Speaker 1: Yes, 7th Street. [Crosstalk 00:00:34]
Speaker 2: Let's go off the record and adjourn the meeting.

General Timestamps
Use punctuation appropriately to provide a readable document, avoiding run-on sentences and
long-winded paragraphs when you can. If you are certain about affirmative or negative
agreement by, based on context and intonation of the speaker, then add the tag
(affirmative) or (negative); if you are uncertain, use a neutral.
● “um”, “ hmm”, and “mm” are good neutrals to use
● “mm-hmm (affirmative)” vs. “mm-mm (negative)”
● “uh-huh (affirmative)” vs. “uh-uh (negative)” or “uh-oh (negative)”

Filler words and phrases:

Such as “um”, “hmm”, “like”, and “you know” are omitted, especially when they disrupt the
flow of the text. The words “And”, “So”,
and “But” should also be left out when used to start a sentence AND when acting as a filler
word.

Interjections:
From other speakers should be omitted when they are simply responding - like “yeah”, “yup”,
and “hmm” - rather than answering a direct question.

False starts, stutters, and repetitions:

Are omitted. For example:
“I really think that … that … that we should go,” should be written as, “I really think that we
should go.”
“I think, you know, I think we should go to Haiti,” should be written as, “I think we should go to
Haiti.”

Expletives:
Such as “damn” are treated as any other word and transcribed as-is. We do not censor the
transcriptions.

Omitting Words
We strive to accurately capture the meaning and intent of the audio. To that end, we generally
do not correct for grammar, contractions, or slang. For example, you should not change "don't"
to "do not" or "yeah" to "yes".

Common slang Should always be written as

gonna > going to
kinda > kind of
alright > all right
cuz > because
gotcha > got you

Word Alternative Word Rule

Its It’s "It’s" means "it is" or "it has." “Its” is the possessive form of it. “It's keeping its rules
straight.”
Your You’re "You're" is a contraction of "you are,” while “your” is possessive. “You're working
on your project.”
Were We’re “We’re” is a contraction of “we are”. “We're hoping they were chosen to win the
competition.”
Let’s Lets “Let’s” is a contraction of “let us”. “Let's go have dinner,” as compared to, “She lets us
use this.”
Affect Effect Typically, “affect” is verb and "effect” is a noun.
One, Two, Three 1, 2, 3 Spell out numbers 0 to 9, unless used as part of an address, date, phone
number, unit of
measurement (e.g. “3 by 4 inches”), highway (e.g. “U.S. Route 9”), time (e.g. "7am"), or
amount of currency (e.g. “$3”). Spell out any number that starts a sentence (e.g. “Five
hundred horsemen awaited the battle”).