We like to ensure that the information around our transcription services is as transparent as possible. Capital Captions Typing and Transcription Guidelines are designed to highlight procedures and writing standards to be used by our transcriptionists in order to maintain consistency and quality of work. For clients, the transcription guidelines can also serve as an overview on what to expect from our transcription styles. These guidelines are updated on a regular basis, therefore it’s important to check back regularly for any important additions or amendments.
Transcription Protocols and Guidelines
- All transcription work to be commenced only after signing the applicable Confidentiality Agreement, Non-Disclosure Agreement and Terms and Conditions.
- Work to be shared via secure DropBox.
- Unless otherwise specified, all work undertaken to be deleted within 72 hours of completion and delivery back to Capital Captions including audio files, video files, notes, transcripts and other documents.
- Transcripts to be fully proofread by transcriptionists prior to delivery to client.
- Any issues which impact on the quality of the transcript should also be highlighted within the notes title on the title sheet of each transcript. E.g. strong accents, poor quality audio, etc.
- Abbreviations, names and also key terms to be fully researched to ensure correct spellings.
- As well as providing direct feedback to transcriptionists, these guidelines shall be updated on a regular basis to reflect any required changes.
Transcription Formatting and Font Styles
- Title font: Calibri size 14
- Body text font: Calibri size 11
- Font colour: Black
- Margin set to 2cm; first line indent set to margin; left indent 1cm.
- Interviewer speech to be written in bold; respondent speech regular text
- Captions or additional descriptions to be written in italics within square brackets. E.g. [Laughing]
- Unclear speech to be indicated within square brackets with a time code. E.g. [Inaudible 00:00:00].
- Where a guess can be made on quiet/inaudible speech, the correct or phonetic spelling should be included within square brackets with a time code.
Transcription House Style – Standard Transcriptions
- Speakers to be identified by initials (forename and surname where possible) with colon to indicate start of speech. E.g. SP:
- Interruptions and trailing off of dialogue to be indicated by the use of an ellipsis (…)
- Sentences to be kept to a maximum of three lines.
- Paragraphs to be kept to a maximum of 20 lines.
- Where time codes are applicable, the format should be hh:mm:ss.
- Unless otherwise specified, time codes should be included every 30 seconds and every speaker change.
Intelligent Verbatim Transcription
- All speech to be transcribed with some possible alterations or omissions for the sake of readability.
- Slang words to be corrected and written in full. E.g. ‘wanna – want to’ or ‘gonna – going to…’
- Exclude ahs, erms and mumbles.
- Filler words may be removed occasionally where they are considered as excessive and/or superfluous.
- Exclude repetitions and false starts of under 4 words but include if 4 words or more.
- Exclude unnecessary one word interjections which interrupt speech. E.g. ‘Yeah. Uh-huh. Oh…’
- Minor amendments may be made to ensure grammatical correctness where one word is effected. E.g. ‘wasn’t – weren’t, hasn’t – hadn’t…’
- Abbreviations to be included exactly as spoken and not expanded unnecessarily. E.g. ‘You’re, wasn’t, don’t…’
- Numbers ‘one to ten’ to be written in full with numbers above ten written numerically.
- Money should be indicated using the applicable currency symbols and also with abbreviated units of measure. For instance, ‘one million pounds – £1m; five billion dollars $5b…
Verbatim Transcription
- All speech to be transcribed exactly as it is spoken.
- Slang words to be written as spoken. E.g. ‘want to – wanna, going to – gonna…’
- Include all repetitions, false starts and filler words. E.g. ‘You know, kind of…’
- Include ahs, erms and mumbles.
- Include interjections which interrupt speech. E.g. ‘Yeah. Uh-huh. Oh.’
- No grammatical amendments should be made. E.g. ‘wasn’t – weren’t, hasn’t – hadn’t…’
- Abbreviations should be included exactly as spoken. E.g. ‘You’re, wasn’t, don’t…’
Due to the flexible nature of Capital Captions video and audio transcription services, guidelines may vary on a project by project basis. In addition to the above guidelines, we also accept and work with client preferences and instructions as required including alterations to transcription house styles, formatting, templates and file transfer protocols.
Finally, if you didn’t find what you were looking for within these typing and transcription guidelines, you can also check out some of our other transcription pages for more information.
Capital Captions Video Captioning, Translation and Accessibility Services
Where Sound becomes Vision…
