How we work
Information about our transcription praxis.
Our mission
As transcribers, our job is to properly reproduce spoken language in writing. It should be readable and easy to understand, but at the same time reflect the speaking person’s own style and way of expressing him or herself. We do not include any personal preferences in the choice of words and sentences. We listen to the spoken language and make it comprehensible in writing. To achieve this, we follow a common practice with regards to rules for how to transcribe in all possible situations.
Below is information about our transcription practices and some examples of how we transcribe.
Our transcription
Our transcription aims to make the text as readable as possible based on the conditions provided by the audio material.
● We remove idioms/interjections such as “you know” or “like” if they are only filler words and do not add anything to the transcript.
● We remove half sentences and stumbles if they do not add anything to the transcript.
● We correct spoken language to written language, such as regional omissions of words (e.g. “We went to pub on Friday” would become “We went to the pub on Friday”).
● If someone laughs, we write [laughing].
● We write [inaudible HH: MM: SS] where we cannot hear what the person is saying.
● We do not correct grammatical errors or incorrect sentences.
We also offer transcriptions where we write down exactly everything that is being said, including half sentences and stumbles. For more information about this, see Exact transcription..
Below you can see a couple of examples of how our basic transcription looks like:
Audio: “Well, yeah…… Well yeah, why not?”
We write: “Well yeah, why not?”
Audio: “I had…… I thought it was fun.”
We write: “I thought it was fun.
Audio: “I would love to ride the bike, you know.”
We write: “I would love to ride the bike.”
Confidentiality
To be certain that uploaded files are handled carefully and do not end up in wrong hands is something our customers value highly. Therefore, we take the security and confidentiality of our customers’ materials very seriously.
Working with integrity is one of the most important values in Transkriber and something that permeates the entire organization. All employees in Transkriber have signed a privacy agreement that clearly governs how confidential information is to be handled and states that it is not allowed to share confidential information with any third party.
We never talk to anyone unauthorized about the content of the audio files or who the client is.
Security
Your files are transferred to our intranet through encrypted transmission. After you have uploaded a file, only a limited number of people have access to it, namely your personal project manager and the employee who will perform the transcription. The intranet is protected with a 128-bit security certificate and your account is placed on a separate SQL database. It provides a high level of security and protects your files against intrusion.
When the job is complete, we allow the transcribed file to remain on our server for a week before it is automatically deleted. If you as a customer request it, we can store both audio and transcribed text files on our encrypted server for a long time.
All Transkribers’ employees have Norton Antivirus Premium installed and undergo ongoing IT security training.
