Hello Friends,

Instructions for Transcribe Interviews:

1. Start the tape. Use the foot pedal to stop and restart it as you work. You can use a regular tape player and simply hit pause to stop the tape, but keep in mind that the process will take much longer this way, and be more tedious.

2. Start typing as soon as the tape starts. You won't be able to type as fast as people speak — even professional court reporters use shorthand — so you'll have to stop the tape each time you fall behind. Use whatever technique works best for you. You may want to listen first to a sentence, then pause the tape and type it. Accuracy is the most important thing. The cleaner your transcript in the first pass, the less editing you'll have to do.

3. If a passage is difficult to decipher, listen to it twice more. If you're still having trouble, make note of the counter number on the recorder and go back to it later. Sometimes the context of an interview will help you interpret that section later.

4. Transcribe the interview exactly as you hear it. There will be time later to edit grammar and content.

5. Type in block paragraph format, putting a space in between each speaker. You can edit these blocks into more paragraphs for the final copy.


Thanks and Regards,
Derren Brown

transcriptionhub.com