If you’ve done some research, including one-on-one interviews, and then realized how much work goes into transcribing them, you’re probably looking for an affordable transcription service. There are many transcription services available, but it can sometimes seem difficult to find an affordable transcription service. Transcription isn’t cheap, because it’s much more complicated than copy typing, but that doesn’t mean you can’t find affordable transcription, and what’s more, by providing good quality recordings you can make transcription more affordable, as you will. take less time to complete.

You can do the transcription yourself, but if you are not a fast typist and don’t have specialized transcription equipment, it will take a lot of time. I have had clients come to me saying they started the work themselves and it took them 20 hours to produce a transcript of a 1 hour recording. That’s why they ended up using a transcription service!

The most important thing to remember is that it’s simply not possible to type as fast as you speak. Even an experienced transcriptionist will be able to average four times as long for a good, clear one-on-one interview, so one hour of recording will take an average of four hours to transcribe. (Industry standards obtained from Industry Production Standards Guide (1998), published by OBC, Columbus, OH, USA.) Transcribers also need to make sense of what is being said, punctuate speech correctly, and use the correct homophones (Words like there/his/are that sound the same but are spelled differently.)

So how can you make sure your transcription is clear to get an affordable transcription price? Basically, the easier the transcription is for the transcriptionist, the more likely they will be able to offer you an affordable transcription quote.

First of all, use the best transcription equipment you can afford and make sure it is fit for purpose. This means that for interviews you should have a recording with an external microphone rather than one built into the recorder, which is only designed to pick up a dictated voice. For focus groups you should have multiple microphones so that all participants are close to a microphone, and for conferences the speakers should have good microphones and there should also be people in the audience with ‘mobile’ microphones to bring any member of the audience who wants to ask a question.

More and more transcriptionists are only accepting digital work now, rather than tape, so to get the broadest base of what you might want to consider using a digital recording method. These are also usually of better quality.

Next, you need to prepare well before each interview. If possible, make sure you have set up a quiet meeting room, as background noise will drastically increase the time needed to transcribe the recording, as the transcriber may have to listen to sections multiple times to capture the interview speech. It is helpful to spell out your interviewee’s name at the beginning of the tape, before beginning the interview, and to say any information you want in the header of the transcript, eg, the date, your interviewee’s title, etc.

During the interview, unless you need to interrupt to regain control of the interview, try not to speak over your interviewee. Often, in normal conversation, we say ‘yes, yes, yes’ or ‘fine’ or ‘OK’ more to indicate that we are listening than for any other reason. Any time you say that, you are likely obscuring a much more important word or group of words spoken by your interviewee.

After the interview, it is helpful if you can include a list of keywords for the transcriptionist. Although we are happy to perform a ‘Google search’, searching the internet to find out how to spell technical terms, drug names, organization names, etc., if you can provide this information in advance, it will certainly save time. and saving time saves you money, reaching that goal of an affordable transcription price again. Technical work will always be more expensive than non-technical, but providing a ‘crib sheet’ of keywords should bring the cost down.

Most transcriptionists work in a standard format, be it tabular, tabulated, interviews shown as initials or full names, etc. Again, most are happy to work to your specifications, but the standard format could well be cheaper, so think carefully about whether or not you need something different. Find out in advance what the standard format is if you are concerned, and you may be able to adapt it to your needs. If, for example, it is essential that you have speakers in different fonts or colors, this will increase the price. It might be more profitable for you to put this up when you get your basic transcript back!

Finally, seriously think about whether or not you need a verbatim transcription. Verbatim transcription includes every repeated word, every ‘um’ and ‘erm’, all those ‘filler’ phrases like ‘you know’ and ‘they know what I mean’ that can be repeated a hundred times in an interview, and can also include pauses, coughing, throat clearing, etc. if required. Needless to say, this takes more time. If the transcriber can filter all this material, the transcription is faster. At my company, the cheapest level is what we call ‘smart smart word’, which removes all these fillers but leaves the rest exactly as spoken. However, different transcriptionists work this differently, so always check when you phone to request your quote. Here are some brief examples. Something more expensive is edited, which corrects grammar and mispronounced words, as well as removing all padding.

Literal: Erm… well, I don’t really know, you know what I mean? I mean, you know, when I asked them what Mary’s condition was, er, um, condition, condition, they were like erm ‘I’m afraid we can’t, erm, tell you that, Mrs. Smith, because you’re not related.

Verbatim Smart: Well, I don’t really know. I mean, when I asked them what Mary’s status was, they said, “I’m afraid we can’t tell you, Mrs. Smith, because she’s not related to her.”

Edit: Well I really don’t know. I mean, when I asked them what Mary’s status was, they said, “I’m afraid we can’t tell you, Mrs. Smith, because she’s not related to her.”

You can see that a whole extra line of writing is required for textual work in just those few short sentences.

There are times when word for word is required; depending on your subject, it may be necessary for legal reasons, or you may be studying the language. But if you don’t really need it, don’t end up paying for it!

There are many great reasons to interview groups of people, but don’t do it to try to cut the cost of transcription! It takes much longer to transcribe for a group of more than two or three people (including the moderator/interviewer) due to the time it takes to distinguish between different voices and the fact that people will inevitably talk to each other, especially when they get emotional. enthusiastic, passionate, or angry.

And finally, a note of caution: remember that the cheapest transcription quote may not be the most affordable in the end. There is a much quoted phrase: if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. Is it really profitable to send your hard-earned interviews to the cheapest service if what you receive is gibberish and you have to go through the whole process correcting every word? How much time will you then waste that could have been more productive in your analysis?