Timestamping types
Timestamping time format must be: [00:00:00] (always in bold)
ALWAYS CONSIDER THE WHOLE FILE WHEN YOU'RE TIME STAMPING.
For example, if you do the 20-30 minutes part, your time stamping should start at 20, not 00.
Every 2 minutes:
Every time the speaker changes:
NOTE: If there's a comment next to the audio file saying, "Please use the embedded time" or "burned-in time", you will need to download the file in order to watch the video and use the correct time.
Major rules:
1. In general, short and logical, grammatically correct sentences are preferred. When a speaker is using conjunctions like 'and', 'so', or 'but' to connect longer stretches of thought, it's often a good idea to create sentence divisions in those places. Also, don't forget to cut out the conjunctions in those places when they're not necessary.
2. Longer speeches should be separated into smaller paragraphs. Paragraphs shouldn't be longer than 500 symbols (about 100 words or 3-4 lines in the transcription tool).
3. Never summarize the speech in the audio you are transcribing.
4. Do not correct errors made by the speakers. Use [sic] instead. For example: "All of my childrens [sic] are in school".
EXCEPTION: Correct egregious phonetic and pronunciation errors that inhibit readability or understanding
Example: if a speaker pronounces "refrigerator, washer and dryer" as "refrigurator, washar and dryear", please use the correct word and spelling based on your context of the audio.
5. Everything with a time-stamp, (e.g. [unintelligible 00:04:24]; [inaudible 00:02:24]) should be bolded.
6. Nothing else besides the speaker labels and marks with time-stamps should be bolded. So [laughs], [coughs], [laughter] or [crosstalk] shouldn't be bolded.
7. Never use () instead of []
8. Every sentence should end with a punctuation mark.
9. The beginning of every sentence should be capitalized.
10. Use '--' instead of '...'. Example: "I wanted to say something, but…" becomes "I wanted to say something, but--"
11. Expansions for "it's", "that's", "you've", et cetera are not considered mistakes, but it's preferable to transcribe them exactly as they are spoken. Example: If the speaker says "it's", it should be kept as "it's" regardless of the verbatim
12. Never use exclamation marks.
13. Speaker labels
- If there is more than one speaker, their names (if they are known) must be used. If not - mark them as "Speaker 1", "Speaker 2" and so on.
- Always use a speaker label, even if there's only one speaker. Speaker:
- Make each speaker's role in the audio as descriptive as possible. For example, "Interviewer", "Interviewee", "Host", "Reviewer", "Caller", "Receiver", et cetera.
- If the speaker's full name is used at some point (for example, David Butterfield:), later in the transcription, the last name can be dropped (for example, David Butterfield: becomes just David:). The same goes for the titles (Doctor, Pastor, et cetera). This is optional and is not considered to be an error.
- If you cannot identify who exactly is speaking, add a question mark before the speaker label. For example, ?Speaker 2, ?Interviewee 3. But if you cannot identify who is speaking throughout most of the transcript, it's better to then mark the speakers with a generic label like Interviewee or Participant. Still, it's important that you are able to at least identify the person asking questions or leading the discussion.
- Speaker labels must be written in bold, followed by a colon and a space. NEVER use the Tab button, only one click of the Space button.
NOTE: Occasionally customers dictate instructions to format the transcription while they are speaking. These instructions should be followed when possible, but never transcribed.
Follow customer requests for spoken directions such as new paragraph, comma, period or bullet point (use a dash). Do not type out the instruction.
14. Italicize film, book, magazine, song titles, as well as artworks, plays, TV and radio programs, foreign expressions et cetera. Example: I watched an episode of Friends the other day.
15) Sound events
- Sound events that are significant to the audio should also be noted. Use brackets [ ] for notes. The notes are always written in lower case regardless of the position in a sentence.
- For example: [laughter] - when more than one person laughs, separate line; [laughs] - when one speaker laughs, written in the same line; [screaming], [background noise] - separate line; [applause], [silence] - separate line; [crying], [sarcastically], [crosstalk] – same line (when 2 or more speakers all talk at the same time) et cetera should be used appropriately.
- If a foreign language or a word (in this case, a language that is not English) is spoken, mark it as [foreign language], [foreign word] or [French language], [German language], et cetera if it can be identified.
Note: Authors/titles/personalities/common sense things are an exception from this rule and must always be researched. For example: carpe diem, Jacques Chirac, Frédéric Chopin, alea jacta est et cetera. - [pause 00:00:00] is used to demonstrate a pause significant in a speech. It must be longer than 10 seconds for it to be marked.
- [phone rings] – when the phone rings once; [phone ringing] - when the phone keeps ringing; [dial tone] - when you hear the dial tone on the line - These tags should be on a separate line
- When the audio is cut or edited, use [sound cut] on a separate line
16) Numbers
- Spell out numbers from 0-9: zero, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine (this does not include phone numbers).
- Numbers from 10 and up are written in numerals: 10, 11, 20, 25, 99, et cetera.
NOTE: It is okay to break this rule if it improves readability or consistency (e.g. in a list of items) - Thousands should be written in digits. Do this: 600,000, 5,000. Note that there's a difference between "a thousand" (spelled out) and "one thousand" (digits)
- Always spell out big numbers like "million", "billion", "trillion", et cetera. Do this: 40 million, 10 billion. Numbers under 10 should be spelled out (two million).
- Times of the day and dates: always capitalize AM and PM. Do this: 2:45 PM, 5:00 AM. When using o'clock, spell out the numbers: eleven o'clock, nine o'clock.
- Time periods should be written with an apostrophe: '60s, '70s style; however, "that man is in his 70s" (no apostrophe)
- When the speaker uses symbols or equations (like a Math lecture) it's the editor's job to save transcription in Word format and to insert those formulas and symbols and then send that Word version to [email protected]. That's because our tool does not support symbols or formulas. Transcribers should do their best to transcribe those things using the tool, like writing formulas using regular symbols x = x + 2.
For example:
18) Quotation marks
- Double quotation marks "" are used whenever there is a direct quotation. Example: She said, "Don't bother telling me". Quotations are introduced by a comma, not a colon.
- Internal dialogues are seen as direct quotations as well. Example: And then I thought to myself, "What if I can't make it?" (Notice how the question mark is inside of the quotation. This is because the quotation itself is a question. However, if the rest of the sentence is a question containing a quotation, then the question mark would be outside of the quotation marks).
- Do not use quotation marks in indirect quotations (when the speaker paraphrases what has been said). Example: The man said that he was in a hurry.
19) If you cannot hear what word is being said, mark that as inaudible or unintelligible and specify the time.
- Use [inaudible 00:00:00] when it is impossible to hear what is being said due to interferences in the audio.
- Use [unintelligible 00:00:00] when you cannot understand what is being said due to the speaker's manner of speech, accent, et cetera.
20) Do NOT make up your own markings. Only use the ones that you find in the guidelines.
21) If there are curse words in the audio, transcribe them word for word
22) Onto vs. On to
- Recurring mistakes will also be harshly penalized!
- If a transcriber finishes 3 transcriptions and has 3.4 or a lower average rating, he/she will be removed from the team.