A Comprehensive Guide on Closed Captions

When viewing videos on the Internet or films on streaming services, there’s a high chance that you’ll be viewing their content with closed captions. After all, with captions, viewers can digest the content they’re watching at an easier rate. This allows them to comprehend and enjoy what they’re watching even more. However, captions aren’t just tools that assist viewers in watching and digesting content; there’s more to them than that.

In this helpful eGuide, we assist you in uncovering everything you need to know about captions on video content, such as their history, why they’re essential nowadays, and how AI affects them.

I. What are the Origins and History of Closed Captions?

When asking yourselves “What is closed captioning?”, you should first delve into the origins and history of captions. According to CBS News, as of 2024, 34% of Americans keep subtitles and captions on all the time as they watch videos and TV shows. Nowadays, it’s hard to think about watching videos or shows without having the option to turn on captions or subtitles. Still, the reality is that was how things were in the past.

The idea of using captions in television shows to make viewing more accessible began in 1972 when WGBH founded the Caption Center. As their first major project, they started to add captions to the rebroadcasts of Julia Child’s show, The French Chef. From then on, they started to caption rebroadcasts of ABC News programs to increase accessibility.

By 1982, real-time captioning of live local news, press conferences, and other events was launched, allowing viewers with hearing difficulties to enjoy what they were watching as it happened. As the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed, by the 21st century, closed captioning had become a legal mandate in television shows, streaming services, and even online videos.

II. Why It’s Essential to Have Closed Captions on Your Videos?

Closed Captioning Can Increase Accessibility

Accessibility is one of the main reasons why closed captions are such a valuable tool today. According to the WHO’s 2025 report on deafness and hearing loss, over 5% of the world’s population, or 430 million people, require rehabilitation because of disabling hearing loss. Because of this, many people can’t consume video content the same way most people can.

This is why adding captions to videos is a crucial step nowadays. With captions, even those who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can enjoy online videos and popular shows on streaming services. As such, if you ever find yourself creating videos online, especially educational ones, be sure to add captions so all your viewers can enjoy your content.

They Help Increase Watch Time

It may not seem like it but captions can also help increase your videos’ watch times. According to a Facebook study, 80% of viewers tend to react negatively when a video on social media automatically plays with audio. This results in the viewer moving away from the video before they finish watching it, which hampersg watch times.

With captions, a video can attract audiences even without the use of audio, resulting in viewers watching it in its entirety. Because of this, watch times are further increased, allowing you to make an impression on your viewers.

Closed Captions Keep You Compliant With Regulations

Today, governments and entities are doing their best to be as inclusive as possible to people with disabilities. Because of these efforts, laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) were passed. This made it mandatory to add captioning to rebroadcasts of many television programs on a variety of American networks. Failure to comply with such policies could result in hefty fines or even the removal of the content.

By adding captions to your videos, you’re complying with the regulations set by the government. As a result, you’ll be able to avoid any legal problems that come with not adhering to these regulations. Thankfully, while adding captions may seem like a difficult task, some audio transcription services also offer captioning services. Because of this, creators can add captions to their content without any problems.

They Help Repurpose Your Content

If you’re creating videos online, it’s always possible to repurpose the content into different forms of media, such as blogs, eGuides, or case studies. This is especially true for those who are creating videos that are aimed at educating viewers.

By adding captions to your videos, either on your own or with the aid of a captioning service, you can get a transcript of your video. As a result of having such transcriptions on hand, repurposing your video’s content into a blog or eGuide is made easier. This is because the transcriptions can help you extract the vital information from your video without having to go through minutes or even hours of footage.

Closed Captions Expand Your Audience

Finally, closed captioning on your videos is essential because it helps you expand and even diversify your audience. Remember, even those with hearing disabilities can be your audience. With captions, you’re giving them the ability to access and enjoy your videos, allowing their content to reach them as well.

In addition to the deaf and hard-of-hearing, translated captions can also help you diversify your audience. With translated captioning, you can easily reach audiences around the world whose first language isn’t English. This is because the translated captions will help them better understand your video’s contents despite the language barrier. This results in your viewership expanding even further.

III. What’s the Difference Between Closed Captions and Subtitles?

Closed Captions

The main differences between subtitles and closed captions lie in their purpose. Compared to subtitles, closed captions are used for videos whose audiences are deaf or hard of hearing. This means that they can understand the video’s language but cannot hear its audio. Therefore, they tend to include not just the dialogue but also sound effects, music, and even speaker identification.

In addition, captions are added after the video or show that requires it has been released. They also come in two forms: open captions and closed captions. But what exactly are the differences between open caption vs. closed caption?

Open Captions - Compared to closed captions, open captions, also known as “burned-in captions,” are always in the viewer’s sight. This is because it cannot be switched off, making it the better option for viewers with accessibility and comprehension troubles.
Closed Captions - Closed captions are the exact opposite of their open counterparts. While open captions cannot be turned off, closed captioning can be turned on and off at will. As a result, they’re seen as the more flexible option for captioning.

Subtitles

As stated before, closed captions are used to assist a deaf or hearing-impaired audience in better comprehending the videos or shows that they are viewing. Subtitles, on the other hand, are used when it’s expected that audiences can hear the audio but cannot understand the language it’s spoken in. As such, subtitles are translated captions for videos or shows whose dialogues are spoken in a foreign language.

Additionally, since they’re targeted at an audience that can hear a video or show’s audio, subtitles are composed of pure dialogue and do not include other audio cues like sound effects and music. Unlike closed captioning, they are usually developed before the pre-recorded show or video in question is even released.

IV. What are the Factors to Look for When Choosing a Closed Captioning Service?

Accuracy Rates - Your audience, especially people with disabilities, will rely on captions to help them better understand your video’s contents. As such, the service should always be able to provide captions that are 99% accurate. Otherwise, not only will your video’s SEO visibility be negatively impacted, but audiences will not be able to rely on the captions to help them understand your content better.
Turnaround Times - Turnaround times are another factor that you need to consider when picking your captioning service. This is especially important if you’re working on a deadline or you suddenly need a rush job. When looking at turnaround times, it’s always best to pick a service that offers multiple options without sacrificing quality and accuracy.
Costs - Similar to transcribing services, captioning companies can also offer flexible rates for their services. Remember, hiring a captioning service can consume part of your budget, so you’ll want a company that is upfront with their costs. When vetting a service and their rates, ask about other fees and whether or not they offer bulk discounts. In doing so, you can ensure that you’re still staying within your budget. Similar to turnaround times, however, ensure that a reasonable cost does not sacrifice accuracy or quality of your video’s captions as well.
Expertise and Experience - When hiring a captioning service, ensure that you’re only hiring a company that has a proven track record for providing accurate captions. By doing so, you can rest assured that you’re hiring the right people for your captioning needs.
Human or AI - Despite AI’s increasing popularity, human-based captioning services are still the better option to ensure that your captions will have a high degree of accuracy. With that in mind, always check if the closed captioning service you’re vetting completes requests with human workers or AI programs before hiring them for the job.

V. Why Is Accuracy Important in Captioning?

Accuracy Prevents Misinformation

Accuracy is essential when you’re creating content, no matter what the topic of discussion is. This is especially true if your videos deal in educational content, where it’s even more essential that the content is as accurate as possible.

When the captions of your video are accurate, you’re essentially saving your viewers from misinformation and solidifying your content’s credibility. Additionally, accurate captions also ensure that your viewers can better comprehend the information you’re presenting. With that in mind, don’t hesitate to turn to reputable captioning and transcription services for assistance in adding accurate captions to your videos.

Accuracy in Captions Ensures Compliance to Legal Requirements

When adding captions, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) have put forth legal requirements and standards that creators must always adhere to. One of these requirements is that captions must be as accurate as possible. Otherwise, creators risk facing significant financial and legal repercussions from the government itself.

By ensuring that your content’s captions are as accurate as possible, you can comply with the legal requirements to the fullest extent that you’re required. As a result, you can avoid any legal consequences that could result from having inaccurate captions in your video.

Accuracy Can Boost SEO

It may seem not easy o believe, but accurate closed captions can boost your video’s SEO. Remember, similar to blogs, search engines can examine a video’s captions and assist it in ranking. This means that videos with accurate captions will be more likely to rank in search engines than videos without accurate captions. Therefore, accurate captions become an essential asset if you plan to reach the broadest possible audience.

Accuracy Improves Overall Viewer Experience

Finally, accurate captions are essential because, simply put, they improve your viewer’s overall experience. Remember, there are times when viewers want to watch videos without sound, or they’re in a sound-sensitive environment that prevents them from watching with sound. Accurate captions will enable them to enjoy your content even under these circumstances, resulting in increased watch times and user engagement.

VI. How Can AI Affect Closed Captions?

Potential Inaccuracies - AI has been rising in popularity in recent years. However, it cannot be denied that AI, in its current state, is an imperfect tool. And when used in tasks such as adding closed captions to videos, inaccurate captions are one of the less desirable outcomes of AI. Depending on the topic at hand, specific terms, especially difficult ones, may be misspelled, making it even more challenging to understand. As such, it’s still best to have human transcriptionists add captions to your videos instead of relying on AI.
Possible Misinterpretations - One of the main concerns about AI is that it sometimes lacks the contextual understanding that humans are inherently capable of. As speaker expressions, tone of voice, and body language can easily change a speaker’s intent, AI's inability to contextualize could result in misinterpretations that could negatively impact the quality of your closed captions.
Difficulties in Evolving Languages - As time goes by, languages continue to evolve; new slang could emerge, and cultural shifts could occur. AI tools meant to automatically create captions, especially translated text, could easily face difficulties in these evolving languages. This could pave the way for inaccuracies in your captions in the long run.

Nowadays, closed captioning is a highly recommended step in creating video content. However, creating captions on your own can be a time-consuming process. With that in mind, it’s always best to turn to services that can get the job done for you. Thankfully, audio transcription services like TranscriptionWing also offer closed captioning services.

With 25 years of experience, TranscriptionWing offers not only precise and accurate transcriptions but also high-quality closed captions for videos at reasonable rates and turnaround times. Learn more about TranscriptionWing’s closed captioning service here!

A 2025 Guide to Legal Transcriptions

When working in the legal industry, professionals must always be thoroughly prepared. After all, many things are at stake with every court case they handle, such as their reputations and their clients’ lives. Even the public’s perception of the justice system could be influenced by a case’s outcome and as such, being ready is always a must. Legal transcriptions are one of the tools that can help court professionals be thoroughly prepared for every case.

Legal transcripts are an essential tool for court professionals nowadays. In fact, the 2023 report “Legal Transcription Market” states that the global transcription market is expected to see a considerable rise between 2023 and 2031, highlighting the growing demand for legal transcripts. Therefore, it can be expected that there are a variety of topics on them, from how they impact court proceedings to even AI’s place in their creation.

As a legal professional or aspiring legal transcriptionist, it’s always best to learn as much as possible about this helpful tool. With that in mind, read on to see your 2025 guide to legal transcriptions.

I. Why Your Law Firm Needs Legal Transcriptions

Legal transcripts are always a worthy investment for any law firm. With this tool, their lawyers can be more prepared for their cases. This could allow them to win more cases, bringing more prestige to the law firm.

Of course, the possibility of earning a win for the firm aren’t the only reasons why law firms need legal transcripts. Legal transcripts also have other benefits that law firms will want, such as:

Improving Communications Within Law Firms

Proper communication is crucial when working in the legal industry. With proper communication, disagreements can be avoided. This is especially needed if your law firm took on a complex case that requires the expertise of multiple lawyers.

By having accurate audio transcriptions, the team can ensure that communication between everyone is as smooth as possible. This is because transcripts can be consulted at any time, allowing lawyers to assist one another while minimizing the possibility of disagreements.

Supporting Law Firms in Research

Like any professional, research is an essential process every lawyer must conduct. After all, by conducting proper research, they can be better prepared for their case. Legal transcripts of previous cases can assist them in this endeavor as they are sources of data and information.

Since legal transcripts are accurate written records, aspiring lawyers and veteran attorneys can return to them to glean significant insights and data. By continuously studying whatever information they acquire, legal professionals can improve how they practice law.

Helping With Case Management

Law firms often keep records of every case they’ve ever handled. That way, they could return to the case or use it as study material for new lawyers if needed. However, managing and keeping track of these case records can be difficult, especially for well-established law firms. Legal transcripts can assist firms in this task.

Significant amounts of information are passed on between parties during court cases. By recording these exchanges and having legal transcription services convert them into written form, law firms can easily manage and track the information extracted during the court case.

II. Legal Transcriptions and The Ways They Impact Court Proceeding

While they may seem like harmless documents, legal transcripts can affect the outcome of court proceedings in many ways. These include:

Increasing Accountability of the Justice System - Transparency and accountability are integral in ensuring an ethical legal system for any country. While it may sound difficult to believe, documents like legal transcripts can assist in maintaining these two elements. This is because since audio transcriptions are written records of all exchanges, testimonies, and interviews, every action is preserved and can be reviewed at any time.

As a result of this, every legal professional involved in the case can be held accountable. This in turn motivates them to uphold fairness and integrity throughout the court proceedings.

Allowing Proper Evidence Review - Another way legal transcripts impact court proceedings is that they help ensure the case’s evidence is properly reviewed. Transcriptions of any interviews or exchanges can be submitted as evidence. Therefore, if there are contradictions in the testimony or physical evidence, the transcript can be consulted to uncover the truth.

Helps Streamline Case Preparations - Proper preparation is necessary for each case that attorneys handle. After all, not only are their reputations at stake but their client’s life and the public’s perception of the justice system are as well. While case preparations can consume a significant amount of a lawyer’s time, transcripts can help streamline this process.

By having legal transcription services provide them with accurate transcripts, court professionals will have an easier time analyzing any evidence they have. This allows them to prepare for the legal proceedings at a faster pace.

Assists Legal Professionals in Improving Their Conduct - It may sound difficult to believe but legal documents like transcriptions can help court professionals improve in the practice. Remember, legal transcripts are records of court proceedings. This means that attorneys can peruse them as study materials that are easier to understand compared to audio recordings. As a result of this continuous growth, lawyers can improve how they practice the law.

III. The Importance of Accuracy and Precision in Legal Transcriptions

Accuracy and precision are vital elements for legal transcriptions. After all, as stated before, it is an essential tool that can help professionals make or break their case. Below are the reasons why legal transcripts must always remain as precise and accurate as possible.

Precise Transcripts Can Be Vital for Appeals

In the legal industry, there are times when someone would request to appeal the ruling for a specific case. This could be because they disagree with the ruling or feel there’s something more to the case than what can be seen. Either way, when an appeal is requested, accurate transcripts are required and may even significantly impact the outcome.

The slightest transcription error can easily affect an appeal’s result, such as a criminal going free or an innocent person remaining imprisoned. With that in mind, accuracy and precision become even more crucial than ever. Therefore, be sure to only turn to expert transcription services so your legal transcripts are as accurate as possible.

Accurate Transcriptions Can Help Preserve Evidence

Accurate transcripts are potent documents in the legal field as they can assist courts in preserving evidence. In fact, there are instances when the transcript itself acts as the evidence for a case. As such, if the transcript is inaccurate, the evidence could be discarded, leading to a miscarriage of justice. This makes accuracy and precision in legal transcripts more important than ever.

Accurate Transcriptions Maintain Professional Standards

The legal industry is a field that can come under intense scrutiny if any form of misconduct occurs and is even made public. As such, professional standards must be maintained in everyday operations. Believe it or not, accurate legal transcriptions can ensure these professional standards are met.

Remember, accurate transcripts give unbiased accounts of everything discussed during the legal proceedings. Therefore, it compels attorneys and court officials to maintain professional standards, proving their credibility in the process.

Precise Transcripts Help Maintain The Integrity of the Legal Process

Precise transcriptions can help lawyers build their cases and make informed decisions on how to best defend their clients. If the transcript is accurate, the legal professional can conduct their work without flaws. On the other hand, using an inaccurate transcription could lead to dire consequences, including false imprisonment or erroneous acquittal.

Should either of these outcomes happen, people could lose faith in the legal process’ integrity. As such, it’s essential that attorneys always turn to experienced legal transcription services. That way, they can ensure that the transcripts they’ll use in court have a near-perfect accuracy, preventing mistakes that could undermine the integrity of the legal process.

IV. What Happens If You Use Inaccurate Legal Transcripts in Court Proceedings?

Understandably, there are consequences to using inaccurate legal transcripts in court proceedings. After all, using inaccurate transcripts could lead to undesirable consequences for the case, such as miscarriage of justice. One example of this happened back in 2011 when 66-year-old Carlos Ortega of Colombia was arrested and extradited to Florida for a crime he did not commit. The cause: mistaken identity because of inaccurate legal transcripts.

However, the gross miscarriage of justice isn’t the only outcome of using inaccurate legal transcripts. Other adverse outcomes of using poorly made legal transcripts include:

Inefficient Operations

One of the significant consequences of using inaccurate transcripts is that it could lead to inefficient operations for law firms. While transcription mistakes could be spotted before the document arrives in court, legal professionals must take time off their schedules to rectify the mistakes. Not only does this increase a lawyer’s workload but it also consumes essential time that could be used for better case preparation.

Financial Repercussions

Financial repercussions are another consequence of using inaccurate audio transcriptions in court. Remember, an incorrect transcript often leads to mistakes regarding any statements made throughout the court proceedings. This could influence the jury and cause the judge to give the wrong verdict.

Should the wrong verdict be handed out, a retrial could be requested for the case, especially if the initial outcome was a wrongful conviction. In such cases, the legal professional handling the case could be charged a fee, which will serve as compensation for the aggrieved party.

With so much at stake, attorneys should always turn to expert transcriptionists. By doing so, it can be guaranteed that the document is precise and even follows an acceptable legal transcription format. Through this, inaccuracies that can lead to financial repercussions can be avoided.

Damaged Reputations and Disbarment

In the legal industry, reputation plays a significant role in a defense attorney’s career. With a good reputation, more clients will come to rely on them, allowing them to have a steady stream of work. On the other hand, a poor reputation could cause one’s career to stagnate, as they’ll be seen as unreliable. It may sound hard to believe but inaccurate transcriptions can actually damage your reputation.

Transcriptions of statements and interviews can usually be submitted as evidence in court proceedings. However, if the legal transcriptions are too inaccurate, their validity will be questioned, and crucial evidence could also be missed. As the transcript’s importance is undermined, the overlooked evidence could eventually result in a dismissal of the case or even a wrongful conviction.

Once a lawyer’s client is wrongfully convicted, their professional reputation could be damaged. Because of this, they won’t be seen as trustworthy and reliable in the profession. In worst-case scenarios, they may even be disbarred from practicing law altogether.

V. Legal Transcriptions: 5 Challenges Often Encountered

1. Time Constraints

The legal industry often works under tight deadlines. As such, it’s not a shock to see law firms requesting to receive their transcripts as soon as possible. This means that time constraints are one of the common challenges in creating legal transcripts. Rapid turnaround times can compromise the quality of a transcription, which is unacceptable for documents like legal transcripts.

Remember, legal transcription costs are no joke and the document itself is an essential tool. Additionally, the decline in quality because of time constraints is even more apparent if the job is given to an amateur transcriptionist. As such, be sure to only turn to transcriptionists with specialized training to create your transcripts. That way, you can get your transcripts quickly without sacrificing quality.

2. Audio Quality Problems

Poor audio quality is another common challenge for legal transcriptionists. Some interviews or exchanges are recorded in places with significant background noise. As such, when the recording is turned in to the transcriptionists to convert to text, the audio can cause the production of the transcript to slow down significantly.

If you have plans to record the interview for transcription, use only the most advanced recording equipment or software. By doing so, captured statements can be heard clearly despite any potential background noise.

3. Linguistic Challenges

In the legal industry, lawyers sometimes use specific terms and jargon during court proceedings or interviews. While these terminologies are vital to certain aspects of the case, they sometimes create linguistic challenges that make transcribing audio difficult for transcriptionists.

Remember, since they can be submitted as evidence, legal transcripts must be near perfect in accuracy. Otherwise, the understanding of the whole document can be altered, jeopardizing your case in the process. Therefore, when getting your transcripts done, don’t hesitate to turn to transcription services with staff who are knowledgeable in the jargon commonly used in the legal industry.

4. Speaker Identification

It may shock some, but speaker identification is another challenge commonly encountered when creating legal transcripts. Legal proceedings and interviews often have two or more people speaking and it must always be made clear who said what in transcriptions. By doing so, any confusion can be avoided.

Unfortunately, since they’re only listening to an audio file, there may be times when the transcriptionist might find it hard to determine who is speaking. This could slow the production of the legal transcripts and may even cause mistakes in the document.

To overcome this challenge, consider taking a video of the court proceedings. That way, your transcriptionists could clearly see who is speaking at the moment. On the other hand, you could also ask them to state their names at the start of the recording.

5. Confidentiality and Privacy Standards

During court proceedings, sensitive information that shouldn’t be made public is sometimes discussed and recorded. These include personal details and lawyer-client communications. With that in mind, confidentiality and privacy must be maintained when creating such legal transcriptions.

Keeping up with these confidentiality and privacy standards can be a challenge for most transcriptionists. Therefore, when hiring a transcription service, be sure to thoroughly vet them to see if they have the robust security measures required to ensure client confidentiality and privacy are maintained.

VI. Legal Transcription Services: Important Factors to Consider

As legal transcripts are an essential tool in a legal professional’s arsenal, it’s never recommended that attorneys attempt to create transcripts on their own. This is because if a lawyer is preoccupied with both the case and transcribing duties, they become vulnerable to transcription errors that could cost them the case.

Instead of transcribing audio on their own, lawyers should turn to legal transcription services to get the job done. However, lawyers and law firms shouldn’t hire the first transcription company they find. Instead, they must thoroughly vet the service and look for the following factors to ensure they’re hiring the right people for the job.

Pricing Options and Turnaround Times - When looking for a reliable transcription service, pricing options are a valid factor to consider. Legal transcription costs are nothing to scoff at so you’ll want a service that immediately tells you how much you have to pay for transcriptions. Additionally, you’ll want a service that doesn’t charge hidden fees or ask you to commit to a long-term contract before making your requests.

Turnaround times are another factor lawyers should look into when vetting a transcription service. As lawyers usually work under a deadline, there are times when they need transcriptions done immediately. Therefore, a service that offers a variety of turnaround times is always the best option to consider.

Experience and Certification Abilities - Understandably, experience is a vital requirement when choosing a service to create your legal transcripts. After all, like any time you assign work, you’ll want to assign the job to those who know what they’re doing. That way, mistakes can be avoided, and you’ll have a highly accurate transcription during court proceedings.

Apart from experience, court professionals should see if their potential transcription service can certify transcripts. Remember, legal transcriptions are admissible in court as evidence and as such, they should have the proper certifications first. By doing so, there’s a guarantee that the document was transcribed exactly as the conversation occurred.

Quality and Accuracy and Transcription Methods - Quality and accuracy is another essential factor to look for when hiring someone to create legal transcripts. As transcriptions can influence a court proceeding’s outcome, it’s vital that they’re as accurate as possible.

To that end, not only should you thoroughly vet a potential transcription service but you should also ask them for samples of their work so you can see how accurate they are in creating transcripts.

Additionally, when turning to transcription services, be sure to hire one that employs human transcriptionists over AI. This is because human transcriptions, tend to have a higher degree of accuracy and quality than AI transcripts.

Supported File Types and Security Measures - It may sound like a trivial matter but the file types that the transcription company can cater to are another factor you need to consider before hiring them. Remember, not every transcription service can transcribe every kind of file; some transcribe audio only from specific file types. By knowing what file types the service supports, you can quickly gauge if they’re the right company for your needs.

In addition to what kind of file types they support, you also need to know about the transcription company’s security measures. Nowadays, data security and privacy are essential more than ever. If a client’s data is exposed, consequences are sure to follow for the lawyer, such as legal action and damage to reputation.

With client privacy and confidentiality at stake, lawyers should always turn to legal transcription services with the proper security measures. These include encryption, HIPAA and GDPR compliance, secure data centers, etc.

Specialized Services and Customer Support - When canvassing for a transcription service to create legal transcripts for your firm, always check if they offer specialized services. If they provide specialized services, there’s a high chance they have a team dedicated to creating legal transcripts. That way, it’s guaranteed that they’ll know what specific legal terminologies mean as well as the intricacies of the law itself, which allows for a more accurate transcription.

Finally, how a transcription service provides customer support is another factor that should be considered when vetting a potential transcription company. When picking a transcription service, be sure to choose one that offers 24/7 customer assistance. That way, you can have the peace of mind in knowing that any concerns you may have regarding your audio transcriptions will be addressed accordingly.

VII. Legal Transcriptionist Skills Law Firms Need to Look For

Of course, when you’re working with someone to produce your legal transcripts, it’s a given that you’ll be in contact with the transcriptionist assigned to your request. However, before you finalize hiring them for the job, you should take the time to see if your transcriptionist has the following skills first:

Knowledge of Legal Terminologies

It can be expected that a fair amount of legal terminologies will be used during court proceedings. There may even be times when transcriptionists have to elaborate on what these terminologies are in a note within the transcription. Unfortunately, legal terminologies can sometimes be tricky to understand, especially if they are in Latin, making it easy to make mistakes when creating the transcription.

Mistakes in legal transcriptions should be avoided at all costs. Otherwise, there could be serious consequences for both the lawyer and their client. To that end, when contacting your transcriptionist, be sure to check if they have a certain degree of knowledge in legal terminologies. That way, mistakes regarding legal terminologies can be minimized.

Research

On the other hand, if your transcriptionist isn’t knowledgeable in legal terminologies, you should ask if they’re at least adept at research. With proper research abilities, even if they hear legal terminology they’re not familiar with, they can at least look it up. This can help provide another layer of accuracy to the transcript they’re producing.

Listening

Listening is another essential skill that your legal transcriptionist should have. Remember, whether they’re transcribing audio or video files, a transcriptionist will convert the spoken word to text. As there’s little room for error when creating legal transcripts, properly understanding what’s being said is a great asset to have in your transcriptionist.

Time Management

When you’re in contact with your transcriptionist, don’t hesitate to ask them about their time management skills. Remember, lawyers often work on tight deadlines and as such, there’s nothing wrong with wanting your audio transcriptions to be completed on time.

A legal transcriptionist with great time management skills can ensure that your transcripts are produced ahead of the deadline. This allows you to examine the document for any potential mistakes and have them remedied before you have to submit it in court.

Attention to Detail

Finally, you should also take the time to ask about your transcriptionist’s skills regarding attention to detail. Remember, the precision and accuracy of legal transcripts should be close to 100% as much as possible. Therefore, a legal transcriptionist should have a keen eye for details and spot any errors immediately, grammatical or otherwise. By doing so, mistakes can be avoided and a high degree of accuracy can be maintained for your transcriptions.

VIII. AI: How It Changed the Transcription Industry

The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has also affected the transcription industry as a whole in a myriad of ways, such as:

Changes in Production Time and Costs

AI has had a significant impact on the production time of transcriptions since its introduction. This is because ever since AI’s introduction to the industry, transcription production can be automated, significantly reducing the time needed to produce transcripts. As a result, people can receive large quantities of transcripts for their projects almost immediately.

In addition to production times, AI also affected the costs associated with creating transcriptions. Not only do AI transcription services cost less because of the lack of human transcriptionists required to produce the documents but it’s also caused human transcription companies to lower their rates. That way, they can still viably compete with AI in the transcription market.

Transcriptionist Roles

A transcriptionist’s overall role within the industry was also changed thanks to the introduction of AI. Prior to AI, a transcriptionist handles all the responsibilities that come with creating transcripts, such as transcribing, editing, and even proofreading. However, now that AI is taking on transcription duties, companies are learning to adapt and change the role of a human transcriptionist.

With AI doing most of the heavy lifting in transcription, human transcribers can take up specialized roles within the industry. One example of these specialized roles is proofreading, which allows human transcriptionists to ensure that an audio recording’s AI transcript is still accurate and up to standard.

Careers Within The Industry

Finally, artificial intelligence has also created new careers within the transcription industry, such as AI training and development. Through this, transcriptionists and languages can still help train and develop AI models. By doing so, they’re helping transcription AIs further improve its accuracy.

IX. AI: Does It Have a Place In Legal Transcriptions?

The use of AI has become widespread in various industries such as arts, sciences, entertainment, etc. The transcription industry is no exception to this. This is because more and more fields needing transcriptions are turning to AI to receive their transcripts much faster and at a lower rate. As such, it begs the question: does AI have a place in legal transcriptions?

While AI is not a bad thing to use, it’s still best to turn to human transcriptionists to create your legal transcripts. There have been instances when AI tools and technologies have been used in legal cases, resulting in questionable outcomes. One such example of this is when prosecutors and law enforcement agencies in various states used a tool known as Cybercheck. Despite its creator’s claims of 98.2% accuracy, its opaque methodology means that there is still room for error in its results.

Remember, your reputation is at stake when you use tools for AI transcription that can't be validated as accurate for court, such as testimony from expert witnesses, medical professional or other party that can influence the case's outcome. With that in mind, you’ll want to steer clear from imperfect AI tools that could jeopardize your professional standing and the outcome of your case.

When creating legal transcripts, the document must be as accurate as possible. However, according to Statista, as of 2021, AI transcription tools only have an accuracy of 86%. This is too wide a margin of error for legal transcripts and any transcription mistakes can result in the document being removed as evidence.

With that in mind, lawyers should always turn to human legal transcription services to get the transcripts they need for their court cases. That way, any mistakes that AI is susceptible to can be avoided.

IX. Conclusion

The importance of transcriptions in the legal industry cannot be underestimated. With it, legal professionals can be better prepared for their cases and may even decide the fate of their clients. Apart from that, it could help them and many others improve their craft. To that end, attorneys should always add transcriptions to their arsenal, no matter the type of case.

Academic Research Transcriptions: Important Things to Keep in Mind

Academic research transcriptions are valuable assets for students and researchers. With them, not only can they go back to previous lessons and brush up on their knowledge but they can also gain valuable research insights faster. According to Grand View Research, transcriptions are so vital nowadays that the U.S. Transcription Market Size was valued at $25.88 billion as of 2022.

Many people think that transcribing is the simple act of converting audio to text. While this is true, there are still many things to know about transcriptions. Here are a few essential things to keep in mind when discussing academic transcriptions.

Should Students Transcribe Audio on Their Own?

Students and researchers trying to transcribe audio or video files independently is a common event in the academic field. However, universities shouldn’t encourage them to undertake this task on their own. Instead, they should encourage students to avail of academic transcription services when they’re in need of transcripts.

Here are the reasons why universities shouldn’t let students transcribe audio by themselves:

It Can Prevent Them From Keeping Track of Projects

Students and researchers often record their group meetings to have a reference point for data gathering. During the meeting, they usually do their best to transcribe the discussion as well. However, one of the main reasons why students shouldn’t transcribe audio on their own is that it can keep them from properly monitoring these group meetings as they happen.

Various points that are crucial to the research can be discussed during the group meetings. When a student or researcher transcribes these notes by themselves, it can cause them to miss these discussion points and the details surrounding them. If even one group member fails to keep these details in mind, it can easily prevent the project’s completion.

As self-transcribing can easily distract researchers and students from the essential parts of the meeting, it’s all the more reason universities should encourage students to seek the aid of a research transcription company. That way, they can keep track of their projects and still receive quality transcripts of their recordings that they can use as a reference.

Transcribing by Themselves Can Keep Students From Focusing on the Discussion

Another instance of students attempting self-transcription is when they’re in classes. While there’s nothing wrong with taking down notes while in class, it’s not a recommended practice. This is because attempting to transcribe and actively listen simultaneously can prevent them from adequately focusing in class. In worst cases, it can even cause them to miss crucial details that could be helpful to their studies down the line.

Transcription services can greatly assist both students and professors in this area. Professors can record the lecture to ensure that the students’ focus remains on the class discussion itself. Afterward, they can have human transcriptionists convert the audio or video to text later on. Professors can then disseminate the transcription to their students to ensure they have a high-quality reference to aid their studies.

Transcribing Audio Can Increase The Pressure Students Feel

It cannot be denied that researchers face immense pressure over the course of their studies. This is doubly true for those who are taking their post-graduate education. Unfortunately, attempting to transcribe lectures or group discussions on their own can only increase the pressure that student-researchers already experience.

Remember, when transcribing, not only do students have to write quickly to capture every bit of information that is being discussed, but they also have to listen and participate actively in class or group meetings. Being unable to catch up with either can increase the pressure they feel and take a toll on them in the long run.

With that in mind, professors should take the necessary steps to ensure researchers don’t face any further pressure. By encouraging students to hire transcriptionists to craft research transcriptions for them, this dilemma can easily be solved.

It Prevents Them From Having a Quality Reference Information

One final reason students shouldn’t transcribe audio independently is that, simply put, it prevents them from having a high-quality reference for their studies.

As stated before, transcriptions are valuable in the academic field because they provide a visual aid that students can return to when they need a refresher. Attempting to create transcriptions on their own can be counterproductive because it could result in poor quality transcripts.

To ensure that students use nothing but the best reference materials for their studies, professors shouldn’t hesitate to take advantage of transcription companies to provide their students with high-quality transcripts. They can also try to dissuade students from transcribing audio files on their own and encourage them to avail of transcription services instead. That way, their reference material is flawless, aiding them extensively in their studies or research.

Academic Research Transcripts: Why Are They Important?

Academic research transcriptions are an excellent advantage for students and researchers. After all, it provides them with valuable references that they can look back to in the future should they need them. However, there are other reasons why such transcripts are vital in the academic field nowadays, such as:

Transcripts Can Assist With Analyzing Data

Analyzing quantitive and qualitative data are crucial parts of academic research. Believe it or not, transcriptions can significantly help with this stage of research. This is because with transcriptions, researchers can easily find and categorize data. As a result, they can identify patterns and insights that are crucial to their research.

In addition, with transcriptions, comparative analysis and cross-referencing can be done much faster and easier, allowing researchers to reinforce their findings further.

Academic Transcripts Can Enhance Collaboration and Communication

Collaboration and communication between group members are essential among researchers. Without it, confusion and poor correspondence within the team can occur, resulting in mistakes in the research. Even worse, i can easily lead to false information becoming widespread within the team and the research community as a whole.

Research transcriptions can assist researchers in avoiding false information or problems in communication, both within the team and the academic community. This is because transcriptions allow them to share their research findings with their peers. As a result, peer reviewing and information dissemination can be accomplished much faster. This fosters better communication, collaboration, transparency, and accountability within the academic field.

Academic Research Transcriptions Help Ensure Accuracy and Precision

Another important aspect of academic research is accuracy and precision. When conducting research, researchers must be as accurate as possible. Otherwise, it can result in false information becoming widespread, damaging your credibility in the process.

With how crucial accuracy and precision are to academic research, transcription can be a great asset to any researcher. By taking an audio recording of your group’s discussions and enlisting the aid of rush transcription services to convert the recordings to text, any detail can be faithfully captured. As a result, the likelihood of errors or poor interpretations in your research is reduced.

Transcripts Ensure Ethical Guideline Compliance

When conducting academic research, researchers must comply with ethical guidelines and standards. With protocols in place, researchers are bound to ensure that the data used, such as participant responses, weren’t tampered with throughout the research.

As they often ensure transparency and confidentiality, transcripts can ensure that your research complies with ethical guidelines and standards. This is because transcriptions document verbal interactions into written form, providing a tangible record of the procedures and responses that were used to bring the research to fruition. Because of this, ethical principles are upheld and the respondents’ rights are safeguarded.

Transcriptions Enhance Searchability and Accessibility

Finally, transcriptions are essential in academics because they enhance searchability and accessibility. Since academic research transcriptions are searchable documents, researchers can pinpoint the information they need faster. This allows the research process to be streamlined, increasing the possibility of completing the research way before the deadline.

In addition, accurate transcripts also ensure that even hearing-impaired students and researchers can peruse your research findings. According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, 15% of adults in America aged 18 and over suffer from hearing issues. With transcripts, you can give them the same educational opportunities that others receive as the document allows them to simply read your research as opposed to having to hear it be discussed.

How Can Universities Integrate Transcriptions in Their Workflow and Budget?

With the academic community relying on transcriptions in this day and age, universities tend to enlist the services of transcription firms for their students and staff alike. But how exactly do universities include such services in their budget? Well, believe it or not, there are a few ways universities obtain funding for transcription services, such as:

Grant Applications

One way universities obtain funding for transcription services is by applying for grant applications. As stated before, many adults in the academic community experience hearing disabilities, making it difficult to listen to lessons and research presentations.

With a large number of academics encumbered by hearing problems, some entities provide grants to make education more accessible to the hearing impaired. These entities include the National Association for the Deaf and the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services. If universities need funding for academic transcription services, they can plead their case with the aforementioned entities to apply for a grant. Once their application is approved, they will provide the university with a set amount of funding to use for the academic year.

They Include Transcription Services in the Yearly Budget Planning

Another way universities obtain funds to avail of transcription services is by simply including it in the yearly budget. Nowadays, a large number of universities make it a point to use transcriptions to improve each student’s learning experience and make it accessible at the same time. As such, these services are often seen as investments for colleges and universities; in these cases, they’re usually included in the budget for the year.

Students and Staff Conduct Fundraising Campaigns

Finally, if a university needs funding to avail the services of a research transcription company, students and staff sometimes conduct fundraising campaigns. When doing so, they usually reach out to university alums, corporate sponsors, or stakeholders for donations that they can use to avail of transcription services for the academic year.

In pleading their case, students and staff often increase awareness of transcription services by emphasizing their importance and usefulness. This is usually done in three ways:

Explaining Why Transcriptions are Necessary - Transcriptions aren’t just important to students; they’re also a great advantage to the administration. After all, with transcriptions, universities can avoid expensive fines and unify their workflow. By using these as talking points to highlight the necessity of transcriptions, the chances of the fundraising campaign succeeding become higher.
Highlighting How Transcriptions Reinforce a Student’s Learning Experience - University donors, especially alumni, want students to succeed in their education. With that in mind, when conducting fundraising campaigns for transcription services, students and staff shouldn’t hesitate to highlight how transcriptions assist students in absorbing study material faster.
Reminding How Transcripts Improve Accessibility - On the other hand, students and staff conducting fundraising campaigns can also remind people of how transcriptions improve education accessibility, especially for the disabled. By highlighting that their donations will assist in advancing such a noble cause, it’s more likely that the fundraising campaign will succeed.

Transcription Services: Are They Actually Worth the Investment?

The importance of transcriptions in the academic community can’t be underestimated nowadays. However, with how easy it is to have free AI technologies transcribe audio and video, it’s not surprising that some people still wonder: are transcription services with human transcriptionists actually worth the investment?

Here are the reasons why transcription services are worth every penny that you pay them:

Transcription Services Speed Up The Research Process

One of the greatest advantages of hiring a transcription service is that it can help researchers speed up the research process. By hiring transcription services, researchers won’t have to worry about converting their audio or video recordings to text on their own. As a result, they’ll have even more time to fully dive into their research, especially if they turn to transcription firms with quick turnaround times. This will give them access to much needed insights within their project’s timeframe.

Additionally, transcription firms also speed up the research process because they help minimize administrative workloads by analyzing, interpreting, and eventually organizing the gathered data. Because of this, researchers will have more leeway to focus on the core tasks of the project, such as analyzing their collected data.

This expedited research process facilitated by academic transcription services allows researchers to complete the project ahead of their deadline, making them a worthy investment for any research university to consider.

Transcription Firms Streamline File Management and Accessibility

Another reason transcription firms are a worthy investment for research universities is because they streamline file management and accessibility. Remember, with the amount of research projects universities conduct, they generate a large amount of data, which must be properly managed and organized. That way, qualitative researchers can have an easier time tracking down the data that they need.

By having a transcription firm create transcripts for your university’s research teams, managing and organizing these files can be streamlined. This is because audio transcriptions are not only smaller in size and easier to access both online and offline but also because they can be managed and disseminated faster via cloud storage.

Transcription Companies Help Improve Productivity and Minimize Stress

Finally, universities should invest in enlisting the assistance of a research transcription company to minimize the stress that their researchers feel. Academic research is already a stressful field because of its rigorous environment. After all, not only do they need to establish their findings efficiently, but they also have to ensure that they are accurate. Adding in tedious tasks such as transcriptions can only exacerbate the stress they feel further.

According to a Research.com study, as of 2024, 40% of students in the US experience burnout because of stress. This, in turn, limits their performance, which could affect their careers as researchers down the line. With the assistance of a transcription company, researchers can gain high-quality transcripts that significantly reduce the amount of time they consume backtracking on their recordings.

As a result of turning to transcription companies, stress and burnout can be significantly minimized. In addition, as high-quality transcripts eliminate the need to backtrack and help researchers seamlessly rectify any false data, researchers can dive headfirst into their research. This greatly increases their productivity and allows them more time for rest and leisure.

What Decides The Pricing of Academic Research Transcriptions

Like any service, transcribing your audio or video will cost you a certain amount. However, some researchers may be caught off guard by how much they must pay for transcripts. To put your mind at ease, consider learning the factors that decide the pricing of research transcriptions.

Deadlines

As expected, the deadline you set (AKA turnaround time) for your transcription service is one of the factors that decide their rates. Should you give the transcriptionists enough time to work on your project, the rate will likely be lower. This is because there’s enough time for one transcriptionist to work on your recording.

On the other hand, if your requested turnaround time is the same day or the next day, you can expect the rates to be higher as multiple transcribers may be required to complete the transcription.

Recording Length and Quality

A recording’s length can easily affect the rates of your transcription request. Remember, transcription firms usually charge by the minute so the longer the recording is, the higher the charges for the project will be.

Of course, apart from the length of the recording, the quality of the audio or video can easily affect the cost as well. When your recording’s quality is poor, the transcriptionists will have a more challenging time converting the audio to text. As a result, not only would it require more time to process but maybe even specialized equipment or highly skilled human transcriptionists would also be required.

Accents and Number of Speakers

Another factor that could affect the rates of your transcription request is the speaker’s accent. Some accents can be difficult to understand, especially when complex terms come into play in the audio. Since the transcriptionist will have to pay closer attention to the recording to convert what they’re saying to text properly, it will take more time to complete. This would drive up the price of the transcription in the process.

In addition to the accents, transcription services may also base the rate they charge on the number of speakers heard in the audio. Usually, one-on-one recordings cost less since they’re easier to transcribe. However, interviews and focus groups are expected to cost researchers more as there are more speakers.

Subject

Believe it or not, the subject of your academic research transcriptions is a factor that can affect the pricing of your transcription request. This is because some industries, such as medical and legal, use complex terms and jargon that can be difficult to understand. Therefore, a deeper understanding of the subject is usually required for proper transcription.

Often, transcriptionists with a specialized skillset or appropriate amount of knowledge will be enlisted for projects involving complex subjects. In some cases, more time will be required to properly research the topic. Usually, combining these two factors leads to higher charges for the transcription request.

Timestamps and Required Editing

Timestamp requests can also play a role in the prices of your transcription requests. Timestamping is the process of adding the exact time certain words or sentences were said in the audio to the transcription version. This can be useful for researchers as they not only make for valuable references but it also makes navigation easier, especially if the recording has poor audio quality.

As timestamps aren’t usually included in transcriptions by default, transcription firms, even rush transcription services, reserve the right to charge extra for this feature. Therefore, the overall pricing of your project can be affected depending on whether or not you opt to have them include timestamps in the transcripts.

Finally, apart from timestamping, editing the transcript can also decide how much you’ll have to pay for your transcription. The reason for this is because proofreading complex terms and formatting might be required at this stage. As this consumes more time and effort on the transcriptionist’s part, it’s likely transcription rates will increase.

Should You Have Your Transcripts Translated?

Transcription isn’t the only service offered by transcription companies. Usually, a transcription company also provides translation services to those who need it. Understandably, however, this will cost researchers a little extra as it’s an entirely different service.

Because of the additional fees attached to translation services, some wonder if it’s even worth having their transcripts translated. Believe it or not, the answer to that question is yes, you should have your research transcriptions translated. Here are the various reasons why:

Translations Remove Language Barriers - The academic community is a diverse field that includes people of different nationalities. All of them are eager to learn more and chances are some are interested in what your research has to say. As such, be sure to have your transcripts translated so they can also understand your research in their native language and formulate helpful ideas and opinions of their own.
Transcription Translations Make Your Research More Visible - If you're looking to make your research more visible, you need the assistance of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). By having your academic research transcriptions translated, you can target specific keywords in other languages. This allows you to expand your research’s audience further.
They Differentiate Your Research from Others - Finally, it’s a good move to have your transcriptions translated because it sets you apart from other researchers. Most researchers don’t take the time to have their transcripts translated because of the associated costs. Therefore, when you have your research translated, you allow it to stick out and be found by other audiences from other countries.

Now that you know the advantages of having your research transcripts translated, don’t hesitate to take this extra step to benefit your research.

Conclusion

The importance of transcriptions in the field of academics cannot be underestimated. And with how essential they are, the best move is to always turn to academic transcription services to get the job done. By doing so, students and researchers can focus more on the more important aspects of their study and avoid the stress and burnout of transcriptions simultaneously.

Why Human Transcriptions Are Still Relevant Today In A World Of AI

If the COVID-19 vaccine taught us anything, it’s that the biotech research industry is progressively advancing at a fast pace. While this signals a positive growth in how quickly we can develop new technologies, it also spells a recurring challenge for research firms. How do you maintain research quality and workflow efficiency at the same time?

83% of executives consider artificial intelligence as their top priority in their business strategies.
(Forbes)

More organizations and professionals are transitioning from human transcriptions to AI transcriptions, with many believing that the latter offers superior speed, convenience, and ease of use.

While AI transcriptions may provide such benefits, they’re much more limited than they seem — so much so that human transcriptions still are a viable choice over them.

Here’s why you should still consider human transcriptions today in an AI world:

The Rise of Artificial Intelligence Audio Transcription

Artificial intelligence audio transcriptions, or AI transcriptions, have been changing the way many businesses work. Healthcare, finance, entertainment, and other industries use AI transcriptions to streamline their workflows.

In fact, according to a 2023 study published on Forbes Advisor, 53% of businesses are already utilizing AI tools to improve productivity — and chief of these tools is AI transcription. A 2020 study by Statista also found that 64% of organizations in market research and E-learning industries use speech-to-text automated transcriptions.

AI transcription software is a tool specialized in generating transcripts from audio or video files. While automated transcription software has existed before, AI transcription tools aim to improve on it by using improved natural language processing and speech recognition to process dialogue more thoroughly, especially in the face of transcription challenges such as dialects and accents.

Businesses use AI transcription software for three main reasons:

Speed - AI transcriptions generate transcripts significantly quickly. For market researchers and professionals in other industries, this is a substantial benefit.
Cost savings - Many organizations find AI transcriptions more cost-efficient than human transcription services, as human transcriptionists typically charge more based on the audio recording length.
Compliance - Many AI transcription tools are designed to immediately halt the transcription process when they detect sensitive client information within the audio recording. This helps organizations comply with regulations such as GDPR and HIPAA.

Businesses choose AI transcriptions over human transcriptions because of their overall speed and cost efficiency. However, while automated transcriptions have evolved significantly with the development of artificial intelligence, they still have substantial pitfalls that put human transcriptions ahead.

The Grim Reality Of AI Transcripts

AI robot with headset trying to emulate success of human transcriptions — Android AI robot wearing a headset and working in the office: artificial intelligence, business and automation concept

AI transcriptions have taken the business world by storm because of their ability to improve productivity. However, when viewed through a different lens, AI transcripts are significantly more limited than they seem.

Before you make the transition from human transcriptionists to AI, consider these critical limitations of AI transcriptions:

Poor Accuracy

Despite their development, AI audio transcriptions still fall short in accuracy compared to human transcriptions.

Consider the following factors:

Complex audio - Background noise, crosstalk, similar voices, accents, and dialects are common speech elements that can throw off transcription AI.
Specialized content - Industry-specific jargon, terminology, and acronyms cause inaccuracies as most automated transcription software is trained only in the general vocabulary.
Poor audio quality - Muddled audio or audio with speakers talking away from the microphone makes speaker association challenging for software.

Inability To Understand Context

Most automated transcription tools lack the ability to understand the context of the discussion in the audio recording. This becomes apparent when you need a specific type of audio transcription. For instance:

Pure verbatim transcriptions - AI transcription tools may omit filler words and utterances that are crucial to particular professions or use cases (e.g., stutters and incomplete sentences may be necessary for legal transcription)
Smart verbatim transcriptions - While many automated transcription software programs perform well in producing smart verbatim transcriptions, they may still misinterpret some words or terms due to complex audio.
Non-verbatim transcriptions - Some tools may offer discussion summary features. However, they’re unable to produce accurate non-verbatim transcriptions (i.e., transcriptions that paraphrase the audio dialogue without omitting vital information)

Data Privacy Concerns

AI transcription tools often share your audio recordings with third-party services for cloud storage, grammar correction, and other functions. If you’re handling sensitive data, this can raise potential concerns with security and privacy.

Coupled with speaker association issues, AI transcription software may not be the best option when transcribing audio with sensitive data.

Lack Of Flexibility

Human audio transcriptions are highly flexible and adaptable. When you provide formatting instructions to professional transcribers or human transcription services, they will follow your specifications when creating your transcript.

On the other hand, AI transcriptions have limited flexibility. Some tools allow you to specify particular elements like timestamp formatting. However, the options are far less versatile than what you can achieve with human transcriptions.

Implementation And Maintenance Challenges

AI transcription tools may offer speed and convenience, but only when you take the time to implement and train them throughout their usage.

Implementation requires time and expertise to integrate into your workflow. Various factors come into play, such as compliance concerns, process modifications, and coordination (especially when working with a team).

Even when implementing AI transcriptions into your tool, you must continuously acclimate them to your use case. This involves constant training and adjustment so that the tool's algorithms can capture technical jargon and terminologies that may frequent your audio recordings.

Why Human Transcriptions Still Prevail

Happy professional transcriber giving a thumbs up while making human transcriptions

Despite the swift evolution of audio transcription AI, it still falls behind human transcriptionists in many regards. The power of the human ear puts professional transcribers far above what AI tools can do, so much so that you can expect human transcriptionists to still exceed transcription AI in quality, accuracy, and speed.

To give you a deeper understanding of why human transcriptions are still superior to AI transcriptions, here are five reasons you should know:

1. Understanding Context And Complexity

Human language is highly complex, with a rich network of cultural backgrounds, nuances, and sentiments.

Consider the following factors:

Homographs - Type of homonyms referring to words that have the same spelling but have different definitions and pronunciations
Homophones - Type of homonyms referring to words that sound the same but have different spellings and definitions
Idiomatic expressions - Non-literal terms or statements whose definitions are rooted in imagery and context
Figures of speech - Onomatopoeia, alliteration, assonance, anaphora, and other types of expressions

Take a look at this line from an AI transcript of an audio recording of a focus group discussion about the latest iteration of an office hardware package solution:

[00:26:30]

Max: I think the latest addition in the bundle, proceeding what John mentioned, is quite based on these guys.

The respondent “Max” had a thick British accent, which made some of his words difficult to decipher for the AI tool.

Here’s what a human-made transcript of the same recording looks like:

[00:26:30]

Max: I think the latest edition in the bundle, preceding what John mentioned, is a quiet blessing in disguise.

The terms “addition,” “proceeding,” and “based on these guys” are actually “edition,” “preceding,” and “blessing in disguise.” The latter transcription indicated a better understanding of the context and detected the nuances in the utterances that the former was unable to do.

While AI transcription tools are generally trained for everyday human conversations, only humans can understand complex human dialogue best.

Other examples of homonyms that AI tools often struggle with include:

Homophones	Homographs
they’re / their / there	tear (from crying) / tear (hole)
your / you’re	bass (fish) / bass (type of guitar)
were / where / wear	wind (air) / wind (tuning a clock)
to / too	record (to store into video, text, etc.) / record (stored information)
than / then	wound (injury) / wound (past tense of the verb “wind”)
tear / tier	close (nearby) / close (concluding something)
real / reel	bow (weapon for shooting arrows) / bow (gesture of greeting)
base / bass	dove (past tense of “dive”) / dove (bird)

2. Dealing With Nuances In Human Speech

AI transcription tools work best when the human dialogue in the audio recordings is clear and uninterrupted. However, nuances such as accents and inflections are challenging for them to decipher. For human transcriptionists, it’s natural.

Human speech is highly dynamic, containing nuances such as:

Accents - The way specific ethnic groups speak
Dialects - Subcategory of languages and accents in specific regions or social groups
Inflections - Changes in a person’s pronunciation of specific words or overall vocal intonation
Loudness of voice - Varying volume levels of how people speak in a single conversation or even sentence

Professional human transcribers are trained to adapt all nuances in human speech, causing far fewer headaches than AI transcribers.

3. Navigating Crosstalk, Interruptions, And Other Complications

The human ear is used to dealing with audio complications like:

Crosstalk - People talking over each other usually cause speaker identification issues in AI transcriptions.
Stutters and filler words - Human transcriptionists can easily include or filter out filler utterances, depending on whether the transcription is smart or pure verbatim
Interruptions - When speakers interrupt each other, professional transcribers know precisely which words belong to whom.
Coughs and other noises - Human transcriptionists can filter out coughs that may occur during a vital point in the discussion so that every vital detail is captured.

Such complications are far more common in audio recordings than you may think. Due to these elements, AI tools may generate transcripts with many inaccuracies, which may be fatal to specific professions where precision is vital.

Here’s an example of an AI transcription of an audio recording of a group discussion containing crosstalk and other audio complications:

[00:47:15]

Olivia: Because whenever we we try to focus on this message, need to start

Ben: You usually start with

Olivia: Questionnaires

Ben: Researching more, right

Olivia: Researching morning our target deepens

Here’s a transcription of the same recording, this time by a human transcriptionist:

[00:47:15]

Olivia: Because whenever we, we try to focus on this message -

Ben: You usually start with surveys.

Olivia: - we need to start with surveys. Yes. And-

Ben: Researching more.

Olivia: - Questionnaires. Right, researching [inaudible] our target -

Ben: Right.

Olivia: Audience.

Notice how the transcriber clarifies the crosstalk by adding a dash line (-) at the beginning and end of each utterance whenever interruptions occur. An [inaudible] tag is also added to indicate an unintelligible portion of the audio recording when a cough occurred, which the AI tool tried to transcribe to no avail.

4. Having Domain-Specific Knowledge

Some transcription AI tools may be trained in terminologies and vocabularies specific to industries or fields of study. As a whole, however, they often struggle with niched jargon. In contrast, some human transcriptionists specialize in particular subject matters, including:

Legal - Latin terms, laws, and processes in court or law
Medical - Names of diseases, tools, and healthcare processes
Biotechnology - Scientific processes and names of species
Academic - Subject matter terminologies and jargon

Even if a transcriber lacks specialization in a field, they can read up on the subject. This is vital for catching up with audio recordings that include niched terminologies.

5. Managing Sensitive Content

Sensitive or private data is a crucial matter when it comes to audio transcriptions. Due to the consequences that may ensue when the data is disclosed, human transcription services take the utmost care when transcribing audio recordings with sensitive content.

Workflow and security policies are implemented to ensure that professional transcribers actively protect private data in audio.

Here’s an example of a human transcription of an audio recording of an in-depth interview about a newly developed pharmaceutical product:

[00:05:15]

Tim: I knew a fellow doctor, XXXX, who worked at XXXX, who also had a hard time prescribing medicine that was accessible to his patients.

Unlike AI tools, human transcribers can redact personally identifiable information (PII) and, in the process, ensure that sensitive data is adequately protected.

What You Should Look For In Human Transcription Services

cropped view of recruiter holding photo with man in suit

If you’ve decided to use human transcription services, congratulations! You’ve chosen speed, versatility, and reliability to improve your workflow.

With that said, not all human transcription services are the same. To ensure the best possible results, you should identify a service that has the following elements:

Accuracy and speed - Fundamental skills that every professional human transcriber should have
Flexibility and adaptability - Being able to follow specifications for custom formatting
Industry knowledge - Possessing industry-specific knowledge (not necessarily expertise) that helps them identify key jargon
Can research efficiently - Looking up information on unfamiliar topics on the fly to identify key terms in audio recordings
Communication skills - Keeping an actively open channel of communication with you to ensure the smooth flow of the transcription process

Another factor you should consider is choosing individual human transcribers or human transcription service providers. Here’s what you need to know:

Individual human transcribers may be suitable for small, single gigs because they offer individualized services at affordable rates. However, their capabilities can become limited with consecutive organizational projects at a larger scale, especially with audio recordings that are highly niche. Also, not all transcribers are well-versed with regulations such as GDPR or HIPAA. They also may not have the security systems in place to protect your data.
Human transcription service providers are highly flexible, versatile, and fast at creating multiple audio transcripts for various industries. Some transcription services, such as TranscriptionWing, offer a client-specific platform with intuitive features that vastly improve your workflow. For Example, ListenLink is a valuable feature that places hyperlinks on unintelligible terms in the transcript that lead you to a specific part of the audio recording for you to listen to.

If you plan to integrate transcripts completely into your general workflow, human transcription services are the way to go.

The Best Of Both Worlds: AI-Assisted Human Transcription

Despite AI transcriptions' limitations, the fact that AI tools significantly improve productivity in every regard still rings true. While human transcribers' accuracy, flexibility, and adaptability are sufficient, they can be even better.

How? By combining human transcription expertise with AI technology.

AI’s efficiency can bolster the accuracy, attention to detail, and nuanced understanding of skilled human transcriptionists. The result is a much quicker creation of audio transcripts that achieve the highest standards of quality and accuracy and comply with data regulations and client specifications.

For the best versatility, choose human transcription service providers that offer fully human transcripts while also being able to “clean up” pre-made automated transcriptions for higher accuracy.

AI technology has revolutionized the way we approach our work. However, despite its tempting impact, the human touch still reigns supreme.

Human transcriptions still retain their relevance amid their AI counterparts. Their versatility, flexibility, accuracy, and efficiency put them a cut above AI transcription tools. The ideal transcription solution, of course, is AI-assisted human transcriptions that combine the efficiency of artificial intelligence with the accuracy and critical listening capabilities of human expertise.

Finding Your Next Research Breakthrough: The Ultimate Guide to Harnessing the Potential of Biotech Research Transcriptions

The Researcher's Guide to Biotech Research Transcriptions

The answer: biotech research transcriptions.

Maintaining efficiency and precision in research processes is paramount in the modern biotechnology landscape. This is where audio transcriptions can come in and take research and development to the next level.

Here’s everything you need to know about biotech research transcriptions and their significance in finding your next breakthroughs in research.

Definition of Biotechnology Research Transcription

Biotechnology research transcription is the process of converting audio and video dialogues into text. Transcripts, which are the resulting document, feature timestamps and speaker identification, which unlock more profound insights from the discussion.

There are three main types of transcription, differentiated by how much of the audio is transcribed:

Pure verbatim transcription: Captures every utterance, including filler words and false starts. Provides a complete picture of the discussion.
Intelligent verbatim transcription: Excludes filler words, false starts, and background noises. Focuses on the discussion while maintaining clarity.
Non-verbatim transcription: Extracts core ideas from discussions, offering a streamlined rendition without reproducing every spoken word.

Biotech research transcription utilizes various forms of transcriptions, including:

Market research transcription - Includes focus groups and interview transcriptions to identify and measure consumer preferences, product insights, and competitive analysis.
Meeting notes transcription - Creates transcripts that convert into meeting minutes, enabling effective collaboration and decision-making.
Conference call transcriptions - Converts the conference call discussions into transcripts to streamline the dissemination of information.

How Transcription Can Benefit Your Biotech Research

Biotech research scientist focusing on research

In the realm of biotech research, the symbiotic relationship between advancements and challenges is constant. Among these challenges, transforming raw discussions into actionable insights stands out. Market research is a cornerstone where discerning consumer preferences, identifying new product pathways, and understanding competitive landscapes are pivotal. Yet, extracting these insights from audio files presents hurdles that can stall progress.

Complexity thrives within these audio archives, with crosstalk, accents, and background noises often obscuring clarity. Lengthy recordings, typical in qualitative research, demand substantial time for analysis. The search for critical information within these recordings can be akin to finding needles in haystacks. This is where market research transcription shines as a transformative solution, offering many benefits tailored to the evolving landscape of biotech research.

In biotech research, breakthroughs and innovations become increasingly challenging to achieve. Creating meaningful advancements requires facilitating numerous discussions over consumer insights, competition, and next steps. Hence, market research is pivotal in biotech research, as firms must rely on trends to identify:

Consumer preferences
What new products to develop
How to improve a currently existing product
Where they stand with the competition

But for such discussions to be fruitful, they must be transformable into actionable insights that are easily accessible.

Usually, researchers record the audio of the discussions for later reference. While audio recordings can be reliable, it may be challenging to utilize them due to challenges such as:

Complex audio - Crosstalk, thick accents, and background noise can make it difficult to understand the discussion.
Length of the discussion - Long audio recordings can be tedious to listen to, especially if there are multiple speakers to consider.
Finding key insights - Listening to the entire recording can be time-consuming to extract the necessary wisdom from the discussion.

Market research transcription is necessary to solve these challenges. Here are some of the benefits of market research transcription to biotech research:

More streamlined research process

Your research group may experience disagreement or misinterpretation of crucial data points, which can be resolved by referring to the audio recordings. However, this can consume a lot of time in the face of differences in comprehension, especially if there are multiple audio recordings.

Transcripts can save a significant amount of time in clarifying misunderstandings. You can use the search function to look up the keyword or phrase and navigate quickly to the insight. In addition, you can easily highlight, copy, and share passages from the transcript with your research group to clearly and promptly resolve misinterpretations.

Enhanced understanding of the discussion

Market research transcription grants the ability to extract more critical insights from the audio recordings of qualitative research methods. For instance:

Type of transcription - You can create your transcripts based on your current research needs. Pure verbatim transcription can provide more nuanced insights through both the discussion and auditory responses of the speakers. Intelligent verbatim transcription omits unnecessary utterances and sounds while staying faithful to the discussion. Non-verbatim transcription can save time by being less precise in transcribing the dialogue's actual words while retaining the discussion's main ideas.
Textual version of the recorded discussion - Transcripts are very convenient for analysis, as you can easily read them anywhere and share vital insights with teammates by copying and pasting text. In comparison, listening to the recordings requires headphones and a quiet environment to understand the discussion clearly.
Speaker labeling - Transcripts feature speaker labels that make associating specific insights with their respective speakers easy. This is especially beneficial when transcribing a recording with multiple speakers or low audio quality.

Better accessibility to research

Your market research data is beneficial not only to your current team but to the entire research firm. For instance, other teams in your organization may use that information to design new projects.

However, they may be too preoccupied with their projects to listen to audio recordings of your focus groups or interviews. On the other hand, transcripts allow them to extract insights more quickly because of the following reasons:

Transcripts are more shareable than audio recordings. They have a much smaller file size, which makes them faster and easier to share.
You can create video captions out of the transcripts. Captioning makes the insights in your video or audio recordings significantly more accessible.
Non-native speakers can keep up. Some organization members may have a limited aptitude for the dominant language of the discussion. Having a transcript allows them to understand the discussion at their own pace.

Guiding future research

Trends in the biotech industry are often fast and fleeting. For a research firm to keep up, it has to stay on its toes by constantly creating new projects. Making projects from scratch is substantially challenging; instead, past research is utilized as a foundation for creating new projects.

And to further streamline the initial stages of the project, researchers use summaries of past research. Fortunately, transcripts contain raw qualitative data that can be quickly navigated and shared. In addition, they provide the full context of the discussion. This makes them ideal for setting out your following line of projects.

Which Biotech Industry Sectors Can Benefit From Transcription?

Biotech research scientist doing pharmacy

The biotech industry, in general, can leverage transcription to enhance and streamline research efforts. To illustrate, here are five biotech sectors that can benefit significantly from transcriptions:

Pharmaceutical
Agricultural
Medical devices
Cosmetics
Veterinary

1. Pharmaceutical

In an industry propelled by innovation, pharmaceutical companies leverage transcription for swift comprehension of market dynamics. Transcripts expedite assessments of optimal marketing strategies, identification of high-demand drugs, and comprehensive analyses of competitive offerings.

The pharmaceutical industry has grown substantially since 2021 due to research efforts in producing vaccines for the COVID-19 virus. Globally, the industry earned $1.42 trillion, making it one of the most competitive sectors in biotech research.

Companies in the pharmaceutical sector face challenges like economic trends and prevalent diseases (e.g., COVID-19) when producing new drugs.

Transcription allows them to have reference materials that can quickly be navigated and shared among team members for swift comprehension of current market dynamics. Transcripts expedite assessments of optimal marketing strategies, identification of on-demand drugs, and in-depth analyses of competitive offerings.

2. Agricultural

The agricultural sector is highly competitive, with a projected $27 billion increase in market size from 2021 to 2026. Typical customers include both private and public farms and plantations that contend vigorously against rival companies.

Since agricultural biotechnology requires precise genetic engineering and yield optimization, biotech research firms can better identify clients’ current needs using transcriptions. Transcripts of focus group discussions, interviews, and conference calls provide researchers with better insights on achieving:

More efficient farming methods
Beneficial modifications of living organisms (genetically modified organisms or GMOs)
Improved fertilizers
Better crop protection
Higher crop yields

3. Medical devices

The target market for medical devices involves both consumer and business-level customers. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the medical device market’s total revenue was reduced by a significant amount between 2019 and 2020, with some companies experiencing a revenue decline of up to 19%. However, there has been a gradual increase in the following years after 2020, signifying a returning interest in the development of medical devices.

To take advantage of the surge, industrial biotechnology companies must immediately initiate research efforts to leverage consumer trends and demands. Transcription can streamline the research process by allowing researchers to gather more insights from focus groups and interviews.

With a growing interest in consumer-level medical devices, discussions on this topic are lengthy and complex. Transcripts can be very useful for researchers by allowing them to search and highlight key points in the discussion.

For instance, some current consumer demands include:

Development of more advanced wearable devices for better accuracy and convenience
Increased production of medical devices designed for monitoring biological processes and chronic diseases in the body
Consideration of portability as a factor when developing new medical devices

4. Cosmetics

“Biocosmetics” is an emerging cosmetics niche where biotechnology is leveraged to create cosmetic products with more natural ingredients (as opposed to chemicals). The main challenge of firms engaging in biocosmetics is identifying which products in their existing catalog have the most demand for the transition to natural ingredients.

Transcription can substantially benefit researchers, as discussions on this subject are usually long and broad, especially if the client companies offer a wide range of cosmetic products.

Some examples of trends in cosmetics that necessitate transcriptions for better insights include:

Eco-friendly materials for clothing
Quality assurance of products without requiring animal testing
Fossil fuel alternatives for ingredients in cosmetic products (e.g., makeup)

5. Veterinary

By 2050, the human population is projected to reach 9.15 billion. This will increase demand for improved food security, quantity, and quality in developed and developing countries. Thus, the current trends in the veterinary sector revolve around more sustainable and efficient animal production methods than traditional breeding programs.

However, there are other factors that researchers must consider, such as animal diseases, time-specific livestock demands, and animal pedigree. These often vary based on client needs and consumer trends.

Thus, with focus groups and interviews tending to be in-depth, transcriptions can condense vital qualitative data and insights into a readable form. Transcripts also provide a more sustainable approach to producing future veterinary research projects, which is necessary due to the complexity of animal husbandry.

Some key veterinary trends that transcription can help you better understand include:

Genome analysis and eugenics to decrease the likelihood of genetic disorders during breeding
Advancements in molecular biology to achieve long-term, high-quality livestock production for ecological balance
Improved animal food and drug safety assurance

Types of Events Where Biotech Researchers Can Use Transcriptions

You can use transcriptions in various scenarios related to biotech research. The benefits of transcripts can vary depending on the event. For instance, some transcripts can help you gather critical insights, while others can exist solely for recordkeeping or reference purposes.

Some scenarios include:

Training sessions - Transcriptions preserve knowledge transfer during training, aiding in tracking the progress of new researchers
Team meetings - Transcriptions allow researchers to share meeting recordings in the form of tangible records, minimizing confusion and supporting informed decisions
Interviews - Transcribing interviews of research respondents can be helpful for in-depth insights into consumer trends
Conference calls - The decision-making process of executives in a research firm can be more accessible throughout the entire organization with transcripts
Seminars - Large-scale biotech conventions and open forums can provide insights that transcripts can capture more clearly for reference in future team projects

Other Types Of Transcription Services The Biotech Industry Can Use

When research projects become very busy, researchers are unable to record and transcribe the recordings themselves without sacrificing time and energy. Instead of sacrificing quality and accuracy to produce transcripts quickly, you can hire a transcription provider instead.

Transcription providers can create transcripts for clients after receiving the audio recording and any formatting specifications. Many providers offer various transcription services, including market research transcriptions.

Automated speech-to-text services may be seen as a better alternative to human transcribing services due to their faster delivery time. However, they fall short in terms of flexibility and accuracy, both crucial in biotech research.

Transcription providers can also offer other types of transcription services that biotech researchers can utilize to enhance their workflow, such as:

Transcription editing - Professional transcriptionists can edit automated transcripts by clearing out grammatical errors and ensuring that the dialogues in the recordings are captured accurately in the transcripts
Meeting minutes - Some transcription providers offer meeting minutes services along with their transcripts to accelerate comprehension and decision-making
Closed captioning - Video recordings of interviews and focus groups can be significantly more accessible to your organization if they contain captions
Translation - International biotech firms can benefit significantly from services offering transcripts in multiple languages. Translated transcripts can make crucial insights much more accessible among organization members.

What To Look For In A Transcription Provider For Biotech Research

If you decide that a human transcription provider best suits your research needs, your next step would be to research and compare the different providers available. Some providers are better than others. Accuracy and quality are just two of the factors to consider when choosing the right provider.

You should use other criteria to determine the best transcription provider. These include:

General versatility and expertise - The ideal provider must be able to transcribe your meetings, focus groups, and other research methods.
Proficiency in biotech terminology- The service provider should have transcribers who can identify and transcribe biotech terms and jargon in real-time
Data security and compliance - Biotechnology research primarily concerns sensitive research data. Thus, it’s crucial to confirm the provider's compliance with data privacy regulations like GDPR to safeguard research integrity
Delivery time flexibility - The service provider must be as agile as your research needs. At the very least, they must provide rush transcript offerings to match your turnaround time
Pricing structure - The rates should align with your research budget

Conclusion

With the fast and fickle biotech trends, transcription is not just an added convenience to the research process — it is instrumental in finding success for your next biotech breakthrough. Hence, your research firm must consider adding transcription as one of their vital tools in gathering and maximizing critical insights for their research projects.

The Ultimate Guide to Academic Research Transcriptions

A Guide for Academic Universities and the use of Transcriptions for Academic Research

What is Academic Research?

Academic research is described as a structured investigation of a specific issue or condition with the intention of identifying facts and opinions to solve its related problems and how to manage its outcomes. These types of research are commonly conducted in academic research universities. The investigation is typically led by a Primary Investigator (PI) and comprises other researchers, including assistants or associate professors, Ph.D. students, people doing postdocs, and undergraduates.

Academic research may fall into three categories:

Basic Research - is also called pure research or fundamental research. This type of research aims to understand a subject better or improve scientific theories.
Clinical Research - this is a type of research whose primary purpose is to study the health and illness in people, including the safety and efficacy of medications, devices, diagnostic products, and treatment regimens.
Population-Based Research - a type of research study where a group of individuals is selected from a general population who share common characteristics such as age, sex, race, or health condition.

Academic research studies are usually intended to create knowledge and are not designed to benefit a specific company or organization. They are also designed to come from a voice of authority and can change how people view the research topic. For this reason, it is always held to a high standard.

What do Research Universities do, and how do they operate?

Research universities usually work a lot like large businesses. They have a controller (PI) responsible for managing all vendor relationships and will try to consolidate them as much as possible. Universities usually have their preferred vendors listed, but if the PI and the researchers would want to work with a vendor that isn’t on their list, they must first seek approval.

Conducting academic research is expensive. Therefore, researchers require funds to support their investigation. A research grant is a funding procedure instituted by various agencies and organizations to provide research universities money that they will use for their research. Research universities get funding for research in two ways:

Research universities may do grant writing, where part of their proposal would include a preliminary budget that would list all the items the grant money will be used for. It would also include the approach a university may take to carry out its research.
Funding agencies like the National Institutes of Health (NIH) or the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) would propose a research question on a general category where different universities may apply.

Each funding agency has its own set of submission guidelines that researchers must adhere to when submitting their letters of intent.

As soon as a grant has been approved, research universities may provide the team of researchers and the PI with the space they need to do their research. These include offices, libraries, laboratories, and other equipment. A large proportion of the grant money will be handed over to the university to cover all the overhead expenses, while the rest of the funding will be used to compensate the research team members.

What professional services do Academic Research Universities utilize?

The use of professional services for academic research varies depending on the area of study and projects researchers are working on. Some services would include:

Software packages or services for website development, videos, and graphic design that would showcase the nature of their research and their findings.
The lab works for scientific and medical research. Researchers may also rely on third-party vendors to do advanced analysis for specimens if the equipment needed is not available on site.
Academic transcription services for quick data referencing and putting qualitative data and information into a text-based format.

How do researchers in research universities prepare their budget for transcriptions?

When writing grant proposals, researchers and universities detail their foreseeable spending allocation when submitting a preliminary budget to funding agencies.

One of the valuable tools researchers can include in their budget is transcriptions. A transcript is a written version of a recorded interview. It not only captures who said what in an interview, but it provides researchers with a quick way to go back to any detail mentioned without having to listen to the whole recording.

Researchers and research universities may approach budgeting for the involvement of transcriptions for research differently in determining the budget they are going to allocate for the service.

Not all research studies require a ton of transcription work, and some may not even need any at all. If researchers spend less on transcription services, they could allocate more funds to other research areas, such as getting more people interviewed to get a larger sample size. But there are reasons that support the value of research university transcriptions.

What are the benefits of using Academic Transcription Services?

Academic research, in general, is such a vast topic. Certain aspects or fields on the spectrum could use transcription services, and these could be regarded as an essential tool for the research. Accuracy and quality are crucial in transcriptions, especially for medical or qualitative research. A researcher wouldn’t mind paying a premium transcription service, which is essential for producing accurate content. Suppose the transcript quality is low; in that case, the researcher may need to allocate a lot of time and effort to correct the transcripts, which is inevitably costlier in time and talent than opting for a premium transcription service that provides a high level of accuracy.

Aside from accuracy and quality, these other factors would also make transcription services vital and beneficial for academic research.

It saves time – Time management during the conduction of research is critical. By turning to transcription services, researchers would be able to devote their hours to other more important things rather than doing the laborious task of transcribing the interviews on their own.
It makes the research productive - Funding and grant organizations certainly want to see researchers becoming frugal with their provided funds. With transcriptions, researchers would demonstrate that they’re capable of doing more work with the resources given, allowing them to conduct more interviews and produce more data.
It captures every detail – Having the interviews transcribed, most especially done by human transcribers, helps researchers quickly identify all the critical notes raised during interview discussions.
It facilitates quick information retrieval – Academic research transcriptions make searching and confirming data from interview recordings much more efficient. Researchers can highlight the keynotes and items discussed during their interviews on their transcripts for quick and easy data referencing.
It makes the research content easily accessible – Research studies are usually conducted by pairs or groups. Sharing the information gathered during data collection would be more straightforward since transcripts can be distributed to everyone involved in the research. Gathering information from previous studies can also be referenced easily through transcripts for proper backup and comparison, especially when the research leans more towards surveys and statistics.
It makes the message become more relatable to people - Language barriers can be a factor in why a research study may be accessible only to limited groups of people. Transcription companies offering translation services are able to broaden the impact of a study by allowing the researchers to conduct interviews with people regardless of their language and culture. Research universities can provide the interview recordings to transcription companies who will translate or transcribe them from their source language.

How Do Researchers Choose Who To Interview?

Part of the research planning involves data collection, and one of the ways to collect data is usually done through interviews. The subjects for the interviews would depend on the nature of the study or research conducted. For example, when an analysis focuses on medical interventions, researchers may choose to interview medical field experts such as surgeons and anesthesiologists. But, when the research is categorized as generic, researchers may go out to the community or an area outside the university to recruit respondents. They could also send an email blast to the university to get people to volunteer for the study.

What types of research studies could benefit from using transcriptions?

The importance of hiring transcription services to assist professors and researchers could be leveraged depending on the field of study of the research they are pursuing. There are several ways a researcher can translate their findings into a research paper or create them depending on the needs and the purpose that their research may serve. Transcriptions are better utilized for research studies such as:

Qualitative interviews and research where researchers may want to have a transcript for all interviews conducted with respondents for analysis purposes.
Academic or scientific research related to machine learning, where machine learning may contribute to solving complex issues such as, for example, neuroscience and neurology.
Clinical trial studies where research could take place in a medical or other clinical settings. These types of research may include discussions and interviews about experimental treatments and interventions for certain illnesses or diseases.

However, there are certain research studies where transcripts may not be required, and these types of research may be centered more on mathematical figures or data science. Yet transcriptions could still be necessary when researchers look at particular algorithms where machine learning has a huge influence, such as if the problem they're looking at and trying to solve revolves around speech-to-text engines.

How would transcriptions contribute to the outcome of the research?

Funding organizations such as NIH or PCORI may be interested in supporting prevalent research topics, and they keep an eye on themes that they want to fund. Researchers may use the results of their research in various ways, and transcriptions can play a vital role in their research outcomes. An example of this was demonstrated in recent years when research organizations delved deep into breast cancer research and the creation and advancement of tools that breast surgeons could use to help patients understand their alternatives from a treatment perspective.

Recently, the funding for research has been invested heavily in COVID as researchers are continuously pivoting their research into looking at tools and aids that can help people understand the risks and benefits of taking vaccines, as well as the advancement of the overall treatment plan for those that are exposed to the virus. The transcripts produced from these types of studies are being used as a backbone by researchers for writing that is published and translated into medical books and journals, which can be easily referenced and accessed by medical researchers and physicians worldwide.

Transcriptions also act as a tool for quick information referencing and for the creation of visual aids that may support physicians when talking to patients during the communication process. This includes making visual aids to take the complicated terminologies out of the conversation and explain treatment options and diagnoses in a more straightforward and accessible way for regular people without a medical or scientific background.

Future researchers can also credit past studies through transcriptions preserved in academic papers, periodicals, and magazines. Documents such as these are usually archived and are accessible through the catalogs of the libraries inside research universities or other related institutions.

Conclusion

The use of transcriptions for research and research universities aid in delivering the colossal progress and development of new and helpful inventions, medical advancements, and other significant scientific and technological discoveries. By utilizing transcription services that produce top-notch work, such as Civicom TranscriptionWing, research universities are able to do more with the funding they receive and pave the way for these advancements.

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The Ultimate Guide to Earnings Calls

What is an earnings call and why is it necessary?

What is an earnings call and how does it benefit the business, shareholders, analysts, and investors?

Earnings calls are basically conducted to provide a valuable backstory behind the figures of the company after a certain period. If the business did well, it’s the perfect chance to report on achievements and notable goals reached. At the same time, if it didn’t go as planned, the organization is given a chance to better clarify the predicament and explain where they’re standing and how they plan to get back to their feet in the following quarter. This is important because this call can definitively affect the public perception of the company.

Other than providing context, earnings conference calls are also conducted to keep shareholders up-to-date with company developments to attract potential investors and for analysts to create decent consensus and earnings estimate reports.

What is an Earnings Conference Call and Why is it Important?

An earnings call is a quarterly conference call, typically held in the form of either a teleconference or a webcast, during which company executives discuss their company’s latest financial performance, provide insight on possible future undertakings, and answer questions from analysts, investors, shareholders, and the public. It is accompanied by an official press release that is usually issued days before the call and will include the date and time of the call, how to access the it, and where the public can go on the company website to refer to financial and statistical information which will be discussed during the call.

Conducting earnings calls are important because they are the first pieces of definitive information that investors and analysts can get their hands on. It’s this time of the year where analysts and investors get to ask about a company’s financial results from the last quarter which will help them decide whether or not to invest or plan trades with them. At the same time, this call gives the company executives a chance to stay transparent and provide context for the financial standing of the organization.

Are These Calls Required?

There is no legal requirement for a company to conduct an earnings conference call. In fact, some public companies prefer not to conduct these calls and would instead release quarterly performance reports, which they are required to disclose. Although there are no regulations that require them to do so, many public companies still host earnings calls to stay transparent, keep their shareholders up-to-date with the latest developments and attract potential investors.

What is the Structure of an Earnings Report in a Call?

Safe Harbor Statement

An earnings call will start with a Safe Harbor Statement to remind the participants and the listeners that the discussion of the company’s financial performance will include a disclaimer on the forward-looking statements that will be released which should not be taken as a guarantee of future performance. This portion lasts for 2 to 5 minutes only.

Presentation and discussion

The presentation and discussion proper are headed by executives after the Safe Harbor Statement. The number of involved executives may vary but the chief executive officer (CEO) and the chief financial officer (CFO) are always present to discuss earnings per share, revenue, gross margin, dividend announcements, et cetera. Milestones and future plans are also discussed in this section. The CFO is typically tasked to talk about the financial details of the report, while the CEO is focused on discussing the bigger picture such as the strategic vision of the company moving forward, new initiatives or products, new enhancements, and the overall business standing. This section usually lasts 15 to 25 minutes.

Q&A Session

During this portion, analysts, potential investors, shareholders, and other call participants are given the chance to voice out their questions and ask the management about the presented financial results. However, do take note that the company executives have the right to decline certain questions especially if they do not have sufficient information on their end yet. The Q&A session usually lasts 30 to 40 minutes long.

*NOTE

While it is not required, some companies would end on a closing note where executives would briefly summarize the whole presentation and highlight the key points of the call.

How Long Do These Calls Last?

A report shows that earnings calls typically last anywhere between 46 to 60 minutes long for 68% of the respondents, while 20% reported that calls last 30 to 45 minutes long. Also, the length of the call often depends on the company’s market capitalization – the larger the company’s market capitalization is, the more analysts and investors are interested, which then results into a lengthier Q&A session by the end of the call.

How to Listen to an Earnings Conference Call

If you have been itching to invest in a public company but have no idea where to start, you can begin by listening in on earnings calls. These calls give you an opportunity to peek into a company’s performance and future plans. Listening to these calls will help you understand industry trends, company developments, and financial data to make sound decisions and predictions as you pursue investment. However, it’s not as easy as it sounds. Believe it or not, you would have to undergo preparations and a lot of research if you wish to participate as a potential investor because you need to learn what to listen out for and how to properly scrutinize the right factors during an earnings call.

Follow these steps to make the most out of an earnings conference call:

Check the previous earnings call

You can either listen to an archive of the previous call or read through the transcribed document. It would help if you go through analysts’ reports as well and take note of crucial details such as the estimated earnings per share and the revenue so you can understand how these factors have changed over the period of time since the last quarter’s earnings call. In addition to that, you can also check other resource materials such as sales statements, new product releases, company updates, management changes, and other corporate developments or initiatives. The more references you have, the better you get at making an informative decision about investments.

Read the earnings release

Obtain and read through the earnings press release as soon as it’s been made public. You can access the press release both from the company’s website or on financial websites. As you go about reading it, take a real good look at the metrics, earnings per share, and stated benchmarks, pay close attention to new announcements and future plans such as stock buyback authorization or dividend changes, and also take note of any discontinued operations, new accounting treatments, special tax items, etcetera. Lastly, take a look at the balance sheet as well and be sure to check on the inventory, debt, investments, deferred sales, and the share count.

Listen to the earnings call

Being that these calls are open to the public, you can easily access it by telephone with a toll-free number that you can get from the company’s website, usually under the ‘Investor Relations’ section, or just check the earnings press release. Remember to keep a pen and paper, or in today’s digital age, your smartphone or laptop’s notepad, by your side to quickly take down notes when the executives from the call starts talking about the numbers, figures, and facts to avoid missing a key note or two. The same goes for the question-and-answer session.

Analyze the call

As soon as the earnings call ended, gather all the information that you have on hand – your notes, the press release, previous call recordings or transcripts, analysts’ reports, and from it, you can start formulating an investment or a trading strategy that you think will work best for you.

It’s only after the call when you can finally compare the official results with your initial expectations based on the research that you did and then interpret these findings so you can finish strategizing for your investment plans accordingly.

How Are Earnings Releases Made Accessible to the Public?

While it is a common knowledge that every publicly traded company issues a press release regarding their earnings conference call details, not everyone who’s interested to join have the time and means of joining in on the call as scheduled.

That being said, there are two more ways to access the call aside from the live call:

Earnings call recording

Every company who has released an earnings call has also made an audio recording link available on its website so potential investors and analysts who weren’t able to listen can still do so at their earliest convenience. This is also helpful because then you can easily rewind the recording should you need to go back to some confusing portions of the call and double check it yourself.

Earnings Transcript

Apart from the call recording, some companies also release call transcripts. In fact, some analysts and investors prefer to read through the transcript instead of rewinding the call over and over again. After all, an earnings call transcript makes it easier for interested individuals to skim through the document and spot specific keywords and information. A popular online publisher of earnings call transcripts is SeekingAlpha.

Benefits of Transcribing Earnings Calls

Whether you’re an investor, an analyst, or a shareholder, it’s crucial for you to fully grasp the fine details of an earnings call. You may think that a transcript is just a piece of document but transcribing earnings calls is beneficial both to interested individuals and the business.

What are the advantages of transcribing earnings calls?

The company will ultimately satisfy the public’s need for information about the business. If you’re a business owner or an entrepreneur and you hope to gain more investors and spread brand awareness, give them access to your earnings call transcript so they can get a sense of what the company is doing to further expand and grow in the future. Earnings call transcripts will help the public review the call content in the most efficient means possible.
By releasing an earnings transcript, executives are certain that the public is given accurate information about the company’s financial state because there is no guarantee that participants would be able to catch every detail as intended during the call. With the help of a transcript, it’ll be easier to look for particular keywords and sections.
This transcript is an accessible format to be archived for easy referencing and analysis, even in the future. Companies can retain previous earnings call transcripts on their websites to avoid confusion and allow the public access to old ones if they wish to compare them to the present ones.

Given how useful an earnings call transcript can be, it is also therefore critical to look for a transcription service provider that values quality, accuracy, and the security of your files. Make sure to look for a transcription service with highly experienced professionals armed with a diverse background in business and finance.

Conclusion

That being said, earnings calls are much more than the numbers, it’s about the company’s presentation of their quarterly performance in the context of their business to explain what those numbers indicate in terms of the company’s short- term and long-term goals.

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A 2021 Guide: How to Write Meeting Minutes Effectively

What are meeting minutes and why are they necessary?

Meetings are simply a necessity for an organization or a business. Meetings are essential to a company's growth since it fosters collaboration and creative ideation from different perspectives and ultimately should provide direction for an organization and its constituents. Meetings bring people and ideas together so that an organization's directives are understood clearly, and action steps are determined properly.

However, these meetings may prove to be ineffective if the participants are unable to retain the information that was discussed. To make sure that the information gained from these meetings isn’t lost, companies have made use of meeting minutes in order to maintain and possibly increase company productivity.

This guide will help you determine the importance of meeting minutes, what tools are needed, and how to effectively write them. Feel free to navigate quickly to the section most helpful to you:

What are Meeting Minutes?

Meeting minutes, also called meeting summaries, as the term itself implies, are the written records of a meeting or hearing. They typically summarize and describe events in the meeting and note down important agendas discussed and agreed upon by participants. It is an indispensable tool for all types of organizations dealing in all kinds of things, from corporations looking to expand their businesses to courts hearing their many cases.

The term meeting minutes was first used in the early 18th century and possibly came from the Latin term “minuta scripture”, meaning "small notes." In this case, the word "minute" in meeting minutes references not time but rather something small or something condensed (the my-newt pronunciation of minute). To summarize, meeting minutes are called such because they are small notes recording what happened in a big meeting or event.

Why Summarize Meetings?

At a glance, making and having meeting minutes may seem unimportant. After all, it does take time and resources, however small, to make them, thus subtracting time that may be better spent in directly assisting an ongoing effort. However, this is a rather shallow view of meeting minutes. Meeting minutes do not hinder efforts; rather, they help make efforts go off as flawlessly as they can.

Unconvinced? Then, imagine a corporation looking to expand its business beyond its current one. Having made many meetings and interviews with shareholders, investors, and potential customers to discuss the feasibility of the undertaking and having determined that their plan has merit, they are now in the planning phase. Suppose that this organization did not have anyone write meeting minutes and only requested transcripts of these meetings and interviews — what would then happen to the next phase?

No doubt, all decision-making that has to be done would be done at a snail’s pace – or even worse – due to the fact that all decision-makers and their teams have to read the transcripts in their entirety and listen to the audio recordings of all meetings and discussions to precisely understand the points discussed, the decisions to be made, and the steps to be taken. By the time the corporation makes its move, its competitors would already be in a better position than them and might have even made further inroads into expansion.

In effect, precious time was lost in trying to establish that base of knowledge essential in making decisions. Time, that would have been better spent filling out all gaps in their plans and streamlining all processes so that everything would be polished and ready for implementation was wasted.

While transcripts themselves are good and all since they contribute to faster digestion of data, they still contain thousands upon thousands of words and banter that ultimately contribute nothing to the effort being made. Having many transcripts would still inundate even the most determined of readers. After all, no one has the time to read, say, 100 pages of a transcript. Not only is it boring and tiring, but it is also infeasible to do so, what with the many other tasks that one is no doubt supposed to accomplish. This is where meeting minutes come in.

Meeting minutes allow all important decision makers and their subordinates access to the most pertinent things tackled in meetings and discussions, and interviews — speeding up digestion and understanding of data. Effectively-written meeting minutes go above and beyond even these effects and can essentially propel an organization further above the food chain.

One, then, can consider meeting minutes, along with transcripts, as two of the most important tools for success in any given organization or company. The two tools wonderfully augment and increase the degree of effectiveness of each other. Due to the shorthanded way in which meeting minutes are written, it is inevitable that some data is excluded from them or only mentioned briefly or offhandedly. Having transcripts would allow people to look at these data even further and clarify what was said in meeting minutes.

What are the Tools for Creating Effective Meeting Minute Summaries?

The tools for the creation of good and effective meeting minutes vary from organization to organization, business to business, and corporation to corporation. After all, different organizations have different preferences and needs. What tools may work for one organization may not work for another, and vice versa.

With that said, all of the tools in use by organizations and companies today in making meeting minutes fall under two broad and differing categories: Manual and Electronic.

Pen and paper (Manual) - pen and paper (or quill and ink and paper, depending on the time frame one is talking about) have been in use for many centuries now, and for good reason. It isn’t expensive to prepare and requires little technical know-how aside from being able to write fast and legibly. It does have a few disadvantages. After all, it is a somewhat longer process to have manually-written meeting minutes disseminated, as everything – from reviewing the contents to checking for errors and corrections – has to be done manually and also has to be scanned and printed or faxed. All of these steps take time to do.

An electronic device (Electronic) - the term electronic device covers a lot of ground but here, it is used to refer to any and all electronic devices that can record notes, including computers, laptops, mobile phones, and tablets. Electronic devices have the advantage of being easy to use, being highly customizable thanks to applications such as Evernote and Minute, and overall being more convenient than taking notes manually. Many applications that can be installed and used allow for faster sharing of meeting minutes than having them be scanned, printed, or faxed.

The two abovementioned categories have their own advantages and disadvantages, although many organizations have now foregone making manual notes in favor of electronic ones. There are, after all, many advantages to electronic ones, one of them being the easier dissemination of pertinent data. However, what it usually comes down to in the end is preference and need. It is not important to conform to other organizations’ standards when it comes to using what tools to create meeting minutes; what matters is what works for you and your organization.

What are the Types and Formats of Meeting Minutes?

There are many different types and formats of meeting minutes, and they all vary — one organization may use a different format from what is being used by another organization. These types and formats depend on things such as their needs, preferences, and available tools and stylebooks used. There are, however, various elements of meeting minutes that are indispensable and are thus universally taken down. They include:

Name of the organization – this is extremely important for those who received meeting minutes so they can remember who they received it from.
Date – the precise time and date the meeting itself was made. Readers can easily know which meeting a meeting summary is referring to, as there can be many meetings in a single day.
Topic – the main reason why the meeting was held differently from the agenda is that this is broad and encompasses the overall topic/s talked about.
Attendees – a list of everyone who attended the meeting or discussion, whether physically or electronically. This includes not only the name but also the designation of the attendees. It is useful for distinguishing between who was able to participate and who was not able to.
Absentees – a list of all participants who were not able to attend the meeting or discussion. The name, role, and reason for absenteeism are often noted down in this section of the meeting minute so as to provide a clear-at-first-glance reason for why prospective attendees were not able to attend.
Agenda at hand – this is the main agenda that was forwarded at the beginning of the meeting, which then formed the main focus of the discussions.
Issues raised – the main issues raised and presented by attendees. This includes not only the issue itself but also the "Why?" and the "How?" part of it. The name of whoever raised an issue is also written down for posterity and a faster understanding of data.
Suggestions – suggestions made by attendees to resolve whatever issues and concerns were discussed. The name of people who made suggestions is often written down and included.
Decisions – this section notes down any and all decisions made during the meeting.
Task List – this section notes down the tasks given to specific attendees of the meeting and/or members of the organization.
Future Meetings – this last section notes the date and topic of the next meeting to be made by the organization and may also include prospective attendees of these next meetings and other pertinent information.

Similarly, different classifications of meeting minutes exist, thanks to the different stylebooks used by different organizations. Nevertheless, there are indeed common classifications, and these are:

A. Standard summary

Standard summaries, also called discussion minutes, are meeting minutes that are often lengthy due to one reason: they record literally all of the discussions that happened in the meeting, even those which may not be important to the agenda being discussed, hence the term "discussion minutes." They contain not only the decisions reached but also the actions needed to conform to those decisions. They are used by many companies due to the fact that they take an accurate record of all that was done in the meeting while still being short and concise, although admittedly not as concise as executive/action minutes, the other type of meeting minutes.

Standard summaries, however, do not include personal comments made by attendees, as these admittedly make no difference to the agenda/s being discussed and, as such, are mere filler. Standard summaries are often used for committee meetings, management meetings, staff meetings, and other similar meetings.

B. Executive summary

Executive summaries are also called action minutes for one simple reason: they get to the action quickly. What that means is that executive summaries exclude any and all discussions that led to decision-making, opting to finalize the tasks to be done and only record the decisions reached and the actions to be taken. Thus, they provide an overview of the decisions made within a meeting that is indispensable for decision-makers who would appreciate shorter summaries because of having many other tasks to look after. Executive summaries are shorter and more concise than standard summaries. Executive summaries are uniquely suited for meetings like board, council, or hearing meetings, as the shorter length allows for a more concise summary while still keeping relevant information in.

As noted, both classifications of summaries have different uses and are uniquely suited to different types of meetings and discussions, although this is not a set rule that must be followed, as some organizations prefer having only executive summaries due to their conciseness and easy-to-break-down-and-understand nature. On the other hand, others prefer using standard summaries because they are short and simple – in comparison to transcripts, that is – while still having important data. Again, as with the format, it all too often depends on the needs and preferences of a given organization.

Who Creates Meeting Summaries?

Anyone in an organization can be tasked with creating meeting minutes, but oftentimes, this task is delegated to people who know how to summarize data points effectively. The following are some of the people who often write and create meeting minutes:

A. In-house typists/professionals/corporate secretaries/executives

The above category is a blanket category meant to include any and all personnel who are directly employed by an organization that has tasked them to create meeting minutes. These include people such as in-house typists, professionals, corporate secretaries, and even executives themselves. These people have the advantage of playing on the home field, in a sense; since these people are directly employed and work under the organization itself. They have far greater access to the data that is needed to create effective meeting minutes than, say, an outside meeting minutes service. These people are often good typists able to write fast and legibly, have good organizational and summarizing skills, and are often well-versed in the topics discussed by the organization they are directly employed.

However, these people are expensive to maintain. Not only do they have to be regularly paid and given such things as bonuses, leaves, and whatnot, but they are also required to be given their own workstations, office space, and other such resources. In effect, they represent a constant and ever-present drain to the resources of a given organization.

B. Court Reporters

Also called court stenographers, these are people employed by courts to produce and create official transcripts of court hearings, depositions, and other official proceedings. These individuals use recorded or spoken speech to do their job.

Court reporters are often tasked not only to produce transcripts but to make minutes from these transcripts as well. Thanks to working in the legal setting, these people are well-versed in legal jargon and are experts in writing text that will be used in the legal setting.

Court reporters directly employed by courts share the same disadvantage as in-house typists and corporate secretaries as they also have to be provided with their own office space and regularly given salaries, bonuses, and the like.

C. Meeting Minutes Service

As the name implies, these are services that offer to create meeting minutes for you. These types of services can be found aplenty, and many offer good rates along with features that provide the ability to customize meeting minutes to any desired format or type.

It is often far more inexpensive to outsource the work of producing meeting minutes to these kinds of services than it is to have in-house personnel do it. Since the work is outsourced to the meeting minutes services, paying the employees along with the other costs associated with building workspaces and its subsequent upkeep is no longer needed.

Meeting minutes services also employ professionals dedicated who are experts in creating such notes and will produce better, more concise, and eligible meeting notes compared to minutes produced by in-house personnel.

How to Create Minutes of the Meeting

Some people find the task of writing meeting minutes to be a daunting one. This is not wholly unjustified since not everybody comes equipped with the skills needed to create concise, brief, yet perfectly understandable and usable meeting minutes. Thus, this task is usually given to those who are equipped with these skills. Anyone with the proper mindset and the willingness to learn can write effective meeting minutes with some practice. Here are some tips for more effective meeting minutes:

Pre-meeting planning

The first step to be taken in writing meeting minutes is to, of course, prepare everything that will be used to write the meeting minutes. This means opening any and all applications to be used ahead of time, setting aside a notebook or a pad of paper with which to write the meeting notes, and other such essentials. Confirming what type of meeting minutes should be made along with any other instructions such as whether to record all motion movers by name and the like, is also essential. Lastly, preemptively preparing the template should be done.

Participant Attendance Sheet

An attendance sheet for the participants to fill in is often given out before the meeting or discussion starts. Not only does an attendance sheet give meeting summary makers the complete names of the attendees (useful for filling out the attendees' section of the template), but the attendance sheet itself can also be attached to copies of the meeting minutes that will be distributed later on.

Record or note down every motion

Any and all motions proposed, including the first motion which puts forward the agenda to be adopted in the discussion or meeting, must be noted down, and the results – whatever it is – recorded. While the name of whoever proposed a motion is often included, this is not a hard and fast rule that requires strict compliance as it can be sufficient to write only that a certain motion was forwarded, although it is far easier to simply note this down all the time so that it is properly recorded.

Such information as who voted to second the motion and who did not is often included as well, although sometimes it may be sufficient to include only the voting tally, depending on whatever instructions were given. Decisions reached by a roll-call vote require individual votes to be recorded by name. The names of reports and presentations given, and the name of whoever gave them, must also be taken down.

Keep a copy of all presentations

After the meeting or discussion is adjourned, it is often best to go around the room and ask for a copy of any and all presentations made so that a copy can be included in the meeting minutes to be disseminated. This time can also be used to finish up the attendance sheet by recording the names of any latecomers to the meeting.

Conclusion

The processing of information has always been an important aspect of running a business or organization, but it is doubly more important in this day and age where the speed of processing information often decides who takes home the bacon, so to speak. Meeting minutes help organizations and companies process information quicker.

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The General Transcription Guide for Freelancers

Learn General Transcription Basics and Know-How

Freelancing, or independent contract work, is becoming a popular type of employment arrangement nowadays since it gives employees more flexibility than the usual 9 to 5 commitment. There are various freelance work opportunities you can explore and possibly dive into, whether you're a work-at-home parent, retiree, or a student looking for jobs on the side. Working as a transcriptionist, writer, social media manager, data entry/encoder, or a virtual assistant is just a few of the on-demand telecommuting positions out there. Since you are reading this, you're probably looking into the viability of a general transcription career.

In this ultimate guide, we discuss why transcriptions is a good way to earn money as well as various aspects of general transcriptions necessary to help you jump start your career in transcriptions. Scroll down to learn more!

What is General Transcription?

General transcription is the process of converting audio to text by typing the spoken material into print. Businesses and professionals use general transcription services to eliminate the hassle of time-consuming audio playbacks when looking for crucial information. Transcribing all verbal sounds or speech makes vital information more accessible and convenient to archive and analyze.

The most requested type of recordings for transcription in general are in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, dictations, and conference calls - all of which fall under general transcription. Transcriptions can also cater to specific niches where medical professionals or court reporters generate transcripts for particular needs in their field of expertise.

Nowadays, general transcription is used to build a written record of a host of important events, as well as to give you plenty of machine-readable information, which can also be found by researching online or by sending each other emails.

Audio materials cannot be accessed without the aid of software or certain devices. Whenever you make these materials available to the public through text or printed format, the potential audience you can attract for this type of information can significantly expand. Furthermore, the main content of audio materials cannot be effectively read and understood by machines. Algorithms used by search engines, for instance, cannot effectively read the content of audio files which is why these materials cannot be indexed without correct, highly detailed tags or content rundowns. Publishing transcriptions along with audio files would create more traffic to a website and disseminate accurate information in a more effective manner.

There are instances when general transcription gets confused with music transcriptions and RNA transcription.

Music transcription is the process of converting recordings of song performances into music sheets. A music transcriber converts songs from MP3 to PDF files usually delivered to clients via email. There are also music transcription services in the market that accepts hard copy media files such as CDs and cassette tapes sent through a postal mill.

Musicians frequently utilize music transcriptions when composing songs. They simply record themselves in the process, which will then be transcribed into music sheets. If you’re in a group, you could easily generate music sheets for all instruments and vocal ranges, allowing everyone to get up and running as quick as possible. Music transcription is also helpful for music teachers, as this allows them to customize music sheets specific to each lesson or student.

RNA transcription, on the other hand, is far-related to both audio and music transcriptions. In biology, RNA transcription refers to the first step of gene expression in which the DNA sequence of a gene is transcribed or copied into an RNA by the enzyme RNA polymerase. This biosynthesis of RNA fashions a replication of DNA, as the information stored in DNA is used to make RNA. Basically, pure science and lab work and nothing to do with converting audio to text.

Benefits of Working as a Freelance Transcriptionist

Many people are intrigued by the idea of telecommuting and the advantages it offers versus working in a regular office setting. Now, there are many opportunities being offered as work-at-home or remote positions and not only to fully-capable professionals, but to work-at-home moms, retirees, and students looking for part-time jobs across industries worldwide. While many options are available for different skill sets, the many benefits of freelance general transcription make it a very ideal option for many. Here are some of the benefits of becoming a freelance transcriptionist:

You become your own boss. Working as a freelance transcriptionist lets you be in control of your schedule and balance personal and career responsibilities the way that works for you best.
You control your earnings. It’s totally up to you if you want to make transcriptions your main source of income or just supplemental for making ends meet. You can accept how many projects you want as long as you persist in generating high quality transcripts.
You can bring your work anywhere. Transcriptions is one of those jobs where you can go out of town or move to a far state without jeopardizing your career. It’s portable yet gives you career stability at the same time.
You become more productive. Research has proven that the happier employees are, the more productive they become. Working from home releases you from the stress and pressure of a cut-throat office environment, thus improves your happiness and increases work productivity.
You don’t need an academic degree. Whether or not you’ve finished a course in higher education, you can still opt for a career in transcription and become successful in it. There are many transcription programs in the market that can earn you transcription certifications, giving you edge and credibility in any transcription career you choose.

How Much Does General Transcription Pay?

Just like any other job, beginner transcriptionists tend to be paid low rates until you become an expert in the field. This is true whether you are working as an independent transcriptionist working on low budget projects directly from clients, or working for small general transcription companies who hire and train beginners in-house. A beginner could earn $8.00 to $10.00 per hour of work which is pretty reasonable for non-specialty, part-time work, all the while earning experience on the side, and especially if you are not a certified transcriptionist and have not undergone intensive training.

Don’t get disheartened though - you can definitely expect to earn more from a career in transcriptions. It is just a matter of practice, experience, and dedication. Give yourself time to grow and everything will follow. Professional transcriptionists tend to earn $10.00 to $20.00 per working hour, while specialized transcriptionists (i.e. legal transcriptionists) can earn up to $25.00 per working hour.

Most general transcription companies pay transcriptionists on an audio-per-minute rate. That means the rates mentioned above may vary depending on how many projects you accept and how fast you actually finish them. Just make sure to do your best on every transcription file assignment. The common practice is bonuses are granted to those who turn in high quality transcripts, and deductions are given to those who submit inferior outputs.

Careers in General Transcription

General transcription services are heavily utilized by various industries, opening various transcribing opportunities to people with any type of expertise. Unlike in legal transcriptions involving stenographers or court reporters, careers in general transcription do not necessarily require a degree or strict qualifications, which opens this opportunity for practically anybody willing to put time into it. But of course, getting certifications would certainly help you gain an edge and strengthen your credibility in the transcription industry. Here are the different careers in general transcription you can explore and evaluate where you’re equipped the most:

Entertainment Transcription

Entertainment transcription, also referred as media transcription, is mostly fast-paced as transcription agencies work with huge production houses (i.e. television, radio, or film) and independent producers, who utilize video captioning and multi-language subtitling to attract a wider audience reach and ultimately get higher ratings. The entertainment industry tends to request rush or quick turnaround files or give tight deadlines for transcriptions the most, as writers for documentaries and the like use transcripts as basis for scriptwriting, the same way video editors utilize its timestamps for editing. Thus, transcriptionists must be able to generate accurate transcripts in quick turnarounds to refrain production delays.

Academic Research Transcription

The pressure on the academic community is pretty intense, whether you’re an academic scholar, research assistant, professor, or student. Working under tight, concurrent deadlines is tough, especially when you have to do time-consuming tasks before you can get to the more important ones - like transcribing interviews for your dissertation, before you’re able to analyze the data and formulate findings.

If you’re eyeing a career in academic research transcriptions, you should be a great researcher and a fast learner yourself as you’re probably going to research a multitude of terminologies and facts whilst you’re transcribing in-depth interviews for different research papers, thesis, or dissertations for various academic fields.

Seminar Transcription

Professionals, students, trainees, journalists, and the like often record seminars for transcription. This enables them to take home all the information shared during the event for future references or for writing reports and documentations. Others record and transcribe seminars to share knowledge among colleagues who were not able to attend the seminar. For a transcriptionist however, this may be one of the toughest type of recordings to transcribe as these often have a lot of background noises making them more challenging in comparison.

Sermon Transcription

Many churches use general transcription services to reach more people and build online presence. Not only do they reach people who are unable to attend worship services beyond church borders, transcripts are also a big help to pastors in training, theological students and scholars too! If you’re looking into working for a sermon transcription service, you should have a great foundation knowledge about diverse religions and their terminologies in order to generate sensible transcripts.

Corporate or Conference Call Transcription

An earnings call is a conference call wherein executives, financial analysts, major investors and shareholders, as well as financial advisors discuss the financial performance of the company at the end of every quarter. Several companies have earnings calls and other critical conference calls transcribed to promote data transparency and keep everyone in the loop with crucial information.

It’s most likely that you’ll come across several accounting and financial terminologies while transcribing conference calls. Retirees from the corporate world may find that they have an edge in corporate transcriptions - if you have a background in administration, banking, accountancy or if you’re at least knowledgeable about several financial terminologies, this is familiar, easy work territory. Otherwise, be mindful and meticulous about transcribing conference calls as these are usually very detail-sensitive.

Market Research Transcription

Market research transcription services are heavily utilized by marketing researchers and companies for convenience and to save time, as they conduct countless of in-depth interviews and focus groups per qualitative study. Transcripts are used to easily review and dissect insights for further investigation or data analysis. There are various types of market research recordings that are being requested for transcription such as mystery shopping, audio diaries and patient journeys, usability sessions, and telephone survey transcriptions among many others.

As much as clients want to provide clear recordings for accurate transcription, there are still instances when the requested audio files have audio difficulties due to various factors at the time of recording. Some are required to be recorded outdoors, in public places, and some phone interviews are conducted with respondents from hard to reach locations. In such instances, it is the transcriber’s job to type words as accurate as possible, decipher crosstalks, and identify the speakers by name if need be so that clients can maximize the use of their transcripts.

Podcast Transcription

Podcasts in any type of genre about any topic are requested for transcription for various purposes. Educators might get interesting information that they can integrate in their lessons; students might get interesting tips and tricks for getting through the academe; bloggers and fashion enthusiasts can get the latest trends and styles around the globe, among many others. If you a re to be a podcast transcriptionist, you should be fast learner and a great researcher to transcribe podcast recordings on random topics accurately - that means having to decipher topic-specific proper nouns, acronyms, and specialized terminologies.

Essential Skills of a Transcriptionist

Just like other jobs and professions, you won’t do a terrific job in transcription if you do not have specific qualities or essential skills needed for general transcription. Being a transcriptionist should not be undermined - transcribing is not child’s play. Read through these must-have traits and skills and see if you're cut out for the job:

Have a great pair of ears and have a sharp memory. Being an attentive listener, and actually remembering long sentences accurately, lets you transcribe faster as you won’t have to constantly playback small parts of the audio over and over.
Have a typing speed of 60-80 words per minute with minimal errors. If you don’t want to spend more time proofreading your work, then you should probably do your best transcribing the first time, especially if your deadline is just around the corner. Some general transcription vendors even give bonuses to transcribers with zero to minimum errors, so you better give the editors a pleasant time reviewing your work!
Have great research skills. It’s not strictly required for a transcriptionist be a master of certain fields before they can do transcription in general. What matters the most is you have great research skills that can help you catch terminologies and crucial information you’re unfamiliar with, and that you comprehend diverse topics quickly to be able to provide top-notch outputs.
Have a strong knowledge foundation in grammar, punctuations, and spelling. While other clients prefer to have their files transcribed in verbatim (word for word), majority still prefer reader-friendly transcripts also known as non-verbatim transcription. This means you’re going to have to rectify minor grammar mistakes (i.e. verb tenses). It is your responsibility to do so without altering the original thoughts and compromising insights.

Essential Transcription Tools

What’s great with starting a career in general transcription is that you are more likely to save big bucks from equipment investment. These are so basic in the digital age that there’s a high probability, if not 100%, that you already have these must-have tools of a freelance transcriptionist:

Computer/Laptop

If you want a career in general transcription, you must always have access to a laptop or desktop computer. Transcribing audio and video files is a long, tedious process. It’s only sensible if you have your own that you can use without anything rushing you.

Headphones

The time will come when you’re assigned files with different kinds of audio difficulties. Be it background noises, static, or strong regional accents - having great quality headphones will surely make your transcribing job much easier.

Transcription Software

Using typical audio player software is transcribing calvary. Opt for hotkey-enabled or foot pedal-controlled transcription software to make your task easier and gain better momentum. There are several transcription tools online you can download for free, like Express Scribe - and it can support both audio and video files.

Word Processing Software like Microsoft Word

You need word processing software in order to deliver finished transcripts - although a Microsoft Word document is the most common file type used, you can also use other software like LibreOffice or OpenOffice. Just make sure that the version you’re using is compliant to your transcription company or client's requirements.

Internet Connection

Remember, research comes with transcription in general. Whether short or long files, you’re going to want to research names, specialized terms, and other particular information in order to generate superior quality transcripts, and the internet is a vast library of information easily accessible with just a few clicks.

How to Learn General Transcription

General transcription, among other transcription fields, requires relatively little training. However, you need to have some practice of your own and a bucket full knowledge about what being a transcriptionist entails before actually diving in to the industry head on. Never bring a knife to a gunfight; make sure you are adequately equipped and prepared for possible challenges you might face whilst transcribing audio and video files. Curious where and how you can learn to transcribe better? We’ve summarized some of the best ways to learn and practice general transcription:

Search and transcribe interviews in different formats on YouTube or other websites. Try transcribing one-on-one interviews first, then work your way up to group interviews or focus group discussions about anything under the sun. Practice speaker identification, more with audio than video files where you cannot visually identify the speaker.
Transcribe on-field radio and television news reports to sharpen your ears when transcribing audio files with background noises.
Download and transcribe a variety of webinars and podcasts to get yourself accustomed to a variety of accents.
Familiarize yourself with the different ways of transcribing audio or video recordings such as non-verbatim, smart verbatim, and pure verbatim transcriptions. Then, transcribe the same recording in different ways to master each one.
Find websites offering general transcription practice files you can use for self-testing. Check your work against the completed transcript and note your mistakes and other elements you tend to overlook. This will help you improve at faster rate.

You will hear people who have not tried doing transcriptions calling the job “easy”, but it is actually harder than most people think. Some recordings are a piece of cake to transcribe, but whether you like it or not, you will receive more challenging projects along the way. You'll come across poor audio with heavy accents, fast speakers, background noises, and/or dialogue overlaps that will take longer for a beginner to transcribe, which is exactly why determination, self-practice and training is imperative to grasp success in general transcription.

Conclusion: Is General Transcription a Good Career?

While general transcription may not be for everyone, anyone looking for a part-time job with fair pay rates should find that general transcription is one of the best freelance options out there. Transcribing long audio files may mean less social interactions and less multitasking which is probably not the ideal setup - but if you think you have what it takes to start a general transcription career, the advantage is you will be able to control your workload, work schedule, and earnings. You would not have to fully commit career-wise unless you choose to, which is why transcriptions have become one of the top “second careers” for stay-at-home parents, retirees, students, and even professionals.

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