Planning to get your audio transcribed? Here’s a handy list of things you can provide your transcriptionist to help them create the perfect transcript for you:

1. List of Questions

If it’s an interview or a focus group that you’re sending out for transcription, provide the transcriptionist with a list of questions asked by the interviewer or host. This will help the transcriptionist understand the speakers and grasp context.

2. Names of Speakers

Are there multiple speakers on the call? Do you need each speaker identified by name? Do you need their names spelled correctly so that you don’t have to edit them yourself later? Give your transcriptionist a list of the participants’ names that they can use while transcribing.

3. List of Technical Terms or Acronyms

If your audio is on a technical subject (like medicine, software, healthcare, etc.) it’s a good idea to provide your transcriptionist with a list of commonly used terms and acronyms used by the speaker/s on the recording. This will not only save the transcriptionist a lot of research time (and thereby improve turnaround time) but vastly improve the accuracy of the transcript.

4. Editing Instructions

Tell your transcriptionist whether you need a verbatim or intelligent verbatim transcript. Even if you edit the transcript yourself later, this one step will save you a LOT of time removing (or adding) those ums, ahs and pauses.

5. Formatting Instructions

Finally, with all the above things don’t forget to provide formatting instructions. If you need labels added, specific words italicized, page number or headers added – let your transcriptionist know beforehand so that you don’t have to send the work back for formatting or worse, format it yourself. The simplest way to do this is to provide a sample transcript (if you have one) that’s formatted to your liking.

Keep these simple things in mind whenever you send out a recording for transcription and you’ll see a tremendous improvement in the results you get – oh and don’t forget to use a microphone for all your recordings!