The Human Touch in Verbatim Transcription: Quality Assurance Strategies

The Human Touch in Verbatim Transcription: Quality Assurance Strategies
6 min read
17 October 2023

It is already proven that human-generated transcription provides a high-quality and accurate transcription that plays a significant role in different verticals in the industry. It is especially helpful in the legal and medical sectors. 

Transcriptionists capture every spoken word and contextual pertinent detail effectively. In this respect, verbatim transcription is important. Professional transcribers meticulously capture every nuance of transcription, including dialogues, spoken words, background noises, and crosstalk in written documents.

There is no doubt that every audio detail captured by the transcriptionists have significant implication. Human-generated transcriptionists pay a lot of attention to details and, in this process, retain the integrity of evidence and mindfully avoid misrepresentation. 

The technology has a profound impact on the transcript, and as a result, human-generated transcription has a considerable edge over machine transcription. Therefore, quality assurance strategies always come from expert human transcribers.

 The complexity of Verbatim Transcription 

Verbatim transcription is not merely confined to converting spoken words into written documents, but it goes to a deeper level. Therefore, it needs to comprehend the context and the complex nature of human communication. Following are some of the key considerations that make the verbatim transcription even more difficult. Let's walk through it. 

Record all Non-Verbal Communication 

It is documented that true verbatim transcription should capture all the non-verbal communication alongside any laughing, ambient sounds, even crying, and passing traffic can contribute a complete picture of non-verbal communication. All these non-verbal clues are included in verbatim transcription.

Filler Words and Disfluencies   

Verbatim transcription can take account of all filler words that include "ums", "uh", "right" etc. Even though it appears insignificant, it has a real implication in the legal realm because these filler words render the accurate and true transcript. 

It is similar to non-verbal cues, disfluencies and filler words can act as evidence that helps to solve the legal proceedings. It is, therefore, a vital aspect for the legal sector to avoid misrepresentation of the facts; otherwise, it will have a bad impact on the legal proceedings. 

Multiple Speakers 

It is based on the setting. It is generally seen that group discussion often gets noisy. As the discussions picked momentum, the speakers were excited and started speaking. As a result, it is difficult to identify the speakers.

It becomes even more complicated as more speakers start speaking. It is normal, considering the nature of the group discussion. At this stage, transcribers are able to separate the speaker. It is indeed a challenge for the transcriber. So, labelling and pointing out the speaker is important.

Accents and Pronunciation

Things have become more complicated as the accents of diverse audience is different, and so is the pronunciation. In this situation, accurate representation of spoken word is thus paramount.  

Contextual Understanding 

Professional transcribers have a profound understanding of the context and meaning of each word spoken because each word has important relevance. So, the transcribers go beyond word-for-word transcription.  

 The Role of Skilled Transcribers  

Transcription skills are an important aspect for transcribers and other communication experts to develop written text for meetings, speeches, video, and audio in different situations where there is a need for transcribers. In the realm of verbatim transcription, the human transcriber provides skills and expertise. Let us explore:

Active Listening  

Listening skills are one of the most important skills for the transcribers. They can listen mindfully to what the speakers say. A professional transcriber can understand the message delivered by the others. There is no doubt that good listening can make all the difference at the time of converting audio or video to provide accurate information.  

Linguistic Expertise

Editing skills are indeed vital to reading written language and finding grammatical errors and accordingly rectifying them. The skills include a strong understanding, a wide knowledge of vocabulary, and grammatical usage. There is no doubt that editing helps the accuracy of transcription.

Cultural Awareness

Cultural sensitivities are paramount. The reason is that misrepresentation of cultural aspects can jeopardize the entire essence of transcription, and it fails to reach a diverse audience. In this connection, it is important to know that verbatim transcription is frequently handled with vast cultural aspects. So, keeping pace with the cultural aspect and sensitivity is undoubtedly important for maintaining the essence of dialogue at best.

Contextual Understanding

Professional transcribers can understand the meaning of the context that they properly implement in the transcript in terms of emotions and sentiments hidden behind the speech.

Quality Assurance Strategies   

In order to keep the human touch in the verbatim transcription, it must follow the following quality guidelines. Let us explore:

Experienced Transcribers 

 It is important to have highly experienced and well-trained transcribers who have adequate industry experience, which is the first step in quality strategiesVendors spend a considerable time in recruiting qualified transcription and provide substantial ongoing training. Despite the significant presence of AI-based transcription, human transcription still rules the roost because of its accuracy rate. 

Proofreading And Editing 

Although the transcript appears to be perfect, it must undergo stringent editing and proofreading to filter out any errors, including grammatical errors and inconsistency of the language. In doing so, it dramatically increases readability and is accurately transcribed.

Speaker Identification.  

It often happens where there is group discussion as more and more audiences start speaking simultaneously and with different accents. It is undoubtedly a challenging situation for the transcribers to find the speaker that is vital to accurate transcription, and it falls under the ambit of quality strategy

Feedback 

Feedback is essential in this process. Based on the client's feedback, it is important to address this problem immediately, thereby furthering the quality measures.  

Final Words 

The stride of automated transcription is common in today's world. However, automated transcription fails to provide accurate results. Human-generated transcription still has a lot of edge over machine transcription. 

In today's time, communication plays an important role, and verbatim transcription with human touch becomes the hallmark of accuracy. So, human touch transcription makes all the difference. 

In case you have found a mistake in the text, please send a message to the author by selecting the mistake and pressing Ctrl-Enter.
Ataur Studio 2
Senior Marketing Executive at Acadestudio
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