Transcribe Interview Audio to Text: A Step-By-Step Guide

From researchers to lawyers, everyone knows that conducting business interviews is quite essential to capture the full story.

Probably raw interviews are of little use. Checking it out completely requires a lot of effort and time. Moving back and forth is impossible specifically between sections to actually know the connections between them.

This results in the difficulty to pull out the most crucial elements. To make the best use of the interview, you have to develop a written version i.e. proper interview transcription.

In this blog, you will learn various steps involved in interview transcription to create accurate and readable texts. Let’s get started.

Step-By-Step Guide to Transcribe Interview Audio to Text

Here are the steps to take if you plan to transcribe an interview yourself.

1- Plan a Time for Transcription

The amount of time needed to transcribe interview audio to text highly depends on certain factors.

● If audio recording is done well, the person can easily transcribe it into texts.

● If the audio recordings are muted or have background noise, it could take much time.

Other factors are less knowledge of any jargon that is used or difficulty in understanding the recording.

Suppose, before starting any important research interview transcription, listen to the interview audio and plan a time for transcription.

2- Pick a Transcription Style

There are two commonly used styles of audio interview transcription:

● Verbatim Transcription

This type of transcription wants you to write exactly what you hear.

Every interjection, filler, etc. is transcribed. For example,

Speaker says: I, um, like travelling a lot. Also, um, I recently travelled to London. (laugh)

You would easily transcribe the sentence whatever is said in the audio including the laugh mentioned in the bracket.

This is highly difficult to do as it needs strong focus and more attention to detail.

● Non-Verbatim Transcription

Non-verbatim transcription is also known as an intelligent transcription or a smooth transcription.

This type of transcription removes vocal tics, fillers, etc. For example:

Speaker says: I like travelling a lot and recently travelled to London.

If the interview includes expressions like laughing and they are relevant, you can choose to include them.

Out of both essential types of transcription, whatever you prefer to follow, ensure you apply them rightly throughout the complete document.

3- Set the Audio File

If the interview is recorded on digital recording devices or you have old interview traditional tapes, you will have to often start, stop or rewind the audio.

Pick an ideal playback method that offers easy-to-use controls, the set the audio to the start of the interview.

4- Begin Transcribing

Play back the audio file and then type what you hear. Pause when required to write the text correctly.

Probably, you will have to rewind and listen to different parts of the audio. This helps you to create an accurate transcript of what was stated. Focus on the editing rules you wanted to follow.

Also, find choose the right label for every speaker, so that the transcript always shows who is actually speaking.

When there is a great need of transcription of the interview, there may be some sections of the audio that are difficult to understand.

If you keep rewinding repeatedly and just cannot determine what was actually said, put the word “unintelligible” in brackets and keep doing.

If you get to know what was said, but can’t be sure, make your right guess. Put brackets around the words that you feel are not right.

5- Revise the Transcript

Every field has its own editing conventions.

No matter, what field you belong to, editing is needed to ensure that the transcript is clear and concise.

While revising or editing, ensure to clarify every confusing element. From spelling to punctuation, and grammar, check everything thoroughly. This is followed in every major types of business transcription.

Write every word that you earlier abbreviated. If you find breaks in the interview audio, go back and then write down inside brackets at the relevant points.

6- Review the Transcript

When your transcript is complete, including edits, listen to the entire interview again from the start.
Read your transcripts along with the audio playing so that you find any errors. If there are errors, pause the recording and fix the issues.

Your transcript is not ready until you don’t make it error-free.

All six steps are very important to perform while transcribing the interview into texts. The right option is to hire a competitive transcription agency in Delhi and get a professional transcript.

Conclusion

Writing an interview transcript into text needs excellent listening skills, lots of patience, and careful editing. Interview transcripts provide proper records of the events that happen in an interview. This entire can bring enormous benefits to you and your organization.

Doing it yourself can result in a text full of errors. A better idea is to look for a professional transcriber and get the work done efficiently.

Looking for interview transcription help? Reach our experts at +91-8527599223 or simply request an instant quote.