Transcription Typing: Speed Significance and How to Improve It
Transcription Typing: The Relevance of Speed in Transcription Typing Service Speed. Yes, it matters. The transcription typing relies a lot on time. The faster a transcribers’ typing speed, the better it would be for their career. Audio typing transcription services follow a 4:1 ratio for its standard. This means a transcriber needs to transcribe an hour-long of clear audio in four hours. Hence, in an hour, a transcriptionist should be able to finish a 15 minute-long audio recording and even 60 words per minute for the standard of transcription typing. However, the time standard also varies depending on the audio quality. On less-audible audio files, either contaminated with loud noises, muffled voices, or perhaps errors due to a corrupted file, are more lenient with the time standard. Audio files containing more than one speaker can also take more time to transcribe as overlapping voices are inevitable in such situations. Note that a transcriber does not only listen to the audio once to assure the transcription accuracy. Proofreading, making corrections, and editing the transcription document are also parts of the job. On top of that, transcribers are restricted by deadlines. The amount of workload and demand in audio typing transcription service could be stressful for individual transcribers. It brings more burden if they can’t match their typing speed to the standard. Piling workloads and ticking deadlines are on the line. Furthermore, transcribers need to maintain transcription accuracy. On the other hand, transcribers who work in a team, like in an agency, might benefit more. Instead of pushing the workload on one person, they can divide the workload. However, it is as much important to keep in mind that working in a group requires good teamwork and balanced pace. One person with slower work speed can stall the others, and affect the team’s work quality. Transcribing is a time-sensitive work. This pretty much explains how a transcriber’s typing speed matters for the job. But how can we improve our typing speed? Transcription Typing: Improving Your Typing Speed There are a lot of ways to improve your speed. Constant practice sure can help you improve your typing speed. However, note that it also matters that you know what you are practising for, and know what you actually need. 1. Know yourself Try to find out what your weaknesses are. Once you know what you are lacking, you can start practice accordingly. Listen to more audio available on the Internet. Try to listen to people from different countries and understand their accent. Read more books or articles of different subjects to at least recognize certain terminologies that exist in varieties of work fields. Broadening your knowledge can always help you save time from googling the specific term that you heard from the audio. 2. Listen to your clients’ feedback Just like any other jobs, it is important to be open with constructive feedback. If they don’t give feedback, know that you can also ask too. 3. Use all your fingers Learning how to type with ten fingers is a must. It can save you a lot of time while transcribing. Instead of going back and forth to erase and rewrite miswritten words, hone your typing skill. Having keen ears and good listening skill is not enough, you need to improve your fingers’ speed and accuracy in pushing the keyboard. 4. Invest in some high-quality technology If you have more budget for the job, try to purchase better headphones. Some experts even use specific headphones that are “tuned” for transcription. Though it may cost you some, it would help you a lot in transcribing. Especially if you are thinking of taking the transcription typing services as your occupation. Some others even purchase foot pedals to ease them in transcribing. These foot pedals allow you to control the audio playback without using hotkeys. Bottom Line Typing speed is one of the most valuable assets for transcribers. If you are still new in the field and you feel a lot of lacking compared to your peers, know that you still have the chance to improve yourself. Don’t get too discouraged and challenge yourself to change for the better!
Professional Transcription in Business: How It Matters
How Professional Transcription Service Can Help You Maintain and Grow Your Business Businesses have been growing at an immense speed. Dozens of startups have managed to gain acknowledgement globally, earning them the “unicorn” title for their stellar achievements attained in a considerably short time. To develop into a bigger business, it’s not uncommon for businesses to cooperate with other companies. To ensure both companies give each other mutual benefits, there will be a lot of business interactions involved. Presentations and meetings are important parts of the strategy. Another important thing is making sure you have the log of all your discussion. In this specific case, professional transcription service can give your business a big hand of help. Ever heard of a professional transcription service? A professional transcription service helps you log business interactions like meetings, conferences, workshops, presentations, and others. Having trained for years, professional transcriptionists can assure you accuracy in their transcription, even when the speakers have different accents. Apart from that, there are more ways how professional transcription service could help businesses. Professional Transcription: How It Helps Your Business 1. Official documentation, solid evidence to the agreements Having official documents that track your agreement on hands is especially helpful to avoid disputes and lawsuits in the future. Sometimes, your business may face unexpected occurrences that may risk your deal with the other companies. The other party could suddenly insist on a different thing from what was discussed, or even worse, they might ask to cancel the agreement for no exact reason. At these moments, the transcription log can come handy as a solid proof of the discussion. 2. Less trouble with accurate and legitimate transcription A communication gap can lead to a lot of misses: misinformation, miscommunications, even misarticulations. Professional transcriptionists who are trained and experienced in the matter can really help you get away from such problems. With your business interactions logged accurately, you can also go back to the notes to find out what points you missed, or which points to highlight from the meeting. 3. Connecting one part of the world to another Transcription service is not only used for meetings. It is also a helpful tool for marketing, especially on audio and audiovisual contents. Whether it is a promotional video, a TED talk content, interview clip, or other video contents, having the help of transcriptionists can really boost the views. Providing subtitles for such video contents can help the video understood by global audiences. Or, you can also upgrade your video quality by providing translations for more worldwide audience-friendly contents. Note that professional transcriptionists are required to maintain the confidentiality of their work. Hence, you could rest easy on the confidentiality of your business agreements. As much as the deal matters to your business, the professional transcriptionists and their agency’s reputation are also on the line. A lot of businesses have been considering the needs of professional transcription service. In fact, there has been a significant rise in professional transcription demand. With the rise in demand, businesses are also served with a wide variety of options. But, how do we choose the best professional transcription service for our business? Professional Transcription Service for Your Business: Things to Consider The first step you need to do is to determine the language for the service. Don’t ask professional transcriptionists that master in English to transcribe your meeting that is spoken mostly in Korean! Next, always try to check out the error rates for the service you choose. When it comes to transcription, one important thing to note is the error rates. Obviously, the smaller the error rates, the better it is. While looking for available transcription services, you might find some offers that utilize AI. At a glance, choosing AI for transcription might sound like the best option. Hold your horses!, because in the transcription field, advanced technology can’t really guarantee accuracy. Wired reported in 2016 that certain research calculated a 4% error rate from professional transcriptionists. Meanwhile, advanced technology only managed to press its error rate to 8% with the same audio. Moreover, Stolcke & Droppo (2017) attested advanced technology is still puzzled to differentiate the filled pauses (“uh”) from backchannel acknowledgments (“uhhuh”). How did this happen? Simple, technology can’t think logically as humans do. Humans can use their logic to guess on inaudible audio, something that AI can’t do. Furthermore, while humans can differentiate accents, dialects, missing words (either due to an error in the audio or the speaker got cut while speaking), technology can’t. Humans are also still capable of grasping what is spoken in overlapping audio to some extent. The transcriptionist can read the speakers’ lips or gestures to write down the exact word they are talking about. Once you’ve narrowed down the list, all it takes are to proceed with the last step. Settle on the agency that suits your budget the best. Don’t forget to check on the offered services. Do they comply with your needs? Different services might offer different additional services with similar rates. Some of them could be really helpful, but some others could be a waste of money. Don’t rush yourself in choosing a professional transcription service, especially when it’s still your first time. Take your time to understand every detail offered. If necessary, try various options too. Finding a transcription service that suits your business the best may take time. However, it could give a handful of help for your business, more so if you are aiming at the global market.