What Is Transcription, Exactly? Why Do You Need It?

Transcription is written documentation of audio or video. Sounds like a bunch of words that don’t apply to most people’s day-to-day lives, right? What if we told you that you’ve probably already used transcription in some way very recently? It’s true!

If you’ve watched a video clip with captions or read lecture notes online, you’ve used transcription. Text interviews, court hearings, speeches…if you’re reading those, they were likely transcribed.

It’s clear to see that transcription is a bigger part of all of our lives than many of us previously thought. And here at Rev, we happen to live and breathe all things transcripts. Below, we break down everything you need to know about this crucial service.

What Is the Goal of Transcription?

The goal of transcription is to turn audio (or video) into written text. This is largely done for accessibility reasons, but user experience plays a big part too. Not everyone is in a position to listen to an audio track or watch a video with the sound on. The transcription of words that were originally meant to be heard opens up whole new worlds of audiences to your content.

Another goal of transcription is to make your audio easier to use. After taking notes or recording an interview, for example, it can be incredibly tedious to listen and re-listen, scrubbing through the audio to find the information you need. With digital transcription of an audio track, it’s much easier to find, sort, and organize information.

How are Transcripts Made?

Transcripts are made by listening to a video or audio track and typing the spoken content into a document, often by a transcriptionist.

It’s more nuanced than that these days, but in essence the process consists of listening and typing. If you’re transcribing your own audio and don’t want any additional costs, this is the entire process. You listen. You type. You listen again to check accuracy. It can be time-consuming, but this is the way.

To ease the burden, you can invest in automatic speech recognition (ASR) software which will produce a transcript draft from your audio or video track. You’ll still have to check and edit for accuracy though. ASR software can be purchased for less than $100, but higher-end options can often have four-digit price tags.

If you’re processing reams of transcriptions or you just don’t have the bandwidth to transcribe your own audio, you can look into a professional transcription service (we might know of one!). Using either humans or AI (or both), a professional transcription service can be incredibly accurate, efficient, and easy on the budget, especially compared to the cost of your own man-hours.

Types of Transcriptions

On the surface, most types of transcription look essentially the same. There are timestamps, speaker identifications, and typed dialogue. But look a little deeper and there are variations for specific types of transcription. Here are the primary types of transcription, what they’re used for, and how they differ from others.

• Verbatim transcription consists of exactly what was said, including tics, stutters, “ums,” and any other sounds that come from a speaker’s mouth. This is the most accurate transcription but isn’t always useful for purposes like captions.
• Non-verbatim transcription is essentially a clean version of verbatim. It’s been lightly edited to delete all the verbal tics, stops, starts, and stutters, but never changes actual words or the meaning and intent of a speaker.
  • Also called “clean reads,” non-verbatim transcripts can be easily turned into captions and subtitles.
• Legal transcription is the act of converting spoken legal proceedings or dictation into text. This can be done either live or from audio or video recordings.
• Video transcription is a transcription that’s created from a video file as opposed to an audio file. A thorough transcription service will sync the transcript with your uploaded video file.
• Digital transcription, or automated transcription, is transcription that is performed by AI. Though AI gets better every day (if not every minute), AI transcription remains a little behind human transcription when it comes to accuracy. For speed, though, you can’t beat digital or electronic transcription.

Practical Uses of Transcripts

You see and use the results of transcription more often than you think. Anytime you turn captions or subtitles on during a movie or TV show, you’re seeing a form of transcription. If you visit your doctor’s “patient portal” and read the doc’s comments or messages, chances are those comments were transcribed from dictation. If you read meeting recaps at work that include the actual dialogue…you guessed it. Transcription!

Most legal proceedings use a form of transcription, either through court reporting, voice reporting, or legal transcription, to preserve the record of events. Text versions of interviews are almost always the results of transcription of words spoken, and here are a few transcription examples so you can see what we mean. Transcription is everywhere!

Formatting 101

When formatting a transcript, you need three essential pieces of information: Speaker identification, timestamps, and the words spoken. This information is the same no matter the type of transcription or file format.

Transcript File Types

Chances are, your transcription’s final form will take one of a few universal file types:

• Word or Google document. These look and operate pretty much the same way. You can add light formatting to them like bold, italics, or underlining. Choosing between the two is more or less a matter of preference. Google Docs are traditionally more collaborative due to being exclusively online, but Microsoft’s Word program has made huge strides in that direction.
• Text document. A text document is similar to a Word or Google doc, except there’s no formatting at all.
• PDF file. A PDF usually starts life as a Word, Google, or text file and visually resembles whichever one it was originally. But PDFs aren’t usually editable by the reader unless access is provided.
• HTML. If your end goal is to post your transcription on a website, HTML is the file output you need. HTML allows you to add extra features like track synching or adding notations.

Learn more about the best transcription file format for your needs on our blog.

Guidelines and Rules You Should Know

Transcribing your audio or video is a great way to make your project accessible to more people who, for whatever reason, can’t utilize or comprehend audio communication.

Whether it’s a disability, a situational issue, or even a preference, there will always be people who require text versions of audio. Because of this, to help your brand, you’ll want to transcribe your audio. But there are also legal requirements that you need to follow for your project to be compliant.

• Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) states that closed captions are required for video content so that deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers can have the same experience as other viewers. It stresses closed captions rather than a simple transcription, because a transcription doesn’t necessarily follow along with the video.
• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 states that all live or pre-recorded videos posted online require closed-captioning, while all audio content posted online requires accompanying transcription.

Digital ADA compliance violations can be crippling. Federal fines for an initial ADA violation can hit $75,000 while subsequent violations can reach $150,000. It’s much cheaper and better for your audience to be compliant!

Why it Pays to Transcribe Accurately, The First Time

The official definition of transcribed is “to put thoughts, speech or data onto written form.” This definition infers accuracy; if you’re not transcribing exactly what is being said, are you really transcribing? Or are you paraphrasing?

Transcription provides you with an accurate record of what was said. It’s a mechanism to capture all the important details without having to worry if you remember everything correctly. Accuracy matters especially for business, legal, medical, and academic purposes, but it also matters for your own integrity. If you conduct an interview and don’t accurately portray what your subject said, you could open yourself up to all sorts of trouble, from hurt feelings to legal issues. Getting it right is important!

Accuracy matters, but so does speed. Getting an accurate transcription the first time is important for budget and bandwidth reasons. If you find yourself constantly editing your transcript for accuracy, you’re wasting time that could be spent elsewhere. It’s time-consuming to attempt transcription on your own, so consider using a transcription service that you can trust to provide accurate results.

Other benefits of transcription include:

• Accessibility. We’ve already discussed legal reasons for closed captions via transcription, but transcription can expand your audience in other ways. Transcription makes it possible to translate your content for non-native language speakers, for instance.
• SEO. Search engines still can’t effectively use audio tracks in their search results, so automatically adding a transcription of any audio or video track can quickly boost your audio SEO results.

Transcription = More Eyeballs on Your Stuff!

Transcribing your audio is a no-brainer nowadays, especially with how easy and cost-effective it is to get a fast, accurate transcript. We’d say the benefits outweigh the drawbacks, but there are virtually no drawbacks to applying transcription to any audio or video! A bigger audience, happier viewers, no compliance issues, and better SEO…dare we say that you’d be missing out not to get an accurate transcription of words you record? Rev will help you not miss out!