How can I reduce the transcription time? 7 tips for fast transcription

Typing up interviews is and remains an annoying and tedious job. There is a lot of potential to save yourself time, here are 7 of our most effective tips:

Recording quality

The quality of the recording has a significant influence on the time you have to allow for editing. A well-recorded live interview in a quiet atmosphere is preferable to any Zoom recording, because the recording is clearer and can therefore be typed up more easily. It is not only time-consuming, but also annoying to constantly have to listen to passages that are difficult to understand several times. We have put together some tips for good recording (also of individual interviews) here: link Record group interviews well.

Partial transcript

If you want to save some time, a partial transcription may be a good option. This is common in the documentary method, for example. In this case, you first simply write a thematic summary with time information – e.g. “01:10:12 to 01:13:34 Discussion on topic XY” – and then decide later which passages are to be used for the evaluation. Only these are then typed up in detail, everything else remains untranscribed or roughly sketched. The use of time markers is helpful here, as they allow you to listen to the relevant passages in the original recording very quickly, even later.

Using transcription software and foot control

In order to transcribe as quickly as possible, it has proved useful to work with transcription programs and keyboard shortcuts rather than with the mouse, media player and Word. These programs offer options such as slowing down the playback so that you can follow along much better when typing. There are also useful functions such as an automatic short rewind when pausing (so you can hear the word you missed again when continuing) and many other features. The foot switch makes it even more convenient.

Breaks

Breaks are necessary. It sounds banal, but you can’t transcribe with concentration and precision for 8 hours straight. The recommended break frequency for computer workstations of at least 5 to 10 minutes per hour of screen time has proven to be effective. More than 6 hours of transcription per day is not realistically possible without increasing the error rate beyond the usual level.

Speech recognition

Speech recognition cannot replace transcription. Errors are always produced that need to be checked and corrected. For German-language interviews with good recording quality, however, our f4x speech recognition can save you 30% of your working time. It provides a good pre-transcript, which you then correct manually. In any case, you should try out voice recognition before you buy it to find out whether it delivers usable results for your own recordings. Click here for the test version of f4x with 30 minutes trial quota: LINK

Transcription service

It is quite luxurious if you can use external writing services. There is a very wide range of different qualities here. Make sure that you have experience with (scientific) interview transcriptions and that data protection (GDPR) is observed. [Link Datenschutz]. Our transcription service can be found here. link

Refraiming “Love Transcription”

Transcription is and remains tedious and time-consuming. By “reframing” this work, it may still be possible to gain something positive from it. This is the name given to the technique of reinterpretation, with which unpleasant experiences are put in a new light and positive aspects become visible. Cindy Bird describes this phenomenon in her article: “How I Stopped Dreading and Learned to Love Transcription”. This is because transcription, i.e. the time-consuming examination of an original recording that you listen to slowly and with concentration, brings you into very close contact with the people recorded. This makes it easier to notice special features and nuances that you would not notice during the actual interview or when reading the transcript. So if you also use the transcription to collect ideas and think intensively about the topic, you can gain a lot of inspiration and perspective for the evaluation.