Do you want to become a transcriber and get paid up to $60 per audio hour? Avoid the most common mistakes when applying online and ace the transcription test!
1. Read very carefully the company's guidelines. Each transcription company follows same basic rules in order to ensure top quality and consistency, such as how to formatte your transcript. For example, the company's guidelines may include which tags to use and which to avoid, such as using the [xx] tag instead of the [inaudible] tag.
2. Pay attention to the customer notes, since the overrule the company's guidelines.
3. Be as accurate as possible. If you don't understand a word or a sentence don't omit it but use instead the appropriate tags. Use the inaudible tag as a last resort when you can't even guess at what's being said. For example, if you can't understand what's being spoken as a result of two or more people speaking at the same time, you can use the [crosstalk] tag instead.
4. Don't paraphrase or correct speakers grammar. Even when you proofread and edit a transcript, you shouldn't correct grammatical mistakes or include words that weren't spoken.
5. Sentences shouldn't be too long. Break compound sentences into smaller ones whenever possible.
6. Avoid common capitalization mistakes, such as not capitalizing the pronoun "I", and typos.
7. Pay attention to whether it is a verbatim or a non-verbatim job.
If the job description mentions that it is a verbatim job, then you should include every word and non-word such as "um" and "er". Also, if the speaker repeats a word/sentence you should type everything ("I don't, I don't agree").
However, if the job is non-verbatim you should exclude:
- every non-word
- every filler word, such as "I mean", "you know" etc.
- every false start. For example, if the speaker says "I don't, I don't agree" you should write "I don't agree".
