Why You Need a Transcriptionist

Here’s a simple answer to why you need a transcriptionist: because language is an art and you can’t teach a computer an ever-evolving art form.

Plus computers don’t really use grammar.

For example, you can have the sentence:

Let’s eat Grandpa.

AND

Let’s eat, Grandpa.

Both of them have completely different meanings. I mean, you wouldn’t want anyone to think that you’re going to eat your grandpa, would you?

In the age of video and podcasting being a main source of information, it is beneficial for you to provide text that goes alongside that audio/video. It can help those that are hard of hearing, second language learners, and increases comprehension.

What Is Transcription?

If you’re thinking that a transcriptionist is just someone who can type fast, you are very mistaken.

I want you to take a second and think about how you speak.

It’s not always in complete sentences, you might stutter, change thoughts in the middle of talking, be interrupted, or speak really fast.

Now I want you to think about how that would look on paper. It’s probably very messy and you’ll need to have a good grasp on how to punctuate your speech. It’s one thing to type it all on the computer, but if it isn’t readable and doesn’t make sense, you’re not getting your point across to your audience.

Transcription is a skill that is learned and practiced just like any other skill you might have. You don’t just wake up one day and become an excellent transcriptionist.

Grammar plays a big part in learning how to become good at transcribing. Even with English as my first language, I took nearly 6 months to review grammar and punctuation.

woman typing on a computer — Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash

Your ear also needs to adjust to hearing different voices, accents, and words. Then your brain has to interpret those words and then you need to write them down. It’s important to write what you hear, not what you think you heard or what is correct.

Listening to audio multiple times and replaying the same thing over and over again is a very standard procedure. It may take you one hour to type out ten minutes of audio.

How Will It Help Me?

You need a transcriptionist to help you put your spoken thoughts and projects into words.

I mean, search engines are great and sort data very quickly.

But all of that data is written down, it is not in an audio format. Google cannot index your video based on audio alone.

That’s where a transcriptionist can help you put the finishing touches on your audio/video project.

You see, you are finished with your project. Everything that you wanted to communicate with your audience is already said. A transcriptionist takes your finished audio/video and turns it into something that search engines can read, which helps you grow your business and rank higher.