At 04:02 PM 2/19/04, you wrote:
>Advice on transcription
>
> This year we will transcribing hundreds of interviews that need to be analyzed quickly. It might make sense for us to look at how to transcribe in-house using the transcription software rather than having a service get involved. From a cost and efficiency outlook I am wondering which course of action will be the most productive, doing the transcribing here or having it sent out. <snip> Our current question, though, is whether or not it is worthwhile to do our transcribing here, using transcription software
Others will have different opinions, but here's mine.
I type so slowly that it made sense for me to hire somebody to transcribe the lengthy interviews I had. I was able to successfully use voice recognition software to transcribe my notes, field notes, and that sort of thing, but the length of interviews (one was nearly 5 hours long) made that impractical for them. I found a service that gave me a discount and did a very good job. I will be glad to give you their name off list.
The advantage of doing your own transcription is that you get to hear and think about the words as you are transcribing them. That is, you can actually begin analysis during transcription. On the other hand, if you have an outside party do the transcription, you must still listen to the audio while reading the transcript. No one is 100% accurate. So you can do this preliminary analysis anyway.
If you choose to do your own, transcription software makes life a bit easier, but to me its not a big deal. I transcribed a lot of material just using the controls on the tape recorder.
Hope this helps.
Elliot Richmond
Freelance Science Writer and Editor
Owner, Education Consultants
Austin, Texas 78749
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http://home.austin.rr.com/elliotandkathy/
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