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David Smilde wrote: > > I've found there is great variation in ability between transcribers. The best one I work with transcribes in 2x real time, i.e. 3 hours for a 90 min. tape. The worst I ever had was a student who took 2 months (20hrs a week) to transcribe a 90 minute tape! More common is about 8 hours for a 90 minute tape. So make sure you pay by work done rather than by the hour. Depending on a lot of circumstances, you can count on $50 to $100 or upwards per 90 minute tape. So it is something you want to include in a budget. > I stalwartly determined I would do my own transcriptions. After doing 600 pages of transcription, I decided I would pay *anything* to have someone else do it. I found a first-class, professional transcriptionist who did each interview in a few days, and returned it to me nicely formatted. But I found I had to listen to the interview with the tape running to find errors. Most of the errors were jargon terms the transcriptionist did not know. A few were judgement calls abour something said sotto voce. Morals: - Do budget for some transcription. Despite all the good reasons to do it yourself (being with the text, catchin' them nuances, saving money) you will probably give in in the end. - Budget some time to check the transcriptions as well. Birrell Walsh MicroTimes %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%