Transcription is an age-old process that was essential in record-keeping and preservation of literature. Since then, it has evolved into a service that’s made for various industries around the world. Today, no matter what industry you’re in, as long as you have customers and clients—and you produce audio and visual content—you’ll need transcriptions.
Transcriptions have evolved greatly through the years. From something that was only widely used in courtrooms and the medical industry, transcription has become an essential service in today’s competitive business environment. Brands and companies who are looking to improve their content strategy and grow their audience are all using transcription services.
So, if your company isn’t transcribing yet, you’re actually missing a lot of amazing opportunities. In this article, we’re going to dig a little deeper and know more fun things about transcriptions. The following are some of the most amazing facts about transcriptions:
History and Word Origin of Transcription
- Transcription was one of the oldest forms of documentation. The first-ever transcriptions were found in 3400 BCE in Egypt.
- It was believed that the first-ever transcriptionists were found in Egypt. Transcriptionists in Egypt were known as scribes. They were exempted from physical labor and taxation. Scribes wrote on tablets or wall and was an important part of the administration of the king.
- The printing press was invented in 1429 and started the decline of the need for scribes. Texts were mass-produced. By the 17th century, scribes were simply used to write manuscripts and different types of literature.
- The first use of the word “transcription” in English was in 1598 by John Florio in his Italian-English dictionary.
- The first typewriter was invented by Christopher Latham Sholes in 1867. He was an American.
- In 1910, 81% of typing employees were comprised of women. This is also due to the fact that the first mass-produced typewriter was sold on sewing machine platforms.
- The word ‘transcriber’ refers to a machine that transcribes an audio or video file into text. If a person transcribes and does the transcription process, that person is called a ‘transcriptionist’.
- International Translation Day is held every September 30th. It’s also a feast for St. Jerome, a renowned translator from Christian history. He translated the Old Testament from Hebrew to Latin.
- In 1998, typists only use two fingers to type on a computer. Back then, typing 40 words per minute was considered fast.
- In 2018, typing 120 words per minute is considered fast. While 50-60 words per minute were the average typing speed.
- Modern transcriptions were used to be made for people with limited hearing or for individuals with hearing impairments so they can watch video content with ease.
Fun Facts about Transcriptions and Typing
- 1 hour of audio file or interview takes around 4-6 hours to transcribe.
- A person can speak around 150-170 words per minute—and an average of around 10,000 words per hour. A person speaks 7 times faster than he writes.
- A professional transcriptionist can type between 80 to 100 words per minute.
- The most translated languages in transcriptions are English, French, German, Italian, and Russian.
- Understanding unfamiliar words and technical jargon is one of the time-consuming parts of the work of a transcriptionist.
- The fastest typing speed on record was done by Stella Pajunas in 1946. She continuously typed at a speed of 216 words per minute for 50 minutes.
- The record for the fastest hands-free typing speed was done by Hank Toress in 2011. He used facial-motion capture technology to type 25 words in 83 seconds.
- 56% of typing is done by the left hand.
- People who learned to type at a young age will have a two times faster rate of learning touch typing than older adults.
- Studies have found that girls are more interested in typing than boys.
Interesting Facts about Transcription, Videos, and Speech Recognition
- Video transcription is a strategy used to improve SEO as a video with text increases the engagement of the online audience.
- Web pages with video transcripts rank higher than web pages that don’t have transcripts.
- Companies are investing in online video captions to reach more audiences in foreign markets.
- Social videos generate 1200% more shares than text and images.
- 85% of videos on Facebook are watched without sound.
- The speech recognition industry is expected to triple by 2022—from $4 billion USD to $12 billion USD.
- Microsoft has announced that they will soon transcribe video files automatically for Office 365.
- Transcripts are useful for researchers. They can search phrases or lyrics and your video can be found if they contain the keywords.
Why Do You Need Transcriptions?
There are many reasons why someone may need transcription. Today, most modern transcriptions are done for podcasts. Podcast content is often transcribed and turned into blog posts by the oners.
Transcription is also important in many professional industries such as the legal and medical fields. Transcriptions help professionals in the mentioned industries communicate with each other by sharing resources that were recorded during court sessions, meetings, or conventions.
So, Why are Transcriptions Important?
Transcription is important in capturing speech from video or audio files. The content can be used by people to find information or to use as a resource. Companies use transcripts and repurpose them into reports, blog posts, or emails for various lead generation activities. Transcription can also improve your website’s SEO by helping embed your videos and enabling search engine spiders to rank your content. At the end of the day, successful marketing is heavily reliant on quality content. Google loves transcriptions because they make content more digestible with plenty of relevant keywords.
Another reason why transcribing is so important is because it leads to more content for repurposing. Transcribed content can be turned into blogs, social media content, or even downloadable content for your consumers. Furthermore, recordings and transcriptions of academic and scientific material can be published and distributed to educate students.
Should You Transcribe Yourself or Hire Someone?
At the end of the day, the choice to hire someone or transcribe yourself depends on a lot of factors including time, money, and quality. If you have the skill, and the time to spare—doing it yourself might be a good decision. However, if you’re in a rush and don’t have the skill to properly transcribe, hiring a professional to do it for you is the wisest choice.
FAQs
Fun Facts about Transcriptions and Typing
A person speaks 7 times faster than he writes. A professional transcriptionist can type between 80 to 100 words per minute. The most translated languages in transcriptions are English, French, German, Italian, and Russian.
What is the most important of transcription? ›
The initiation of transcription is an especially important step in gene expression because it is the main point at which the cell regulates which proteins are to be produced and at what rate.
What is an advantage of transcription? ›
Transcription makes it easier for you to store, share, translate and follow your audio or video content. There are multiple ways transcription can benefit your business.
What is interesting in transcription? ›
/IntUHRUHstIng/phonetic spelling.
What are some facts about transcription and translation? ›
Transcription occurs in the nucleus in eukaryotic organisms, while translation occurs in the cytoplasm and endoplasmic reticulum. Both processes occur in the cytoplasm in prokaryotes. The factor controlling these processes is RNA polymerase in transcription and ribosomes in translation.
Who invented transcription? ›
Henry Mill, in 1714, made a patent that's similar to a typewriter and in 1808; Pellegrino Turri invented the first typewriter. This made writing and transcribing faster and easier.
Why is transcription important in language? ›
Transcription is necessary as it allows people to engage with any audio or video content in an alternative way. Media can be more interactive by adding transcripts and playlist search. It is all about user experience.
What is a fact about transcription biology? ›
Transcription occurs when there is a need for a particular gene product at a specific time or in a specific tissue. During transcription, only one strand of DNA is usually copied. This is called the template strand, and the RNA molecules produced are single-stranded messenger RNAs (mRNAs).
How is transcription accurate? ›
Transcription accuracy rates give insight into the percentage of error a transcript can have per word count. For example, a transcription accuracy of 99% means there is a 1% chance of errors per every 1,500 words or about 15 errors. 99% accuracy = 1% chance of errors. Or, about 15 errors every 1,500 words.
What are the two types of transcribing? ›
How Many Types of Transcription Are There? There are two primary transcription types: Verbatim and non-verbatim transcription. Each of these types of transcription serves a unique purpose and suits a specific kind of project.
/UHmAYzIng/phonetic spelling.
How hard is transcription? ›
Transcription can be difficult to master, especially in the beginning stages. Many newbies find the concept of listening and then typing up audio files difficult.
What is a fun fact about translation? ›
Translators can translate around 520,000 words per year
A professional translator can translate around 250 words within an hour. A translator working full time can translate around 520,000 words per year, wow!
What are two facts about translation? ›
Top 10 Amazing Translation Facts To Make You Think
- The Feast of St.
- The World's Most Translated Book is The Bible. ...
- The World's Most Translated Website is the Jehovah's Witnesses' Homepage. ...
- Translation Today is a Nearly $40 Billion Industry. ...
- History's First Translation was The Epic of Gilgamesh. ...
The process of Transcription takes place in the cytoplasm in prokaryotes and in nucleus in eukaryotes. It uses DNA as a template to make an RNA (mRNA) molecule. During transcription, a strand of mRNA is made that is complementary to a strand of DNA. Figure 1 shows how this occurs.
What creates transcription? ›
Transcription begins when RNA polymerase binds to a promoter sequence near the beginning of a gene (directly or through helper proteins). RNA polymerase uses one of the DNA strands (the template strand) as a template to make a new, complementary RNA molecule. Transcription ends in a process called termination.
Does transcription use DNA? ›
Transcription is the process by which the information in a strand of DNA is copied into a new molecule of messenger RNA (mRNA). DNA safely and stably stores genetic material in the nuclei of cells as a reference, or template.
Is transcription a DNA or RNA? ›
Transcription, as related to genomics, is the process of making an RNA copy of a gene's DNA sequence. This copy, called messenger RNA (mRNA), carries the gene's protein information encoded in DNA.
What language is used in transcription? ›
Transcription can apply to music, video and film. Transcripts are always written in the language being spoken, so if the source language is English, the transcript will be in English too. Once transcribed, the text can be translated into any other language.
What is the theory of transcription? ›
Transcription is the process of copying a segment of DNA into RNA. The segments of DNA transcribed into RNA molecules that can encode proteins are said to produce messenger RNA (mRNA). Other segments of DNA are copied into RNA molecules called non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs). mRNA comprises only 1–3% of total RNA samples.
Transcription and translation in bacteria take on the order of a minute, with protein folding occurring concurrently. However, a maturation process, which involves cyclization and oxidation of the GFP chromophore, takes tens of minutes.
How can transcription go wrong? ›
The most common type of transcription error is a C to U base substitution and transitions occur more frequently than transversion epimutation events, as has been found for spontaneous mutation [9, 11], therefore RNA polymerase base misincorporations appear to resemble DNA polymerase base misincorporations.
Does transcription take a long time? ›
Transcription Speed for the Average Person
The average person can transcribe one audio hour in about 4 hours. It takes most people about one hour to transcribe 15 minutes of a clear, slow audio file. If any of the factors we mentioned above change the quality of the recording, that time might go up.
What are the 3 types of transcription? ›
The types of transcription are mainly categorized into three types – verbatim, edited and intelligent transcription. All these transcriptions can be used for audio or video files only the process could be different, depending upon the requirements and resource availability.
Does transcription have 3 stages? ›
Stages of Transcription
The process of DNA transcription can be split into 3 main stages: initiation, elongation & termination. These steps are also involved in DNA replication.
What is the transcription of 3? ›
/thrEE/phonetic spelling.
Does transcription have DNA? ›
Transcription, as related to genomics, is the process of making an RNA copy of a gene's DNA sequence. This copy, called messenger RNA (mRNA), carries the gene's protein information encoded in DNA.
What makes transcription? ›
Transcription begins when RNA polymerase binds to a promoter sequence near the beginning of a gene (directly or through helper proteins). RNA polymerase uses one of the DNA strands (the template strand) as a template to make a new, complementary RNA molecule. Transcription ends in a process called termination.
What are the two ways of transcription? ›
There are two primary transcription types: Verbatim and non-verbatim transcription. Each of these types of transcription serves a unique purpose and suits a specific kind of project.
What direction is DNA transcribed? ›
As in DNA replication, transcription proceeds in the 5' → 3' direction. The DNA template strand is read 3' → 5' by RNA polymerase and the new RNA strand is synthesized in the 5'→ 3' direction. RNA polymerase binds to the 3' end of a gene (promoter) on the DNA template strand and travels toward the 5' end.
Once transcription is initiated, the DNA double helix unwinds and RNA polymerase reads the template strand, adding nucleotides to the 3′ end of the growing chain (Figure 2b).
What happens at the end of transcription? ›
Termination is the ending of transcription, and occurs when RNA polymerase crosses a stop (termination) sequence in the gene. The mRNA strand is complete, and it detaches from DNA.
What enzyme is required for transcription? ›
RNA polymerase is the main enzyme involved in transcription.
How long is transcription? ›
When it comes to individual transcribers, the average time to transcribe one hour of audio is approximately four hours. But, some transcribers quote four hours as the minimum since it can easily reach 10 hours. Transcription time by audio hour varies so much mostly because each audio file is different.
Does transcription go from 3 to 5? ›
Once RNA polymerase and its related transcription factors are in place, the single-stranded DNA is exposed and ready for transcription. At this point, RNA polymerase begins moving down the DNA template strand in the 3' to 5' direction, and as it does so, it strings together complementary nucleotides.
