Interview Transcription - Verbatim vs. Non-Verbatim (2024)

by Rajeev Rajagopal | Last updated May 10, 2023 | Published on Oct 9, 2015 | Interview Transcription

Interview Transcription - Verbatim vs. Non-Verbatim (1)While hiring a transcription service, it is important to consider what type of transcription you need. Transcription can be verbatim or non-verbatim. Verbatim transcription is the process of converting all that you hear in your audio or video file into written format. On the other hand, non-verbatim transcription is a clean readable text that contains the essential meaning behind spoken statements. In the case of interview transcription, you can choose the type of transcription based on your need for the document and personal preferences.

Interview transcription is important for research purposes because data in the form of text is much easier to collate. You may need transcripts of interviews conducted for legal purposes, business interviews, interviews with politicians or other famous personalities and so on. Professional transcription of interviews ensures accuracy of the content and eliminates misinterpretation of the data.

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What Is Verbatim Transcription?

Typically, verbatim transcription is where every word and non-verbal utterance is transcribed into text format. This means that any grammatical errors, repetition or false starts are delivered without correcting them. In a true verbatim transcription, everything a person says is transcribed faithfully.

A verbatim transcription becomes necessary depending upon the nature of the interview. This type of transcription is mainly used by mental health professionals, law firms etc. For example, some courts use verbatim transcription for their official court records. This is because the thought process behind the words is often implicit in verbal signs such as hesitations, or repeated words or phrases.

Interviews conducted for research purposes should ideally be transcribed verbatim if necessary depending on the purpose of research. Expressions such as um, uh, ok, ah mmh and so on may be intentional and researchers may use these as verbal probes to extract more information from the interviewee. Then there are sounds such as coughing, sniffing, laughing, crying and background noises such as sirens, phone ringing and dogs barking, which can be meaningful or meaningless to the analyst. While the above mentioned are verbal sounds, there can be non-verbal communication such as hand gestures, fidgeting, nodding the head, pointing and so on, which become more relevant when transcribing from a video. Another feature that is significant and needs to be transcribed verbatim is the interviewee’s pronunciation and irregular grammar that may offer important insights about him/her.

Verbatim transcription becomes important in cases where how something is said is as important as what is being said.

Non- verbatim Transcription

Businesses looking for transcriptions of seminars, meetings, or lectures opt for non-verbatim transcription. Non-verbatim transcription is more reader friendly and eliminates all repetitions, false starts and other non-verbal utterances. In this case, transcriptionists do not type the words as spoken. They remove fillers or repetitions that occur during people’s speech patterns and also paraphrase statements so that it conveys the same idea but with more clarity. So if you are looking for a succinct and clean text that facilitates reading and understanding, go for non-verbatim transcription.

Reliable transcription services can offer convenient and easy-to-use transcripts at reasonable rates. Transcriptions are extremely helpful but the process can be very time consuming when you need to transcribe large volume of files. This can be effectively met by utilizing interview transcription services.

If you need accurate and reliable interview transcription services, call us at (800) 670-2809.

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Interview Transcription - Verbatim vs. Non-Verbatim (2024)

FAQs

Interview Transcription - Verbatim vs. Non-Verbatim? ›

without correcting even grammatical errors. Non-verbatim transcription

transcription
A transcription service is a business service that converts speech (either live or recorded) into a written or electronic text document. Transcription services are often provided for business, legal, or medical purposes.
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Transcription_(service)
, on the other hand, focuses on capturing the speaker's main ideas while maintaining the legibility of the transcripts. Verbatim transcription is often used in legal and medical settings, where every word counts.

Does an interview transcript have to be verbatim? ›

Verbatim transcription is most appropriate when every detail is essential, while semi-verbatim and intelligent verbatim are better suited for situations where a more concise and streamlined transcript is needed. Notta can simply convert your spoken interviews and conversations into text with 98.86% accuracy.

What is the difference between verbatim and non-verbatim transcription? ›

The key difference separating the two is that non-verbatim aims to capture what is said, while verbatim focuses on capturing exactly how something is said.

What is a non-verbatim interview? ›

Non-verbatim transcription – also known as “clean verbatim” – excludes all unnecessary speech to make a transcript more readable without changing the meaning or structure.

What are the 2 types of verbatim? ›

Full verbatim captures the spoken word exactly as stated, including fillers words, stutters and false starts. Clean verbatim on the other hand captures words exactly as stated, but editing is conducted. Clean verbatim corrects for filler words, repeated words and stutters.

Is verbatim transcription of interview data always necessary? ›

Abstract. Verbatim transcription of interview data has become a common data management strategy in nursing research and is widely considered to be integral to the analysis and interpretation of verbal data.

What are the rules for verbatim transcription? ›

In full verbatim transcriptions, the text is transcribed exactly as it sounds including speech errors, false starts, filler words, slang words, repetitions, and stutters. The numbers zero up to and including nine are written out (i.e. one, three, nine) The number 10 and above are written in digits (10, 11, etc.)

What is an example of a non verbatim transcription? ›

Non-verbatim: I called her yesterday and she was sleeping. Probably, she was just really tired. Verbatim: I like, you know, called her, like, yesterday and, um, like, she was, like, sleeping. Probably, she was just like, really tired.

Why is verbatim transcription a bad thing for note taking? ›

Verbatim note taking has generally been seen to indicate relatively shallow cognitive pro- cessing (Craik & Lockhart, 1972; Kiewra, 1985; Van Meter, Yokoi, & Pressley, 1994). The more deeply infor- mation is processed during note taking, the greater the encoding benefits (DiVesta & Gray, 1973; Kiewra, 1985).

How long does verbatim transcription take? ›

There is no definite answer to this. Transcription industry standards dictate that 10 to 15 minutes of speech takes one hour to type and therefore a 60 minute recording should take somewhere between 4 and 6 hours to transcribe, based on a good quality recording without any hindering factors.

Do I have to transcribe my interviews? ›

Interviews are powerful tools for companies and creators. They're often full of insights your audience wants to hear. But watching a video or listen to audio is not always ideal. To harness the power of an interview, it's essential to have an accurate, well-organized interview transcript.

What does a verbatim transcript look like? ›

Verbatim transcriptions are truly word-for-word. This means that they include mistakes, grammatical errors, or mispronunciations. However, some people still choose to edit out pauses and other irrelevant sounds.

What are the basic rules of transcribing? ›

Transcription: Basic Rules
  • Text order. Transcribe text in the order it appears on the page. ...
  • Preserve original spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Transcribe original text spelling, grammar, and punctuation. ...
  • Line breaks. Preserve line breaks. ...
  • Page breaks. ...
  • Illegible or unclear text. ...
  • Blank pages - Nothing to transcribe.

What are verbatim examples? ›

in a way that uses exactly the same words as were originally used: I don't think I will read the whole thing verbatim to you. She had an amazing memory and could recall verbatim quite complex conversations. I can remember lines from movies verbatim.

Do you include stutters in transcription? ›

In verbatim projects, transcribe exactly what you hear, including filler words, stutters, interjections (active listening) and repetitions.

Do you have to transcribe status full verbatim? ›

Verbatim Work Should Be Truly Verbatim. Unless directed in the work's “Notes” section, all filler words should be included. Also, transcribe stutters as accurately as possible.

What should be included in a transcript for an interview? ›

If you transcribed manually, first split the text into paragraphs. Start a new paragraph each time someone different starts speaking. Then add speaker names and time stamps. If you plan to publish the entire transcript, you should also add a title and page numbers.

What is non verbatim transcription? ›

Non-verbatim transcription – also known as “cleaned up” or a “clean copy” – excludes all unnecessary speech to make a transcript more readable without editing or changing the meaning or structure.

How are interview transcripts written? ›

An interview transcript is a written record of an interview, typically transcribed verbatim from audio or video recordings. It includes all questions asked by the interviewer and all responses provided by the interviewee and is used to document and analyze the conversation that took place.

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