All educators deal with a need for academic transcription from time to time. This service is helpful when you’re working on your research projects, seminars, interviews, and other student assignments. Whether you’re a high-school student, Ph.D. student, professor, mentor, etc., you surely deal with group discussion, podcasts, e-books, and other types of academic content.
Recording of these meetings, researches, and classes can prove to be a vital tool since they come with various benefits. For example, students can get back to their lectures to learn the new material. Students from abroad will appreciate video subtitles. Professors can create different types of content to help their students, and so on. Undoubtedly, academic transcription services are in great demand these days, and they provide you with new opportunities and insights.
And if you want to get a high-quality transcription services that was generated in accordance with your needs, you have to follow our professional tips.
Table of Contents
The Best Ways to Save Your Time and Budget With Academic Transcription Services
How to transcribe audio to text and get the most out of this opportunity? Just take care of a few steps beforehand, so you can achieve better results with fewer hurdles.
Don’t do it yourself
If you have never dealt with audio transcribe free services before, you may not even guess that it takes a very long time. Every beginner is sure that this is a very simple task that does not require special knowledge and skills. It would seem: just listen to the recording and write down the text.
If you have a lot of free time, you can try to decipher any recording yourself using https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.allyoucanbooks.android&hl=en_US&gl=US. We are ready to argue: you will immediately understand how difficult it is.
How long do you think it takes you to decipher 5 minutes? No, not 5, not 10, or even 15 minutes. It will take about an hour, and a lot of people claim that they spend even more time. Don’t think that you are typing as fast as you speak. In addition, you need to understand that there are aspects that can affect the decryption time. For example, if the audio recording is not of very good quality.
This is why if you really value your time, you better go to the professionals. Focus on your studies or work and let the experienced transcriber do their job, making your life easier.
Decide on your goals to choose a transcription service or a freelancer
Since academic transcription services are very popular these days, you won’t spend a lot of time looking for a company or a freelancer. However, it doesn’t mean that you can find the best solution immediately. The point is that you have to decide on your goals, expectations, budget, and other aspects that affect your decision.
For example, if you hire a freelance transcriber, he or she will offer you an affordable price. However, is it possible to say that relying on a single person won’t create delays? Won’t it compromise on quality?
When you hire a transcription company, you receive a team that is absolutely focused on your order. There are certified transcriptionists, translators, proofreaders, managers, etc. Besides, companies value their reputation, which means that they will do their best to satisfy you with an academic transcription. They work with similar assignments all the time, and they know how to make you happy.
Rely on transparent communication
Once you know what result you want to receive, it is really important to communicate your expectations clearly. If you work with people on any projects, you surely know that often things are lost when people are not on the same page.
So, if you have some specific requirements, you need to explain them in detail. It would be a great decision to create a guide, a document that includes your expectations.
For example, you can indicate such aspects:
- Deadline;
- Number of pages;
- Formatting style;
- Editing requirements;
- Document format, etc.
Speaking about editing requirements, you should know that academic audio transcription can be verbatim or edited. In the first case, a transcriber just writes down all that speakers say. Your text version will be full and accurate and will not contain typos or mistakes. But many educators are looking for the second option — when some information should be deleted, added, translated, localized, etc. It works for captions as well.
That’s why it is so important to ensure that you hire people who are by your side. They should be eager to help you, and this is the only way to get the best result.
Convert videos to audios
If you have a video of your lecture, meeting, interview, etc., it can be used for many purposes. However, if you’re going to have your content transcribed, it is better to convert your video to audio. It is really faster to upload audio recordings without loss of quality.
The good news is that there are many free online converters with simple instructions.
Remember about audio quality
We have already mentioned that low quality can affect speed when you’re transcribing your audio yourself. But it also makes a solid difference when you hire a professional transcription service. If you’re looking for a way to save money and time and to receive the best result possible, you should follow our tips:
- Record your lectures, interviews, podcasts, etc. in a quiet environment only;
- Ensure that a microphone is placed closer to an interviewee;
- Before you record a meeting or an event, do a test recording;
- Your recording app or digital recorder should be really good;
- Utilize such well-known tools as Zoom or Skype to record online events.
Of course, certified transcribers deal with all records regardless of their quality. But if your task will take them a lot of time, you will pay more. So, if you’re going to transcribe any record, think about it in advance.
To sum up, human transcription services can really take your education to the next level. They will help you with all the projects you work on, so don’t miss the chance to reach new heights!