Transcription Style Guide

Thank you for your interest in joining our team as an English-language Independent Contractor for Focus
Forward Transcription! There are many reasons to join Focus Forward Transcription:

- Work As Much or As Little As YOU Want – No Requirements!

- Wide Range of Interesting Topics
- Attractive Per-Minute Contractor Rates

To apply to join our team:

1. Download audio from Focus Forward website.
2. Transcribe audio according to the Style Guide & accurately.
3. Attach your transcript as a .docx on our website.
4. Our team will provide a response.

Document Formatting

• Bold moderator/interviewer speech. Respondent speech should not be bolded.

• Create a hard line break (double enter) when there is a change speaker.
o Never break-up speech for a single speaker. New paragraphs should only occur with a
change in speakers.
• Font Color: Black
• Font: Calibri, size 11
• Please save and submit transcripts in .docx format.

Sample format:
Hello, doctor.

Hi, I’m excited to get started.

Thanks for taking the time today. How many patients do you see?

I have over 250 patients that I manage within my practice.

And how many of those have been your patient for over one year?

I would say- about 175 of those have been with me for over a year.

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Grading Criteria

Your transcription test is graded on the following criteria on a scale of One to Five:

- Verbatim Accuracy – All speech is captured accurately in the transcript and is true to
the audio. Terms are spelled correctly.
- Adherence to Style Guide – Formatting outlined in this instruction document
adhered to within final transcript.

Verbatim Guidelines
Complete transcription in Non Verbatim – where non-verbal utterances, false starts/stutters and filler
language do not need to be transcribed:

Non-verbal utterances do not need to be transcribed, such as:

- “uh” // “ah” // “um” // “double- doubled words” // “st-st-stutters”

Filler language (speech that is repetitive and does not contribute to the conversation) does not need
to be transcribed:

o INCORRECT: So, like, I don’t really like this option because, like, it isn’t pretty.
o CORRECT: So, I don’t really like this option because it isn’t pretty.

Informal speech should be transcribed in-full to improve readability of the final transcript, such as:

- ‘em to “them” // ‘cause to “because” // movin’ to “moving” // etc.

o INCORRECT: That one had me thinkin’ a lot ‘cause it captivates you.

o CORRECT: That one had me thinking a lot because it captivates you.

Speech should be transcribed as it is spoken—do not alter the speakers’ words even if they speak in run-
on sentences or fragments. You should add punctuation to make the document more readable. Speech
that is spoken in the incorrect tense should be transcribed as it was spoken.

Audio Tags

Below are the approved speech tags that can be used during transcription. These are the only tags that
are permitted within transcripts:

[INAUDIBLE] – to indicate speech that is indecipherable.

[CROSSTALK] – to indicate speech that is indecipherable due to crosstalk.
[LAUGHTER] – to indicate laughter.
[ph] – to indicate spelling is phonetic, such as for names (i.e. Joe Schmoe [ph]…)

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 You should always aim to have 0 or minimal crosstalk/inaudible tags in your final transcript.

Style Guidelines Example

Statements should always end in one of the following:
What did you think of this example, Josh?
- ( . ) or ( ? ) if the statement is completed.
Terminal - Do not use ( ! ) even if a speaker sounds
It had a nice picture, but the message
Punctuation excited.
didn’t fit very well.
- A hyphen ( - ) if the speaker has a change of
thought, trails off or is interrupted .
Use a hyphen to indicate:
- If a speaker has trailed off/paused in middle of Why do you say that? Is it-
statement.
- If speaker has a sudden change of I do enjoy DoorDash, but the food isn’t the
thought/direction. same quality as in-person. It’s just not the-
Hyphens - To indicate an interruption/sudden change in
speaker. -it’s always cold. I agree with that
- Always add a space between the hyphen and completely. And- I really shouldn’t say this,
the word following it. but the drivers are always rude.

Use a hyphen instead of ellipses ( … ) in transcripts.

I have two kids—a 6-year-old and a 3-year-
old.
Please spell out numbers [zero to ten] and use numeric
characters for numbers 11 or greater.
It was 2:00 PM on February 1st.
Exceptions:
It cost me 5 dollars in the 1980s.
- Percentages
Numbers - Age
He got $60 million in a contract.
- Date/Time
- Currency (small denominations)
So, 60%, got it. Let’s go to question 2A.
- Question Numbers/ scales
How do you rate this, 1 to 10?
- Religious References
We’ll read from Acts 27:1.
If a speaker mentions a specific time, transcribe it as a
numerical value. He was supposed to be here at 2:30, right?
- If the speaker says “five-thirty AM”, transcribe
Time as 5:30 AM. I had to wake up at 6:00 AM yesterday, so
- If the speaker says “two o’clock”, transcribe as I’m tired.
2:00.

Brand names should be capitalized, while generic drug

He took Advil last night.
names should be lowercase.
Drug Names I usually take two ibuprofen when I get a
Please use Google search to verify if a drug is generic
headache.
(lowercase) or branded (Uppercase) if you are unsure.

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 Please capitalize brands/products correctly, such as:
I donated to UNICEF last year through a
- YouTube, iPhone, DoorDash, iPad, Wi-Fi DoorDash special.
Brands/Products
Google company names/products if you are unsure on their Did you see that on TikTok or Instagram?
official capitalization/spelling.

Common Spellings:

US or COVID-19 /
Correct OK alright a lot etc.
USA
Wi-Fi Email Healthcare
COVID
Et U.S or Covid 19 /
Incorrect Okay/O.K. all right Alot
cetera U.S.A
wifi/wi-fi e-mail Health care
covid

Tips and Tricks for SUCCESS!

Research Terms To Verify Spelling
If you are unsure of the spelling of a certain word—drug names, medical/technical terms, company
names, etc.—we recommend researching the term to verify spelling accuracy. A good way to identify
terms is to Google the phonetic spelling of the unknown term:

- If working on a file about Type II Diabetes and you do not know how to spell a medication,
you can Google “Type II Diabetes phonetic spelling of medication”, and can likely find the
correct spelling.

Proofread Your Transcript Before Submitting

After you complete your transcript, it’s a good idea to re-listen to the file as you read through your
work. During this review, you can verify that all transcribed speech is accurate to the audio. This also
allows you an opportunity to re-visit any [INAUDIBLE] or [CROSSTALK] tags to re-listen and attempt to
decipher what is being said.

Re-listen To Sections As You Transcribe

As you transcribe, you should re-listen to audio as needed to create the most accurate transcript
possible. This will help minimize any corrections needed when you re-listen to a file, and will help ensure
a high quality submission.

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