GOTRANSCRIPT TRANSCRIPTION GUIDELINES

WHAT DO WE DO?
We provide audio transcription services, which means that we convert audio and
video files into text. In our system, you are free to choose the files you prefer to work
on.
You must have a PayPal or Payoneer account, as we make payments only with
PayPal or Payoneer. Payments are made every Friday. We cover the PayPal fee.
Hence, you will receive the exact amount that you earned, and no fee shall be
applied to your earnings. Payment requests are sent through our website (your
STATS page). After you pass the transcription test and are accepted as a
transcriber, a section that says "Work" will appear on the GoTranscript home page:

After clicking on "Work", you will see the following page:

As you can see, under "Info", there is a section that says "My Stats." By clicking on
"My Stats", you will be able to access your earnings, next to which you will find a
button that says, "Request Payment".
Before requesting payment, make sure to go to your profile and provide your PayPal
or Payoneer email address. The "Edit profile" page can be found in the dropdown
menu when you click on your email in the upper right corner.
 IMPORTANT!
THE FILES YOU'LL HAVE ACCESS TO ARE CONFIDENTIAL, AND THEY'RE NOT
TO BE SHARED! BREAKING THIS RULE WILL LEAD TO THE REMOVAL OF
YOUR ACCOUNT.

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Every time a client uploads a file, you will receive a notification via email. After
that, you need to go to the transcription jobs page and choose the files you
want to transcribe.
2. There, you will also see information about the turnaround time, text format
(clean or full verbatim), and timestamping type if required.
3. After you upload and finish your transcription job, you will see your current
earnings on the stats page.
4. Payments are made every Friday. On the stats page, you can also see the
breakdown of your earnings.
5. All your transcriptions are going to be checked and rated (1-5) by editors. You
will also receive comments to help you improve.
6. If your average rating is over 4.5, you can apply to become an editor.
7. Sometimes, we receive low-quality audio/video files, so please let us know if
you stumble upon one. We will contact the client and provide a refund for that
file.

TEXT FORMATS

FULL VERBATIM

Full Verbatim involves transcribing everything that is said, and that includes:
 Speech errors: [provide an example in your respective language]
 False starts: [provide an example in your respective language]
 Filler words: [provide an example in your respective language]
 Stutters: [provide an example in your respective language]
 Repetitions: [provide an example in your respective language]

EXAMPLE: DOCX OR PDF

CLEAN VERBATIM
Clean Verbatim does not include:
 Speech errors
 False starts (unless they add information)
 Stutters
 Repetitions. Keep repetitions of words that express emphasis: No, no, no. I
am very, very happy. [provide relevant examples in your language]
 Filler words: Words often excessively used by the speaker, but when you take
them out, you're left with perfectly understandable sentences. Be mindful of
the context. Some of these filler words do not always function as filler words.
[provide relevant examples in your language]

Additional notes for clean verbatim:

 The following expressions should be kept regardless of verbatim type: Oh my
God, Oh dear, Oh my, Oh boy, Oh, et cetera. [provide all relevant examples in
your language]
 [provide examples of affirmative expressions in your language] must be
written as "Yes".
 Avoid starting phrases with conjunctions in clean verbatim if the conjunction is
a filler or carries no meaning. [Translate this point only if it's applicable in your
language. If it is not, please delete the entire point].
 Omit all the "yes" reactions to retain a fluent text unless they are answers to
given questions.

[WRITE A SHORT FV EXAMPLE IN YOUR LANGUAGE]

[WRITE A SHORT CV EXAMPLE IN YOUR LANGUAGE]

TIMESTAMPING

Types of timestamps:
 Every 10 seconds
 Every 30 seconds
 Every 2 minutes
 On change of speaker

Note: The client may request different timestamp intervals (for example, every 20
seconds), in which case there will be a comment about it in the comment section.

Every 2 minutes:
Example: DOCX or PDF
Every time the speaker changes:
Example: DOCX or PDF

NOTE: If there's a comment next to the audio file saying, "Please use the embedded
timestamps" or "burned-in timestamps," you will need to watch the video while you
transcribe. The camera running time should be embedded in the video file.

MAJOR RULES IN TRANSCRIPTION:

1. Unintelligible and Inaudible Tags

If you cannot hear what is being said well, use inaudible or unintelligible tags
with the corresponding timestamp. Please do not use any other tags. Always
use [inaudible 00:00:00] or [unintelligible 00:00:00].
Use [inaudible 00:00:00] when speech cannot be heard due to poor
recording or noise. The shortcut for this tag in our transcription tool is
CTRL+K.
Use [unintelligible 00:00:00] when speech can be heard but cannot be
understood due to the speaker's manner of speech, accent, et cetera. The
shortcut for this tag in our transcription tool is Ctrl + L.
Important: As you can see above, the tags are always bolded and in square
brackets, accompanied by a timestamp. Please keep in mind that this is
always the required formatting for timestamps, and be sure to format them
correctly.

2. Conjunctions

[As you know, our rule in English transcription is to omit conjunctions that
reduce readability and are unnecessary. This may not be applicable in your
language. If it's not applicable, delete this bullet point. If it's applicable, write
the conjunction rules used in your language].

3. Paragraphs

Longer speeches should be separated into smaller paragraphs. Paragraphs

shouldn't be longer than 500 symbols (about 100 words or 3-4 lines in the
transcription tool).
Exception: Transcribe lyrics in verses and stanzas.

4. Never paraphrase or reconstruct the speaker's words.

5. Grammatical errors made by the speakers should not be corrected. Please do
not use [sic] tag. However, always use the correct spelling for misspoken
words. For example, if a speaker pronounces "niche" [neesh] as "nitche".

6. Everything with a timestamp (e.g. [pause 00:04:24] [unintelligible 00:04:24]

[00:04:24] [inaudible 00:02:24]) should be bolded. Nothing else besides the
speaker labels and marks with timestamps should be bolded.

7. Never use () instead of [].

8. Every sentence should end with a punctuation mark. Only incomplete

sentences end with a double dash. If there is an unintelligible or inaudible tag
at the end of a sentence and you cannot be sure whether the sentence is a
question or not, you do not need to use punctuation.

9. The beginning of every sentence should be capitalized. [Translate only if your

writing system supports capital letters. For example, Korean and Japanese
writing systems do not have capital letters.]

10. Never use exclamation marks.

11. Speaker labels

a. If the speaker's name is mentioned at some point or indicated in the

title of the file, use it as the speaker label.
b. Always use a speaker label even if there is only one speaker.
c. Make each speaker's role in the audio as descriptive as possible. For
example, "Interviewer", "Interviewee", "Participant 1", "Host",
"Facilitator", "Caller", "Receiver", et cetera.
d. If the speaker's full name is used at some point (for example, David
Butterfield:), later in the transcription, the last name can be dropped
(for example, David Butterfield: becomes just David:). The same
goes for the titles (Doctor, Pastor, et cetera). This rule is optional, and
using the full name throughout the entire document will not be
considered an error.
e. If you cannot identify the speaker, add a question mark before the
speaker label. For example, ?Speaker 2:, ?Interviewee 3:. But if you
cannot identify who is speaking throughout most of the transcript, it's
better to then mark the speakers with a generic label like Interviewee or
Participant. Still, it's important that you can at least identify the person
asking questions or leading the discussion.
f. Speaker labels must be bolded, followed by a colon and space. Please
do not use the Tab button. Only one click of the Space button.

Mark: Hello.
Speaker 1: Some text.
Speaker 2: Some more text.
12. Occasionally, clients dictate instructions to format the transcription while they
are speaking. These instructions should be followed whenever possible but
never transcribed. Follow the client's instructions, such as a new paragraph,
comma, period, or bullet point (use a dash). Please do not type out the
instructions.
13. [Please write the rule for writing titles of film, book, magazine, song titles,
artworks, plays, TV and radio programs, foreign expressions, etc. Some
languages use italics, others use quotation marks for titles, and others use
something else. Please write the rule that is applicable to your language.]

14. Abbreviations and acronyms

[Please provide examples of abbreviations and acronyms in your own

language. Also, provide instructions for proper writing.]

15. Always research the proper writing style of certain words. For example,
iPhone, UCLA, SaaS. [Please include examples relevant to your language]

16. Links should always be written like this:

www.facebook.com/groups/gotranscript. Never write it like this: w w w dot
facebook dot com slash groups slash gotranscript

17. Sound events

a. Sound events that are significant to the audio should be noted in the
transcript. Use brackets [ ] for sound events. The sound events are
always written in lowercase, regardless of the position of the sentence.
[Please translate all sound events into your language. If your writing
system doesn't have the concept of capitalization, omit the "lowercase"
rule.]
b. Sounds that the speaker makes are always on the same line and
always in the present tense. [snaps fingers] [phone rings] [laughs]
[chuckles] [giggles] [scoffs] et cetera. [laughs] is a normal laugh;
[chuckles] is a soft laugh.
c. [laughter] [applause] [cheering] [phone ringing] [coughing] and other
sounds that are not made by the speaker should always be written in a
separate line.
d. Use [background noise] on a separate line for ambiance noise. Use
[background noise] on the same line if a significant unidentified sound
occurs while the speaker is talking.
e. [crosstalk] and [silence] can be placed on a separate line or the same
line, depending on when they occur. [silence] is used to demonstrate a
short pause in speech, not less than 4 seconds but not longer than 10
seconds.
f. [pause 00:00:00], bolded and timestamped, is used to demonstrate a
pause significant in a speech. It must be longer than 10 seconds for it
to be marked. It is always on a separate line.
 g. When the audio is cut, use [sound cut] on a separate line or the same
line, depending on when the sound cut occurred.
h. If a foreign language or a word (in this case, a language that is not
[your language] or English) is spoken, mark it as [foreign language], or
if you can identify the language,[French language], [German language].

18. Numbers

[Rules for number notation differ from language to language. Please write all
the major rules for number notation applicable to your language]

19. Times of the Day and Dates

[Date and time format rules applicable to your language]

20. Double dashes or a single dash

a. Use double dashes when there is a change of thought (false start) or a

speech error or to mark an incomplete sentence.
b. INCOMPLETE SENTENCE, regardless of verbatim type, should
always end with a double dash. [example of an incomplete sentence in
your language]
c. Use a single dash when the speech is interrupted in a conversation,
but the speaker continues his thought. [example in your language]

21. Quoting rules

[Write the quoting rules applicable to your own language, as every language
has its own rules for punctuation and capitalization in quotes.]

22. Always transcribe swear words word for word.

Note: If you do not prepare the transcriptions according to these requirements, you
might be removed from the team of transcribers. If a new transcriber finishes three
transcriptions and their average rating is 3.6 or lower, they will be removed from the
team.
For reference, please consult our rating system:
Accuracy Rating
96-100% accuracy 5
 92-95% accuracy 4
88-91% accuracy 3
83-87% accuracy 2
0-82% accuracy 1

Comma Rules and General Punctuation

[Please write comma rules applicable to your language as well as some other
punctuation rules worth mentioning]

Useful links:
https://gotranscript.com/transcribing-software - GoTranscript online tool for
transcribers
[provide a few links where transcribers can consult about grammar and punctuation]

INTERESTED?

If you are interested in working with us, please read these guidelines one more time
to make sure you understand all the rules. After that, you can take the test job (clean
verbatim; no timestamping needed), which you can find here:
https://gotranscript.com/transcription-jobs/apply
If you have any questions, please contact us at any time.