TRANSCRIPTION TYPES
Intelligent Verbatim Transcription
There are two main types of transcription:
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Intelligent verbatim transcription (also known as smart verbatim or non-verbatim)
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True verbatim transcription (also known as strict verbatim, or simply, verbatim)
Each style of transcription is useful under certain circumstances. While intelligent verbatim strives to capture what is said, true verbatim also aims to capture how something is said.
Intelligent verbatim transcription rules
Intelligent verbatim, also known as clean or smart verbatim, is a style of transcription that omits or adjusts the following:
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Stutters
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Filler speech, including “um,” “uh,” etc.
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Repetition of words, unless useful for emphasis
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Speaker idiosyncrasies such as the repetitive use of “like,” “actually,” “sort of,” “kind of”, etc.
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Interjections made by the interviewer, such as “yeah” and “mm-hmm”
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Most non-speech sounds, including coughing and throat clearing (laughter may be left in if it helps the context)
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False starts or redirects
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Run-on sentences
While that may seem like a lot of changes to make, it’s important to understand that intelligent verbatim transcripts are still an accurate representation of the original dictation – they’re just stripped of certain distracting elements.
Intelligent verbatim style does not edit sentence structure or add, remove, or change important words. It’s not the same as “formal” transcription – we wouldn’t change “mm-hmm” to “yes,” for example, unless requested by the client. In most cases, grammar is usually left as dictated.