Top 4 Transcription Types Explained: An Expert Guide
Become the office expert on transcription types and help your team find the best transcription service to improve your efficiency with this ultimate guide!
You’re sitting at the office, headphones on, ready to start transcribing audio into text. But once you give the audio a listen, you realize things aren’t as cut and dry as they seem—the voices overlap, the jargon is dense, and you begin to wonder, how do I even begin to transcribe this?
Transcribing audio for professionals in industries like law enforcement and corporate business is a common task. Yet, there is a lot of confusion around what type of transcription to use for different purposes.
Some transcriptions, like witness interviews, might require every last utterance to be documented. On the other hand, including every “um,” “uh,” and “ahem” in a summary of the quarterly board meeting notes is just plain distracting.
So what gives? How do you know what to include in your transcriptions and when?
In this guide, we’ll explore transcription types to help you decide what transcription is best for your needs—so be sure to read from top to bottom so you don’t miss any of our juicy industry insider tips and tricks!
What is Transcription?
Let’s start with the basics—transcription is all about turning spoken words into written text. Whether you’re listening to a recording of a meeting, an interview, or even a court proceeding, transcription helps capture every word accurately.
Can you imagine if you had to rewind an audio or video recording every time you wanted to reference something someone said? What a waste of time that would be!
Transcription saves everyone time and hassle by turning recorded media into an easily searchable and skimmable document instead.
Check out a few transcription examples to see how it works!
What is Transcription Used For?
Transcription has a place in pretty much every industry. From legal professionals to social media influencers, transcription can streamline and increase the efficiency of any job.
Legal Industry Transcription
Lawyers use transcription for court proceedings, depositions, and client consultations. It helps create accurate records that can be referenced during trials and legal preparations.
See legal transcription in action with these legal transcription examples and templates.
Business Sector Transcription
Companies transcribe meetings, interviews, and conferences to maintain clear records, assist in decision-making, and help with accountability.
Ever wondered how to pick the best business transcription services?
Law Enforcement Transcription
Police officers and detectives rely on transcription for interviews, interrogations, and field notes, helping to keep detailed records for investigations and trials.
Don’t mess around when it comes to picking a law enforcement transcription partner—every word counts!
Medical Field Transcription
Doctors and medical professionals use transcription to document patient interactions, medical histories, and treatment plans. This helps to create accurate and thorough medical records.
Media and Content Creation
Journalists, podcasters, and video creators use transcription to make their content more accessible, searchable, and easier to repurpose for articles, subtitles, and scripts.
Insurance Adjuster Transcription
Insurance adjusters use transcription to document interviews with claimants, witness statements, and inspection reports. This ensures that every detail is accurately captured and can be reviewed for processing claims.
When accuracy is key, you want the best insurance adjuster transcriptionists around.
Financial Advisor Transcription
Financial advisors transcribe client meetings, financial planning sessions, and strategy discussions to keep detailed records of client interactions and advice given. This helps in maintaining compliance and providing consistent, high-quality service to clients.
Your clients deserve top-notch financial advisor transcription services!
What Types of Things are Transcribed?
We’ve already established that transcription is the process of taking audio and turning it into written words. But what exactly does that mean? Let’s look at a few things that can be transcribed.
What To Transcribe | Why Transcribe It | How It Helps |
We’ve all been there—you get off the phone an hour later and realize your notes are all over the place and you lost the lead. | Transcribing phone calls alleviates that problem by making sure you have an accurate record of all the things discussed. | |
Language doesn’t need to be a barrier in 2024. | Interviews conducted in Spanish can be transcribed into English and Spanish allowing legal and business professionals to expand their client base and the accuracy of their interviews. | |
When you have multiple people speaking in meetings or conferences, keeping track of who said what can be tricky. | Multi-speaker transcription captures each speaker’s contributions accurately while maintaining the flow of the conversation. | |
Gone are the days of “Hey, can you take notes?” With meeting transcription all the details and voices are recorded with accuracy and precision. | Now you can spend more time listening and less time note taking! | |
Have you heard the phrase, content is king? This is a game-changer for educators, marketers, and content creators. | Transcribing videos not only helps with accessibility by providing captions but also makes your content searchable and easier to repurpose. |
4 Main Types of Transcription
You’re becoming an expert on all the uses of transcription—and we love that for you! So let’s keep going with your transcription education and tackle the types of transcription you may choose for your specific industry needs.
1. Verbatim Transcription
Verbatim transcription is the process of writing down every single word, sound, and utterance from a recording. This includes filler words, pauses, and nonverbal sounds like coughs or laughs.
This is useful in legal depositions where pauses, laughter, or even the amount of ums could influence a case.
Let’s look at an example:
Attorney: Can you state your name for the record, please? Witness: Uh, yeah, it’s John Smith. Attorney: And, um, what were you doing on the night of June 10th? Witness: I was, uh, just, you know, hanging out with friends, and we, uh, went to the movies. |
Verbatim Transcription is often used in the following industries:
- Legal: Depositions, court proceedings, witness testimonies
- Market Research: Focus groups, interviews
- Law Enforcement: Interrogations, suspect interviews
- Media and Journalism: Interviews, panel discussions
2. Intelligent Verbatim Transcription
Intelligent Verbatim transcription is transcribing audio content and making minor adjustments for clarity. This often means removing filler words, correcting grammatical errors, and improving the flow of the text without altering the speaker’s original intent.
This is useful in scenarios like a business meeting where the final document needs to be a professional list of notes that captures the intent of the meeting. Edited transcription refines the dialogue so that the document is easier to read later.
Here is an example:
Original: “Um, yeah, so I think we should, uh, move forward with the plan we discussed, you know?” Edited: “I think we should move forward with the plan we discussed.” |
The industries that use edited transcription are:
- Business: Meetings, interviews, presentations
- Education: Lectures, seminars, research interviews
- Media: Podcasts, webinars, video scripts
- Healthcare: Patient interviews, medical consultations
3. Phonetic Transcription
Phonetic transcription captures the exact sounds of spoken language, representing each sound with a specific symbol using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). This method is used to document pronunciation and intonation precisely.
Phonetic transcription is most commonly used in linguistic studies and speech therapy to help a person learn the language. The IPA provides the learner with a visual representation of phonetic patterns so they can better learn the sounds.
Let’s see an example of the IPA in action:
Original: “I love learning languages.” Phonetic Transcription: /aɪ lʌv ˈlɜrnɪŋ ˈlæŋɡwɪdʒɪz/ |
Phonetic Transcription is most often used in:
- Linguistics: Research, language documentation
- Education: Language teaching, phonetics courses
- Speech Therapy: Documenting speech patterns, therapy sessions
- Language Technology: Speech recognition, accent training
4. Edited Transcription
Edited transcription involves not just writing down what was said, but also making stylistic adjustments for readability and coherence. Unlike verbatim transcription, it eliminates unnecessary words, corrects grammar, and sometimes rephrases sentences to enhance clarity while maintaining the speaker’s original meaning.
This is particularly useful for creating polished, professional documents where the focus is on the content rather than capturing every single utterance. It’s commonly used in contexts like publishing or corporate communications where a clean, easy-to-read transcript is necessary.
Here’s an example to illustrate:
Original: “Um, so, yeah, I guess we should, you know, go ahead with the plan, right?” Edited: “We should proceed with the plan.” |
Industries that frequently use edited transcription include:
- Publishing: Book transcriptions, interviews
- Corporate: Business reports, internal communications, press releases
- Media: Scriptwriting, interviews, documentaries
- Academia: Research transcriptions, thesis interviews, academic publications
How To Choose Between Human Transcription vs. AI Transcription?
Now that you understand the types, uses, and deliverables of transcription let’s get into the meat of it all—how to decide on what type of transcription service is best for you.
Here are some general guidelines on choosing between human transcription or AI transcription.
Single vs Multi-Speaker Audio
For one-on-one conversations, AI transcription might suffice. For group discussions with interruptions and overlapping speech, human transcription guarantees higher accuracy.
Bilingual Conversations and Accents in Recordings
Human transcription handles multiple languages and heavy accents better than AI, which might struggle and require additional editing.
Turnaround Time Required
Sure, AI transcription offers quick results—but with plenty of errors and without formatting. For polished, ready-to-send documents, human transcription will actually save you the most time.
Professionalism & Purpose of the Transcript
Just for you? AI transcription or speech-to-text could be just what you need. But if the transcript will be shared with clients or colleagues, human transcription guarantees a professional and properly formatted document.
Background Noise in the Audio
Clear recordings work best with AI, but noisy environments are best handled by humans.
Confidentiality and Security
Where does all your data go once the artificial intelligence algorithms are done transcribing your audio? And is AI transcription even HIPPA compliant? Nowhere good, and no, respectively.
Let’s not forget the time that a journalist discovered the Chinese government was using Otter.ai to spy on him via cloud transcription.
Human transcription provides better control over data security, as AI might store data on external servers.
The 7 Best Transcription Services For Professionals
Choosing a transcription service can feel daunting, but it doesn’t have to be! Here are our top 7 best transcription services to help you find your best fit.
Service | Description | Pricing | Accuracy | Turnaround Time |
Human transcription services with additional captioning and translation options. | 1.5 cents per word | Exceptional accuracy, outperforms industry standards. | As soon as three hours. | |
Rev.com | User-friendly platform for uploading audio or video files. | Per-minute rate | Offers AI transcription with less accuracy; higher fee for human transcription. | Range of options depending on project type. |
Otter.ai | Collaboration features for sharing transcripts and notes. | Free plan; paid plans with more features | Decent accuracy for everyday use (not for professional use). | Real-time transcription for live events and meetings. |
Google Speech-to-Text | Integrates into various applications and services. | Free trial; pay-as-you-go pricing | Lower than human transcription, especially with poor audio quality. | Real-time transcription. Learn More |
Descript | Audio and video editing tools integrated within the platform. | Subscription-based | Accuracy varies; may need editing. | Very fast with speech-to-text feature. |
Trint | AI-driven platform with an integrated text editor and search feature. | Subscription plans; per-minute pricing | Claims 99% accuracy. | As fast as three seconds. |
Sonix | Automated transcription with powerful editing tools. | Subscription plans | High accuracy with clear audio. | Typically 5 minutes for 30 minutes of audio. |
Hopefully, it’s clear how helpful a transcription service can be in streamlining your day-to-day tasks. To get started with a transcription service follow these easy steps:
Step 1: Pick the type of transcription you require.
First, backwards plan from your end-goal. Are you using the transcription for court? Record keeping? That will tell you Identify the type of transcription you require (e.g., verbatim, edited, intelligent verbatim, or phonetic).
Step 2: Select your transcription service.
What’s your budget? What kind of turnaround time do you require? Consider factors such as pricing, accuracy, turnaround time, and specific features when making your decision.
Step 3: Sign up and create an account.
Many transcription services allow you to download an app or sign up for services with just a few clicks. Register on the chosen platform and set up your account. This typically involves providing your contact information and payment details.
Step 4: Upload your files for transcription.
Most services allow you to upload files directly from your computer or via cloud storage services. Make sure your files are clear and high-quality to improve transcription accuracy.
Step 5: Specify your requirements.
Need speaker identification? Time stamps? Be sure to select those options. If you’re using human transcription, you can even include instructions for formatting requirements.
Step 6: Review and Submit:
Double-check your submission details and upload your files for transcription.
Step 7: Receive and review your transcripts.
Once your transcription is complete, you’ll receive the documents. Review them for accuracy and request any necessary revisions. Ideally, you picked a service that actually has a customer service line in case anything went wrong.
Transcription Types: Frequently Asked Questions
What are the main types of transcription?
The main types of transcription are verbatim, intelligent verbatim, edited, and phonetic transcription. Verbatim captures every word and sound, intelligent verbatim removes unnecessary fillers, and phonetic records the sounds of the words spoken. Edited transcription makes your document easy to read and eliminates unnecessary information for clarity.
What are the different types of medical transcription?
Medical transcription includes dictation from doctors, patient notes, medical reports, and surgical summaries. These types of transcriptions require industry knowledge and specific training, and not every transcription service is appropriate for medical transcription.
What are the different types of transcription in qualitative research?
In qualitative research, transcription types include verbatim, intelligent verbatim, and summary transcription. Verbatim captures everything, intelligent verbatim cleans up the speech, and summary transcription condenses the content to the key points.
How do you format transcriptions?
Formatting transcriptions typically involves speaker identification, timestamps, and clear, readable text. The format can vary based on the industry and specific needs, such as legal or medical documents.
Who uses transcriptions?
Transcriptions are used by legal professionals, doctors, researchers, businesses, and media creators. They help in documenting conversations, meetings, interviews, and other spoken content accurately.
How to start a transcription side hustle?
To start a transcription side hustle, invest in good quality headphones and transcription software, practice your typing speed and accuracy, and sign up on freelance platforms. Build your skills and reputation by taking on various transcription jobs and asking for reviews.
Ready to start your transcription side hustle right now?
Start Transcribing Today—The SpeakWrite Way!
If you’re ready to make your work life easier, it’s time to reach out to SpeakWrite.
They specialize in industry-specific transcription and are a 100% human-powered transcription company. They boast 99% accuracy on their transcriptions, 3-hour or less turnaround times, and excellent customer service.
It’s time to ditch the messy notes and long hours in front of the computer. Check out SpeakWrite’s free trial and see how they can help you take your time back.
