Whether or not you need to use specific conventions depends hugely on your discipline and qualitative methodology. We'd recommend reading relevant literature in your area to see what is appropriate. If you cannot find anything specific to your discipline, we recommend Powers, W.R. (2005). Transcription techniques for the spoken word.Lanham: Altamira Press. Pricing and purchasing details for this book can be found on our Recommended Reading webpage.
The main thing to keep in mind with conventions is that they should be consistent across all your transcripts. If you're looking for some standard conventions to use, then you're more than welcome to use the Academic Consulting conventions, which we have detailed below. You should also consider the level of verbatim that you require for your transcripts - click on the link provided to read more about this.
Academic Consulting Transcription Conventions
| (unintelligible, time) | Words that cannot be heard or understood |
| (unknown name, time) | Names of people, schools, businesses, or organisations, that we can hear but do not know how to spell |
| (unknown location, time) | Names of cities, suburbs, streets, regions, states, landmarks, or countries that we can hear but do not know how to spell |
| (unknown terminology, time) | Names of drugs, medical conditions, business systems, educational techniques etc. that we can hear but do not know how to spell |
| (non English term, time) | Words spoken in a language other than English |
| unsure word (time) | If we are unsure of the spelling of a word e.g. have spelt phonetically then the word will appear in italics followed by the time |
| (pause) | Long pauses only, short pauses are indicated with a comma |
| (laughter) | Laughter |
| (recording change) | Change of recording within a single interview |
| (interruption, description, time) | For actual interruptions such as someone entering the room or an unrelated telephone conversation |
| (interview ends, time) | Only used when an interview is clearly finished but the recording continues |
| (noise made) | Where a “strange” noises are made e.g. raspberries, whooping noises, banging fist on table |
| . . . | To indicate the trailing off and/or “picking back up” of a sentence |
| (name deleted) | Deleted name (client request only) |
| “-“ e.g. inter- | Indicates a word has been cut-off mid-way through speech (complete verbatim transcripts only) |
Resources Knowledge Base Audio Recording and Transcription I'm transcribing my own audio recordings - are there specific conventions that I need to use?
| Phone: | +64 9 5220676 |
| Email: | info@academic-consulting.co.nz |
| Skype: | academic-consulting |