Our website: https://gotranscript.

com/
If you have any questions about the rules please write to: [email protected]
You can find the test job on the last page.

What do we do?

We provide audio transcription services, which means that we convert audio and video files into
text.

In our system, you can pick the files you prefer to work on.

You must have a PayPal or Payoneer account as we do payments only with PayPal or
Payoneer. Payments are done every weekend, on Friday.

Also we cover PayPal fee so you will receive exactly amount which you earned and there
will be no fee to receive payment.

To request payment go to WORK area to STATS page. There you can request for payment.

Instructions:

● Every time a client uploads a file, you will receive an e-mail. After that, you need to go to
the converter page and choose the files you want to transcribe.

● There you will also see the information about the turnaround time, text format (clean or
full verbatim) and timestamping type, if one is required.

● After your transcription is uploaded, you will see your current earnings on the converter
page.

● Payments are done every weekend, on Friday. There will also be a statistics page where
you will see how much you have earned for each file.

● All of your transcriptions are going to be checked by editors. You will receive a rating and
comments to help you improve your work.

● If your average rating is better than 4.5, you can try to become an editor.

● Sometimes, the quality of audio or video files is horrible, so please let us know about
that. We will contact the client and provide a refund for that file.
Text format descriptions

Full verbatim

● The text is transcribed exactly as it sounds and includes all the utterances of the
speakers.

Those are:
● Speech errors. “I went to the bank on Tu-Thursday.”
● False starts. “I, um, wanted- I wanted to be a musician.”
● Filler words such as “like”, “you know”, “yeah”, “mm hmm”, “uh huh”, “umm”, “uh, um”,
“sort of”, “so”, “oh” etc.
● Slang words, such as ‘‘gonna’’, ‘‘wanna’’, “gotta”, ‘‘kinda’’, ‘‘cuz’’, should be kept in the
transcription. In addition, ‘‘you know’’, ‘‘I mean’’ should also be transcribed.
● Stutters and repetitions.

Example: https://gotranscript.com/our-transcription-samples

Clean verbatim

The transcribed text does not include:

● Speech errors
● False starts (unless they add information)
● Filler words. Note that some of them can have a different function. For example, in the
phrase “Oh my God”, “oh” is not a filler word, but a part of the expression, therefore it
must be kept.
● Slang words must be written as ‘‘going to’’ instead of ‘‘gonna’’, ‘‘want to’’ instead of
‘‘wanna’’, etc.
● “Yeah”, “yep”, “yap”, “yup” must be written as “yes”; “alright” must be written as “all right”.
● Never spell “Ok” or “OK”. It must always be spelled as “Okay”.

Note: omit all the ‘‘umm-hmm’’, “yeah”, “yes” reactions to retain a fluent text, unless they are
answers to given questions. [Mind the verbatim ex. Don’t write “umm-hmm” as an answer in
clean verbatim, replace it with “yes”] Also, “like” can be kept if it is not a filler word, for example:
“I paid something like 200 bucks” or when it introduces a quote: I was like, “Okay.”

For example:

Speaker 1: I went to the store yesterday.

Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I wanted to buy some bread.

Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1: There was none left. Can you believe that?

Speaker 2: Yeah.

Becomes:

Speaker 1: I went to the store yesterday. I wanted to buy some bread. There was none left. Can
you believe that?

Speaker 2: Yes.

Example: https://gotranscript.com/our-transcription-samples

Timestamping types:

Timestamping time format must be: [00:00:00] (always in bold)

ALWAYS CONSIDER THE WHOLE FILE WHEN YOU’RE TIME STAMPING. For example, if
you do the 20-30 part, your time stamping should start at 20, not 00

Every 2 minutes
Example: https://gotranscript.com/our-transcription-samples

Every time the speaker changes

Example: https://gotranscript.com/our-transcription-samples

Major rules

1) In general, short and logical, grammatically correct sentences are preferred. When a
speaker is using conjunctions like ‘and’, ‘so’, or ‘but’ to connect longer stretches of
thought, it’s often a good idea to create sentence divisions in those places. Also, don’t
forget to cut out the conjunctions in those places when they’re not necessary.

2) 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).

3) Never summarize the speech in the audio you are transcribing.

4) Do not correct errors made by the speakers. Use [sic] instead. For example: “All of my
childrens [sic] are in school”.

NOTE: Editors should not penalize transcribers for using/not using [sic]

5) Everything with a time-stamp, (e.g. [unintelligible 00:04:24]; [inaudible 00:02:24]) should

be bolded.

6) Nothing else besides the speaker labels and marks with time-stamps should be bolded. So
[laughs], [coughs], [laughter] or [crosstalk] shouldn’t be bolded.

7) Never use () instead of []

8) Every sentence should end with a punctuation mark.

9) The beginning of every sentence should be capitalized.

10) Use ‘--’ instead of ‘...’. Example: “I wanted to say something, but…” becomes “I wanted to
say something, but--”

11) Expansions for “it’s”, “that’s”, “you’ve”, etcetera are not considered mistakes, but it’s
preferable to transcribe them exactly as they are spoken. Example: If the speaker says “it’s”, it
should be kept as “it’s” regardless of the verbatim

12) Never use exclamation marks.

13) Speaker labels

● If there is more than one speaker, their names (if they are known) must be used. If not -
mark them as ‘‘Speaker 1’’, ‘‘Speaker 2’’ and so on.

● Make each speaker’s role in the audio as descriptive as possible. For example,
‘‘Interviewer’’, ‘‘Interviewee’’, ‘‘Host’’, ‘‘Reviewer’’, “Caller”, “Receiver”, etc.

● 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, etc.). This is optional
and is not considered to be an error.

● If you cannot identify who exactly is speaking, 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 are able to at
least identify the person asking questions or leading the discussion.

● Speaker labels must be written in bold, followed by a colon and a space. NEVER use
the Tab button, only one click of the Space button.

Example:

Mark: Hello.

Speaker 1: Some text.

Speaker 2: Some more text.

14)

● Italicize film, book, magazine, song titles, as well as artworks, plays, TV and radio
programmes, etc. Example: I watched an episode of Friends the other day.

NOTE: There is no need to italicize social media sites or company names

● If a speaker spells a word or a name, do this: My name is Anna. A-N-N-A.

NOTE: Abbreviations and acronyms should not contain dashes. Right: USA. Wrong: U-S-A

● Percentages should be written as “%”. Example: 2%, 50%. But if the speaker says “A
small percentage of the responders”, never replace “percentage” by “%”
● Always write links like this: www.facebook.com/clientpage Never write them like this: w w
w dot facebook dot com slash client page

● Use international monetary symbols to mark currency (in most cases). Do this: $50,
€155. Standard abbreviations (USD, EUR) are also acceptable. DO NOT spell out
amounts. Right: $195 Wrong: a hundred and 95 dollars

15) Sound events

● Sound events that are significant to the audio should also be noted. Use brackets [ ] for
notes. The notes are always written in lower case regardless of the position in a
sentence.

● For example: [laughter] - when more than one person laughs, separate line; [laughs] -
when one speaker laughs, written in the same line; [screaming], [background noise] -
 separate line; [applause], [silence] - separate line; [crying], [sarcastically], etc. should be
used appropriately.

● If a foreign language or a word (in this case, a language that is not English) is spoken,
mark it as [foreign language], [foreign word] or [French language], [German language],
etc. if it can be identified.

● [pause 00:00:00] is used to demonstrate a pause significant in a speech.

16) Numbers

● Spell out numbers from 0-9: zero, one, two, three, four, five, six, eight, nine (this does not
include phone numbers).

● Numbers from 10 and up are written in numerals: 10, 11, 20, 25, 99, etc.

● Thousands should be written in digits. Do this: 600,000, 5,000. Note that there’s a
difference between “a thousand” (spelled out) and “one thousand” (digits)

● Always spell out big numbers like “million”, “billion”, “trillion”, etc. Do this: 40 million, 10
billion. Numbers under 10 should be spelled out (two million).

● Times of the day and dates: always capitalize AM and PM. Do this: 2:45 PM, 5:00 AM.
When using o’clock, spell out the numbers: eleven o’clock, nine o’clock.

● Time periods should be written with an apostrophe: ‘60s, ‘70s style; however, “that man
is in his 70s” (no apostrophe)

17) Double dashes or a single dash (mind the verbatim type)

Use double dashes -- when:

● there is a change of thought (false start) in mid-sentence. Do this: Weren’t we going to --

Okay, never mind.

Use a single dash -

● when there is an interruption, but the speaker continues his thought. Do this:

Speaker 1: I thought he was-

Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: - gone.

● someone stutters. Do this: Why is this m-m-moist?

18) Quotation marks

● Double quotation marks “” are used whenever there is a direct quotation. Example: She
said, “Don’t bother telling me”. Quotations are introduced by a comma, not a colon.

● Internal dialogues are seen as direct quotations as well. Example: And then I thought to
myself, “What if I can’t make it?” (Notice how the question mark is inside of the quotation.
This is because the quotation itself is a question. However, if the rest of the sentence is a
question containing a quotation, then the question mark would be outside of the
quotation marks).

● Do not use quotation marks in indirect quotations (when the speaker paraphrases what
has been said). Example: The man said that he was in a hurry.

19) If you cannot hear what word is being said, mark that as inaudible or unintelligible
and specify the time.

● Use [inaudible 00:00:00] when it is impossible to hear what is being said due to
interferences in the audio.

● Use [unintelligible 00:00:00] when you cannot understand what is being said due to the
speaker’s manner of speech, accent, etc.

20) Do NOT make up your own markings. Only use the ones that you find in the guidelines.

Example:

DO NOT use: [incomprehensible]; [indistinct]; [inunderstandable] et cetera

21) If there are curse words in the audio, transcribe them word for word

22) Onto vs. On to

Rule 1: In general, use onto as one word to mean “on top of”, “to a position on”, “upon”

Ex: I climbed onto the roof.

Rule 2: When onto means “fully aware of”, “informed about”

Ex.: I’m onto your plan.

Rule 3: Use on to, two words, when on is part of the verb.

Ex.: Please log on to our site.

23) If you do not prepare the transcriptions according to these requirements, you might
be removed from the team of transcribers.

Ratings which are given by editors:

1 - from 0% to 80% accuracy
2 - from 80% to 85% accuracy
3 - from 85% to 90% accuracy
4 - from 90% to 95% accuracy
5 - from 95% to 100% accuracy

Transcribers should know that mistakes like the following will be harshly penalized by editors.
Along with accuracy, editors will be rating your files based on your grammar mistakes and/or
lack of research.

For example:

this/these; their/there/they’re; it’s/its; lets/let’s etc

Were going to see what there proposition was. (transcriber)

We're going to see what their proposition was. (edited version)

[unintelligible 00:05:12], the Russian rhythmic gymnast won the golden medal in Rio.
(transcriber)
Yana Kudryavtseva, the Russian rhythmic gymnast won the golden medal in Rio. (edited
version)

Congo's former president, [unintelligible 00:15:59] visited the Pentagon in 1983. (transcriber)
Congo's former president, Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga visited the
Pentagon in 1983. (edited version)

Recurring mistakes will also be harshly penalized!

If a transcriber finishes 3 transcriptions and has 3,4 or a lower average rating, he/she will
be removed from the team.

Useful links:

https://gotranscript.com/tool - GoTranscript online tool for transcribers

http://www.nch.com.au/scribe/ - Software for transcribers
http://grammar.about.com/
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/

Interested?

If you are interested in working with us, you need to read the provided instructions again
and then finish our test job (clean verbatim; no timestamping needed), which you can
download here:

The test job link: https://gotranscript.com/transcription-jobs/apply

Let us know if you have any questions.