I'm really, really liking transcription a lot. It's very interesting (and sometimes educational) to me to dive deep and get to know the speaker's personality on a deeper level. For one, transcribing is more than just textually recording some audio; it's also a form of interpretation.
Processing the shows into text form has also given me some form of creative criticism that I can share with the speakers. For example, when it becomes harder to interpret or follow someone's sentence that becomes a run-on or lost thought, and the more adjustments I have to make when transcribing to ensure that logic or communication still follows, the more pointers I'll have for them. In addition, there's a little critical thinking going on: "is it necessary to keep the "uhs" or "uhms" to preserve the humorous tone induced by those pauses?" In other words, will readers enjoy this, and get to understand Steve's/Leesha's/Fallon's personalities or characters? I certainly have to be careful to not make them sound too literal and cardboard-like, but that's the fun part!
I was actually looking over a few at-home side jobs within this field, but it turns out it's a lot more complicated than I thought. You have to pay attention to punctuation, understand the speakers' professional lingo (medical, legal, recreational, etc.), use the correct words ("night" vs. "knight"), and be grammatically correct. Also, the audio files won't always be as clear as Ravenwood Radio's podcasts; the sound in the test I received was shifted all to one side of my headset, indicating that the recorder was sitting on the side of the room instead of the center. Then, listening to the speaker, and trying to omit as much stuttering or "um"-ing and "uh"-ing without taking too much tone or personality away is another challenge. Professionally, it's not for me...but if you're an English major, have a high interest in typing, and are looking for some dough, I recommend looking into this!
Transcript of Ravenwood Radio 33
Behind the Scenes:
My mom used to work as a medical transcriber. She's very literate and a really fast typist, but she HATED it. However, one of her good friends is also a medical transcriber, has been for a few years now, and doesn't mind at all.
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