Many people are confused as to why transcription (audio typing) apparently costs more than typing, since both are typing services. This article aims to explain the differences between the two services and what offsets the costs of a transcription service.
First of all, let’s take typing. This normally refers to the typing of a written ‘copy’ – this can be a pre-typed document (perhaps typed on a typewriter and needs to be input into a word processor) or a handwritten document. Cost will vary depending on readability, but with basic copy typing, no editing or interpretation is required; the typist simply writes what is written in front of them. The cost of typing services will vary according to how difficult the handwriting is to decipher; it will be relatively cheaper if the original document is very clearly handwritten or typed.
The transcript, on the other hand, does not have a copy for the typist to look at, only an audio recording, which can be an audiotape, video, DVD, or digital audio recording. This brings with it a number of problems that typing does not have: is the speech clear? Is the content understandable (for example, highly technical content may be filled with words the transcriber is not familiar with)? Is the recording quality good (for example, is there any background hiss on the tape or background noise from the environment in which the tape was recorded)? Do you need a verbatim transcription (word for word with all the ‘ums and ers’, speech patterns and fillers like ‘you know’, ‘you know what I mean’ or ‘something’ repeated often throughout the recording? edited to improve grammar and sentence structure?
Clearly, transcription is much more complicated than typing. Another fact to keep in mind is that one hour of recording is not equivalent to one hour of transcription time. Even an experienced transcriber will be able to average four times as long for a good, clear one-on-one interview, so one hour of recording will take an average of four hours to transcribe. (Industry standards obtained from Industry Production Standards Guide (I998), published by OBC, Columbus, OH, USA) A poorly recorded group or transcript will take proportionally longer. So when you get a quote per hour for recording, it may seem like a lot of money, but remember that this is NOT your transcriber’s hourly rate, but rather a quote for a minimum of four hours of your time.
Transcriptionists also have to make sense of what is being said, punctuate the speech correctly, and use the correct homophones (words like there / their / they are that sound the same but are spelled differently).
Many transcriptionists specialize in a particular area so that they are familiar with the technicalities, eg, medical transcription, legal transcription. Others are more generalists and work on less technical transcripts, such as research interviews and market research focus groups, phone or video conferences, seminars, and conferences. All of these, of course, can contain technical data and if they do it is helpful to provide your transcriber with a list of keywords or at least some basic information about your work. Otherwise, Google is a wonderful tool if used correctly to research the topic, but that will increase the total time required to produce your transcript and therefore the cost.
Hopefully it is now clear that transcription requires more skill than “plain” copy typing with no editing or formatting involved and therefore requires a higher hourly rate.
