Verbatim, Intelligent Verbatim & Edited Transcription Explained

Posted on 17th November 2015 • Categories: General, Students

Below is a brief description of what is included or excluded as standard for the three levels of transcription.

Verbatim:

Erm … well, I dunno really, know what I mean? I mean, you know, when I asked them what David’s, er, um, condish, condit, condition was, they said like erm ‘I’m afraid we can’t, erm, tell you that, Mrs Jones, ’cause you ain’t a relative.’

Include:

All ums and ers

All fillers such as ‘you know’, ‘know what I mean?’

All repeated words

All stutters and stammers (but only a maximum of three repeats for each e.g. ‘I st, st, st, started saying …’

All ‘non-standard language’ e.g. ain’t, ’cause.

Only include throat clearing, coughing, details of interruptions etc. if required by client

Intelligent Verbatim:

Well, I dunno really. I mean when I asked them what David’s condition was they said ‘I’m afraid we can’t tell you that, Mrs Jones, ’cause you ain’t a relative.’

Exclude:

All ums and ers

‘Er’ is at the beginning of a sentence and is followed by a long pause

All fillers such as ‘you know’, ‘know what I mean?’

All repeated words unless repeated for emphasis e.g. I never, never swim more than 64 lengths All stutters and stammers

Include all ‘non-standard language’ e.g. ain’t, ’cause.

Throat clearing, coughing, details of interruptions etc.

Edited:

Well I don’t know really. I mean when I asked them what David’s condition was they said ‘I’m afraid we can’t tell you that, Mrs Jones, because you are not a relative.’

There a whole extra line of typing required for the verbatim work in just those few short sentences.

There are occasions when verbatim transcription is required; depending on your topic it might be required for legal reasons, or you might be studying the language. But if you really don’t need it, don’t pay for it!

Exclude:

All ums and ers

All fillers such as ‘you know’, ‘know what I mean?’

All repeated words

All stutters and stammers

All ‘non-standard language’ e.g. ain’t, ’cause.

Tidy up sentences in order to improve grammar & flow.