A “Clean Verbatim” transcription is a verbatim transcript of your audio. We do not paraphrase the interviewee responses!! Our transcribers will transcribe your interviewee, research subject, or the person on-camera verbatim. Questions from the interviewer will be paraphrased.
Our default style is Clean Verbatim. Unless you really, really need otherwise, we recommend this choice.
A “True Verbatim” transcript is the same as a Clean Verbatim transcript except that we also transcribe a representation of the non-verbal utterances like the “uhms and uhs”, st-st-stutters, guffaws, filler phrases, and false starts. Only the answers are transcribed True Verbatim, questions from the interviewer are transcribed Clean Verbatim and are paraphrased.
We charge extra for True Verbatim as it takes longer to transcribe these types of materials.
If you need the questions asked by the interviewer to be transcribed verbatim as well and not paraphrased, please indicate that at time of order in the Notes field for the file during the upload process.
Examples:
If the audio was recorded as follows:
John Doe: Uhm.. uh.. uh.. so, like, I- I- I- I- I totally wanna go down to the bar, you know, and get uhm.. drunk.
A “Clean Verbatim” transcript would look like:
John Doe: So I totally want to go down to the bar and get drunk.
A “True Verbatim” transcript would look like:
John Doe: Uhm.. so, like, I- I totally wanna go down to the bar, you know, and get uhm.. drunk.
True Verbatim does not include every single uhm/uh, stutter, etc, only a representational amount to convey the non-verbal utterance. In the example above, the multiple stutters were combined into a single indication of the stutter and the multiple ‘uhms/uhs’ at the beginning were combined into a single reference to ‘uhm’. True Verbatim does not denote things like “chair creaks” or “birds chirping in background”
Filler Words
There are certain ‘filler’ phrases popular in common dialog that contain no meaning. For example often “like” and “you know” are filler phrases. When they add no context or meaning to a phrase, on Clean Verbatim, they will be silently dropped. Of course, if “like” or “you know” is does add meaning to a sentence, then they will be transcribed.
Teenager: I was, like, so involved in sports at school this year. I’m totally, you know, excited about next year.
On Clean Verbatim, this piece of dialog would be transcribed as:
Teenager: I was so involved in sports at school this year. I’m totally excited about next year.
When the filler phrase provides context, even on Clean Verbatim it will be transcribed. In the example below, the “you know” directly infers that the person the Teenager is talking about knows something.
Teenager: I told him, you know it’s better to give than to receive.
Conversational Affirmations
When transcribing a Clean Verbatim document, interruptions by the interviewer of a confirmational nature will be omitted:
Bob: So, I grew up in the South…
Q: Uh-huh.
Bob: …and I really liked it there. So when I get a chance I’ll go back. But until then I’m stuck here…
Q: I see.
Bob: … teaching a bunch of brats. Don’t you hate this job?
Q: Yes.
Bob: Me too.
Would be transcribed as follows:
Bob: So, I grew up in the South and I really liked it there. So when I get a chance I’ll go back. But until then I’m stuck here teaching a bunch of brats. Don’t you hate this job?
Q: Yes.
Bob: Me too.
What’s the additional cost for True Verbatim?
True Verbatim is only available on certain types of audio classifications. They are Type-1 or Type-2 audio.
We do not provide True Verbatim for Type-3 audio (Focus Groups or large multi-person interviews)
| Audio Classification |
Extra Per Minute |
|---|---|
| Type-1 |
$0.40 |
| Type-2 |
$0.55 |
| Type-3 |
Not available |
| Lite Continuities |
Included in Price |
Effects on Turnaround
Please allow 1/2 extra day for True Verbatim.
Requirements for True Verbatim
The sound quality must be good to excellent.
If there is any significant background noise or the file is poorly recorded, we may be unable to perform True Verbatim transcription on the file. At that point, Clean Verbatim will be the only option.
Examples of bad places and ways to record audio needing True Verbatim:
- Restaurants (absolutely the worst possible place to record an interview, even if you just need Clean Verbatim)
- Rooms or environments with background noise be it people or equipment.
- Poorly recorded phone interviews.
- Multi-person interviews or focus groups – We do not provide True Verbatim on any audio classified Type-3 for billing.