- 208 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
Transcribing Oral History
About This Book
Transcribing Oral History offers a comprehensive guide to the transcription of qualitative interviews, an often richly debated practice within oral history. Beginning with an introduction to the field and an overview of the many disciplines that conduct and transcribe interviews, the book goes on to offer practical advice to those looking to use transcription within their own projects. A helpful how-to section covers technology, style guides, ways to format transcripts and troubleshoot the many problems that can arise. In addition to the practicalities of transcription itself, the book encourages the reader to consider legal and ethical issues, and the effects of troubling audio on the transcriptionist. It explains how scholars can turn recorded interviews and transcripts into books, films and museum exhibits, enabling the reader to understand the wider concerns surrounding transcription as well as the practical uses to which it can be put.
Based upon the author's personal experience as a freelance transcriptionist and interviews with more than 30 professionals working around the world in the oral history and qualitative research fields, this is an indispensable guide for those involved in interviews and transcription at any level of an oral history project, including historians, transcriptionists, interviewers, project administrators, archivists, researchers and students.
Frequently asked questions
Information
1
ABOUT ORAL HISTORY AND TRANSCRIPTION
About Oral History
- Must be in interview format (Q&A).
- Must be recorded.
- Must be grounded in history.
- Narratorās wishes are respected.
- Narrator is considered the primary author.
- Archived for long-term future use.
- Follows professional standards.
About Transcription
- Careful listening. This profession requires patience, focus, and an above-average attention span to accurately capture every word.
- Good grasp of language. The transcriptionist faces constant decisions about how to represent spoken word as text, using punctuation and paragraphing to render a natural-sounding interview. The reader should feel as if he or she is hearing a real conversation when looking at the page.
- Research skills. Patience and diligence are required to track down correct spellings and facts.
- Accurate typing.
- Technology. A transcriptionist must handle multiple audio and video formats and navigate transcription software. Nowadays new recordings are usually digital, but recordings on older formatsāsuch as reel-to-reel, audiocassette, and mini-cassettesāstill need to be transcribed and usually require special attention. Proficiency in word processing, search engines, and email is also necessary.
- Subject expertise. Often this is gained on the job while transcribing a set of interviews with common language. The more interviews a transcriptionist types involving a certain place, time period, profession or activity, the easier it will be to accurately render future interviews in the same area.
- Humility. Transcription is the ultimate fly-on-the-wall experience. While the transcriptionist may feel like she gets to intimately know the narrator, the narrator is focused on the interviewer and may never know the transcriptionist exists. Try this exercise: Name one famous transcriptionist.
What Is Special about Oral History Transcription?
- Regional dialects, heavy accents or other difficult speech patterns are made accessible in the transcript.
- Proper names and spellings of difficult words are clarified.
- Electronic versions can be searched by keyword.
- Many people report better comprehension and retention via print than sound.
- At this point, paper is the most reliable preservation format.
- Itās faster and easier to scan visually than to listen to a recording.
Current Debates about Transcription
Table of contents
- Cover
- Half Title
- Series Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Table of Contents
- List of illustrations
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1. About Oral History and Transcription
- 2. Getting Started
- 3. Transcription vs the Alternatives
- 4. Technology and Equipment
- 5. Transcription Step by Step
- 6. Hard Decisions
- 7. Editing and Polishing the Transcript
- 8. Legal, Ethical and Regulatory Issues
- 9. The Human Side of Transcription
- 10. Using Transcripts for Research
- Epilogue
- List of Interviewees
- Resources
- Index