We normally don’t refer to ourselves as human transcribers because there is always no need for the human prefix to be used. Unless you make conversations with robots then in the normal scope of things, we are always referred to as transcribers or transcriptionists. For professional transcribers, we are aware that there are two types of transcribers and that is usually machine transcribers and human transcribers. In a case where there is a comparison of some sort, it is important to state the human prefix before the word transcriber and vice versa for machine transcribers.
With that said, who or what is a human transcriber? What do they do? What is their work? How are they beneficial? These are some of the questions we will be answering on this article. By the end of it, we will all be well versed on the topic at hand which is a 101 introduction to human transcription.
- What is human transcription?
In layman’s language, a human transcriber is a human being who does transcription works. This means that its a type of transcription where a human being is present. Human transcription is a process where human beings convert already existing audio/ audio visual recordings into hard copy documents or transcripts. These are usually specialists who have major experience in creating comprehensible and legible texts from already existing audio files. They are always the best bet when it comes to good quality accurate transcripts unlike their counterparts the machine transcribers who are of great help but are usually not as accurate. There are professional industries where high quality and accurate transcription services are needed and that is where human transcribers come in handy. These industries are mostly in academic, legal, and business fields. Accuracy and high quality are traits that human transcribers possess and that is why they are always the best bet for such works.
- Upside of Human Transcription
1. As we mentioned above, human transcription is the only accurate and high quality form of transcription that we have in the market currently. Since this is the case they are constantly used to help in proofreading already machine transcribed transcripts in order to clean them up and polish all the possible errors. Human transcription helps companies and Individuals with their presentations by offering high quality and polished transcripts.
2. Public companies and private entities who work with high quality information and have to adhere to certain compliance guidelines and rules, greatly benefit from human transcription. It is quite impossible to key in specific rules and guidelines on a machine transcriber and so that is not the best way to have your high-quality audios transcribed. On the other hand, it is very possible to relay what exactly you want as a company to a human transcriber, who will not only understand but also provide exactly what you need. They make sure to offer you the quality you deserve and pay for.
3. It goes without saying that human transcription is quite expensive and a lot of companies are not in a position to afford these services. It is important to further note that, regardless of whether the services are expensive, they are highly recommended because they will help you avoid expensive mistakes which would later on bring problems your way. You can decide to use machine transcribers which are cheap but in the long run that will be expensive because you will still need to get services from a human transcriber.
4. Human transcription is highly beneficial for information that has the likelihood to affect someone’s life. This is for the mere fact that you do not want inaccuracy in information that might affect someone’s future either negatively or positively. This only means that human transcription is highly recommended for legal, marketing, education, media, research and enterprise projects.
- Should You Use Human Transcription Services?
The direct answer to this question is a strong yes. Human transcription is more advantageous than automated machine transcription in very many ways which will be mentioned below.
1. If you want transcription services that offer quality and accurate transcripts for your audio/audio visual files, human transcription is the best bet for you. Files that are complex and need specialized attention will be highly and accurately handled by human transcribers without a doubt. Human transcription also caters perfectly for Industries that have specific jargons that may get lost in transcription if transcribed by automated machine transcribers.
2. If you are a transcriber, then you have come across audio files that have background noises that make it hard to denote what is being said on particular audios. Imagine the amount of dedication it takes you to try make sense of such audios and imagine how crazy it would be to expect automated machine transcribers to do the same. Human transcribers would be able to create great transcripts from noisy audios because the human ear can do wonders, but automated machine transcription could never be able to back that. Human ears are set in a way that they can discern and filter through background noise and still deliver accurate transcripts.
3. Human transcriptionists are in a position to handle any type of accent and dialect unlike automated machine transcribers. Another beautiful thing about human transcription is that you have an option of getting native speakers of a particular language who won’t have a hard time denoting accents and dialects and assure you of quality transcripts.
4. Human transcriptionists can easily differentiate between homophones and vowels and offer accurate transcripts.
5. For customers who are in need of transcripts which have speaker tags and timestamp, it is advised to use human transcribers. They are the only once who have the capacity to create name tags and time stamps accurately.
6. A human transcriber has the ability to adapt to different templates and follow special guidelines that may differ between transcripts. Different companies have different guidelines on how they want their transcripts created and human transcribers are the only ones who have the capacity to understand the guidelines and deliver.
7. When it comes to verbatim and non-verbatim transcripts, human transcribers provide the best services on this. Automated machine transcribers don’t have the capacity to follow this through. They usually transcribe word for word and if one could set them to follow verbatim rules, they definitely wouldn’t be able to deliver on that 100%. On the other hand, human transcribers are very well and able to carry this out and deliver quality transcripts regardless of the verbatim in question. Most people will want non-verbatim so that the transcript is easy to follow.
With that said, it is very important to know whether you are looking for quality and accuracy or just want your audios transcribed without accuracy being a thing of importance. If you are more after quality and accuracy then human transcribers should always be your go to. On the other hand, if you don’t care about quality and accuracy, then automated machine transcribers would be beneficial to you since they are inexpensive and offer quick results. Human transcription service providers are definitely on an all-time high and everyone is trying their hand in human transcription. This should tell you there is need and market for transcription services. If you are not yet convinced to start using transcription services, you will truly be passed by the train, quite literally.
