Tips & tricks, etc., regarding the process of transcription and how to do it most efficiently and effectively. Not related to products, software, etc.

Five Apps To Improve Typing Speed & Accuracy

/0 Comments/in , , , /by Jocelyn Mackie

For any transcriptionist, accuracy and speed are paramount to your success. You can develop these skills on the job, but you risk compromising quality. Regularly devoting time to skill improvement is the best way to reliably improve your typing skills.

Fortunately, there are many typing apps available that vary from serious and clinical, to fun and silly. It depends on the skills you want to enhance and what platform work best for you personally when it comes to your learning style and preference. The five apps below offer a variety of options to help you improve your typing skills. Consider giving one or all a try.

1. Ratatype

Ratatype is a full-service typing education platform featuring tutoring and testing. You take an initial typing test when you first visit the website and after that, you have the opportunity to sign up with an email address or Facebook account. The resources offered by this site are not available to you unless you create an account but they are free once you are signed in.

Fortunately, this effort proves to be worth it. One resource includes a brief overview of touch typing, which you likely know if you already perform transcription. However, if you are self-taught or have gaps in this skill, the tutorial contains extra tips you may missed at some point. Posture, finger position, and even the distance between you and the monitor are all topics in this overview. If you are an experienced typist, you can at least consider the overview a good checklist for making sure you don’t have any gaps in your knowledge.

The other resource Ratatype offers is their typing tutor. It offers a series of exercises to develop your typing speed and accuracy. They start very basic with letters on the home row and then expand into complex combinations. None of the combinations involve real words which makes them more challenging than you might expect. As you complete each exercise, the difficult improves and you gain informal certifications along the way. There’s also a typing test available so you can check your speed again as you complete exercises.

2. 10fastfingers.com

10fastfingers.com offers the tests and tutorials similar to Ratatype with an extra element—international competition! Choose the correct language first (or you won’t stand a chance) and prepare to enter an epic battle over the title of quickest keyboarder. Top scores post once the competition concludes. Most rounds last 60 minutes and accommodate whoever enters them in that time period.

You can track your progress by opening an account with the website, which is free. Even if you’re not the competitive type, there are still tools available to help you improve. There are also typing tests involving the most commonly used words. Choose between the one with the 200 most common words or the advanced test with 1,000 of the top words. There is also a text practice screen and an app that will help your typing speed on mobile devices too. It is unlikely you would transcribe on a mobile device, but if you want to text faster, then this can’t hurt.

3. TypeRacer

You can consider TypeRacer a cuter version of the first two. It works on an automotive racing theme that is easy to master. You control a race car with your typing speed; you gain speed if you are quick and accurate and lose it when you make mistakes. The text you type is pulled from books and popular games, giving you an assortment of complexity in the material.

Choose a single-player “race” to practice or get involved in competitions with other users. Unlike the worldwide 10fastfingers.com, this is a field of five which can feel a little less intimidating.  Once you finish your race, it will indicate your typing speed and the source of your material. Races also show the words-per-minute of your competitors which will give you an idea of how your skills stack up.

Of all the apps, this one makes typing mistakes the most noticeable. When you miss a letter or type the wrong one, your car stops and the field turns red. It stays that color until you fix it. This can be a good tool if your accuracy suffers and you tend not to notice the errors until you finish.

If you wish to track your progress or maintain bragging rights on a high score list, you need to register. But if you wish to enter races as that mysterious dark horse named “Guest”, that option is also available to you.

4. Keyboard Ninja

Keyboard Ninja is there for you when you want to learn from something less serious. Based on the Fruit Ninja game popular on tablets, this is a fun option that helps you better coordinate where your fingers land on your keyboard.

There are many options for difficulty. You can limit your practice to the home, top or bottom row, the numbers pad or include all letters. There are also three levels: easy, medium, and hard. If you choose the hard level and include all the keys, prepare for extra challenge!

Like Fruit Ninja, the object is to slice fruit before it falls to the ground, but avoid the bombs. The difference is you type the letter or number that corresponds with the fruit, rather than run your finger across a touch pad. If you hit a letter attached to a bomb, your game is over. This will help with accuracy and definitely improve your hand-eye coordination—an often overlooked skill with transcription.

5. Tommy Q

Many keyboarding games have a basic concept: Hit letters in order to affect a certain action whether that is slicing fruit or popping balloons. Tommy Q is unique from many games in that it not only requires typing full words but also using the arrow keys. It also contains elements of strategy that make it seem more like a video game than a tool for enhancing job skills. However, it works very well for the latter.

You will enjoy Tommy Q if you are a zombie aficionado as well as a transcriptionist. In this game, zombie hoards invade Tommy’s backyard. He defends his turf with a hand cannon that shoots baseballs. As you type the words associated with a zombie, Tommy shoots out a tennis ball and when you successfully complete the word, the zombie is dead. You gain points by typing correctly and lose points with mistakes.

However, the game offers further complexities besides typing that will expand your keyboarding proficiency. You also need to position Tommy with the arrow keys before you type and shoot. The game also makes “power-up” items available that you gain by typing their words. With all the different dynamics involved in this game, you will likely find it much more entertaining than your typical typing tests and a good reprieve from work, as well as some needed education.

The best part of all these apps is that they encourage what you need most to improve at transcription jobs and typing speed: Practice. It does not matter which one you choose as long as you can remain consistent.

10 Grammar Mistakes No Transcriptionist Should Make

/4 Comments/in , /by Tracy Theodoroff

 

If you’re a transcriptionist, there’s a good chance you find yourself correcting everyone else’s grammar.

But you just can’t help yourself, can you?

Hey, the fact that incorrect grammar and spelling irks us is what makes us good at our transcription jobs.

Am I right, and can I get a heck yeah?

So while the rest of the world would rather watch paint dry, let’s rejoice in taking a moment to make sure our mad grammar skills are truly up to snuff.

Here are ten easily made grammatical errors that we transcriptionists must be sure to avoid. These examples are typical of what I often see in my insurance transcription job, but these tips should apply to all types of transcription work. Most of these grammar mistakes are homophones (a word pronounced the same as another, but having a different meaning). And if you’re unintentionally changing the meaning of a transcript…that’s never a good thing.

All right. Show me what you’ve got! You get extra brownie points for getting all of them correct without cheating.

 

1) Did you need to hire an (aid/aide) to help you out at home after your injuries?

Survey says aide is the correct answer here, because an aide is an assistant, while aid is a form of help. So, like, to make that as clear as mud, take a look at this example.

I really need an aide to clean my house and bake me some cookies, because this walking aid is getting in my way.

Can you aid me in getting an aide?

 

2) Based on his (affect/effect), I’d say he was seething over what happened in the accident.

Affect is usually a verb, and effect is usually a noun.

Except when they aren’t.

I see people making this grammar mistake all the time. Affect is a noun when referring to the appearance of someone’s mood, and effect used as a verb means to bring about.

Despite his apathetic affect, he still wanted to effect change in the policy.

What’s the above answer then? Affect. I bet you didn’t expect your online transcription job to involve so much grammar, did ya?

I personally love Grammar Girl when I get stuck on this one.

 

3) Sure, the (principle/principal) I owe on the loan is way less than the car is worth, but it’s the (principle/principal), because the accident wasn’t my fault.

This is another one of those grammar mistakes I see fairly often in my insurance transcription work.

Maybe you’ve heard the old adage, there’s a pal in principal. It was supposed to help you remember the correct spelling for the guy whose office you got sent to when in trouble at school. But principal is also a sum of money that draws interest while principle is a general truth or rule.

So mark yourself correct if you chose principal and principle, respectively, as the answers above.

 

4) Have you been a freelance transcriptionist for (awhile/a while)?

I’m not going to bore you to death here with explanations of adverbs versus phrases. Instead, I’ll offer this tip for avoiding this grammar mistake: Take awhile and replace it with another adverb such as “loudly,” “quickly,” “silently,” or whatever floats your boat.

Were you at the light for quickly or not for very long?

Yeah, that clearly makes no sense, right?

Now, take a while and replace the while with an actual period of time, like a month, year, or whatever you’d like.

Were you at the light for a year or not for very long?

So in this example, a while is the correct answer, no Schoolhouse Rock needed. But if you want a more in-depth explanation, you can always visit the Grammarist.

 

5) Had you already (past/passed) the stop sign when the other car hit you?

Again, to avoid making you wish you could dig your eyeballs out with a spoon, it’s shortcut time. This one is great, especially if you’re an insurance transcriptionist.

When referring to movement, substitute “moved past” in your sentence. If it works, then use passed. If not, then past is the one to use.

Had you already moved past the stop sign when the other car hit you? Or, I drove moved past the stop sign before he hit me.

See. The second sentence doesn’t sound right, which means you should use past.

According to Grammar-Monster, “Passed is the past tense of to pass. For everything else, use past.” Pass it on!

Wow. You’re getting pretty good at this. Work-from-home transcriptionist or grammar pro? It’s getting hard to tell!

 

6) I just want to (ensure/insure) we get all of the facts of the loss.

This one is relatively straightforward, but often confused. To ensure is to make certain, while insure means to protect against loss (uh, duh, like insurance, right?).

We want to ensure we’ve got those facts of loss straight!

This is one of the simpler grammar mistakes to correct.

 

7) Are you having the pain (every day/everyday) or just occasionally?

Every day refers to each day, as in:

I drive my sister bonkers every day.

Everyday is an adjective that means daily or ordinary, like:

Shall we take the Aston Martin or the everyday car instead?

The answer here is every day.

 

8) She needs an interpreter because she just (emigrated/immigrated) from Mexico and doesn’t speak English.

You emigrate when exiting a country. You immigrate when coming into a country. See a pattern here with those initial letters? Emigrate, exit. Immigrate, in.

So what’s the answer?

The lady in question emigrated (exited) from Mexico.

 

9) Did you feel the accident was (eminent/imminent/immanent) or were you completely unaware that it was going to happen? 

According to Merriam-Webster, eminent means well-known, imminent refers to something about to happen, and immanent is something inherent or present within.

Maybe it was an eminent diplomat who immanently knew the accident was imminent.

 

10) The students went on a trip to the state (capital/capitol) last week.

Use capital when referring to the primary city in a country, province, region, or state, which is usually (but not always) the seat of the government.

The capital of Oregon is Salem.

Capital can also mean the money that a person or business has in their possession. It refers to the letter that starts a proper noun or sentence. Oh! And one more–it can also refer to a severe type of crime, which can result in the death penalty.

Use capitol with an “o” when referring to a building that holds a government’s legislative branch.

Capitol Hill is where the United States Congress regularly convenes.

 

And that’s all for now, fellow transcriptionists! How did you do, honestly? What grammar mistakes trip you up regularly? Leave a note in the comments and let us know!

 

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Top 5 Ways to Prevent Eye Strain as a Transcriptionist

/3 Comments/in , /by Karla Ellison

Are you damaging your eyes when you transcribe?

As a transcriptionist, you spend hours staring at your computer monitor without even thinking about the potential health consequences. You’re too laser-focused on listening and transcribing the right information. But while your diligence helps you finish your work quickly and accurately, you could be damaging your eyes in the process.

Why?

You’re staring at your computer monitor (and other digital screens) too much. The distance from your monitor, screen glare, existing vision problems, and—a reason many people don’t realize—blue wavelength light emitted from LED (light emitting diode) monitors, all contribute to eye strain, or computer vision syndrome. According to WebMD there is evidence blue light could lead to permanent vision changes, such as  age-related macular degeneration.

Also, research reported by WebMD indicates that, “somewhere between 50% and 90% of people who work at a computer screen have at least some symptoms of computer vision syndrome (CVS).” These symptoms may include: blurry or double vision, dryness, redness, headaches, and neck and back pain.

With this in mind, what can you do to help keep your eyes healthy as you transcribe?

Here are five tips for reducing eye strain.

Top 5 Ways to Prevent Eye Strain as a Transcriptionist

 

1) Visit your Eye Doctor.

“As more people spend their days at work on a computer and their free time on handheld devices, we are seeing more patients who are experiencing digital eye strain,” says Andrea P. Thau, O.D., president of the American Optometric Association (AOA). “The problem can be relieved by taking simple steps, and the first step is to have an in-person comprehensive eye exam with a doctor of optometry and discuss your screen time at home and at work.”

When you visit your eye doctor, you’ll learn the current status of your vision health. Your optometrist can also provide recommendations on the latest, anti-glare and lens technology for your specific needs.

 

2) Take Breaks Every 20 Minutes.

Look away from your computer screen at least every 20 minutes. Close your eyes and rest them for a few minutes. Also, glance around the room. Many people use the easy-to-remember 20-20-20 rule of looking away from their monitor every 20 minutes and staring at an object that’s 20 feet away for 20 seconds.

During your breaks, it’s also a good idea to get out of your seat and walk around. Try to go outside, get a breath of fresh air and focus your eyes on something off in the distance.

Your body and mind will appreciate the change of scenery. Then, you can go back to work feeling more refreshed. And if you have trouble taking breaks, set an alarm on your phone or use a simple kitchen timer to remind you that it’s time to rest your eyes.

3) Keep Your Eyes Lubricated.

When you transcribe, it can be easy to look at a computer monitor and avoid blinking for long periods of time. Staring causes eye strain and dryness. Because of this, try to blink often and keep your eyes lubricated. You can buy lubricating eye drops at your local store. Just be sure to check with your doctor first to see what is best for you.

For additional help, learn more about dry eye care at DryEyeZone.com. You’ll want to know what you are putting in your eyes to avoid allergic reactions and any other potential discomforts.

4) Cut the Glare, Evaluate Lighting.

 When you transcribe, create lighting conditions that work best for your eyes. Take some time to review your office environment.

Does it seem too dark or light in the room?

Is your monitor too bright?

The lighting around you should not be too bright, and you should not see any bright light glare on the computer screen. In addition, it is suggested that you make sure that the computer monitor screen isn’t backed to a bright window or facing a bright window so the screen looks washed out (use a shade or drapes to control window brightness).

Glare filters can also be purchased to put on your monitor.

5) Adjust Your Monitor Placement.

When you evaluate the lighting, also look at where your monitor is in relation to your body and head. The AOA recommends that you, “Sit a comfortable distance from the computer monitor where you can easily read all text with your head and torso in an upright posture and your back supported by your chair. Generally, the preferred viewing distance is between 20 and 28 inches from the eye to the front surface of the screen.”

Once you have your monitor in the appropriate position, test it. See how you feel after a day of transcribing. If you feel any strain or pain, make additional adjustments and test it again. Continue making changes to your setup until you find a position that is comfortable and decreases any unnecessary strain on your body and eyes.

 

Keep Your Eyes Healthy While You Transcribe.

The Vision Council indicates that 65% of Americans experience digital eye strain. To have healthier eyes while you transcribe, follow the tips above. Get a comprehensive eye exam, take breaks, lubricate your eyes, and review your workstation. Then, you’ll be able to avoid unnecessary eye strain and complete your transcription projects in a healthier work environment.

 

Time Management Tips for Freelancers

/3 Comments/in , , /by Tyler Marshall

Time is money, and when you work from home, time is almost as good as gold. Time to be productive and stay focused. Time to get all your household to-dos done. Time to pay attention to loved ones. Time to get your administrative work done. And time for downtime; remember, those hours where you don’t have to worry about deadlines, clients, past-due invoices, or work, commonly known as nights and weekends. When you’re freelancing, the temptation to work late and start early is always there and time management quickly becomes crucial for creating and maintaining a balanced life, with room for both  work and play.

Working from home can be a very satisfying and rewarding endeavor. It can also be overwhelming. When you need to get a handle on your time to work profitably and productively, you need more than a hope and a prayer. What you need is a plan.

There are different distractions and challenges for those who work from home. Rather than meetings, deadline-driven project work, the boss’s demands, and competitive co-workers, domestic concerns tend to creep in. I know I’ve struggled with this before. It’s great to be working from home and avoiding a long commute, BUT the dog has to be walked, friends stop by unexpectedly, lunch breaks turn into a two-hour Netflix binges… the point is, working from home creates many, many more opportunities for distraction. When you’re a freelancer, other people aren’t around to keep you on your toes like there are at the office.

So where to start? How do you gain control of your time and make sure distractions don’t ruin your productivity?

 

Set a Work Schedule

Have you ever stayed up until the wee hours of the morning working? Have you set your alarm and your programmable coffee pot three hours before everyone else in the house wakes up to squeeze in extra work time? Have you locked yourself in a room for three days straight for a big push either when you got behind or had extra work to do?

Stop right now and decide what your ideal work schedule is. Most employers have schedule policies and set up their work environments by shifts to get the most productivity from their workforce. You can do the same when you’re freelancing. Do you want to work first, second, or third shift? Is the standard nine-to-five work day a good fit for what you do or would another schedule be a better fit? Give yourself a set schedule, including breaks and lunch hour, just like an employer would. Make sure you build in enough time for family, fun, and sleep. Give yourself a set schedule and get control of your work week.

 

Get App Happy

Need to get better at time management? There’s an app for that. Or rather, there are a TON of apps for that. Take a look at these, pick the one you like best, and start using it:

  • RescueTime – Monitor how you spend your time so you can see how you’re spending your time, block out chunks of time for specific activities, and get a handle on how you work at home so you don’t lose one more minute.
  • TimeBloc – This app helps you block your day into multiple events and is designed to streamline your time blocking experience.
  • Focus Booster – Track time for profitable tasks with Focus Booster’s user-friendly dashboards, set timers for breaks, and get total at-a-glance visibility of your time with easy reports.
  • Focus Keeper – Helps you keep your productivity high, avoiding burnout using the timer. Work with time, not against it!
  • Emergent Task Planner – Just can’t give up the pen and paper for electronic time management? Don’t worry. Emergent Task Planner lets you write down your tasks and activities so you don’t forget anything and can block off segments of time for work.

 

Noise Helps

Think of all the things that distract you when you work at home. Unless you have constructed a completely sound-proof room for working in, you’re at the mercy of concentration-breaking noise like the phone ringing, the doorbell, television, people talking in other parts of the house, and any other activities outside of your work space. These can all make you take much longer to complete work than if you didn’t hear them and get interrupted. When you need to focus on the task at hand, noise-cancelling headphones or white noise can be great ways to help you tune out background noise and tune in to your work.

 

Get Out of the House

Sometimes freelancing from home just doesn’t work. You might be stuck in some bad habits, such as breaking for your favorite talk show or stopping every time your kids have a question. If you find yourself losing too much time every day, pack up your laptop or tablet and head out to your local library or coffee shop for some quality work time. A change of scenery can be a real refresher, new source of creativity, and good focusing tool. It gives you a break from the distractions at home and lets you re-focus all of your attention on the work.

Some work requires more focused attention without surrounding noise and interruptions. For example, if you’re a graphic designer, background music may actually be a good thing and help your creativity. But for transcriptionists,  music might be the enemy because there’s a significant amount of listening and focused attention required, and music could make it more difficult to hear the audio you’re transcribing.

 

Useful Books

Books are also a great source of inspiration and ideas for increasing your productivity. Read a couple of these top-selling books on the topic to get started:

  • “15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management” by Kevin Kruse
  • “ Scrum – The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time” by Jeff Sutherland
  • “The Productivity Project: Accomplishing More by Managing Your Time, Attention, and Energy” by Chris Bailey

 

Freelancing is a wonderful thing, but it comes with unique challenges, particularly around time management. You and you alone are responsible for starting on time, getting work done, putting in the hours, and getting paid. That makes time management all the more important for those who work at home. Don’t waste any more time. Put these time management tips into practice right now and see how much more productive you are this week. Start with a list of your biggest time-wasters and go after them with some or all of the tips described above and see what a difference it makes.

How To Speed Up Your Transcription Turnaround Time (TAT)

/28 Comments/in , /by Karla Ellison

Turnaround time (TAT) is a big deal for transcriptionists. The more you can increase your transcription speed, the more you can make as a freelance transcriptionist. Quick turnaround times also make you more attractive to employers and clients.

But, how can you work faster?

One of the more common myths about transcription turnaround times is that typing speed is the biggest factor in how fast you transcribe. Sure, being a hunt and peck typist isn’t going to help you. And it seems logical to say that a speedy typist should automatically be capable of a shorter transcription TAT.

But it’s not the case.

Why?

Because most online transcription jobs require far more than just typing. They also involve listening, research, comprehension, mind reading (wait, was that my outside voice?) and the ability to handle all of those things at once without missing a beat.

According to TypingPal, the average typing speed is 40 wpm. This would translate to roughly 4-8 time the length of the recording, depending on various factors.

So, let’s take a look at six real factors that might affect your transcription job turnaround speed. First, we’ll touch on factors that are important to understand, but outside your control. Then we’ll look at what you can actually do to improve your transcript turnaround time.

 

6 turnaround time factors outside your control

1) The number of speakers

A one-speaker file is generally easier to transcribe than one with many participants. Having said that, there are always exceptions. For instance, if someone is speaking fast, has a heavy accent and is discussing highly technical terminology, you’ll spend longer transcribing the document.

2) The audio quality

Obviously, subpar audio quality requires continual rewinding and re-listening to understand what is being said. The better the audio quality, the better shot you’ll have at a shorter transcription turnaround time.

3) How fast the speakers are talking

This is another one of those factors that’s outside your control that you might not have considered. You can’t control how quickly people speak. Consider the difference between a slow, clear speaker who takes long pauses versus an auctioneer. Guess which one will be faster for you to transcribe?

And fast isn’t always better. Consider the case of Coach Bobby Bowden who was called “the toughest man to transcribe in all of sports.” He spoke at 350 words per minute. Yikes!

4) The time it takes to proof a transcript

Checking for accuracy is a must. Many transcriptionists proof as they go and then do a final once-over to catch anything they might have missed.

Others proof to audio, meaning they listen through an entire file a second (or third) time while looking over their completed transcript to weed out any remaining errors.

Either way, proofing takes time and has to be figured into your overall turnaround ratio.

And make sure your headphones aren’t making proofing more difficult than necessary.

5) The amount of research required

No matter what type of transcription job you have, some degree of research will always be necessary.

If you’re working with highly technical material and have to stop every other word to look up unfamiliar terminology, that 10-minute file might well take you over an hour to complete—regardless of your experience.

Familiarity is the key to efficiency, so if you run into many of the same terms and phrases repeatedly in your online transcription job (as is often the case with insurance transcription), consider yourself lucky. You’ll be in an excellent position to create shortcuts and enhance your productivity.

6) The transcription style

Think about the different types of transcription styles out there—clean-read verbatim versus verbatim versus non-verbatim…and the list goes on.

It might seem that having to capture every utterance or sound would be more time consuming than being able to breeze along and leave those things out of the transcript. But, that’s not always the case. Creating a clean-read transcript from audio that is chock-full of false starts and tangents can be arduous as well, creating a drag on your transcript turnaround time.

Yes, there are many factors in your transcription job that are simply outside your control when you receive an audio file, but the good news is that there ARE steps you can take to improve your turnaround time.

 

3 Ways to speed up your turnaround time

1) Use transcription productivity tools to increase your output

One of the simplest ways to improve at your online transcription job is by utilizing Word’s AutoCorrect or Macro features. Word expander software such as Instant Text or Shorthand can also greatly increase your productivity and reduce your turnaround time. And a foot pedal is a must-have.

2) Practice with dialects and accents

There are many dialects and accents out there. If you’re not personally familiar with them, it’s hard to know if you’re hearing what you think you’re hearing. Ear training comes with practice. But, in the meantime, it can slow you down.

The International Dialects of English Archive (IDEA) website has an extensive, freely-accessible database of audio and corresponding transcripts, covering English-language dialects and accents as heard around the world. Here you’ll find a huge inventory of audio categorized by a person’s original language. You can listen to the speaker audio while viewing the transcribed text. Practicing here can help you improve your ear—and your transcript turnaround time.

3) Improve your office ergonomics

Your neck and shoulders ache, you have an eyestrain migraine, and your wrists zing every time you strike a key on that keyboard. Needless to say, if your setup isn’t ergonomically sound and you’re feeling discomfort, you might find it hard to be productive and efficient.

If you’re interested in making ergonomic improvements to your workspace setup, check out our post about transcriptionist ergonomics for work-from-home transcriptionists.

One more bonus tip—don’t give up!

When I was first starting out as a transcriptionist, I was extremely fortunate to have a wonderful professional mentor whose wise words I’ve never forgotten. I experienced a very rough first day at my transcription job in which my turnaround time was way too embarrassing to divulge here.

I felt like I was never going to be able to do this transcription thing!

She told me that even very experienced transcriptionists, when faced with a new job, account, or type of transcription, felt just like I did that day—as if they’re starting all over. She explained that it came with the territory, that the speed and efficiency would come with familiarity and time, and that there would always be days like this. But there would also be much, much better days.

In that moment, instead of feeling inadequate and awful, I felt hopeful. She was right. And her advice still holds true to this day.

 

So, what TAT should you aim for?

Shoot for a 4:1 or 3:1 transcript turnaround time

There is no hard and fast rule for how long any given unit of audio will take a transcriptionist to complete. Many transcriptionists, myself included, shoot for a 4:1 or 3:1 TAT, finishing an hour of audio in three to four hours. But that’s an average—sometimes you’ll have files you can complete in less time, and sometimes, you’ll just have one of those days. Just remember, the more experience you gain, the more efficient you’ll become overall.

So let’s hear from you now. What’s your average transcript turnaround time?

Work at Home Transcription Jobs: How to Create a Successful Work Environment

/18 Comments/in , /by Allegis

With advances in technology and social media today, freelancing and work-from-home opportunities are available to more people than ever before. This applies especially to transcription work. The advantages can’t be denied. Independence, a more comfortable, low-stress work environment, and flexible work hours that may not be available with traditional work arrangements.

There are a few things you need to work at home successfully. You need to create a comfortable and well-equipped home office or work area to do your best work. Freelance transcription jobs require a dedicated space for a computer, to plan work schedules, and to perform transcription work. You need to approach your home work space with comfort, productivity, functionality, and flexibility in mind.

You can spend as much or as little on your home office setup as you want to, but you don’t have to spend a lot of money to create a comfortable and supportive space for your work. Think about how your ideal work space would look and feel if you were to work in an office every day.

Here are some tips for preparing a home office that meets your business needs when you will be doing freelance transcription.

Find a Dedicated Space

At home transcription jobs require listening and concentration to be able to do a good job, so a dedicated work space is essential.  Look for a clear area without clutter where you can close the door to prevent background noise and interruptions. Noise can be a real problem when you do transcription work at home, so choose an area where you can minimize background noise.

If you have an extra room you can use just for your transcription work space, that’s ideal. A separate, dedicated area of the home used solely for work purposes might even qualify you for a home office tax deduction. If an extra room isn’t an option, consider converting part of a den or a basement that doesn’t get a lot of use into your workspace.

Furniture

If you’ve done any kind of work at a desk for more than a few hours at a stretch, you know that your chair can become your best friend or your worst enemy. There are documented risks of sitting for long periods of time, and the popular media reports that “sitting is the new smoking.”  The Mayo Clinic recommends offsetting sedentary work any way possible. A standing desk is an ideal option for many office workers, but unfortunately won’t work for transcriptionists. This means it’s especially important for transcriptionists to get as much time out of the chair during the work week as possible. Make it a point to get up and move around every 30 minutes or after every two transcripts, for example.

Your office chair is an incredibly important piece of furniture for work-at-home jobs. Get the most comfortable chair you can find and afford; it’s worth every penny. Make sure it provides good lower back support as well. You may be tempted to skimp, but if you experience any back pain or leg or neck cramps, your chair is probably the culprit. Chiropractor Rodney Lefler says to look for a chair with height adjustment so your feet can be flat on the floor. He recommends a 17 to 20 inch wide seat, adjustable lumbar support and back rest, and a well-padded seat.

The Right Lighting

The right location and the proper furniture are both key components of comfortable, productive home work spaces. But lighting is critical to doing great transcription work and preventing eye strain. Don’t try to work in a dark corner of the house and expect to do your best work. Straining to see in dim light, looking at digital screens, and reading without pausing to rest your eyes are all described by the Mayo Clinic as causes of eye strain.

If possible, set up your work space near a window to get natural light. Natural lighting is always a good source of energy and will keep you positive and productive while working. It will save you money on electricity too.

If natural light is not an option, make sure you have bright overhead light so you can see well. If you can afford it, use full spectrum lighting for your work space. It reduces eye strain, gives better color perception, and mimics natural light so it may have a positive effect on how you feel. You might even consider getting a small therapeutic lamp like this one from Sphere Gadget Technologies. It’s great for relieving the winter blues when many (especially out here in the Northwest) are affected by Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

Organization and Decoration

Physical comfort and location are primary concerns for home work space setup. But a close second is organization and decoration. Hopefully, you are not stuck in a cramped corner of your home with inappropriate furniture and a blank wall. This will affect you negatively, both in mindset and ability to do your best work comfortably and easily.

Once you have a dedicated work space with accommodating furniture and lighting, think about how you will organize your work and decorate your space. What colors do you want around you? Color affects your mood and productivity level. Blue can encourage productivity and green offers a sense of balance (seriously, it CAN make a difference. Read more about it here). Consider painting your workspace area.

Where do you want to put your equipment and accessories like calendar, planning notebook, phone, computer, and pens? Do you have any favorite artwork that you’d like in your space? Houseplants? Family photos? Think about the things that are most important to have around you while you work and arrange them within sight but not in the way of the work you will do.

Online Research Tools for Transcriptionists

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Using Research Techniques to Improve Your Transcription Accuracy

What if I told you that Google can make you a better transcriptionist? Google, along with other online research tools, is an excellent tool for getting answers and clarity in a matter of seconds.

Let’s take the example of homonyms. Homonyms are words with different meanings that sound the same, like “blue” and “blew”, or “minor” and “miner”.  It is usually possible to determine meaning based on the context of the conversation. But this is not always the case.

For transcriptionists, sometimes it’s more efficient to use outside references to infer meaning than trying to decide simply by listening and considering context. For example, if someone says the name of a retail store at the scene of an accident but the name is inaudible, you can use Google maps street view to survey the scene and discover what retail location is likely being referenced.

It is the transcriptionist’s job to maintain accuracy in transcribing, even if the audio sometimes does not contain the precise information. So, online research tools can help you increase your accuracy and even help to save you wasted time replaying the audio over and over. Researching, just like any skill, improves the more you practice. What follows are some best practices in the art of using online tools for research.

The Critical Tools – The Top Three

There are many research tools out there (please leave a comment if you employ tools not mentioned here), but simplest is usually best. Most transcriptionists can get by with these three tools:

  1. Search engines (Google, etc.)
  2. Maps (Google Maps, Maps for iOS, etc.)
  3. White pages (old-fashioned name/address/phone listings)

Search Engines

The following online research tools and tips for transcriptionists can be generalized to other search engines (like Bing), but Google is the biggest and by far the most commonly used, so for purposes of this article we will focus on Google.

For Google and other search engines, there are an array of syntax-based search parameters (i.e., how you type things in the search box) that are very useful, but many people don’t know about them. These are useful to anyone, but especially so to transcriptionists, because speed and accuracy is critical. If you hone these basic skills, you will start to notice that you are shaving time off your turnaround time. Let’s begin with Google search basics:

  1. Use quotes for an exact phrase match: Google will look for all the words you type in the search box, and won’t pay much attention to the order. If you search for Bob’s Auto Repair, you may get results about car repair, cars, and people named Bob. So, if you are searching for something very specific, you can waste time sifting through irrelevant results. By putting the phrase in quotes, you are telling Google to find only that exact phrase and nothing else.

Tip: If you want Google to search for the exact phrase you type in the box (and ignore everything else), put the phrase in quotes.

 

2. Use a colon to target specific domains or sites: Sometimes you want to search only a specific website or web domain. If you are looking for “angioplasty”, and you know the information is somewhere on the WebMD website, you would type “angioplasty :webmd.com”

Tip: Use a colon to narrow your search to a specific website or web domain.

 

3. Use a minus sign to eliminate useless results: if you were searching for a street called Pennsylvania Ave, but you are not looking for the famous one in Washington DC, you could enter “Pennsylvania Ave –Washington” to get much more useful results.

Tip: use a minus sign indicate a “negative keyword” for anything you don’t want in your search results.


4. Use “define” or “synonym” to quickly research unfamiliar words: Google can quickly tell you what a word means, and serve as a handy (and very fast) dictionary. Simply type “define:” or “synonym:” before the word you want to define.

Tip: to quickly define a word, prepend your search with “define:” or “synonym:”

 

 

Google-Specific Tips

For transcriptionists, there are a couple of specific Google tricks for online research you will find especially useful:

  1. Google a location: One very useful Google trick for transcriptionists is to Google a location.  If you are an insurance transcriptionist, this is especially helpful. Often you will hear references to a location that are not exactly precise and/or not easily audible. Google search (this works for search or Google Maps) can quickly help you narrow down the possibilities.  For example, if you hear something that sounds like “the corner of Maple and Main, you can quickly enter that phrase into Google along with the city name to zero in on that location. If that location doesn’t exist (you heard it wrong or the speaker had it wrong), Google will give you alternatives that are similar or sound alike.

Tip: Google a location to help you ensure accuracy and quickly access additional information.

 

2. Filter out old results: Google typically returns results from “all time”, meaning that something written 20 years ago, may be included. This will often needlessly cloud search results for transcriptionists. If you want results from a specific time period, select the “search tools” link (see image, below) and you can choose a specific time frame for your results.

Tip: Set a time frame to save time searching only relevant results.

 

Maps

Again, we are going to recommend Google maps here. There are other outstanding map tools, so if you have another favorite, some or all of these online research tips should still apply. But Google Maps and Google search are integrated, so using them together speeds things up considerably and makes researching easier and faster. In transcription, you will often hear references to landmarks (e.g., “across from the drug store, etc.). Using maps is an efficient way to get or confirm accurate information about a location. Here are a few useful tips:

  1. Use street view to find a business: if a business name is referenced in the audio file but the name was inaudible, you can often find it if you know the general location. Google “street view” is a handy tool that lets you visually search a location at street level.

Tip: Use street view to visually explore a location.


2. Use “time travel” to find defunct businesses: if you need to find the name of a company that is no longer in business, you can use the time travel function in Google Maps Street View to go back in time and see what was at a location at a previous time. Of course, it only goes back to 2007, but it can be extremely useful.

Tip: Use street view “time travel” feature to find places that are no longer in business.

 

3. If you need to refer back to previously used maps – access your Google Maps history: If you need to quickly return to a map you accessed previously, Google makes this easy by keeping track of your history. You can access your history by hitting the menu button to the left of the search box, and scrolling down to “history” at the bottom of the menu.

Tip: use your Google Map history if you need to revisit a map.

4. Use “near” search: if you think something is in a general area, you can focus the map on a location and search for nearby businesses. You can also enter search phrases like “find an auto repair business near the intersection of California St. and Van Ness St.”

Tip: Use “near” search to search a specific area.

 

White Pages

Often the simplest approach is best. White pages listings can be one of the best online research tools to help you find correct information or fill in information gaps about people while transcribing. This can be as simple as finding a correct address, or as complicated as figuring out if a person is still living. If you find that research is a key tool for you, you should consider a premium White Pages subscription – it’s affordable and may pay for itself with the time it saves you. Here are a few key ways to improve your White Pages results:

  1. Use advanced search (premium feature): enter everything you know about a person you are researching. The more you enter, the better your results.

2. Use reverse search: sometimes the address of the person may be clear in the audio file but not the name. In that case, you can reverse search an address to find a current resident.

3. Use friends and family search (premium feature) – if you know family members or associates, you can search for those people to find your subject person.

 
Conclusion

Like many things, these online research methods for transcriptionists take time to perfect, but the time you’ll save in the future makes it well worth the current time investment. Over time, these methods will become second nature. The best way to learn these kinds of skills is through repetition and habituation. Employ these methods to augment your research and they will become natural to you so you can move faster and earn money at a higher rate.

Do you have any tools, tips, or tricks that you use? Please share in the comments.

Allegis Legal Transcription Services

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The Role of a Legal Transcriptionist in the Court System

1) Clarity

Witnesses who backtrack in an interview, deposition or even on the stand can be effectively contradicted, thanks to the use of legal transcripts based on audio recordings. The entire premise of “I didn’t say that…” in a courtroom becomes a moot point because the judge can rely on a fuller, clearer record of the audio playback. While some court reporters may have captured the goings-on in a courtroom through their records, there is always a chance that they may have heard incorrectly. Transcripts based on audio recordings effectively eliminate the question of validity entirely.

For their part, legal transcriptionists using digital audio recordings can go back, review the incident as many times as needed and capture all of the spoken words, isolating different players in a deposition or courtroom and assigning them a role in the transcribed document with clarity.

2) Transparency

There are several cases where transcripts based on audio recordings have helped further the aims of transparency that court reporting, in general, is supposed to provide to a citizenry.

In other words, it keeps things honest. Governing bodies can also use the transcripts of recordings to verify judges’ behavior, using them wherever there is a question of a judge’s integrity, or a chance for corruption and misconduct.

Accountability is a direct consequence of increased transparency. With clear digital recordings and accurate transcripts, trial participants can expect access to these recordings with increased speed. This makes transcripts from digitally recorded proceedings a highly useful tool for verification.

3) Improving access to justice

Appellate courts obviously stand the most to gain from clear, transparent and accessible transcripts. When a case is appealed, a defendant needs to have access to an official record of the court proceedings relating to their trial.

This goes double if the trial is lengthy and unfolds over a period of years. Procuring court reporters’ official written transcripts is both a time-consuming and expensive process, slowing both the defendant’s search for justice as well as the judicial process as a whole.

Digital recordings and transcripts offer courts the ability to export digital media files and documents that are ready for review faster, with greater accuracy. This fast procurement allows other tangentially-related players — such as media reporters covering a case for citizen knowledge — a well-expedited process.

Courts are always in control of their files and transcripts but accessing these files — for journalists and laypeople — can be a streamlined process.

4) A fuller picture for juries

In State v. Olkon, a Minnesota case that involved Ellis Olkon and two counts of conspiracy to commit theft, the jury had to follow a cautionary instruction on the use of transcripts of audio recordings.

Essentially, if juries wish to listen to audio recordings during deliberations, they have to be returned to the courtroom and furnished with the transcript of the recording so they can consult this transcript while audio playback is occurring (Minn. Crim. R. Pro. 26.03, subd. 20(2) (b)).