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blueblaze posted:I'm working on this at the moment, but I'm full of questions. The instructions say to paraphrase all of the interviewer's questions, but what do I keep and what do I leave out? Does something like "perfect guys, let's get started" stay? Paraphrasing means you can cut down something like, "Well, when you went down to the -- wait, was it the store or the school? When you went down to the store, um, what did you see?" to "When you went down to the store, what did you see?" Basically, don't worry about getting the interviewer verbatim, just get the gist of the questions he asks. Slang just means change "gonna" into "going to", etc. unless the person is very, very obviously speaking in a dialect. Names and places means if you can't identify a name or place, you can spell it out phonetically. Like, if a respondent mentioned Leicester, and you didn't know where that was/what that referred to, you'd put [LESTER] in the transcript there. (I don't currently work for DT, so I can't recall exactly how they want you to notate phonetics, there should be something in the instructions.) As for time coding, I don't use Express Scribe so I'm not much help there -- one of the programs they give you should allow you to place time codes in your document. They should look something like [00:01:10]. You want one of these at every answer, and if someone goes on for more than about 30 seconds you want to drop another one. Someone who's taken the test recently might be able to help you a bit with the technical issues.
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Apr 27, 2013 06:00
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Test things for DT: timecode adjustments are a bitch in Express Scribe. To be honest, I did all of mine by hand when I did the test. Also, realmedia is a pain in the rear end to use in pretty much any transcription program, in my experience. Inqscribe, as I recall, rejects it outright, and that's the one that actually does decent timecoding/offset. As for accuracy, you only need the first three frames [00:00:00]. Also-- kazmeyer posted:Hate, hate, hate those jobs. The good news is, once you get experience and more clients, you can tell them to get stuffed when they send you junk like that. Being able to cherrypick transcription work really makes the job worthwhile. Yeah, I did the 'not really go-getter' move of taking on pretty much all the hard to understand files without complaint  , and now I'm getting them all the time. I mean, granted, it's a good thing in that I haven't seen anything below a .70/min gig for months now, but see above on 'all the time.' Still poking them about As Broadcast work, too. We'll see how that goes. I'll just hope I didn't shove myself into the 'bad audio bitch' category on accident. v  v
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Apr 27, 2013 09:30
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An Old Boot posted:Test things for DT: timecode adjustments are a bitch in Express Scribe. To be honest, I did all of mine by hand when I did the test. Also, realmedia is a pain in the rear end to use in pretty much any transcription program, in my experience. Inqscribe, as I recall, rejects it outright, and that's the one that actually does decent timecoding/offset. There's a lot of programs out there that will convert to .mov or .mp4, which InqScribe handles beautifully. Jodix makes a suite, XVID4PSP works a treat, Handbrake, etc.
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Apr 27, 2013 10:47
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blueblaze posted:I'm working on this at the moment, but I'm full of questions. The instructions say to paraphrase all of the interviewer's questions, but what do I keep and what do I leave out? Does something like "perfect guys, let's get started" stay? Awww, I just wanna hug you! If it says verbatim, you do verbatim. Paraphrase so you get what they're asking. Just rewrite the question so yuo know what they're trying to say. Simple as. And...wow I couldn't make express scribe do video. For some reason it gets very angry. Download InqScribe and use that. And don't panic! Being anal about verbatim is good.  Sounds like you're doing everything you can to do the test well. Just do what you can and remember, you will not be given audio like this from them, they're just testing you for worst case scenario. You might see worse, but usually it'll be a lot better.
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Apr 27, 2013 17:49
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Omits-Bagels posted:I have a bit of an odd question... does anyone work with Demand Media? USA Today Travel publishes articles that were written by Demand Media and in one article they linked to my website. I saw a rise in traffic after it was posted and I'd be nice to get linked to more often. Are there specific writers who focus on travel writing or are all the articles written by random authors. Anyone know who I can contact? Find other travel bloggers and travel sites, connect with them online and see if they will let you write a post for them. The more internet friends you have writing in a similar topic, the more chances you have of being asked to write an article, get a article accepted on another site or be linked to. There is no fast way, unless you want to pay for links and that can get you in trouble fast.
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Apr 28, 2013 17:31
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Transcriptionists, please weigh in, Final Draft, it's expensive, do I need it? I only ask because the last time prorpietary software was insisted upon, it was Transcriber 2, which I hate with a fiery passion, but InqScribe usually picks up the correct time codes for those files. I know this is different, but really, is this something I should invest in? Is there something else that will create these types of files and do this same thing? For background the license is $249.
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Apr 29, 2013 03:53
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What are you doing that requires Final Draft? A script-style ABS? If they give you a formatted Word file, you should be able to use the Styles panel to get everything to look right.
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Apr 29, 2013 06:57
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Slightly Used Cake posted:Awww, I just wanna hug you! If it says verbatim, you do verbatim. Paraphrase so you get what they're asking. Just rewrite the question so yuo know what they're trying to say. Simple as. And...wow I couldn't make express scribe do video. For some reason it gets very angry. Download InqScribe and use that. And don't panic! Being anal about verbatim is good. Hey thanks! do you have email? Since I can't pm you, I'd love to ask you a few questions, seeing as you're Canadian and all.
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Apr 29, 2013 17:21
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I just had Lionbridge accept me into the training and online seminar, only to then not contact me for two weeks. Today I got an email saying they were already at capacity and wouldn't be needing me. What?
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Apr 29, 2013 19:43
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Don't take that personally, I had something similiar happen with them a few weeks back. I've already worked for a couple of these type of companies in the past. In my experience, the work was never steady. I just looked at it as extra income when it was around.
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Apr 29, 2013 19:48
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blueblaze posted:Hey thanks! do you have email? Since I can't pm you, I'd love to ask you a few questions, seeing as you're Canadian and all. Sure hun, just [username]@gmail.com :-) dunno how helpful I can be, but anything I can answer I will. Goes for anyone else. Kaz: Dunno, DT Sally was just checking to see if people had the software and were familiar with it, no idea of the context, but yeah it might have been from a doc or something hard to say, there's been a little bit of hard copy converting to digital this last week, I guess they're branching out, I assumed it had more to do with Final Draft doing all the formatting for you so there was no guess work. To be fair when I watched a tutorial on it I realized how little I know about script formatting and if I was going to pic up those kinds of jobs it would probably save a lot of headaches, I just didn't know if it was the kind of specialized software that pays for itself generally in the business or if it would just be a shiny add-on.
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Apr 29, 2013 20:37
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DT has done script-style ABS in the past, mostly through HBO (I used to work on Game of Thrones, Eastbound and Down, and The Newsroom) but it was all handled through Word. Basically, I'd do this in Inqscribe: EXT. FOREST / DAY JON SNOW runs through the forest. JON (dialogue) and then go back in and apply styles to each line to get it tabbed and spaced like a proper script. A bit of a hassle on the back end, but doable for the amount of money HBO pays. I guess plugging the raw text into Final Draft might even allow it to auto-format, but I could see it being just as much of a pain in the rear end as anything else. Who knows. (If I could stay on DT's payroll and do nothing but HBO work I'd do it in a second.)
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Apr 29, 2013 21:06
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kazmeyer posted:DT has done script-style ABS in the past, mostly through HBO (I used to work on Game of Thrones, Eastbound and Down, and The Newsroom) but it was all handled through Word. Basically, I'd do this in Inqscribe: Goddammit! I didn't want to ask because I knew you would say HBO...well poo poo...guess I better learn that format.
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Apr 29, 2013 21:24
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Slightly Used Cake posted:Goddammit! I didn't want to ask because I knew you would say HBO...well poo poo...guess I better learn that format. Script-style isn't terribly common; I think there's been one other client I've had that's used script-style ABS outside of HBO. But it's good to learn how to do, just so you can list it on your resume. The vast majority of ABS work these days (that I've seen) has been technical or three-column style, or some variation thereof.
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Apr 30, 2013 05:42
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Slightly Used Cake posted:Transcriptionists, please weigh in, Final Draft, it's expensive, do I need it? I only ask because the last time prorpietary software was insisted upon, it was Transcriber 2, which I hate with a fiery passion, but InqScribe usually picks up the correct time codes for those files. I know this is different, but really, is this something I should invest in? Is there something else that will create these types of files and do this same thing? For background the license is $249. Okay, I was recently sent Transcriber 2 to play around with so I can let the client know if I want to take jobs using it. I can't seem to get the shortcut for pasting a timecode to work when using it in the background. I've tried using a couple of different text editors, but they don't want to recognize the shortcut. The pedal works fine, though. Can anyone chime in on this? Pretty soon we're going to need our own thread for all of this transcription talk, ha.
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Apr 30, 2013 13:17
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If you take transcription talk to another thread, this one won't have any posts! I mean it basically boils down to writing, leapforce and co, and transcription. And transcription is the one that generates the most questions and the most stability for those of you doing it. Heck, I'm tempted to try it out myself at some point. I just have lovely ears and my listening comprehension is awful.
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Apr 30, 2013 19:28
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Omits-Bagels posted:I have a bit of an odd question... does anyone work with Demand Media? USA Today Travel publishes articles that were written by Demand Media and in one article they linked to my website. I saw a rise in traffic after it was posted and I'd be nice to get liked to more often. Are there specific writers who focus on travel writing or are all the articles written by random authors. Anyone know who I can contact? A lot of it is networking and creeping (figuring out who someone is, striking up a relationship) but I highly suggest joining HARO. http://www.helpareporter.com/
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May 1, 2013 14:19
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I hate Microsoft...like really I HATE Microsoft. Someone tell me please, why does my language for proofing keep reverting to Polish? I only speak English! I only proof in U.S. English!!! Gah I loving hate you Word! If you were a person I would punch you so hard! Gah! Sorry, two hours of editing line by line because it WILL NOT PROOF, it says it's set to U.S.English everywhere I can see, but then it keeps talking about the Polish tools. RAWR! Right, I'm done. God, there is not enough coffee in the world for this!
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May 1, 2013 17:18
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One thing I've learned from this business - some people have evolved to no longer need to breathe. Ugh. I'm working on a call, and I want to punch everyone on it. They speak at warp speed in massive run-on sentences, literally never pausing for breath. I wonder if any of these people hear playback of these recordings and think, "You know, I should just never talk again."
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May 1, 2013 21:27
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I'm doing the Spanish test for DT. There are parts of the video where the question is either partially cut by the editing (and the part that is there is mostly babbling) or completely cut. Should I make one up using contextual clues from the answer? Also, the instructions say to put a time code in there every 30-40 seconds if the response runs long; what's the proper format for this? Just stick it in the middle of a sentence, or add a line break? Also, I know this is kinda basic and I feel dumb, but – you're supposed to email them before you start transcribing so they can clock you, right? Just to say "hey I'm doing this" even if you're not submitting a resume?
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May 1, 2013 21:58
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If they cut a question, just don't include it. I'd drop a new time code to indicate that it was a new answer rather than just a continuation of the previous one. When breaking up a long paragraph, you should finish a sentence, add a line break, and drop a new code. So: [00:01:02] BOB: (words) [00:01:34] BOB: (words) If you can't get exactly 30-40, don't sweat it, some people run on like you won't believe. And I can't remember if you need to email them that you're taking the test or not -- it should say on their application page what they want. I think they want you to email that you're applying so they have a rough idea of how long it takes you. The timing's not a big deal as long as you don't take like more than a day to do it; if you can't turn over transcripts in 24 hours, you're not going to have a good time with the job anyway. And Crunch Bucket: Some of the bastards even speed up their tapes by 10% using software in order to try to pay less, or use voice-activated recorders so there's no pauses at all. That's why I got out of business transcription.
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May 1, 2013 23:10
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kazmeyer posted:And Crunch Bucket: Some of the bastards even speed up their tapes by 10% using software in order to try to pay less, or use voice-activated recorders so there's no pauses at all. That's why I got out of business transcription. I wish I could say what my experience with 'cutting corners' was, but that was even more NDA-based than even DT is. Christ, though, I never heard about the 10% thing, either. That's just obnoxious. As for speaking a mile a minute-- honestly, it's what's making me want to get Dragon back on my machine, and get a better microphone, which I'd recommend for other people here (if it's affordable, anyway). Most people can reliably keep pace with anywhere from 150 to 180wpm when they're revoicing, it's not difficult to get used to adding punctuation with the keyboard, etc, it'd just annoy the hell out of your roommates, if you have them.
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May 2, 2013 01:48
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An Old Boot posted:I wish I could say what my experience with 'cutting corners' was, but that was even more NDA-based than even DT is. I've been wondering about that, have you done it?
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May 2, 2013 03:22
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Thanks, kazmeyer! I've sent it out. I think I did pretty well, with the exception of one phrase near the end where I was just completely unfamiliar with the speaker's accent and it threw me off. I put my best guess in brackets, anyway. Hope it's good enough. 
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May 2, 2013 03:49
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Slightly Used Cake posted:I've been wondering about that, have you done it? Yeah, for several years, actually. It seems a little unintuitive, at first, but you can train Dragon to be incredibly responsive to your own voice, as well as tweak its on-board dictionary so that troublesome words come out correctly, an example of this being 'school' constantly coming out like 'skull' until you make the tweak that differentiates the two. I haven't worked with it directly in almost two years, though, so I'd have to get used to it again, but from what I hear, build 11 is phenomenal (I worked with ... 9, I think?). It improves speed pretty drastically when you get the hang of it, especially if you've got your hands on the keyboard to type in punctuation, or weird nouns that aren't likely to be in the dictionary (like first names, etc). I'm not sure that I'd recommend it for something like As-Broadcast, but I suppose I'd have to start doing those to get a better idea of it. :]
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May 3, 2013 23:05
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Another newbie [transcriptionist?] checking in. I'm thinking by now DT should be paying Kaz some refferal money! Only reason I considered it was due to his wealth of knowledge lying hidden in this thread. However, I was lied to, albeit slightly. Third assignment, interview from over a decade ago, voice activated recorder. I'd definitely take another DT test type poo poo-storm over this poo poo-hurricane causing all of the poo poo-moths to come out and stir the winds of poo poo. poo poo. I suppose on the bright side I don't have to TC nor transcribe ums/ahs/stutters. Anyways, just wanted to pop my head in, vent, and give thanks to kazmeyer and the various other [transcibers?] for the wonderful, informative posts.
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May 5, 2013 06:58
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Anything that's not related to the topic of the interview is [NON-INTERVIEW], right? Because I'm working on a file right now where the first several minutes involves the interviewer going over legal stuff with the interviewee (like "here's a consent form, just so you know this interview is voluntary and so you are welcome to refuse any questions that you don't feel comfortable answering," blah blah blah.) The actual interview is about some things related to a high school, so does that mean that the legal stuff in the beginning can be classified as "non-interview"? I'm assuming yes, but I would rather make sure with you guys than go ahead and discount all of that stuff as non-interview and wind up not transcribing something that I should have.
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May 7, 2013 06:23
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Budget Bears posted:Anything that's not related to the topic of the interview is [NON-INTERVIEW], right? Because I'm working on a file right now where the first several minutes involves the interviewer going over legal stuff with the interviewee (like "here's a consent form, just so you know this interview is voluntary and so you are welcome to refuse any questions that you don't feel comfortable answering," blah blah blah.) The actual interview is about some things related to a high school, so does that mean that the legal stuff in the beginning can be classified as "non-interview"? I'm assuming yes, but I would rather make sure with you guys than go ahead and discount all of that stuff as non-interview and wind up not transcribing something that I should have. Some companies will want that preamble at the beginning, some won't. You might just want to ask whoever sent you the file. I will say it's always easier to cut stuff out than to go back later and redo it.
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May 7, 2013 07:30
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Well, thanks to this thread I applied to Rev for transcription work yesterday and I'm waiting to hear back from them. I was pretty dumb though and did specify I'm not a native english speaker, because I didn't want to mess things up in case they asked for more personal information I hope that doesn't automatically disqualify me from working there since they seem to be the only place that hires non-US residents and pays via Paypal. I'm pretty sure the samples were perfect though and I've already done transcription work in english before, so let's hope they take a look at those instead of simply saying no because of the whole language thing.
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May 8, 2013 15:20
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Labradoodle posted:Well, thanks to this thread I applied to Rev for transcription work yesterday and I'm waiting to hear back from them. I was pretty dumb though and did specify I'm not a native english speaker, because I didn't want to mess things up in case they asked for more personal information Interesting, you know they also have a translation arm right?
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May 8, 2013 17:05
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I was going to say the same thing, you can probably get into translation with demonstrated english fluency and fluency in your first language.
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May 8, 2013 18:03
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I did see that, but they specify they might take a long while to get back to you when you're applying for the translation team and I figure they must have no shortage of spanish-english translators, however I'll fill out the form just in case. Besides that, I actually enjoy transcripting for some weird reason
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May 9, 2013 01:07
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Actually Spanish to English is a very common need for lot of North American companies, and a great way to get your foot in the door. And yes, good translators are ALWAYS needed.
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May 9, 2013 02:26
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Are there any other Europe/UK based writing sites like Textbroker? I submitted my test piece but only got a mediocre rating (maybe everyone gets this before they've completed a job?) and there's never any 2/3 star assignments available. Also there are some things I don't really understand about Textbroker, like that (I think) it asks you not to put examples of work that have already been published in your profile - but I don't write pieces on spec so that's impossible. Then there's the assignments that ask you to describe a trip through a country or something, presumably just by cribbing stuff from Wikipedia? I just don't understand what the point of that is. Anyway, I'd like to do some writing for someone and earn a few extra £££, if that is at all possible. Any leads? Anyone?!
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May 10, 2013 17:31
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One thing you can do on Textbroker is go through the Teams section and apply to as many of them as you can. A lot of them want you to write ~50 word samples, some are open to anyone to join, some want 4-5 star authors only. The nitpicks: there's no way to tell if the team is active without being part of it, and if it's not, your app might just sit there forever. Even the active teams might not always post assignments. That said, the base pay rate for teams is higher than the 3 star pay rate, and teams are pretty much the leading way to get an upgrade to 4 (because the 2-3 star assignments suck balls). Definitely apply to as many as you can, though. I'm only on about 29, and only three or four of them ever post anything, and I have 8 applications that haven't ever been responded to.
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May 10, 2013 21:20
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If I want to turn down a particular DT job because I won't be able to complete it by the deadline, do I need to email them saying so? I always email them a confirmation that I have received the files that they send me to transcribe, which usually says something like, "I have received file #1234 and I will be able to complete it by the deadline." To turn something down, should I email them just saying "I am unable to complete file #1234 by the deadline"?
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May 11, 2013 03:42
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Budget Bears posted:If I want to turn down a particular DT job because I won't be able to complete it by the deadline, do I need to email them saying so? I always email them a confirmation that I have received the files that they send me to transcribe, which usually says something like, "I have received file #1234 and I will be able to complete it by the deadline." To turn something down, should I email them just saying "I am unable to complete file #1234 by the deadline"? Yes, and tell them why. They'll usually email you back with a new deadline ask if you can get it done by then.
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May 11, 2013 03:52
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Yeah. If you can't accept a job for whatever reason, let them know sooner rather than later (and make a habit of downloading and checking each file as soon as you get the assignment, to head off potential problems).
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May 11, 2013 04:16
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Labradoodle posted:I did see that, but they specify they might take a long while to get back to you when you're applying for the translation team This is true of Focus Forward as well. I applied two weeks ago and have yet to hear back. Haven't heard back from DT either except for an email earlier this week telling me to wait some more. 
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May 11, 2013 16:50
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Sonata posted:This is true of Focus Forward as well. I applied two weeks ago and have yet to hear back. Haven't heard back from DT either except for an email earlier this week telling me to wait some more. This has literally been a week of "The client needs this thing right the gently caress now gah!" I don't think there's really been a lot of stuff for the newbies. It's been a lot of rush and weird formats. On a separate note completely, I'm working on a legal file, one of the attorneys sounds just like Mischa Collins doing the Castiel grumbly voice. So now I'm left picturing Castiel in an unemployment insurance hearing being a cheap two bit lawyer. It's hilarious! Am I the only one that does this? Or is this a sign I need to get out more?
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May 13, 2013 04:37
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