In general, whenever a client submits a job to us for transcription purpose, we make a commitment to the client that the transcript will be delivered with the highest possible quality, which in an ideal condition is a 100% accurate transcript. But in reality, the transcript that is delivered generally contains some unclears and words that are phonetically written. In today’s article, we will focus on unclears, the reasons why transcribers are unable to find certain words sometimes, and how it can be minimized.
In our transcript, when the transcriber is unable to find a word or a string of words, he or she puts the word “Unclear” within a square bracket. The format being [Unclear]. There can be a number of reasons why the transcriber has to resort to this tool in a transcript.
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1) Poorly recorded audio/video: Sometimes amateur recording equipment, mics placed away from the speakers, recordings done in a crowded place or in a moving vehicle, recording done in a hall with high reverberation, all result in a poorly recorded audio. Then, it becomes difficult for the transcriber to hear and decipher the words correctly. So, instead of guessing the word, the transcriber choses to put an unclear for that particular word or strings of word.
Solution: A professionally recorded audio/video with care taken to correctly position the mics, avoiding crowds and moving vehicles, and also using halls with good acoustics results in a clearly recorded audio. Our transcribers then can hear the words correctly and can process the transcript faster resulting an unclear-free transcript.
2) Audio/video with no or little references: Our transcribers though with good overall knowledge are not expert in all the fields. Sometimes, they get audio/video dealing with a very specialized subject matter. These subjects could range from astrophysics to trials conducted for some new drugs. Most of the specialized fields have their own set of vocabulary. If the client has not provided any references or has provided very little references, transcribers are left with little clue to actually find words using online search engines like Google resulting in a transcript with many unclears in it.
Solution: While uploading the audio/video file, the client is requested to also upload any kind of reference material that is available along with the file. This could be in the form of word document, pdf file, PowerPoint presentations of the speakers, or any web address of any relevant site. The transcribers can then relate the reference with the file and easily find any subject-related words resulting in an unclear-free transcript.
3) Speakers with heavy accent: When it comes to accent, our transcribers are expert in transcribing Japanese speakers. This expertise is because of the intensive accent training provided while joining the company as well as the daily interaction with our Japanese colleagues. But occasionally, our transcribers come across voice files with non-Japanese speakers with heavily accented speech. Those speakers can be from anywhere, Southeast Asian origin, European origin, etc. A heavily accented speech combined with poor English sentence structure can spell nightmare to our transcribers. So, instead of doing any guesswork which may lead to incorrect interpretation of the sentence, our transcribers usually put an unclear for such words or string of words.
Solution: Frankly, there is no clear solution for this. Ideally, wherever possible, accented speakers with poor English should be using an interpreter service. Since this is generally not possible, we at our end are training our transcribers to familiarize with other accents also, especially Southeast Asian accents. With gradual experience and practice, they are becoming better at picking up other accents and thus eliminating the use of unclears in the transcript.
Thus, from the above points, we can see that the client can do a lot to help us deliver a transcript that is accurate and unclear-free.
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