Delivering an Effective Presentation (From a Transcriber’s Point of View) -2/2

(Topic continuing from the previous post)

3.  Access to Video Recording:  Nowadays, many of the speeches at high level meetings, conferences, and forums are covered by video recordings, generally for archiving purposes.  Such recordings are of tremendous help to the transcribers because it helps in speaker identification, helps resolve confusion on slide identification if the video contains slide footage, and to a lesser extent, helps in identifying many words merely through speakers’ body language and gestures.  However, this is only true when the video is of good quality and it has been supplemented with PDF or PPT references.

One issue that transcribers sometimes face with the video footage is that many times, the video shots of PDF and PPT are sent as references.  This should be avoided as much as possible because such video footage, due to light reflection, uneven focusing, and wrong handling of the camera are of far lesser quality than the actual PPT or PDF document.  The words written in the PPT slides then cannot be clearly deciphered leading to ambiguous interpretation on the part of the transcribers.

4.  Accent and Spoken English Quality:  The main element that the transcriber needs to produce a good quality transcript, and in many instances maybe the only one, is the voice file.  Hence, even if the reference quality is not good, it can be made up by a voice file which is clearly audible, less accented, and without distortion.  To deliver his message correctly to the audience, the speaker should speak in clear and correct English, keeping a moderate pace.  The correct speech pace becomes even more significant for South Asian speakers as they generally have heavily accented voice and sometimes use faulty English sentences, which can lead to wrong interpretations.

5.  Proper Placement of Recording Equipment:  Generally, the recording equipment used in seminars and conferences is of high quality, but the placement can be faulty.  The microphones are wrongly placed as a result of which they pick up side conversations, ruffling of papers on the dais, and noise from other electronic equipment placed close to the microphone resulting in distortion of the main speech.  Hence, care should be taken that the microphone be placed at a proper place and proper distance to catch the speaker’s speech only and not any other sounds.  In this regard, it is important to note that the reverberation quality of the hall should be checked beforehand; otherwise, the recorded speech will have echo effects making the speech difficult to listen to.  If PPTs are being video recorded, the camera should be placed where reflection of lights on the PPT slides is minimum and the words are recognizable.

Keeping in mind the above points while delivering a structured speech such as a presentation or lecture will not only help in making the presentation lively and effective for the audience, but will also help the transcriber deliver a superior quality transcript which ultimately will lead to a satisfied client.

Delivering an Effective Presentation (From a Transcriber’s Point of View) -1/2

As transcribers, we come across various types of jobs that we have to transcribe.  They can range from telephone conferences, where the speakers speak in very fragmented and unstructured sentences, to speakers delivering presentations in a high level forum or symposium.  Although not too much can be done for unstructured speeches for providing a clear transcript, a lot can, however, be done for structured ones like in presentations, which can enhance the quality of the transcript.

While giving a presentation or while recording it, the transcript quality may not be foremost on the minds of the speakers and the organizers; however, for a good quality transcript, a number of factors come into play.  These factors can be internal, meaning factors the transcription provider has control over and external, meaning factors which are beyond a transcription providers’ control.  These external factors are in control of the recording company which records the audio/video; the organizers of the symposium/forum which choses a hall with, say, less reverberation; to the speakers themselves who prepare the PowerPoints and speak fluent English at the correct pace.  Today, we will look into some of these external factors and look into what can ensure a better quality presentation and, thus, a good quality transcript.

1.  Proper　PowerPoints:  Speakers giving presentations in symposiums and forums usually have a PowerPoint presentation (PPT) to help them present their ideas and thoughts in a very structured manner to the audiences.  These PPTs, when made correctly, can greatly enhance the speakers’ thought process and help present a clearer picture to the audience.  There are a few pointers that should be kept in mind while making an effective PPT.

a)  No. of Slides:  The speaker should keep in mind that the number of slides of the PPT should be kept at a moderate number to make the right impact with the audience.  Fewer slides will give very less detail about the idea presented and thus the audience will have to rely mostly on the speaker’s speech for information flow, whereas too many slides will lose the attention of the audience as their focus will be divided between reading the content of the slide and listening to the speaker.

b)  Logical Flow of Information:  The flow of ideas presented in the slide should be logical.  Disjointed flow of information in the slides will create confusion in the minds of the audience.

c)  Grammatically Correct English:  The sentences used in the slides should be grammatically correct.  Many speakers bring with them slides that are marred with improper English which leads to ambiguous sentence formation and, ultimately, ambiguous interpretation on the part of the audience.

These PowerPoints are frequently sent to the transcribers as references along with the voice file.  Hence, keeping in mind the above points while making a PPT will not only help the speaker deliver a smooth and logical presentation, but also help the transcriber enhance the accuracy of the transcript.

2.  Using the PowerPoint Presentation Correctly:  For an effective presentation, the speaker should not only prepare a good PPT, but should also complement it by presenting and elaborating on ideas given in the PPT in a logical sequence and at a correct pace.  The speaker should, as much as possible, stick to the PPT and not jump across the slides.  Also, the speaker should pick a slide, elaborate on it, provide examples where necessary, and then move on to the next slide.  Jumping across slides will lead to confusion for the audience.  It will also create confusion for transcribers because most of the time, they have access to audio files of the presentation only without any access to video footage.

(To be continued to 2/2...)