Introduction to General Transcription

Are you new to transcription? Have you wondered what transcription is like and if it is right for you? While many transcription jobs are performed in various types of work environments, transcription is a leading legitimate work-at-home career.

Where medical transcription specializes in transcribing medical documents of various sorts, and legal transcription specializes in producing transcripts for courts and attorneys and related areas, general transcription encompasses a broad range of fields such as focus groups for market research, recorded statements for insurance companies, lectures for the academic world, sermons, interviews, student research papers, and so much more.

To transcribe an electronic digital recording (a recording housed on your computer), playback software is needed. Most computers today have player software already installed on the computer such as Real Player and/or Windows Media Player. These players will probably provide a way for you to hear the dictation, but controlling the playback requires something more.

Playing the software enables you to hear what is spoken, but control is needed. It is frequently necessary to pause the recording to let our fingers catch up to what was heard and to allow adequate time for look-ups or corrections. Transcription playback software provides the tools necessary to play, stop, pause, rewind, and fast forward through the recording. A foot pedal or keyboard commands can be used to control playback.

If you need transcription playback software, Express Scribe by NCH Software is available as a free download from the Internet. Another free player is available from Tyger Valley Systems called FTW Transcriber. Download links are also provided on the MT-Connect blog sidebar.

Are you ready to hear what an audio recording sounds like? Practice files and complete answer keys for the general transcriptionist are available here at very low cost. If you are new to transcription, I recommend that you listen to each recording once or twice from start to finish before attempting to actually transcribe it. Then try typing what you hear. Check the answer key to see how you did. Remember – practice will increase your speed and your accuracy and you will steadily gain more skills.

Introduction to General Transcription

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Practice Makes Perfect

If you are looking for dictation files for practice, Super Practice, compiled by MT-Connect, has a collection of over 15 hours of dictation with complete answer keys. These dictation files reflect the real world of medical transcription. Included are a variety of practitioners, specialties, medical environments, dictating styles, accents, and dialects.

Who needs medical transcription practice files?

• Anyone considering a career in medical transcription.
• New medical transcriptionists who need practice.
• Medical transcriptionists who have been away from their work and need to refresh or hone their skills.
• Medical transcriptionists who want to expand their knowledge base.

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Can We Talk

Voice recognition applications are becoming more popular. We are seeing speech-to-text in new places. The iPad 3 comes with built-in dictation capabilities. Siri made its debut via the iPhone. Medical offices have become increasingly more dependent on speech-to-text. The software continues to improve.

Although I have dabbled with speech-to-text on occasion, it had not been a rewarding experience. In fact, it was more a source of humor - speak into the microphone and see the ludicrous text that is produced. It is rarely a small error, but rather an error that induces laughter, unless, of course, you need it done right, and you need it right now!

I recently came across an offer to purchase Dragon Naturally Speaking at a very enticing price. It seemed the time has come for me to put forth serious effort. I was not looking forward to the training, which I understood to be time-consuming, but I expected the installation to go smoothly.

Installation on my Windows 7 computer did not go well. The first several attempts failed, producing an error message that a required file was missing. After some Internet research, the missing file was located, downloaded, and installed, and Dragon was finally ready.

Although there are pieces of information available, i.e., some voice commands are listed on the box, in an accompanying brochure, and in the on-screen Tip of the Day, it was made obvious that knowing and learning those commands is critical for success. For example, saying “quote” will not produce a quotation mark; saying “open quote” will. That seems trivial, but it is the difference between accomplishing a task and total frustration.

Help was not available. Investigation into the program’s Help revealed that it was written for Windows XP and earlier operating systems. Windows 7 (and Vista) do not recognize the format that was used. As illustrated, it is critical to know precise commands, and where else to find that information if not in Help!

With the location of user guides on the Internet (which I downloaded and made available here, under Blogroll on the sidebar), required information is now available. I also went through the tutorial. Dragon is now ready to use. I get better with practice and so does Dragon, and I am finding Dragon to be a fun and useful tool.

Some transcriptionists use Dragon to transcribe for them. Careful editing is then required, but transcription time is reduced, as is the stress on hands and wrists. Learning to edit can be an asset in itself as there are transcription jobs for speech-to-text editors. Experience with voice recognition software just might be the tool you need to get a job or land a new account as a medical transcriptionist.

Some Jobs Just Are Not Perfect

For every 60 minutes of audio, transcription time takes about 3-4 hours. This is an average. Some jobs go faster, others slower. Transcription time depends on many factors. Besides unfamiliarity with words and phrases that might require lookups, the recording itself usually poses the most challenges.

Quality of the recording is affected by:

1. Hums and buzzes – sometimes recorded, sometimes it is the player's mechanism.
2. Background noise – talking, cell phone ringing, music, etc.
3. Speaker’s distance from microphone.
4. Multiple speakers – interviews, focus groups, lectures, podcasts, broadcasts.
5. Number of speakers talking at the same time.
6. Faulty equipment – beeps, blips, fading sound, etc.
7. Speakers’ accents and dialects.
8. Mumbles and jumbles – uncorrected misspoken words, slurring, etc.
9. Speed talkers – their goal to get done as quickly as possible.
10. Transcriptionist’s attitude.

Many dictators ruin the otherwise perfect audio by eating, drinking, yawning, sneezing, and burping, as well as other “natural” bodily sounds while they talk. It often seems like the pause button must be broken.

My all-time least favorite audiofiles to transcribe were given to me regularly by a physician who liked to dictate chart notes while he drove home from the office. He preferred driving with the window open. In addition to the road noise captured on audio, the wind did a great job of drowning out his voice. Then there were the sounds of cars honking (undoubtedly at him) and every so often the sound of screeching tires. Besides the dictation being difficult to hear, I was a nervous wreck listening and imagining the nuisance he must have been on the road. I figured that if he got into a car crash (and I expected that to happen at any moment), I would get to hear it as it happened, and I was on edge waiting for that to happen.

Then there was the radiologist who flapped his films as he talked...

Have you had a transcription job that stands out as “the worst”?

Sneak Peek

Is this your first look at medical transcription? Listen to this audio file to get your first taste of what is involved. If you have good listening skills, enjoy searching the web for answers, and love to learn, medical transcription may be right for you.

Click here for audio file.

Audio files for practice are also available. For more information about dictation practice files, click here.