Thursday, November 19, 2009

Choosing a Transcription Service that Provides What You Need

How do I know what transcription service is right for me?


Choosing a transcription service can be a daunting task indeed. So many to choose from and it seems they all do the same things? Or do they? Let’s first look at what style of transcription best suits your needs.


  • Strict Verbatim is a style of transcription that would be used if you need audios transcribed that you want to capture everything that is being said. Such as telephone conversations, courtroom testimony, depositions, or anything that would require having to capture everything that is being uttered. This would include all the uhms, ah’s, false starts and stutters, repetitions, distracting speech patterns, (you know, like, right, yeah, etc.). This would also include typing the pauses in the audios to allow for laughter, crying, interruptions, personal comments, background noises. In other words, everything heard is typed.
  • Smooth Verbatim is probably the most common style used. Certain utterances are removed, per the client’s specifications and/or requests. Most of the time clients request to remove the uhm, ah’s, stutters but still keep the slang to express the character of the speakers intact. Grammatical errors are usually not corrected but punctuation is used. Some refer to this style as “cleaned up verbatim.” You would want this style for interviews, focus groups, business meeting notes, presentations/group discussions, Q&A, conferences, teleconferences, webinars, etc. In addition, this style can be used effectively for doing files notes, business letters, reports, etc. Legal work and some medical transcription can also be done with this style as well.
  • Content takes the smooth verbatim to a much deeper level. Grammar is corrected, interrupting comments are eliminated, and slang is corrected. This style is best used for things that are going to be published in articles, or advertising etc. This would be considered a “Copy ready” style. Usually it requires more time to transcribe this type of work and a higher level of transcription service that can cost a bit more.
  • Rough Draft is a quick run through the audio just listening once through and not concerned with getting everything transcribed. This style will require you to relisten to the audio and make corrections yourself. It is not the most accurate of transcripts.


Deciding which style best suits your needs is a first step in helping you choose the right transcriptions service for you. There is nothing worse than getting back a transcript with words left out that you wanted included or vice versa.


With WeScribeIt you will find that we provide any of the above styles or any custom requests needed on an audio to audio basis. There is an instructions box included when uploading any file to your account which you can include any specific instructions that you need for any particular audio transcription.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

How to Get the Most out of Your Transcription Service

How can I be sure the transcription service will give me the quality I need?


Think of a transcription service as a partner in your business. When you are looking for a transcription service, you want to find one that truly has your best interests in mind. Keep in mind that you are working with a business owner as well. As a business owner of a transcription service, they want their customers to be happy. They are providing a service that is valuable and important to you and they place a high value on you as the customer.


No matter what kind of documentation you need, be it a file note or important legal documents to be filed in the court, patient notes, eBook, interview, surgical notes or presentations, no matter what the level of document it is, it is all the same to the transcription service. They are all important documents that demand the same level of attention to detail.


This cuts your time of having to proofread and tweak your documents when you receive them. Although no one is perfect, you can be sure that the documents you receive should be to the level that you expect it to be and will usually require very little, if anything, to be done to “clean up” the document you receive.


So, in the end, the best transcription service that a business can find is a service which is willing to work within their needs, has the respect for them as a client or fellow business owner, and can offer great quality. This will allow you, as a client, to get the best for your money and time.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Why Would You Want to Use a Transcription Service?

As a business owner you may ask, “What’s in it for me,” when it comes to deciding on whether or not to use a transcription service for your office dictation needs. The answer to that question is as varied as there are many business categories, but the one constant benefit of using a transcription service is, it is more economical. This includes but not limited to legal transcription, medical transcription, seminar transcription, dissertation transcription, et cetera. No matter for what need, it is more economical.

Why is it more economical for a business to outsource their dictation work to a transcription service?

  • It eliminates the need for paying a full-time or part-time transcriber to physically sit in the office and type. You don’t have to pay the hourly wages, taxes, insurance and other necessary and expensive employee costs.
  • Using a transcription service can also benefit your business by not having to worry about the high costs of turnover and training of new employees to handle your dictation needs.
  • Eliminates the expense of having to purchase and maintain the equipment and software necessary for in-house audio transcription work.
  • Gives you the peace of mind that your transcription work will be done when you need it done seven days a week with no sick days, holidays, or vacation time taken that may interfere with the work flow of your office. And we all know how costly it can be for a business to have to hire a temp to work in place of an absent worker.

Listed above is only a few benefits for using a transcription service for your business. WeScribeIt offers a free 500 word trial so that you are able to test out our quality as well as to compare the costs to what your current situation is costing you.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

WeScribeIt.com, an Online Transcription Service, now offers Dictation app Audio Notes for iPhone Users

With the major updates in software lately, WeScribeIt has added a few of their own improvements to the dictation service they already offer. Audio Notes, an application used by iPhones, allows users to dictate and upload their transcription needs to their WeScribeIt account.



What is the latest in transcription for the ease of those who need to use dictation services? WeScribeIt and Audio Notes, an iPhone app, are working together for new ways of providing transcription services faster and more efficiently. Audio Notes can record notes and then they are sent to the WeScribeIt account set up by the user for transcribing, all through the application. Since WeScribeIt now has an iPhone app, sending the work that needs transcribing has never been simpler.

Since their inception two years ago, WeScribeIt has continued to enhance every aspect of the transcription services they provide as soon as an improvement was available. It is no different with dictation services.



Melody Trantham, owner and CEO of WeScribeIt is dedicated to making her business the number one dictation and transcription service in the world. She tells clients, "The transcriptions that you require are taken care of with the utmost accuracy and timelines are adhered to because we realize time is money."



WeScribeIt provides all the transcription services needed by clients including but not limited to interviews, speeches, conference calls, medical and legal notes. Since the transcription service provided by WeScribeIt is always available, it does not matter if the notes are sent on Sunday morning or Friday night.



Audio Notes is used as an audio notepad for recording anything needing transcription. Not only does this feature make sending notes to the WeScribeIt account an easier task, but recording lectures and meetings has become much simpler. There is even a feature for highlighting notes that are more important than others for the ease of finding them.



Audio Notes has many features that even higher priced recorders do not have. The function that is certainly considered one of the most important is the ability of recording to begin immediately. As soon as the iPhone app is launched, the recording begins.



With the technology put into the new iPhone, there is even a built-in audio level monitor to help keep the recordings of your dictation free from distortion. There is also the ability to trim parts of your dictation out of the recording so it will not be a part of the finished transcription. Managing memos and notes has never been easier with the features on Audio Notes that allow editing, recording and sharing.



Changes have made the iPhone, 3GS, a much better phone. Teaming with WeScribeIt has made your iPhone the ultimate in the business world.