When you are searching for a transcription service, you need to make sure that you are approaching a company who can handle what you need. Just as you wouldn’t head to the dentists with a bad back, you can’t go to an academic transcriber on the hunt for someone who can help you transcribe your medical notes. Here are three of the most common transcription services, what they do, and how they could help you.
Academic Transcriptions
Academic transcription is used by people in higher education to help them drag together a wide range of materials for study or research. Recording lectures is pretty common across many different subjects and some people like to do this so they can go back and refer to the complete lecture at a later date. Turning the audio recording into a set of transcribed notes is sometimes easier to work from and it is more convenient to let a professional transcriber handle this change instead of wasting valuable study time completing it yourself.
People also use academic transcription when they are researching key papers like dissertations. If you are conducting research which requires you to pay close attention to the accents of the people you are interviewing – say for a linguistics dissertation – you will need a transcription service as they will be able to record the quirks someone may have when speaking in written form.
Legal Transcriptions
Another commonly used transcription service is that of legal transcription. This is a transcription of everything that is said during court proceedings. It is incredibly important that such recordings are made so lawyers and other legal experts have access to their past cases.
Legal transcription services are usually offered by many different transcription companies. While you need to be able to identify the Latin phrases often used in the courtroom, this is not as highly specialised as some other types of transcription can be.
Medical Transcriptions
One of the most specialised types of transcription you could request is medical transcription. Anyone handling this type of service will need to be able to demonstrate that they have the knowledge needed to identify the complex medical terminology used.
Many doctors prefer to record their diagnosis of a patient and then have it transcribed for when they are making up their notes later on. It is a difficult task for a transcriber and so if you are approaching someone for medical transcription, you need to know that they are going to be able to handle it.
If a company is offering a transcription service, you need to be aware that this is not a one-hat-fits-all policy. There are many different types of transcription and you need to be aware of what each one is so you can order your transcription piece successfully. Whether you are a doctor looking to get your notes written down or a student looking for help with their dissertation research, a transcription service may be able to help you reach your goals, whatever they may be.
