Forums - Thread Details
  • State Suggested Answer
  • Replies 21 replies
  • Answers 5 answers
  • Subscribers 6 subscribers
  • Views 2020 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Thread Options
Options
Related

transcribing etiquette

Peter Dunbar

I'm new to transcribing for history hub.  I've been searching in vain for a guide on transcription etiquette.  While transcribing for another organization I received an assignment of 10 pages.  I transcribed the content.  It was all mine to complete.   History Hub seems to be a free-for-all where anyone can add to or edit at will.  If so, that's ok with me. I'm just worried that if I start in the middle of a document that I'm stepping on someone else's toes or violating some aspect of community etiquette.

I hope that there is a guide already compiled on sharing and editing work.  If so will someone send me the link?

Thanks!!

Pete

Parents
  • 0

    A lot of things turn up that aren't really covered on that transcribe page. 

    I noticed a lot of people do NOT follow the directions that are on that page, such as removing the hyphen from words that are split by lines, which they specifically ask you to fix because their search engine doesn't know what to do with hyphens.  Quite frankly, the search engine should ignore - when it searches, and that is a coding error IMHO.

    Also I noticed that people seem to glide over accents en and em spaces. —  I found this handy little special characters guide (alt codes) https://tools.oratory.com/altcodes.html  that I leave open for use.  Holding the Alt Key down and typing the numbers will result in the character you want.  I recommend using the num keypad.

    Just use your best judgement when transcribing.  I try to keep within the original formatting of the style.  For instance, the latest transcriptions, I noticed that there were extra spaces before ! and ?   Such as, "Is this an odd way to write something ?"   I decided to leave the space there, as I felt it provided a break in the text that helped guide the readers eye, and when reading, seemed to give extra emphasis to the line.  I'm not sure another person would agree with me, and they may choose to change it.  There does need to be more standard guidelines, and I think perhaps they need to run people through some sort of test transcription which would make sure they understand the set of rules that should be applied, before continuing to just transcribe and edit.  Had there not been other errors on the page, I probably would not choose to modify, the ? and ! spaces, but it really helped me keep track of where I was at.

Reply
  • 0

    A lot of things turn up that aren't really covered on that transcribe page. 

    I noticed a lot of people do NOT follow the directions that are on that page, such as removing the hyphen from words that are split by lines, which they specifically ask you to fix because their search engine doesn't know what to do with hyphens.  Quite frankly, the search engine should ignore - when it searches, and that is a coding error IMHO.

    Also I noticed that people seem to glide over accents en and em spaces. —  I found this handy little special characters guide (alt codes) https://tools.oratory.com/altcodes.html  that I leave open for use.  Holding the Alt Key down and typing the numbers will result in the character you want.  I recommend using the num keypad.

    Just use your best judgement when transcribing.  I try to keep within the original formatting of the style.  For instance, the latest transcriptions, I noticed that there were extra spaces before ! and ?   Such as, "Is this an odd way to write something ?"   I decided to leave the space there, as I felt it provided a break in the text that helped guide the readers eye, and when reading, seemed to give extra emphasis to the line.  I'm not sure another person would agree with me, and they may choose to change it.  There does need to be more standard guidelines, and I think perhaps they need to run people through some sort of test transcription which would make sure they understand the set of rules that should be applied, before continuing to just transcribe and edit.  Had there not been other errors on the page, I probably would not choose to modify, the ? and ! spaces, but it really helped me keep track of where I was at.

Children
  • 0 in reply to Heather Castillo

    Thanks Heather.  Also thanks for the link for the special character keystrokes.  I'd agree that rules are there for a good reason and should be followed.  My work for the Trustees of Reservations was reviewed before being posted so I put in a lot of effort to know their rules.  When I had a question on how to handle a situation I could correspond directly with the reviewer for her opinion.

    Thanks again for taking the time to reply to my query.

    Pete