http://www.penguin-transcription.co.uk/blog The home of transcription and well-written English Thu, 02 Oct 2008 13:08:59 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I've had an astonishing number of transcription requests come in recently that are very poor quality recordings, and the biggest culprit is the coffee machine! It really is essential, if you want a good quality recording, to record in a quiet room, and not in a  café. However nice it ... http://www.penguin-transcription.co.uk/blog/?p=23 There are a huge variety of voice recorders out there. They all do different things, and which one you get will depend on what’s most important to you. If you want a voice recorder that’s dedicated to just that, then see my article on getting the recording equipment that’s right ... http://www.penguin-transcription.co.uk/blog/?p=22 OK, this has very little to do with transcription, but it's great! Another one of those charity websites, but instead of 'click on this boring old advertise link once a day and we'll donate something' you can donate by clicking the correct definition of a bunch of weird (and some ... http://www.penguin-transcription.co.uk/blog/?p=21 I have just spent two or three days editing a bunch of interviews for a client because he mistakenly thought he wanted them verbatim but in fact after reading the first few he realised they were rather hard to analyse. They read something like this: 'So can I just ask ... http://www.penguin-transcription.co.uk/blog/?p=20 I have just finished transcribing a conference for a client. Since they took the plunge and went digital their conference recordings have improved enormously ... so I was a bit surprised to find that the audience parts of the question and answer session were rather poor on this recording. The ... http://www.penguin-transcription.co.uk/blog/?p=19 Podcasts are an increasingly popular means of putting information across over the internet, but many people are missing out on an important aspect of this. Providing a text version too. It may seem silly to go to all the trouble of recording and broadcasting an interview on your website, only ... http://www.penguin-transcription.co.uk/blog/?p=17 If you’re planning a conference some careful thought needs to go into your post-conference pack. Usually with academic conferences the speakers will submit full papers relating to their talks, so there is no need to have the conference recorded and transcribed, because the conference proceedings can be put together from ... http://www.penguin-transcription.co.uk/blog/?p=16 Well I might draw the line at ugly, but there is a huge variation in the quality of dictation we receive for transcription – even sometimes from within the same company. So I’ve written an article, which you can view here, giving some tips on producing better dictations. Obviously a ... http://www.penguin-transcription.co.uk/blog/?p=15 I am sometimes asked whether we can transcribe from video. The simple answer would be no, but that’s rather misleading and probably the best way to make a potential client decide to go somewhere else! The fact is that it is not possible, to the best of my knowledge, to transcribe ... http://www.penguin-transcription.co.uk/blog/?p=14 As I sit transcribing a very interesting piece about commercialisation of products I have the tune of a Tom Jones (or originally 'The Sensational Alex Harvey Band' I believe) song going round in my head … with slightly altered lyrics. 'Why, why, WHY verbatim? ' Now I can fully understand ... http://www.penguin-transcription.co.uk/blog/?p=13