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Transcription Guidelines

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Always divide the sentences based on who’s speaking

Beware of Speakers that are accidentally merged by automated transcriptions into one paragraph. It is important to be sure Speakers are correctly assigned. Always separate them so that everyone can be noted and quoted for their words spoken.

Do

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Remember to separate Speakers when they are accidentally merged by automated transcriptions.
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Don't

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Don't forget to check all transcriptions and making sure that Speakers are correctly assigned.
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Add punctuation

The automatic transcription can sometimes miss question marks, quotation marks, exclamation marks and so on. If so, we need you to add them (only one per sentence, don’t go with “What???” or “Wow!!!). There should always be a punctuation mark at the end of each line.

Do

Hey, how are you?
Very good, thank you.
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Don't

Hey how are you
Very good, thank you
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Separate long speeches into more than one paragraph

Don’t make paragraphs longer than 6/7 lines.

Do

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Don't

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paragraph.jpeg
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Use a single dash to indicate an unfinished sentence or word, but also to notice a censored word

When a Speaker doesn’t finish a sentence just add a single dash (–) to show the word has been interrupted:

Do

I was ready for the moment and I was ready for –
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Don't

I was ready for the moment and I was ready for
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You can follow the same rule for when you find a censored word in a podcast:

Do

I got people to see and sh– to do
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Don't

I got people to see and sh** to do
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To keep punctuation consistent across podcasts:
Always use the En dash (–) where there is a dash or an ellipsis.
Shorter Hyphens (-) are used to separate compound words.
Do not use the longer Em dash (—).

Transcribe music lyrics, but not too many!

You can transcribe music lyrics if it’s just a few lines (5-7 lines) and you are 100% sure of the content. Like this 👇
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If a podcast is playing a full song or a large portion of it (but the song is not the main object or topic of the podcast) remove the whole automated transcription and replace it with the name and author of the song, in brackets 👇

Do

[🎵 Livin’ on a Prayer - Bon Jovi]
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Don't

Write the whole lyrics of the song
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This option above is a valid one even if you are uncertain about the lyrics, as long as you know the correct title and artist name.
If you are not sure about the correctness of any part of the lyrics added by the AI and you don’t know who the author of the song is, just delete the whole part and go on correcting the rest of the podcast.

Don’t describe. Transcribe!

Always transcribe audible speech but never audio description: you can avoid noticing “Music in the background” or “ Noises in the background”.

Do

“Hello Conan”
“Hey, Michelle!”
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Don't

“Hello, Conan”
Door is closing in the background
“Hey, Michelle!”
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Do

It's going to get curly soon, is that a blowout?
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Don't

It's going to get curly soon (Conan laughs in the background) is that a blowout?
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Remove laughter, filler sounds, and repetitions

Eliminate filler sounds and repetitions while transcribing a Podcast
Filler sounds are “uhm”, “ehm” and so on. “Yeah” is a filler sound when it is not necessary to state an affirmation. In this case it can also be removed.
Repetitions are words that come right after one another, as in “very very…”, and you should delete only one.
Other words that should usually be removed are “like”, “you know”, “I mean”, “Right” and so on – when they are clearly functioning as verbatim or fillers.
Attention: Sometimes a Speaker expresses assent or dissent right over the voice of someone else. You can and should transcribe those expressions when clear and distinct. On occasion, though, these interactions can be difficult to separate. Consider whether or not to keep these expressions based on the situation.

Do

And I came to learn as I grew up.
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Don't

Uhm and I came to learn, uhm as I grew up.
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Delete all transcribed repetitions

It may happen that a speaker repeats a part of the speech two or three times in the same sentence. Transcribe the repeated parts only once at least it is not strictly necessary to deliver a concept.

Do

I mean do you really think that?
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Don't

I mean, I mean do you really think that?
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Don’t transcribe advertisement

Advertisements (Ads) are treated differently from the rest of the text and don’t follow the rules of Speakers and Tags.
Once text is marked as an Ad, there is no need to tag anything in the text or correct it.
See the screenshots below to get an idea of the process and final result 👇

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What is to be marked as advertisement (Ads)?

Ads may come at the beginning, end or middle of a podcast.
Prerecorded-Ads
Pre-produced or prerecorded podcast Ads are similar to a traditional radio spot. Usually you can hear the difference in voice, tone, even volume from the original episode.
They should be marked as an Ad.
Host-read
Host-read Ads are live-read podcast ads read by the podcast host(s) during the recording of a podcast. The Ads are often delivered without a script and become permanent parts of the podcast episode. Sometimes they include a special offer.
Promo
Promo Ads promote other content (another show, episode, or the network itself).

Should you transcribe credits?

Sometimes at the end (or beginning) of a podcast, the host lists all the people who contributed to the production (producers, writers, and so on). Should you transcribe them or not?
This is really up to you, the only thing we ask is that you be consistent in your decision. If you keep them, please don’t tag them.
Attention: when credits have been added automatically by the AI, please remove them all (names’ spelling will likely be wrong).

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Next: Format
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Always divide the sentences based on who’s speaking
Do
Don't
Add punctuation
Do
Don't
Separate long speeches into more than one paragraph
Do
Don't
Use a single dash to indicate an unfinished sentence or word, but also to notice a censored word
Do
Don't
Do
Don't
Transcribe music lyrics, but not too many!
Do
Don't
Don’t describe. Transcribe!
Do
Don't
Do
Don't
Remove laughter, filler sounds, and repetitions
Do
Don't
Delete all transcribed repetitions
Do
Don't
Don’t transcribe advertisement
What is to be marked as advertisement (Ads)?
Should you transcribe credits?
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