Let’s clarify! A secretary or audio typist is commonly someone who types single speaker dictation for one person or a team of people (also known as a typing pool), producing work such as letters, reports or memos, and they’re typically familiar with doing the same type of work on a daily basis. 

At Outsource Typing, we work with all three of the above types of people – secretaries, audio typists and transcribers, but our team have almost always made the transition from secretary/audio typist to transcriber to enable them to work as a freelancer at home and maximise workload and, ultimately, income. Secretaries and audio typists will have gained background experience in their careers working in various business sectors. Their accuracy, attention to detail, and typing skills can be transferred into transcription work. 

When a secretary or audio typist leaves the (familiar) arena of single speaker dictation, in addition to continuing with the same type of audio typing (medical or legal), there’s a world of work out there for them if they can skilfully type a range of varied recordings that might involve anywhere from 2-20 people (or more) speakers. This is what’s formally known as audio transcription, and the people who type up the work are called transcribers. They might typically go on to specialise in legal transcription, court transcription work, medical transcription, or ‘general transcription’. 

General transcription covers a wide area of industry. A transcriber may go from typing an informative webinar or a light-hearted podcast one day, to the next day transcribing financial or banking meetings, a conference recording, or a police PACE interview, for example.  

Good typing skills are essential, but being a professional freelance transcriber involves so much more than this. Here are just a few examples of what’s expected:

• Punctuation and spelling. You’ll be expected to have the necessary skills and experience to ensure that the transcript is accurate in terms of punctuation, spelling, referencing, etc., so that the text makes sense. 
• Indicating speech nuances. Not only to represent accurately what was said, but also how it was said.
• Identifying individual speakers. Often, the client will not only want to know what was said, but also who said it for the likes of interview style transcription, and each time there is a change in speaker it will require to be marked up within the transcript.
• Attention to detail and following instructions closely. There are a few fairly standard styles of transcript across the industry, depending on what information and/or data the client needs to capture. All of the formats require to be produced alongside the transcription company’s instructions and client requirements. The transcripts can often be quite technical, so attention to detail and the ability to follow instructions closely is essential. 
• Making sense of difficult or challenging recordings. Often, where there are many participants on a recording, they’ll talk over one another. There might be background noise on the audio recording, such as dog barking, café noise, traffic noise, etc., and it’s important that the transcriber knows what to do in order to represent this properly within the transcript.
• No editing – strict verbatim. Sometimes no editing of a transcript is permitted, particularly with a verbatim requirement, and there is usually a strict set of instructions to follow that require great care and attention to detail. 
• Editing required. Sometimes the transcript requires to be edited or ‘tidied up’ by the transcriber to make it easier to read, and it takes great skill and care to know how to do this correctly to produce a high-quality transcript for the client.
• Attitude. You will need to have patience, a willingness to learn, initiative and good research skills – the subject matter you’ll be requested to type will be wide ranging, and you may not always be provided with any background details. It takes time to work through a transcript and produce it correctly and accurately.
• Self-reliance. You’ll be freelancing as a transcriber, which may be a learning curve for you if it’s something you’ve never experienced, and you’ll be expected to be up to speed otherwise you may (and will) miss out on opportunities if you’re not organised and prepared. 
• Good health – hearing. A lot of people overlook this crucial aspect, and I’ve never once seen mention of it in other articles or instructional literature: get a hearing test. An audiologist will be able to tell you where your hearing falls on the scale in terms of being able to pick out speech. If you need an improvement in this area, there are many ways in which you can adjust your software to help you hear the audio better.  Further information on this can be found in our e-book: Improve Your Career With Time-Saving Tech. If you’re struggling to hear the audio, we’d highly recommend taking these steps.
• Correct use of software. It’s important to use the software and equipment you have to maximise the audio quality so that you can capture all of the information and data within the transcript for the client. Sometimes audio quality can be poor. The transcriber should take the initiative to use the sophisticated tools they have at their disposal to improve the audio quality to make it clearer and more comfortable to listen to.
• Correct use of equipment. Choice of headphones is also very important. I often see people unwisely recommending noise cancelling headphones for use with transcription. In most cases, they are not the correct choice. I make recommendations on the best headsets to use in my e-book that cater to a range of budgets. Unsuitable headphones can be detrimental to aural health. A transcriber will be wearing a headset for long periods of time, and so it’s important to make the right choice.   

What makes a good transcriber is someone who can really listen to what is being said on the recording in an effort to help them best represent this within the transcript, for example, knowing where and how to edit with little, no, or inconsistent instruction on the recording, e.g. where to separate sentences properly and natural paragraph breaks. 

As an audio typist, the vast majority of work done on this basis for a single speaker, of course, needs to be accurate, but there’s the luxury that the professional who dictated it will be responsible for editing the final copy at the end of the day. Within transcription, however, the transcriber is responsible for the editing. It has to be correct, and an accurate record of what has been spoken. There is a greater responsibility in terms of really listening and accurately representing what is being said, rather than simply ‘drafting’ copy for someone else to edit later on. This is one of the major differences between basic audio typing/secretarial work and transcription. 

If you’re looking to train with us as a transcriber to take on a full range of tasks, as an SME we’re rarely able to take the time to teach transcription on the job. We look for applicants to have at least one year’s previous experience in formal transcription, as well as having your own full suite of freelancing setup. For information on this, check out our sister site The Home-Based Typist, where you’ll find information on how to work from home doing audio typing and transcription work. 

If we can assist your business with transcription projects both short- and long-term, don’t hesitate to get in touch for a quote fiona@outsource-typing.com