Ever wonder what happens when you give a freelance writer—or any writer—permission to record an interview? It gets transcribed. Either by the writer, a transcription service, or an AI program. Transcribing interviews, or even just reviewing a transcript for accuracy while playing back the original recording, helps writers identify the most quotable quotes and decide how best to use them.
Let’s take a closer look at transcribing interviews, why it’s an important part of the writing process, and how I personally approach transcription as a freelance writer.
What is Transcribing?
A dictionary might define “transcribing” as making a written copy of something, but to me transcribing is a necessary evil. Transcribing is a painstaking process of listening to a recording of a conversation and typing out an accurate written account of that conversation. A good transcript will note when someone laughs, mimics someone else’s voice, shouts, whispers, or even takes a long dramatic pause. As a writer, I use transcripts of my interviews to select the best quotes to use and ensure there’s no confusion as to what the person said. Transcribing can be tedious, but it’s important if you want to ensure you accurately capture not only what your interviewee said, but how they said it.
Why is Transcription Important?
Transcribing is an important step in writing for clients, because it documents what was actually said, including the full context behind every quote you used in an article, report, or profile. Here’s an excerpt from an interview I conducted and transcribed, with the subject’s data redacted:
PH: Do I have it right? You’re the youngest exec at [redacted]?
Subject Matter Expert (SME): I actually don’t know that I’m the youngest –
Publicist: I don’t know about the youngest, but I think we said “the youngest in the leadership team.”
PH: What would you say are some of your favorite, or biggest, projects of the past year?
SME: It’s always hard to pick your favorite – it’s like trying to choose between your children, you love them all for various reasons. But [redacted] is obviously one of my biggest projects—and one of the biggest priorities for [redacted] as a whole, with us doing a feature and a television show and multiple games on multiple platforms. And I love those books to pieces. I was not familiar with them when I started at [redacted], and when I saw them on our slate I said, “Oh, let me check this out,” and I unhinged my jaw and read both of those books in rapid fire speed. I’m so excited to be a part of that team. It’s such a pleasure working with [redacted], the author [redacted], and of course, [redacted].
PH: Is there anything about your career trajectory that has surprised you?
SME: Well, I can’t really speak to speed, necessarily, but someone told me a long time ago that so much of this industry is timing and luck, but the other thing behind it is hard work. And I hope that the work that I have behind me, combined with some timing and some luck, has gotten me to where I am. Again, my relationships with talent are everything to me. All along my way in my career I have people who I’ve worked with who I think are amazing and hopefully they think the same of me.
You get the idea. If someone laughs, whispers, or switches to a funny voice, I note that. Most people who grant interviews are taught to start answers with phrases like “I think,” “I feel,” and “In my opinion.” Most editors will delete those from published quotes unless removing them changes the meaning of the remainder of the quote. I also correct minor grammatical mistakes and edit out the ums, ers, repeated words, and verbal crutches including “like,” “so,” “really,” and “I mean.” The actual list is much longer. Probably because giving an interview can make people nervous.
Even executives, celebrities, and subject matter experts who do interviews on a regular basis can trip over words or have a sentence meander a bit before trailing off. I can only recall one interviewee—a teenage actress—who did an entire interview without a single filler word.
My Approach to Transcribing Interviews
Some writers might jot down notes during an interview and hope for the best. Reporters on tight deadlines might record an interview, mark the timestamp of a good quote, and playback just that part of the recording when writing their article. A new breed of writers often forgo original quotes in favor of pulling quotes from social media or already published articles. But I still record interviews, play them back, and research any unfamiliar terms or names so I can confirm the correct spellings.
One thing I do today that I didn’t do ten years ago: Import interview recordings to an A.I. transcription service which converts the audio into text in less time than it used to take me to open a file, note the interviewee’s name and title, the date of our conversation, and hit play. It’s a huge time saver, but A.I. transcriptions are not perfect, so I still edit the transcripts for accuracy while listening to the recording. Why? Because accuracy is important.
How Transcribing Interviews Helps Match Clients’ Voices
Listening to someone speak is one thing. Transcribing their words is another. Transcribing forces you to understand not just what they’re saying, but how they’re saying it.
Accents, idioms, slang. Those things—along with education, profession, and geographic location—combine to create unique voices for every individual. While my sister and I are “voice twins,” anyone who knows both of us can tell us apart by our word choices and syntax.
Once, while interviewing a British woman, it struck me how much she sounded like one of my friends. At the end of the interview I asked if she happened to grow up in the Wimbledon area of London. She laughed, saying she grew up about five miles outside of Wimbledon. My friend also grew up about five miles from Wimbledon.
Transcribing interviews forces you to really pay attention to how people speak, not just what they say. Listening for the nuances in how people speak has made it easier for me to find the unique voices of ghostwriting clients and match the tones of publications I write for. It’s helped me write crisper dialogue as scriptwriter, too.
Looking for a writer who can identity and match your brand’s unique voice?
Paula is also a playwright whose scripts have been read at Durango Arts Center (Colorado), Bonita Springs Center for Performing Arts (Florida), and The West Side Show Room (Illinois). Her piece, The Dance: A Monologue, will be published in Venus Theatre’s upcoming anthology, Frozen Women/Flowing Thoughts.
Need an experienced writer for your next project? Contact Paula for a quote, or connect with her on LinkedIn.
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