Video and audio transcription templates

Templates have proven to be valuable documents that save time and ensure that documents come back the same way without repeatedly dictating the same instruction. Transcription templates can help transcribe interviews and ensure the final document is clean and well-organized. Luckily, AI-powered speech engine technology has come a long way in the last few years, resulting in much higher-quality transcriptions today.

Continue reading to learn more about these documents, including types, elements used, and how to use transcription templates to unlock valuable insight for your target market. 

A transcription template is a document that guides transcribers in converting video or audio into written text. It contains different formatting elements to transcribe different videos or audio formats and maintain presentation consistency. They can also use normally used texts to avoid recreating them every time.

Transcript interviews also ensure clarity among target readers to avoid the loss of crucial information. For instance, the name of a particular speaker should remain the same in an interview across an interview transcription. Therefore, maintaining consistency across the document allows readers to retain crucial information when they fail to identify the speaker in the text.

A good transcription template should ensure that the following transcriptions features are followed:

• A unique identifier, such as a number or names 

• Uniform layout throughout the data collection or research project 

• Speaker tags that indicate answer sequence, questioning, or turn-taking in the interview or conversation

• Numbered pages 

• Line breaks between turn-takes 

• Headers with the event details or brief interviews, such as the place of the interview, date, and interviewee details 

• Annotation to indicate amendments such as changing the speakers' names or translating to layman’s terms for easier understanding. These are best placed between square brackets. 

Transcription templates vary according to the format used. Three main formats are used—verbatim, semi-verbatim, and intelligent. Let's have a closer look at them: 

Verbatim format

In a verbatim format, transcribers note everything in an audio file, including non-verbal cues such as throat clearing, chair creaking, and feedback sounds. A transcription template using this format adopts a similar format to a script in a play, with the dialogue expressed as statements, following the speaker's name and a colon. 

You should find the following details in a transcription template with the following format: 

• Date and time of the interview

• The place where the interview took place

• The length of the audio

• Relationship between the interviewer and interviewee

In the interview, the dialogue should be as precise as possible. The interviewer's or interviewee's name should be written in bold, followed by a colon and their statements. 

Example:

Ima: Hello, my name is Ima. I'm here for the interview. 

[goes inaudible for 00:10]

Youra: Umm, sorry about that. Can we get started? I only have a few questions for you. 

Ima: It's okay. You can proceed and ask me.

Youra: What languages did you learn from school? 

Ima: Well… I studied French but also wanted to learn German and Spanish. 

Youra: Do you think that language can play a significant role in a school? 

Ima: [smiles] Absolutely. I think it's crucial to learn more than one language. It opens opportunities for anyone in any part of the world.

Youra: Given the opportunity, what other language would you wish to learn?

Ima: Spanish. I have some friends who speak this language, making it more relatable. However, it would cost me a lot to afford proper classes, but I hope things work out here so that I can enroll in these classes.

End of Audio

Please note that you can include timestamps in this format. This helps the transcriber refer to specific moments in the interview, making it easy to locate crucial information. Timestamps can precede the participants' names or unique identifiers.

Semi-verbatim format

A semi-verbatim transcription format works as a more condensed version of the verbatim format. Transcribers usually omit filler words, false starts, and verbal pauses to make the transcription easy to understand. It provides more polished and coherent records about an interview that maintains a high level of accuracy.

Intelligent verbatim format

In this format, transcribers omit filler words, pauses, false starts, and irrelevant content. This helps capture the interview's main content while retaining key ideas and insight. Dovetail transcription is a great example of transcription technology that uses the intelligent verbatim format. 

Besides the general format, specific elements are included in a transcription template. These formatting elements include the following: 

• Font type and size 

• Paragraph lengths 

• Inaudible and crosstalk tags 

• Sounds 

• Capitalization 

• English spelling 

Here's a closer look at these elements. 

Font type and size 

Most transcription templates maintain a specific font type and size, with Times New Roman and Calibri being the most common fonts. For size, 11 and 12 points are usually used. 

Paragraph length 

Some transcription templates maintain a specific number of characters for every paragraph. For instance, some may require transcribers to break long speeches into 400 to 500 characters paragraphs without indentation. This helps readers focus on smaller blocks of your content. 

Inaudible and crosstalk tags

Most transcription templates require transcribers to insert inaudible tags where they cannot hear the spoken words or where two people speak simultaneously. These elements are marked using timestamps—for instance, [crosstalk 01:49] or [inaudible 01:30].

Sounds

You need to annotate the background sound with square brackets. For instance, while describing an instance where a door is closed, you should include the background sound as [door closing].

Capitalization

You should use standard grammar capitalization rules in your transcription template. This includes capitalizing the first letters of job titles, companies, places, and people’s names.

English spelling

Use US spelling for American English while UK spelling for British English. 

Now that you understand the different formats used in transcription templates, you should learn how to identify speakers in an interview transcription. This can help you follow the dialogue and understand who's speaking at a particular time.

You can identify the speakers by name or initials based on the format. However, most templates prefer anonymizing the data to protect the speaker's privacy. This allows transcribers to identify the speakers with pseudonyms such as:

• SPEAKER 1, SPEAKER 2, etc.

• Interviewee/Interviewer 

• Male 1, Female 2

• Roman numerals 

• Positions in a company, such as a manager, secretary, or member 1 of the interview panel 

Using names for positions in a company provides an excellent context for a transcription template that consists of work interviews or conversations with members of the board or management.

There is a lot of qualitative data from transcriptions. To generate this data, you should learn to analyze and draw insights from these transcriptions. There are two approaches used in qualitative analysis: inductive and deductive. 

In an inductive approach, transcribers use an unstructured approach while analyzing an interview. With deductive analysis, transcribers use a predetermined approach in transcription. 

Further, there are two types of inductive qualitative data—thematic content analysis and narrative analysis. A thematic content analysis starts by identifying overarching impressions of information and removing biases. Rather than using an established framework to approach the data, you will go through the document to search for common themes and discover recurring patterns.

A narrative analysis involves making sense of the respondents' stories by highlighting crucial aspects of their stories that resonate with the readers.

Among these qualitative analysis methods, researchers use thematic content analysis to draw insight from a transcription template. It's the most trustworthy, with increased verification and traceability.

Here are six steps you can use for a successful thematic analysis of your transcription templates:

Step 1: Carefully read through the transcripts

Start by skimming through the transcripts as you note your first impression. This will help you identify common patterns in the transcription data and help you come up with a summation of the data.

Read the transcription again as you identify new common themes and verify the previous ones. This will help you come up with crucial insights.

You should also identify biases in this process since they will always surface in the interview data. This will help neutralize any preconceived notion you will identify, allowing you to take an objective approach while analyzing the data.

Step 2: Annotate the transcripts

In this step, you should label key terms, section codes, and key phrases to help identify crucial qualitative data patterns and types. These labels highlight varying interviewee opinions, data differences, and concepts, making organizing data sets for dissemination easier. This cuts down the time used in analyzing the data.

If you have access to the discussion guide or research plan, reading through it prior to annotating the transcript will be helpful to get an idea of overarching topic areas of interest to annotate key terms within.

Step 3: Align your data with important themes

This step lets you conceptualize your qualitative data by aligning key themes to your final content. After identifying common patterns from your initial reviews, you should group the section codes to create categories and subcategories. However, you can combine and eliminate certain codes, only keeping those relevant to your analysis.

Step 4: Position and connect your categories

At this point, you will have cohesively positioned most of your data. Now you can label the different categories and describe how they connect. These descriptions will help you optimize your final output. 

Here are the steps that can help you: 

• Conveniently compile your data using spreadsheets (or other tools where you can visualize your data into charts and maps, such as Miro or Figma)

• Structure the data's crucial variables with proper reference codes

• Create a separate spreadsheet tab or section with critical codes for the segmentation process

Step 5: Deeply analyze the data segments

You can now perform a deep analysis of your segment data. Start by identifying the categories' hierarchy while determining which categories are the highest priority. You can also summarize your results by drawing figures, including diagrams, charts, and tables.

Step 6: Note your findings

After you've completed the deep analysis, you can now write the results in a body of content. Start with establishing and verifying your theories and methodologies using your data insight. You can also answer key questions and support your research goals. You should also use an objective, neutral voice to describe how your categories connect.

Please note you will naturally rely on your research to pull insight from the transcription template. However, you should consider the context of your field and your audience type while writing the results.

When analyzing your interview data, you should also interpret the findings along with relevant studies, theories, and concepts. You can integrate and cite findings from past studies into your results.

Drawing insights from interview transcription templates requires understanding different transcription formats, formatting elements, and interview data analysis methods. This piece will help you learn everything you need for efficient analysis.