Oral History :: Transcription Control

Oral History Interview & Importance – Part 29

Transcription Control

Hamid Qazvini
Translated by Natalie Haghverdian

2017-11-14

One of the final steps in an interview is control of the audio and video file and its compatibility with the transcription. This step has to be conducted with outmost care since many users do not refer to the original file for various reasons and study the transcription. Hence, the transcription shall be precise and authentic.

The most important point is that in many cases the interviewer fails to detect faults in the transcription and fail to properly control it might result in irreparable consequences.

The following are most crucial in the control process.

The individual conducting the control shall be literate to detect the content.
Computer and relevant software literacy is essential.
The transcription shall be controlled by an individual other than the interviewer and the transcriber.
The controller shall precipitancy
The controller shall keep the content safe and avoid unauthorized publication.
Identification of vague or missing terms occur at this stage.
The content prose shall be compatible to the literature of the narrator.
The font shall remain unchanged.
The controller is not to edit and include any literary modifications in the content.
Control shall be based on the guidelines provided by the implementer.
Punctuation shall be included for fluency; such as full stop (.), question mark (?), exclamation mark (!), comma (,), semicolon (;), colon (:), quotation mark (“”).
The controller shall note any mistakes separately and hand them over to the relevant authority or the interviewer; the controller shall not modify the content to correct the narrator’s quote.
The controller shall note additional questions or other remarks separately and hand them to the interviewer.
Interview identification information control (previously notes) shall take place at this stage.