Dictation for Transcription - How to Get the Best Results

There are some obvious points that will help you get the best results from your dictation for transcription. Perhaps the most obvious is to make sure you dictate in a quiet room, preferably alone and with as little background noise as possible. Avoid shuffling papers or tapping a keyboard while dictating as this can obscure your voice when the transcriptionist attempts to transcribe it. You should also use a noise canceling microphone, which cuts down any background noise and aims to record only the voice speaking into it.

People often worry about punctuating their dictation. A good transcriptionist will generally be able to punctuate without you dictating the punctuation, but if you prefer to give punctuation then do make sure you give it all! It's quite disconcerting for the transcriptionist if you read a couple of paragraphs, then throw in the odd comma and full stop and then stop punctuating again. It is important to give instructions for capitalization.

Obviously a competent transcriptionist will know to capitalize names, but where you have words requiring capitalization that are not proper nouns you will need to say so. Try to say the capitalization before the word (e.g. 'The (capital R) Regulations state that …' instead of 'The Regulations (capital R) state that …' as that saves the transcriptionist from needing to backtrack. If you have words that, in your context, are always going to be capitalized, you can say so at the beginning. 'In the transcription the word Act will always be spelled with a capital letter.' Although capitalization of names can be assumed, do spell all names (at least the first time) including people's and place names. Remember even 'obvious' names might be spelled more than one way e.g. Stephen Brown or Steven Browne. If you will be working regularly with your transcriptionist it is worth providing a list of names within your organization, names that you are likely to mention frequently, and simple guidelines in advance. The transcriptionist can then refer to this and it saves you spelling the same names again and again.

If you want the work produced to a standard format, send your transcriptionist a template or a copy of a piece of work formatted in the say way that you want this transcript formatted. Your transcriptionist can work to a variety of different templates provided by you, and will otherwise work to their own standard template. If you have provided a number of templates, don't forget to state which template you want to use at the beginning. E.g. 'This is an email' will tell the transcriptionist to use your email template.

You should specify each time you want a new heading or sub-heading. State 'new heading,' when you want a new heading put in, prior to giving the heading title. E.g. 'New heading: Focus Groups. To transcribe focus groups you will need …' Your transcriptionist will then understand that 'Focus Groups' is the heading, and continue the remainder in a new paragraph below this.

Finally, if you want numbered paragraphs or a numbered list, state this before starting the list. E.g. 'Numbered list. One. The bride's veil. Two, the groom's buttonhole' will be transcribed as:

1. The bride's veil
2. The groom's buttonhole

Don't say 'item 1' unless you want the word 'item' transcribed. You don't need to keep saying the numbers; 'next number' is fine. There are bound to be specific instructions that you and your transcriptionist develop between you over time, but this has hopefully provided you with the basics of producing a good dictation which will lead to a quality dictation that requires minimal checking.