Formatting Guidelines for Applicants.

Formatting Guidelines for Applicants. This document is a condensed version of our full set of guidelines, however, everything you need for this assessment stage will be covered here. Should you be successful in your application, you will then have access to (and be required to study) the full set of guidelines which will cover all areas in much more depth, along with other issues you will come across. Contents Template... 2 Accuracy... 3 Punctuation and Grammar... 4 Identifying the speakers... 4 One Moderator... 4 One Respondent... 5 Two Respondents... 5 More Than Two Respondents... 5 Timecodes... 6 Inaudibles and Phonetic Guesses... 7 Formatting... 8 Spellings... 8 Brand Names... 8 Paragraphs... 8 Numbers... 8 Currency... 8 Time... 8 Dates... 9 Percentages... 9 When speech is cut off or changes direction... 9 Talking over each other... 9 Stutterings and repeated words... 10 Filler words... 10 Quotation Marks... 10 Inverted Commas... 10 Audio that starts mid-sentence... 11 Additional Comments... 11 Adverts/recordings and information played or read out... 11 Laughter... 12 Agreement... 12

Template Use the Take Note template provided to undertake the audio transcription assessment. This is the same template you would use when working for us, should you be successful. The font used is Times New Roman, size 12. The transcript must be fully justified on both sides, aligning the text to both the left and right hand margins, as demonstrated in this document. You must use Microsoft Word. Other word processing programs will distort our template. Example: File Name box Transcriber Comments Key Saving the Document Your file name must be the same as the audio file you are typing, minus the audio extension (.mp3,.wma,.wav, etc.). Do not change the size or shape of this box. It is fine for longer file names to exceed one line. This must always be filled in and be in non-bold. Note the number and genders of the moderators and respondents, along with the quality of the audio. Bring our attention to any issues or difficulties you encountered while transcribing, e.g. uncertainty with regards to brand names, place names, etc. Please note that Transcriber Comments go back to the client, so this is not an appropriate place to note negative comments about the moderator s ability/accents of the participants, etc. If necessary, these comments can be noted in your email when submitting your completed file. At this stage, this should be left as it appears in the template. If your audio was called group_6_manchester_ females_18-25.wav, you would type group_6_manchester_ females_18-25 into the File Name box, and use this name when saving your file. Example: Transcriber Comments: One female moderator and one secondary male moderator. Two female respondents. Good quality audio with occasional interference from a mobile phone. Ensure you give your file a thorough proofread prior to saving for the last time. Scroll through the file carefully, looking out for typos and other errors before saving for the last time. Ensure a spellcheck has been completed. All red lines should be omitted once you have made sure all of your spellings are correct. Tick off the checklist to make sure you have captured all areas. Make sure you save your document with the same name used in your File Name box. All files must be returned in a.doc format only. Documents should be saved in the Word 97-2003 or Word 97-2004 document format, which will append the.doc file extension. 2

Accuracy In full transcripts you must capture everything that is being said in intelligible sentences that flow and are sufficiently punctuated. The most vital part of this role is that your transcript is typed word for word, and therefore accuracy must be your number one priority at all times. There are some areas which don t add anything to the transcript and/or can make it difficult to read. To avoid this, we ask that you omit these areas and have detailed these allowable omissions below. Area: They say: You type: Unnecessary false starts that are later reworded/repeated or contain no information: Unnecessary repetitions: I don t know if I-, I don t like that one there. Yes, yes, I think so. Yes, I think so. No, no. I went to one shop and they-, Yes. Told me they had run out so-, I don t like that one there. Yes, I think so. No. Unnecessary interruptions or acknowledgements that are causing speech to be split up: The occasional filler word if these are used too liberally, i.e. twice in the same sentence: All uses of umm/ahh/err/uh, etc. If mmm is used as a positive response to something, you must change to yes. Oh no. I had to go to another shop. Okay. I didn t enjoy doing that-, Right. Because I haven t got much time. I like it, because, you know, it seems to speak to me, sort of, in a funny sort of way, you know, like the previous advert? Did you like that one? Mmm, it was really nice. What about this one? Umm no, not so much. I went to one shop and they told me they had run out so I had to go to another shop. I didn t enjoy doing that because I haven t got much time. I like it, because it seems to speak to me in a funny sort of way, you know, like the previous advert? Did you like that one? Yes, it was really nice. What about this one? No, not so much. 3

Punctuation and Grammar Punctuation Grammar Ensure all sentences are well structured and adequately punctuated. Make sure your sentences are not too long, i.e. no longer than three lines. There must always be a punctuation mark at the end of every sentence, even if it is only one word long or the sentence ends with a ph/inaudible/talking over each other format. There should be two spaces between sentences. We do understand that not everybody is used to this and it s quite hard to break the habit but please ensure this is consistent throughout. Commas must be used correctly so that sentences read well and you are reflecting the meaning of what is being said. We do not allow the use of colons (:) semi-colons (;) dashes (-) ellipses ( ) or brackets in the participants speech. Please find suitable ways to punctuate without the use of these. Keep the use of exclamation marks (!) to an absolute minimum. We use single quotation marks, not double. Please see the formatting section for more information on this. It is very important that all transcripts are grammatically correct. Ensure you fully understand when, where and how apostrophes should be used. Brush up on your grammar skills to ensure there are no mistakes with areas such as its/it s, your/you re, they re/their/there, etc. Please avoid starting sentences with And/But. See how these can be restructured or, if nothing is lost, omitted. Many sentences will still make sense without these words at the beginning, so see where these can be restructured where possible. In the interest of avoiding overly long sentences and to preserve the flavour of an individual s speech, it s sometimes acceptable to start a sentence with and or but, although this is not good grammatical practice and should be avoided whenever possible. The grammar checker on Word may pick up on some errors but not all. At times, it will even give us a mistake as an option so please do not rely on this. Identifying the speakers TAKE NOTE There should always be a blank line between speakers. The template is set so when you hit Enter, a blank line already appears. If this does not work for you, ensure you press Enter twice. One Moderator Always use bold font for the moderator s speech. Moderators never need to be identified by gender or name; the bold formatting will suffice. 4

One Respondent In the case where there is only one unidentified respondent, please note their gender in the Transcriber Comments and leave out any identifiers in the body of the text. If the respondent is identified by their first name and surname, use this in full the first time they speak, then use their initials for all subsequent speech. Should you only have the speaker s first name, please use it in full throughout your file. Hello, how are you? Fine, thank you. Susan Smith: Hi, my name is Susan Smith. I work for Big Company C. Do you enjoy your job? SS: Yes, I ve worked there for five years. Susan: Hi, my name is Susan. Hi Susan. How old are you? Susan: I m 27 next week. TAKE NOTE All speaker identifiers (F/M/Name/Initials) should always be followed by a colon and two spaces, e.g. F: I m 29 and I am a nurse. Two Respondents If two distinguishable respondents are identified by name, please format as described above. If there are two unidentified but distinguishable female respondents, use F1: and F2: before their speech, changing the F to M if they are male. For two unidentified and undistinguishable respondents of the same gender, no ID is required. Their gender should already be noted in the Transcriber Comments. If there is one female and one male respondent, use F: and M: More Than Two Respondents In focus groups with more than two respondents, there is no need to try and identify the speakers (unless you ve specifically been asked to do this). It will take far too long and most likely be inaccurate/inconsistent. In mixed groups, gender ID only (M: or F: ) is fine. Again, if everyone in the group is the same gender, no ID is required in the transcript as you will have already noted this in your Transcriber Comments. 5

Timecodes Starter Timecode Ten-minute Timecodes This comes at the very start of your file, before you start the transcript. It must be on a line of its own, in regular text (not bold) and must reflect the precise time in the audio at which you started typing. The format is (TC: HH:MM:SS) - there should be a space after TC: and colons must be used between the hours, minutes and seconds. o For example, if nobody was speaking for the first one minute and fifteen seconds of your audio, your Starter Timecode would be (TC: 00:01:15) No punctuation is required after the Starter Timecode. At every ten minutes, we need to note a Ten-Minute Timecode so the client can jump to certain parts of the audio with ease. The format is (TC: HH:MM:SS) i.e. the same format as the Starter Timecode. These must be placed exactly at every ten minutes from the start of the audio, not every ten minutes from where you started typing. o For example, when you get to ten minutes into the audio, you would insert (TC: 00:10:00) into the text, (TC: 00:20:00) for twenty minutes, etc. When you get to an hour, you would insert (TC: 01:00:00) into the text, and so on. Timecodes go in the body of the text, mid-sentence but never mid-word. These should always match the formatting of the text around them, i.e. in regular text if occurring in respondent s speech, bold if in moderator s. These must be absolutely accurate to the second. Punctuate, if applicable, before Ten-Minute Timecodes, not after. 6

Inaudibles and Phonetic Guesses For one missed word the format is : o (? 00.00) For more than one missed word or a short phrase the format is : o (inaudible 00.00) For a missed phrase that stretches over more than three seconds the format is : o (inaudible 00.00-00.00) For a phonetic guess, if the word you are not sure about is suspicious you would format it as : o suspicious (ph 00.00) TAKE NOTE All timecodes must be absolutely accurate to the second. Formatting should match the speech in which they occur, i.e. regular if in respondent s speech, bold if in moderator s. Use full stops in these timecodes and not colons, unlike the Starter and Ten-Minute Timecodes. Punctuation, if applicable, should come after an inaudible/missed word/ph guess, even if they are at the end of a sentence. If the sentence begins with an inaudible, it needs to have a capital letter. If a missed word/inaudible/ph guess occurs before the hour mark, use a four digit timecode indicating the minutes and seconds e.g. (? 00.47) or (inaudible 12.16). If it occurs after the hour mark use a six digit format indicating the hours, minutes and seconds, e.g. (ph 01.12.07) or (? 02.15.06). There will inevitably be a point when you just can t make a word out, or you re not 100% confident of what was said. We have specific guidelines on how to format times like this: Try to have as few inaudibles as possible. Make an educated phonetic guess as far as you can if you re at all unsure, but do ensure this fits in with the context of the sentence and makes sense. Use the Internet to research the phonetic guess with various spellings to see if you can work out what the word/phrase might be. Quite often, even if it s incorrect, the client will realise what you were trying to get at. Although we always need you to use the phonetic guess format when necessary, if what you have sounds right, and fits in with the context of the sentence, then please trust your own judgement as these all need to be checked. You only need to use the ph guess format the first time you use the word you re phonetically guessing, i.e. you don t have to use it every time you use the word from then on. You do however need to ensure you ve kept the spelling of the word consistent throughout the rest of the transcript. Please make a note in your Transcriber Comments if there is something you re really unsure of so the client can check it and change if necessary. One missed word More than one missed word or a short phrase Missed phrase that stretches over more than three seconds Phonetic guess EXAMPLES If you missed one word at 3 minutes and 12 seconds in the audio, it would be formatted as If you missed more than one word or a short phrase at 14 minutes and 56 seconds in the audio, it would be formatted as If you missed a number of words that stretched over more than three seconds and went from 53 minutes and 14 seconds to 53 minutes and 22 seconds in the audio, it would be formatted as. If the word you have phonetically guessed at 1 hour, 13 minutes and 12 seconds was satisfactory, it I went to the (? 03.12) but I didn t like it. He told me that he (inaudible 14.56) and I thought that was okay. The other one is a black colour but it looks (inaudible 53.14-53.22). Which one is best? I think that one is satisfactory (ph 01.13.12) but it s not the best. 7

would be formatted as Formatting The quality of our transcripts comes down to accuracy and consistency. Nothing looks more professional than being able to return an entire project of transcripts to a client with each one formatted exactly the same as the one before it. For this reason, we have a firm set of guidelines that we ask our transcribers to follow. Below is a list of any specific formatting areas you may come across during your assessment and beyond, with examples of how to incorporate these into your file shown in the right-hand column, if applicable. Spellings ALWAYS run a spellcheck when you have completed the transcription, ensuring brands, names, etc. are correct, and eliminate all red lines from your file before saving. Use of OK, yeah/yep, nope, cause, till, all right, gonna, etcetera. Use English spellings, even if the speaker isn t English. Brand Names Change to: okay, yes, no, because, until, alright, going to, etc. recognise instead of recognize, realise instead of realize, etc. Look up and research every brand/name/term, etc. on the Internet to ensure they are spelt/capitalised correctly and do be sure you keep spellings consistent throughout. Look at how the name is spelt/capitalised in the body of text on official websites, i.e. don t just use the logo. Paragraphs No more than three lines per sentence. No more than fifteen lines per paragraph. If the speaker talks for longer than fifteen lines at any one time, find a suitable place to start a new paragraph. Don t unnecessarily split up into very short paragraphs for anything under fifteen lines. When you start a new paragraph for the same speaker, they do not need to be identified again. Numbers Numbers from one to twenty must be spelt out. Use digits from 21 upwards. For amounts from 1,000 up to a million use digits with commas between each thousand. For amounts over a million, use a mixture of digits and words. If the number is below 21 but part of a brand or name, then a digit should be used to reflect the exact spelling of the brand/name. Currency one / seven / nineteen 23 / 57 / 156 1,800 / 16,000 / 250,000 1 million / 2.5 billion Channel 4 / Radio 1 Use digits with the appropriate currency symbol. 10p / 1.50 / $2,000 / 50,000 For amounts over a million, use a mixture of digits and words. 1.2 million / $64 billion Time If the speaker only uses a number for the time, e.g. I got up at seven, then digits with a colon must be used in the format of a 7:00 twelve-hour clock. If they use o clock then this must all be written out. seven o clock 8

Use digits and words for dates. Numbers do not need to be spelt out. Dates 6 th April / 23 rd September Percentages Use digits and the percentage symbol. 7.5% / 60% When speech is cut off or changes direction In the case of false starts, a speaker changes direction mid-sentence, or they get cut off before finishing their sentence, we use the format -, (dash+comma) after the last word spoken, with no space in between. If the -, format is used mid-sentence for the same speaker, F: I ve always liked that one, because it s carry on in lower case as this does not denote the end of the very nice to wear when you re going on-, sentence, merely a change in direction. don t you think it s well priced? If it is used because another speaker has taken over, then their speech must begin with a capital letter. Ideally, we want to use the -, format as sparingly as possible. It is often human nature to trail off or change direction while speaking, and so this will occur frequently. What we don t want is a file full of the -, format which will make it difficult to read. If what you have could be read as a full sentence, and nothing is lost in context, please punctuate accordingly and move on. Removing unnecessary false starts and/or words that lead to a sentence trailing off will legitimately and significantly cut down on the use of these without anything important being omitted. M: Affordable, yes. I like the more expensive one because my mother-, F: No, the expensive one is rubbish. Do you like that one the most or-, Yes. I like it more than the red one, so that s nice and-, so, yes. Should be changed to: Do you like that one the most? F: Yes. I like it more than the red one, so that s nice, so yes. TAKE NOTE: We never use -. (dash+full stop) or -? (dash+question mark) Talking over each other At times you may not be able to work out what either party is saying if the speakers are talking over one another. When this occurs, use the format (talking over each other 00.00) indicating the exact time at which this occurred. Use starting and ending timecodes if this stretches over three seconds. Use four digits before the hour mark, six after. If it comes at the beginning of a sentence, use a capital letter. Punctuate after the brackets if applicable. In focus groups only (a moderator with a larger group of respondents) this format is only required when absolutely necessary, i.e. should it happen mid-sentence or it is obvious something has been missed. You can omit the (talking over each other) format if it is just a sentence on its own. Quite likely, you will come across a lot of talking over each other in these groups and sometimes it is just impossible to hear what s happening until the moderator quietens them all down. If it doesn t add anything to the transcript then there is I jumped at the chance to (talking over each other 01.06.14-01.06.21) and then he didn t come back. (Talking over each other 16.14) and then I thought, Wow, that s really good. I didn t like it. I thought it was (talking over each other 04.05). F: I went to the garage across the road and they told me that my car would need replacing because of the gear (talking over each other 25.41). The above would need to include this format as the sentence is missing something, but the occurrence below could be deleted if you were unable to hear anybody s speech within this period, as it adds nothing to the transcript 9

no need to include this. Remember that what the client really needs is the respondents speech to flow, as it is their view they are most interested in. Use your common sense to see if it adds anything helpful at all to the transcript, but remember this rule is for focus groups only. In all other files, it must be included each time it occurs. M: I didn t like that one that much. (Talking over each other 41.17). F: Neither did I. TAKE NOTE: If talking over each other is the reason that a speaker is cut off, the -, format is not required as well. Stutterings and repeated words If they are unnecessary and they ve got no relevance to the context of what s being said, you may omit them. If it has got relevance and strengthens the meaning of the sentence, then it must be typed. Filler words You re allowed to omit some filler words (you know, sort of, etc.) here and there if they are too liberally used (i.e. more than once in the same sentence) and are making sentences difficult to read. They should be in between commas as they don t usually flow with the speech. Don t leave them all out because they re important for reflecting the speaker s flavour of speech. Quotation Marks We use single (not double ) quotation marks for direct speech/thoughts/ feelings, etc. Include a comma before the first quotation mark, start with a capital letter, and punctuate before closing. Sentences or words that are being relayed but aren t direct quotes do not require quotation marks. When speakers are referring to a snippet of text/ advert/ website, etc. which are not their own words, we use the inverted comma format. This is exactly the same key on your keyboard as the symbol used for quotation marks, however, the layout for this is slightly different. Use a preceding comma before opening, only if applicable. You don t need to start on a capital letter unless it is the beginning of a sentence or it is the name of something/someone. Unlike quotation marks, punctuate outside inverted commas, if applicable. e.g. You would change: I hope-, I hope you can read this, to: I hope you can read this. I love it very, very much. I like, you know, the way he says his name. You would be permitted to omit some uses of you know or sort of from the sentence below as they re being too liberally used and are making the sentence appear clumsy. Do you think, sort of, you d like that car yourself, or do you, you know, think you d prefer the more, you know, expensive one? My father used to say to me, Why are you being so difficult? I thought to myself, That s a nice one. He said to me that he couldn t go. would not become: He said to me, That he couldn t go. Inverted Commas When you see the word alive, what does that mean to you? Just do it is Nike s infamous tagline. Look at the page headed money is key. Is that something you approve of? Who thinks the live to earn line is the best one? 10

Audio that starts mid-sentence If your audio ever starts with speech already mid-flow, then you need to start from the first word that you hear. Begin with a capital letter, as you would any other sentence. No other formatting is required. Do, however, be sure to make a note of this in your Transcriber Comments so that the client is aware and they don t think we ve missed anything out. Transcriber Comments: One male moderator. One female and two male respondents. Good quality audio which begins mid-sentence. (TC: 00:00:00) Because of the timings. Anyway, that didn t sit right with me. Additional Comments If for any reason you are not transcribing, then you must make a note of why in brackets and include timecodes for this period so we can see why you ve not been typing. Additional comments should be left in the body of the text, matching the format in which they appear, and do not need to be on a new line. If the moderator leaves the room for five minutes and the respondents have a chat about something completely irrelevant, this doesn t need to be transcribed but a reason and timecodes must be noted. We re going to do a group session now. (Group undertake task 52.41-58.14). What have we come up with? M: Excuse me one second. (Respondent takes call 01.03.16-01.05.42). Sorry about that. I just need to go next door and see if there are any questions. (Moderator leaves room 34.06-39.15). Okay, where were we? M: I prefer that. Can I nip to the loo? Only comment on events that are meaningful to the transcript, for example, if a phone rings but is ignored, or someone asks for a drink or to go to the bathroom, it is not necessary to comment on it. Sure. Do the rest of you prefer this one? should be M: I prefer that. Do the rest of you prefer this one? Adverts/recordings and information played or read out Where something out of context, e.g. an advert, recording or piece of text is played or relayed, we do not need to type up the whole of this as the client already has this information. However, we do need to be able to make it clear what is being referred to. Leave a blank line and type the first couple of sentences in regular italics (not bold) on a line of its own. Then put (Advert/Video/ Recording played/read to group 00.00-00.00) in regular text (not italics) so that the client knows what was played or read out, and from where (timecode) to pick up the audio again. Punctuate after brackets and leave another blank line before resuming speech. You can also use this format for when the moderator reads out a lengthy piece of text from a script, website, document, etc. The next advert is quite a long one. See what you think of this. A small boy peers through a window. It is snowing outside and you can hear children playing in the street. (Advert played to group 12.14-13.11). Tell me, first thoughts? This is their latest campaign. What we are trying to achieve with this new 11

If what is read out is only a couple of sentences long in total, then it does not require this format. Leave this in the same paragraph as the rest of the speech and add inverted commas to denote that it is not the speaker s own thoughts. Laughter Only include this when it is either alluded to by a speaker or it is covering up speech, and use it sparingly. It is wise to use this when someone may have said something in a jokey way and the speaker or other participants have laughed. This would be necessary so the text is not misconstrued when read back. Laughter does not require a timecode and should be formatted as shown to the right. It requires a capital letter if at the start of a new sentence but lower case if used mid-sentence. Agreement When two or more respondents in a group give the same answer, you can use a specific format (as shown to the right) instead of separating their answers onto different lines. Don t forget to punctuate. bracket. This comes after the closing If an undetermined amount of respondents agree (or disagree) use the format shown to the right. campaign is uniformity. We are looking to achieve this by the end of May. (Moderator continues 01.14.16-01.16.02). This is what that particular company have to say about recruitment. Listen up! Our new way of working has created a huge amount of jobs in the past quarter. We aim to double this amount in the next quarter. What are your thoughts on this? M: I bought a new car yesterday. It cost me a year s wages. F: I hate you! (Laughter). F: You re laughing because I m right (laughter), aren t you? Are you fans of this one? Yes (x3). Who likes the TV ad the best? I do (x4). What about the radio ad? Does anyone like that the best? No (general agreement). 12