Transcription – the process of converting audio or video content into written text – is a skill on-demand right now. Law firms, finance companies, academic institutions, and hospitals are all looking for the best transcription services. This means there is a wide range of opportunities for individuals who are planning on becoming a transcriptionist in the near future.
So What Makes a Transcriptionist the Best?
The attributes you must strive for in case you wish to become the best transcriptionist in your locality are exceptional typing speed, listening skills, organizational skills, capacity to identify, comprehend and contextualize data, and proficiency in English grammar.
Studies have shown that from among the stated attributes, your grasp of English grammar determines your success as a transcriptionist the most. Mentioned below are a couple of grammatical mistakes that you must not make at any cost.
- Incorrect Punctuation
Proper punctuation is a fundamental skill, but, it calls for more focus when you are a transcriptionist.
The best transcriptionists must be capable of telling when a speaker starts a sentence, takes a different trajectory, pauses, etc. They utilize verbal cues for punctuating the transcripts.
Punctuation mistakes pave the way for run-on sentences and sentence fragments that are quite challenging to catch hold of.
- Replacing or Mistyping Words
When listening to a recording, it is simple to replace or mistype words that have similar sort of pronunciations such as homophones like affect/effect, cheque/check, bare/bear, and principles/principals. Examine the information in hand to know which words you can use, also when you can use them.
- Incorrect Spellings
The providers of medical transcription Australia said almost all companies that require transcriptionists do not tolerate any spelling mistakes. This point does not need further elaboration since it is much obvious. If you cannot spell the English words, you must not transcribe them.
- Verb and Subject Mismatches
The verbs and subjects that do not align in sentences are an annoying yet common mistake that a large segment of transcriptionists commits. Maintain constancy while transcribing the plural or singular subjects as well as the verbs. For example, you cannot write ‘has’ in place of ‘have’ in case the subject is singular.
- Confusing Proper Nouns and Capitalisation
The transcriptionists must identify proper nouns and capitalize them under all circumstances. Certain proper nouns like dog names can well be missed because they do sound like common nouns. For example, you can write ‘take the spot for a walk’ rather than ‘take Spot for a walk’. These phrases are just semantically different.
- Contraction Errors
There is always an urge to utilize contractions in the transcript as they are much easy to type. But, be cautious about the positioning of the apostrophe or when the contraction alters its meaning. For example, many people can type ‘you’re’ in place of ‘your’. They also use ‘it’s’ in place of ‘it’s’ without paying any attention to the semantics.
If you can keep the aforementioned grammatical mistakes at bay, you can write a neat transcript within a short period, thus, get jobs in top-notch companies. You can also drive clients independently.