The term verbatim means word-for-word, and when you’re taking notes in an academic setting, it’s important to know how much verbatim transcription to record in your transcript. It can be tempting to write down every single word that your professor or lecturer says, but that isn’t always necessary or helpful when you want to share what was said with others later on. There are three types of verbatim transcription, so let’s go over them one by one. . .
1) Strict Verbatim
This type of academic transcription requires you to transcribe everything said in your audio. It doesn’t require you to make any judgment calls about what is important or not. This is great for when you need an accurate recording, but it takes a long time and it can be difficult when there are lots of people talking at once, which is why it’s usually only used in academic contexts. For example, in court cases. Or whenever accuracy matters more than anything else (e.g., if someone needs an accurate record of their speech). If that sounds like something you might need to do, then strict verbatim transcription might be right for you! But if time matters more than anything else, use summary instead.
2) Summary of Verbatim
A summary of verbatim transcript contains an overview of an interview or lecture, where nothing is left out but nothing is repeated. It includes answers to questions that were asked in addition to any tangents that were discussed during interviews. A summary is ideal for capturing important information while minimizing length. For instance, if you need a transcript for your personal records, you don’t need to record everything that was said; instead, you can create a summary. Another example includes when you are providing interview quotes for articles. If each person being interviewed has more than one quote in the final piece, it might be easier to put all their answers into one section rather than including them individually.
3) Intelligent Verbatim
This is the most flexible verbatim format. It is used in virtually all transcribed academic settings and offers a few options to choose from when you’re deciding what you need. The format includes only material that has been transcribed verbatim (so no paraphrasing or abbreviation) and can be either strict (in which we include every word exactly as it appears in your audio file) or summary (in which we condense longer thoughts into shorter sentences without changing meaning). Regardless of whether you choose strict or summary, material in your transcript will always appear within quotation marks and capitalized for clarity. This ensures that there is no misunderstanding on any level with respect to your audio file.