Transcription Basic Transcription 4

Question 1

Which audio issue most commonly causes transcription errors and requires re-listening?

Accepted Answer

Heavy background noise masking speech

Answer

Background noise—traffic, HVAC, music—overlaps with speech frequencies and forces multiple re-listens, increasing error risk.

Question 2

How should a transcriptionist handle a speaker's long, run-on sentence with no natural pauses?

Accepted Answer

Break it into multiple sentences using standard punctuation rules

Answer

Clean and intelligent verbatim transcription applies standard grammar punctuation to improve readability without changing meaning.

Question 3

What is a 'verbatim note' or 'transcriptionist note' and when is it used?

Accepted Answer

A bracketed comment explaining an unclear or unusual element to the client

Answer

Transcriptionist notes, written in brackets (e.g., [TN: spelling uncertain]), flag issues that require client review or clarification.

Question 4

When transcribing a phone interview with noticeable audio compression artifacts, what should you do when a word is genuinely unintelligible?

Accepted Answer

Insert [inaudible] at that point

Answer

[Inaudible] honestly marks audio that cannot be reliably transcribed, preserving the transcript's integrity rather than guessing.

Question 5

A client's style guide says to use 'Oxford comma' style. Which sentence is correctly punctuated?

Accepted Answer

She bought apples, oranges, and bananas.

Answer

The Oxford (serial) comma is placed before the final 'and' in a list of three or more items.

Transcription Practice Test