Transcript Grading Guidelines
Updated 08/11/10
About CastingWords' grades
CastingWords uses Mechanical Turk to grade transcriptions and this is the biggest factor in determining your score. We also factor in information about your past work quality and your Transcriber or Editor qualification score.
We are looking for scores of 8 and 9 from experienced transcribers. Newbies might submit some 6s and 7s to start because they haven't read the style guide yet and are still getting the hang of things. People who consistently score 7 and lower are not going to rise up in the ranks. Edits should be at the 8 and 9 level.
Here is a list of all levels of transcription grades
General guidelines
Something that should NOT lower a grade
A transcription should not be graded down because there are a lot of [xx]s or [inaudible]s. If they are not clearly understood then they are OK. This is not an excuse for shoddy wok will will be rejected. However we prefer an [xx] over a guess any day.
Missing sections not marked with [xx], are graded down massively and can and do result in rejection.
Major transcription problems
If we were to deliver the transcript to the customer as is they would be disappointed in the quality of the transcription. These are often harder problems to spot, except for the fake words one which spell-check can usually detect.
- Missing transcription (words or sentences are missing (excluding ums, ahs, and minor words etc.) and are not marked with an [xx])
- Inaccurate transcription (words are wrong)
- Paraphrasing (This doesn't include filler words or false starts)
- Non-existent words (Words that bring up little to no Google results, and were not used intentionally by the speaker). This is Rachel's pet peeve so don't do it!
Other transcription problems
These don't change the meaning of the transcript but lowers the overall quality. They are fixed pretty easily and usually easy to spot.
- Spelling and other minor typos
- Long paragraphs need splitting up
- Long sentences that need splitting up
- Missing punctuation
- Does not follow the CW style guide
- Incorrect notation (e.g., xx instead of [xx]
Other questions we ask the graders for information purposes
- Excellent transcript?
- Verbatim (all utterances are included). This does not affect a grade at all right now.
- Poor quality audio. This will only serve to up your score.
Grades
Transcripts
"How much work will an editor need to do?" Examples!- Excellent transcript that needs no editing (or very little). It's readable, follows the CW style guide, and is true to the audio while not being verbatim (unless requested by the customer.)
- Needs editing - but not too much. The transcript is true to the audio, but may have some minor typos or have long sentences or paragraphs that need splitting up. What needs to be edited is obvious to the editor.
- Needs a fair amount of editing (missing words, occasional mistranscription, and/or numerous spelling errors, etc). It is mostly true to the audio. A 7 might also have extensive formatting issues. The editor will have to review this transcript carefully but not have to change something in every sentence.
- Needs substantial editing, may need sections retranscribed. We will have to send it out to be edited an extra time before doing the final edit. Usually means transcript has many missing or mistranscribed words. Most sentences will need work done on them. Some missing sections might not be marked with an [xx].
- This transcript almost needs to be retranscribed. Pretty much every sentence will need work. Or, sections are missing and were not noted with an [xx] at all. We will have to send it out to be improved by another transcriber before doing the final edit. If you are not sure about rejecting it, ask yourself: would it be easier just to do it over again, or would an extensive edit be easier?
- (0-4) Rejection. It doesn't really matter which score you give for a rejection as long as it is from 0 to 4. Usually we give a 4 when the transcript doesn't match the audio, and a 0 for a cheater.