Labeling Speakers

Properly naming speakers is a very important part of transcribing. Incorrect naming can cause people to be misquoted which can become a serious issue when someone thinks someone said something that they didn't say.

Rule of Thumb

Always label speakers by their first name (Use their full name the first time they speak) but if you don't know what their name is you should always use a descriptive name.

Formatting

Every time a speaker speaks their name should be at the very beginning of the line. The name should end with a colon, then there should be a single space and then the text they say. See the below examples if confused.

Use Descriptive Names

Do not use "Speaker:" for a name, as it tells us nothing except someone spoke. Also just for consistency among transcribers use "Man" and "Woman" rather then "Male" or "Female".

Common Descriptive Names

• Interviewer - An interviewer whose name is unknown.
• Interviewee -An interviewee (person being interviewed) whose name is unknown.
• Host - A host whose name is unknown.
• Announcer - An unknown speaker that makes an announcement.
• Male Announcer - A male unknown speaker that makes an announcement when there is also a female announcer.
• Female Announcer - A female unknown speaker that makes an announcement when there is also a male announcer.
• Man 1 - Use numerical gender based labels started with 1.
• Woman 1 - Use numerical gender based labels started with 1.
• Audience - Use to label things said by the audience in general but not individual members.
• Audience Member - Use to label a single but unknown member of the audience.

Things to Note

• The "Audience Member:" label should only include the gender if there is only one or two audience members who speak. Otherwise it's just confusing because it's usually impossible to tell which audience member is which.
• Only add the gender to the descriptive name if there are multiple speakers with that name. For instance, if there are two hosts but off different genders use "Male Host:" and "Female Host:". If there are two male hosts use "Host 1:" and "Host 2:".
• Sometimes you just have to make a decision on your own. Just make sure the way you label speakers would make sense to someone reading it and it's easy tell who is saying what.

Titles

Many recordings include speakers who are doctors, mayors, professors, pastors or some other individual with an important title. You should include their title with their name each time they speak unless the recording is in a very casual setting.

So Pastor John Stevens should be labeled as "Pastor John Stevens:" the first time he speaks and then as "Pastor John:" after that. Whether to refer to them with there first or last name depends on what they go by. Use the name given in the notes or the whatever they introduce themselves as or are referred to by.

Two people with the Same Name

If two speakers in a recording have the same name, simply label them by their full name each time they speak.

For Editors: Only one Male or Female

If a transcript has only one man or woman who cannot be named descriptively rather then using "Man 1:" or "Woman 1:" label them simply as "Man:" or "Woman".

Transcribers should not do this because they only transcribe a portion of the whole recording, so there could possibly be more then one Man or Woman but only one on the chunk they are working on.

Examples

Names are Known

Zack Winston: Hi, this is an example of good speaker formatting.

Jerry Cron: Right. As you can see we are labeled with both our first and last name because this is the first time we have spoken in the recording.

Zack: But now I've talked again so I'm labeled with only my first name.

Jerry: Me too.

Advanced Descriptive Names

Announcer: You're listening to "The Interview Example", enjoy.

Interviewer: Welcome to "The Interview Example", today I'll be interviewing a man about something vague, to help you understand how to label speakers.

Interviewee: I'm glad to be able to help.

Interviewer: Awesome. So I think this example is pretty much complete, what do you think?

Interviewee: I totally agree.

Simple Descriptive Names

Man 1: So sometimes you have no idea who is what in a transcript. At this point you should simply identify them by gender and give each new speaker of that gender a number, starting at 1.

Man 2: Right, this way the editor can easily figure out who said what if they know the names of the speakers.

Woman 1: Mm, but why divide it up by gender?

Man 1: Well you can almost always figure out whether someone is male or female from their voice, and if there's only 1 woman in the transcription then it's easy to figure out when she was speaking and not one of the men, or vica versa.

Woman 1: That makes sense.

Titles

Dr. Joe Foxworthy: Hi, this is our example on how to label people with titles.

Professor Bob Brown: People with titles have worked hard for them, and expect us to refer to them by their title. So just labeling us by our first names is incorrect.

Dr. Foxworthy: Plus then you know that what is being said is by a doctor and not just some random guy.

Professor Brown: [sarcastically] Right...that's useful since doctors are always right.

Dr. Foxworthy: We try.

Professor Brown: And fail.

Dr. Foxworthy: That's rude.

Professor Brown: I was joking, shesh.

Dr. Foxworthy: Oh....OK...that's fine, I guess.

For Editors: Only one Man or Woman

Man: If there's only one person of a certain gender in the recording it doesn't make much sense to add a number next to their name.

Woman: However, when transcribing you usually only have a small chunk of the full audio file, so you should use "Man 1:" or "Woman 1:" and let the editor find and replace it if that was the only speaker of that gender.

Plus if another speaker comes into the recording when you thought there was only one of the gender, you don't have to go back and add a "1" to the first person.

Man: Speaking of find and replace, it is a handy little tool. Just remember to always have the colon in the find and replace otherwise you could accidentally change words inside the transcript, though it's unlikely.

Woman: True, find and replace can be a huge time saver, but it can also create a lot of problems in a transcript. So be careful.