2 Great Examples of Interview Transcripts (Done in Two Ways)
Interview transcription is a complex process. It involves elements like speaker identification and timestamps for better navigation and understanding of the context of the interview. Another important factor is differentiating the types of interview transcription that will best fit your needs - whether it’s pure verbatim transcription or smart verbatim transcription.
Learning how to transcribe interviews is best done by seeing examples. To help deepen your understanding of interview transcriptions, below are two transcribed interview examples done in two ways.
Example Transcript 1
In this example, a job applicant underwent an interview for a position in a company. The applicant was quite nervous and stuttered plenty of times during the interview.
Pure Verbatim Transcription
Name of Interviewee: XXX
Name of Interviewer: XXX
Date of Interview: 02/07/2020
[Begin Transcript 00:00:23]
IN: Tell me about yourself.
JP: Well, um, I am a college student looking for an internship in, uh… your presti- prestigious company. I have some experience in-in project management through extracurricular [cough] activities…
[00:00:41]
IN: What kind of extracurricular activities did you do in college?
JP: Oh, um… I became a team lead for various marketing projects to… to help advertise our student businesses inside the campus. My basic responsibilities included social media management, event planning… uh… overseeing the marketing materials… stuff like that. Oh, and coordinating with the leaders of those businesses so we can make sure we match their branding [laugh]
IN: I see. For how long were you in the team lead position?
JP: Let me see… I think it was… it was two years, yes. During my last two years in college.
[End Transcript 00:02:02]
Pure verbatim transcription captures all the utterances, fillers, and sounds in the recording. This includes coughing, stuttering, false starts, and laughing. This may be a great choice if you want to capture all the details and achieve a better understanding of the context of the interview.
In this case, the interviewee has a compelling past experience as a team lead during their college years. However, their struggle to communicate smoothly may be a factor worth considering for the interviewer.
Smart Verbatim Transcription
Name of Interviewee: XXX (labeled as “IN”)
Name of Interviewer: XXX (labeled as “JP”)
Date of Interview: 02/07/2020
[Begin Transcript 00:00:23]
IN: Tell me about yourself.
JP: I am a college student looking for an internship in your prestigious company. I have some experience in project management through extracurricular activities.
[00:00:41]
IN: What kind of extracurricular activities did you do in college?
JP: I became a team lead for various marketing projects to help advertise our student businesses inside the campus. My basic responsibilities included social media management, event planning, overseeing the marketing materials, and coordinating with the leaders of those businesses so we can make sure we match their branding.
IN: I see. For how long were you in the team lead position?
JP: Two years. During my last two years in college.
[End Transcript 00:02:02]
Smart verbatim transcription gives you a cleaner transcript that eliminates false starts, filler words, grammatical mistakes, and other irrelevant sounds.
The resulting transcript gives only the input of the respondents, which may be ideal for you depending on your research.
Example Transcript 2
In this interview transcript example, a field news reporter interviewed the director of a highly anticipated Hollywood film.
Pure Verbatim Transcription
Name of Interviewee: XXX (labeled as “IN”)
Name of Interviewer: XXX (labeled as “JP”)
Date of Interview: 05/08/2018
[Begin Transcript 00:00:14]
IN: So KF, is this gonna be the biggest movie that you have ever, ever done to date?
KF: [laugh] Absolutely! The team and I… we’ve poured blood and soul into this project. Uh… we know that our fans have been waiting [cough] a long… long time coming for this since the 2nd installment of our franchise 6 years ago. Our main lead, especially… he can’t wait for the world to see what we’re about to bring to the red carpet this coming Sunday.
IN: Right! [laugh] So, without spoiling us, you know… [laugh] will there be a sequel?
KF: Oh… that we can’t say. There’s nothing we can tell you yet, that’s for sure! [laugh] The team and I always pride ourselves in keeping to ourselves and making the audience feel nervous about whether or not a new installment will come, or if that’s it.
IN: That is exciting! Well, anything you want to say to your fans about the movie?
KF: Expect the unexpected.
[End Transcript 00:01:41]
Pure verbatim transcription always includes complex audio like laughing or stuttering, which may provide benefits for some people. For example, bloggers or other people who want to discuss the interview can use these utterances as talking points.
Smart Verbatim Transcription
Name of Interviewee: XXX
Name of Interviewer: XXX
Date of Interview: 05/08/2018
[Begin Transcript 00:00:14]
IN: Is this going to be the biggest movie that you have ever done to date?
KF: Absolutely! The team and I poured our blood and soul into this project. We know that our fans have been waiting a long time for this since the 2nd installment of our franchise 6 years ago. Our main lead can’t wait for the world to see what we’re about to bring to the red carpet this coming Sunday.
IN: Right! Will there be a sequel?
KF: There’s nothing we can tell you yet, that’s for sure! The team and I always pride ourselves in keeping to ourselves and making the audience feel nervous about whether or not a new installment will come, or if that’s it.
IN: That is exciting! Is there anything you want to say to your fans about the movie?
KF: Expect the unexpected.
[End Transcript 00:01:41]
For entertainment journalists who are looking strictly for the facts, a smart verbatim transcription may be more to their liking. Without false starts or filler words, the transcript becomes quicker to digest and analyze by journalists.
These examples should help you better understand interview transcription, especially the difference between smart verbatim and pure verbatim transcriptions. Nevertheless, the actual difficulty is in transcribing the interview audio. If you want high-quality interview transcripts without the hassle, consider using TranscriptionWing to transcribe your interview audio for you.
