Transcriptionlive Blog - Articles, Tutorials, News

Dictation Techniques that can be used for Successful Transcription

For those who are not familiar with transcription, the article will start with some of the basics involved to help you get a firm foundation.

Define dictation?

Dictation can be defied as the act of dictating or speaking so that speech can be converted into text. This can either be done in real time and it can also be recorded. Generally however, dictation is normally recorded so that the transcription can be detached from the process of dictation. Dictation can be recorded in a number of ways. Some of them include:

  1. Phone- in digital dictation systems
  2. PDA/ smartphone digital dictation applications
  3. Digital recorders that are hand held
  4. Computer software that is used for dictation
  5. Analogue recorders that are hand held.

Dictation process is popular with professionals who work with large quantities of documents. Attorneys and physicians are great examples of professionals who use dictation. Dictation has also become popular in a number of professions as demand for work efficiency grows. This is used for documenting events, capturing ideas, meetings and any other speech capturing opportunities where note taking is not as effective.

The definition of transcription

Transcription can be defined as the conversion of speech into text. There are various mechanisms that can be used for this. The most effective however is a human being who is highly qualified and trained. Speech recognition can also be used.

How can successful transcription be measured?

This is done in 2 main ways:

  1. Speech at which the conversion of speech to text takes place
  2. Accuracy at which the conversion takes place.

What is the importance of successful transcription?

Transcription has been accepted throughout the universe as one of the best solutions for efficient documentation. It helps a person to get content of various audio and video files.

What are some of the dictation techniques that can be used for transcription success?

  1. Organization of thoughts- this is where you think about the things that will be said before saying them.
  2. Staying focused on the dictation task
  3. Avoid drinking or eating when dictating
  4. Choose a quite environment for dictation- this gets rids of background noise
  5. Use a high quality dictation system and make sure that you know how to use it effectively.
  6. Try and speak as clearly as possible, not in a comfortable tone but something that cn be heard with ease.
  7. Use the speech cadence that the transcriptionist can use with ease.
  8. Pronounce words consistently and correctly.
  9. Use proper grammar and sentence structures
  10. Use skilled transcriptionists
  11. Dictate any special instructions that you want considered
  12. Spell out words that are variable .

Transcriptionlive