Services

Elizabeth Clow. None of the work is ever outsourced. 

Barrie, Ontario, Canada.

For any project that requires it I sign a Confidentiality Agreement and or a Non-Disclosure Agreement. Client confidentiality is one of my highest values. If your audio files or transcripts require encryption, I recommend using a free program called Go-Anywhere Open PGP Studio. I will send you my public key so we can exchange encrypted files.

90% of my work is done for academic purposes. I understand the vital importance of accuracy in transcription because so much of the work of the researchers I work with is submitted for publishing in well known journals. For the past 11 years all of my transcription work has come from referrals and repeat business from loyal customers. My reputation comes from providing quality transcriptions.

Before beginning any project, I will listen to some of the recording that is sent to me. If the transcription cost is going to be any different than the rate stated on this website, I will email you about it before any of the work is started. I have a great deal of experience in working with non-English accents. There is no extra charge for this. I do have experience with difficult audios, quiet speakers, background noise and crosstalk. In at least 95% of cases there is no additional fee.

Absolutely! I love assignments like this, and I have a lot of experience in doing it. I have transcribed numerous guideline panels (14 of them in the last 3 years). The minimum number of participants was 13 and the maximum was 30. I love the challenge of these transcriptions.

A lot of my clients contact me before they begin interviewing and check my availability and give me a heads up on the project so I can plan to take on new work accordingly. And then they send me the audio recordings of the interviews as they do them. I get the transcripts back to them so they can analyze and make adjustments to the interview questions as they go. Other clients wait until all interviews are completed and send me all of the audio files at once. Usually, I have the capacity to do a super quick turnaround. Please send me an email and I can let you know what the turnaround time would be.

Yes! I can transcribe basically any audio recording including lectures, seminars, group discussions, interviews and presentations.

Definitely. In almost all of the transcriptions I do I am asked to take out any real names I hear and make a code breaker sheet for the researcher. I remove the names of places and people and replace them with code names. The transcripts are completely “cleaned” of these identifiers before I send them to you. I either encrypt or password protect the Excel sheet with the real names and send that you. There is no additional cost for this. If there are specific code names you would like me to use, please send them to me.

The default for my transcripts is to leave all of these in. I have been hired previously to do discourse analysis and I learned how important these utterances are to help the researcher get a feel for how the words are being said. These verbatim transcripts are special in their accuracy which is vital if you are a researcher who is using quotes from these interviews. If you use the words of a person in your article, book, presentation or blog, you need to use the quotation as it was uttered. Verbatim transcripts are particularly important in focus groups as they can help show signs of hesitation or agreement in a group. I also include laughter and pauses that are longer than that denoted by a comma. I indicate interruptions as well. If you prefer a modified verbatim transcript, please let me know before the transcription work is started.

I accept mp3, wav, wma, zoom, wmv, avi, mpg, mpeg, mp4, m4a, m4v, mov, webm, aif, aiff, ovg formats.

I work with really busy people most of the time. I am perfectly happy if you just send me the audio file and I’ll do my best to figure out difficult terminology. I will send you an email if there is anything I think might need clarification about. But please feel free to send me anything you think would be helpful in making the transcript as accurate as possible. If you would like the names of the speakers included (if these are not said in the audio) in either the final transcript or in the code breaker sheet please send them. If there are uncommon terms or acronyms please send them as well. If there is a section that you do not want transcribed please let me know. I won’t transcribe that part and you won’t be charged for it. I want to make this as easy as possible for you.