I have to admit, most people are familiar with medical transcription but are absolutely clueless about general transcription. It’s not hard to see why that is, as medical transcription plays a very important role in the healthcare industry. Without medical transcription, a patient’s medical record would be almost barren to say the least.

I spent about five years working as a medical transcriptionist before venturing into general transcription. I may delve into the whys of my transition into providing general transcription services in a future post. It’s such a long and tedious story. But back to the subject at hand…

General transcription usually falls into four specialties:

• Business transcription
• Legal transcription
• Academic transcription
• Media production transcription

However, general transcription can include any area of focus (besides medical) that requires either audio or video recordings to be converted into text.

In the not so distant past, transcriptionists worked mainly with analog (i.e., standard cassette and microcassette) recordings. However, in recent years, digital audio/video transcription has overtaken the industry, as digital formats are much clearer and able to be sent over the Internet. These include wav transcription and mp3 transcription.

A general transcriptionists will take your recording and play it back using special transcription software such as Express Scribe or Start Stop. He or she types the transcript while controlling the playback of the audio or video file with a special foot pedal.

Any number of recordings and/or events may need a transcript produced including interviews, webcasts, podcasts, seminars, TV shows, films, conference calls, phone calls, focus groups, workshops, depositions, oral histories, business meetings, and lectures.