Transcription Software for College Students

Everything you need to know

Transcription is the art of listening to audio playback, whether live or recorded, and writing the words down in a text format. In a college environment, it can be of great help for students who are looking to capture the professor’s every word. It can come in handy when interviewing subjects for a research paper. However, bearing in mind that this can take a lot of time, transcription software comes in handy.

Common questions about transcription software

What is transcription software?

Transcription software is a tool that helps you convert audio files into plain text. It helps cut down the time spent doing the transcription, as well as improving the quality of your transcripts. This helps increase productivity. In addition to using audio recordings, you can speak to the transcription software and have your speech converted into words. This can be of great help when writing assignments or doing other work on your computer.

Some of the transcription software solutions support other languages, including French, Spanish, German, and a collection of Asian languages. This comes in handy when you have audio files that are not in English. When you need to transcribe your file, just upload it into the software and start playing the file.

The biggest benefits of transcription software

Time-saving

Transcription software saves you the time you would have spent slowly playing the file so you can type every word in the audio. On average, it takes over six hours to transcribe one hour of audio directly from a media player. Using transcription software cuts this time in half.

Great quality output of your transcript

Transcription software is able to detect words quite accurately. This saves you the time and work that is required to extensively proofread your work. The intelligent software accurately works with different accents. This makes the solution convenient for students from various non-English backgrounds. Invest in a good recorder so that you are able to have a good quality recording and subsequently, high-quality transcripts.

Finish your thesis stress-free

If you have a thesis and deadlines are looming, transcription software can help you conveniently and quickly complete the work. You can dictate into the software, which is faster than actually typing words in a word processor. You will also easily and quickly transcribe interviews that you recorded as part of your research. Thanks to the transcription software’s high rate of accuracy, you will have lots of time to devote to refining your work before the paper is due.

How does automatic transcription software work?

Automatic transcription software was created to convert audio files directly to plain text without a human intervention. All you need to do is to feed your audio file into the software, and then it does the rest. With the advancement in voice recognition technology, transcription software can provide up to 90 percent accuracy when you input clear audio. In a classroom scenario, much of the sound is clean audio with just one speaker, which means that the software will work for you.

Using automatic transcription software saves you the time and the effort that you would have spent on manual transcription. It frees up your time for other important activities.

Is it worth it to spend money on transcription software?

There are free software programs available on the internet that you can use to transcribe your audio files. However, the available features are limited, with most of them only able to handle up to a given audio file length. Moreover, most of the premium features, such as sound boost, noise filters and others are disabled in the free version of the software. This makes free software unsuitable as a primary transcription solution for your class work or research projects.

Premium versions of the transcription software come with quality support and lots of tools to help enhance your productivity. It is recommended that you buy the premium version for if you are looking for a reliable transcription solution. It is worth every cent.

Drawbacks of transcription software for free

Benefits of commercial transcription software

• Limited number of features available
• Output quality is poor compared to commercial software
• No quality customer service
• Limit on the length of the audio file that you can transcribe using the software

• Numerous features provide you with a speedy, convenient transcription
• Comprehensive customer service
• High-quality output of over 90% accuracy for clean audio files
• Multiple languages available and works with heavy accents
• Speedy and convenient transcription service
• Can easily manipulate audio

Different kinds of transcription in transcription software

There are several ways of transcribing, depending on the requirements. With the right transcription software, you get the right kind of transcription for your thesis – but you need to know what you need and want.

Ability to transcribe in full and clean verbatim

Full verbatim transcription is when everything in the audio is transcribed. This includes common filler words, like ‘uh,’ um’ and’ you know’ and other pauses within the conversation. The filler words do not have any meaning in the conversations but are important for creating continuity in the story in face-to-face conversations. You may want full verbatim transcription when transcribing interviews in your research.

On the other hand, a clean verbatim transcription involves transcribing what said, while omitting the filler words and non-verbal utterances in the audio files. It makes the text more understandable. The transcription software is able to handle both full and clean verbatim. Consider what type of verbatim to pick for your work beforehand.

Edited transcriptions

With edited transcriptions, you can omit parts of the audio file that you do not want in the transcripts. It could be someone making a joke or lots of background noise that has no relevance to your work. You can simply omit sections that you do not need in your transcript. In the end, it makes proofreading your work a lot easier.

Transcription software in a nutshell

Transcription is the process of converting speeches and audio files into text. The audio files can be interviews, recordings of class lessons, or dictations to your computer. Using transcription software makes the conversion fast, convenient and reduces errors that you would have otherwise made had you done it manually.

The transcription software can have an accuracy rate of over 90 percent if the file is clean. While you can use free transcription software solutions, they are often limited in the number of features available, the quality of the transcripts and the lack of customer support. It is recommended that you opt for commercial transcription software, to fully benefit from the software. It can provide both full verbatim and clean verbatim transcription.