Skill-sets for a Transcriptionist

Transcription is the job of listening and typing simultaneously the words spoken by people into a word processing document for record. This is done in order to use the data for purposes in the future. The work requires skills to be mastered by a transcriptionist.

Transcription is exercised for various purposes such as for calls regarding financing earnings, telephonic conferences, seminars, insurance, focus groups, speeches, meetings and religious sermons. A transcriptionist should be well skilled in typing, have excellent command over spellings, grammar and should be familiar to work efficiently with the processing software.

A transcriptionist should have the ability to make sense out of some of the phrases of the speech. One must be good at noticing the little details of the typed work to help in better proofreading and proper editing. The transcriptionist should be ethical in the work. One should not manipulate any spoken word. Meeting deadlines is an essential component of transcription.

A transcriptionist dealing with multiple clients should be skilled to organize the works, avoid any clutter, and mix up of the works. Good communications is essential for marketing and communicating with the clients. Often a transcriptionist types some confidential and sensitive talks that require high degree of trustworthiness and professionalism to not to reveal the documents to any outsider.

The typing speed of the transcriptionists is very important in determining the productivity. The industry standards of typing speed is 60 to 80 words per minute. The efficiency of the transcriptionist on the keyword is invaluable for the productivity of the work. Language skills along with correct sentence structure and punctuation form a key element of proper transcription. The use of commas, hyphenations, capitalization, and semicolons are vital.

Legal transcription involves dealing with legal terms and definitions, court hearings, interrogations and investigations of law enforcement. Apart from the basic transcription skills, a well-versed idea of legal terminology is very important to deal with legal documents. The most important attribute of a legal transcriptionist is to type as fast as he listens.

Similarly, medical transcription is more than just mere typing of reports, entering data, office notes, X-ray and Scan reports, clinic evaluation and notes. This type of transcription requires high degree of knowledge about the medical field. Regular improvisation on the medical terminology is necessary. A medical transcriptionist is expected to have a general understanding of basic human body if not about the complex biology systems such as the cardiovascular system, the brain, the nervous system or any in-depth information of common diseases.

To set up a home-based transcription business, one needs to have the necessary software and equipment. Computer, speakers, headphones, internet access and printers along with foot pedal to check the audio playback are the vital requirements. The usual software used for transcription purpose is Microsoft Office or Corel Word Perfect. One can download free audio playback software from online. The software also comes with foot pedals. In the case of home-based transcription business, the transcription is send and received through audio files. At times, micro cassettes are made use of for this purpose.