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Edited 04/2018
 GMR Transcription TEST Style Guide
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1. Use the template sent to you in the email attachment. Tests submitted in any other format will
be automatically rejected.

2. How to label speakers when no names are given:

a. If it’s clearly an interview with two people, label them Interviewer and Interviewee.

b. For interviews with more than two people overall, label as Interviewer 1, 2, etc. and
Interviewee 1, 2, etc.

c. If there are two interviewers or two interviewees of opposite sexes, you can also use
“Male/Female Interviewer” and “Male/Female Interviewee”

d. If there is a conversation taking place with no clear interview, label the speakers as
Male/Female Speaker 1, 2, etc.

3. For audios with more than two speakers, ALWAYS assume that the speakers need to be
identified individually, regardless of how many there are.
*Note: Always identify by gender M/F if you cannot tell the speakers apart.

4. In the header, it is not necessary to list each numbered speaker separately. For example, if there
are 4 male speakers, your header should say: “Male Speakers 1-4”.

5. Please type “Okay” or “okay” and NOT “Ok” or “ok.”

6. “All right” vs. “Alright” ~ Please take note of the following and use the appropriate spelling
depending on the context:
 “The figures are all right.” When you use “all right” as two words, the sentence
means “the figures are all accurate.”
 When you write “The figures are alright,” with “alright” as one word, the sentence
means “the figures are satisfactory.”

7. Please ALWAYS include any profane words the speakers may say, spelled out all the way.
Leaving them out would compromise the accuracy of the transcript.

8. ALWAYS use the Oxford comma.

9. When typing ages, please use numerical digits with ALL ages, even if the age is only one digit.
Make certain to hyphenate accordingly or to NOT hyphenate, such as:

“Billy is 10 years old.”

“Billy is a 10-year-old.”

10. When typing ages, such as, “in his 80s,” please type it as such. (No apostrophe.)

11. When typing years shortened, please do use an apostrophe prior to the shortened year, but NOT
between the last digit and the “s,” such as: “Back in the ‘70s.”

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12. Please DO use contractions in all of our work.

13. Please use correct hyphenation in words that SHOULD be hyphenated.

14. Please set the alignment as FULL JUSTIFICATION.

15. Please fill in the Properties Box in each transcript . ONLY type the filename under “Title” and
“GMR Transcription” under “Author.” Do NOT type ANYTHING else in that box. Make certain
your name or initials do not appear under “Author.”

16. Indicate a speaker’s abrupt change in topic with an en-dash. You will note the setting for using
the en-dash in your MS Word options. It is under Tools > Autocorrect > Autoformat As You
Type > Replace as You Type. Please click where it reads, “symbol characters (--) with symbol
(–).” It will replace two short dashes with one longer dash.

This should also be used at the end of someone speaking when they don’t complete a sentence
before the next speakers speaks. Please see below for an example of the RIGHT way and the
WRONG way to type this:

Right: “Well, I think I feel that – well, let me see. I don’t think that changes.”

Wrong: “Well, I think I feel that-well, let me see. I don’t think that changes.”

It should always be “space > two hyphens > space > next word.”

17. Ellipsis can demonstrate a pause in the flow of a dialogue, a pause in narrative, or a speaker
trailing off.

 “I’m not sure what to do…” is an acceptable use of an ellipsis because it

demonstrates the inability of the speaker to make up his mind.
 “She wasn’t angry… she was just tired.” speaker is merely pausing for
emphasis or thought.

18. Please begin a new paragraph after, at most, 11 lines within a speaker’s narrative.

19. When you are not certain of the spelling of a name or word, please highlight and use the color
“blue” to indicate your uncertainty of the spelling. In addition, please bold it so that it stands out
for the client. Please make certain to use this bright shade of blue, not navy, not purple, but a
bright, royal blue. There is a picture in this folder showing which blue to use.

20. Make certain to type [End of Audio] at the end of each document at the left margin, and bold that
also. There should be one blank line between the last sentence of the transcript and [End of
Audio]. Press Enter TWICE (one blank line between) and type the duration (do not capitalize the
‘m’), as follows:

Duration: 26 minutes

21. If you simply cannot make out a word or phrase, please use [inaudible], and bold that, as it will
make it stand out so the client can fill that in. When [Inaudible] is at the beginning of a sentence,
please capitalize the word “inaudible.”

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 22. Please include a timestamp after the first inaudible mark on every page, regardless of how many
inaudible marks there are on that page or of difficulty. No other inaudible mark on the page
should contain a time-stamp unless specified. Both marks should be bolded and there should be
one space between both sets of brackets. It should look like this:

The dog ran into the [inaudible] [00:15:20] to fetch the ball.

23. If someone occasionally speaks in a foreign language that you don’t understand, DO NOT
put [inaudible]. Instead, indicate in bold, with [brackets], the language they are speaking, like
this:

[Speaking German], [Speaking French], [Speaking Tagalog]

If you don’t know which language they are speaking, put [Speaking Foreign Language].

24. If you do not know how to spell a famous name, brand, person, etc., please look it up on the
Internet quickly to see if you can find it there. If you cannot, that’s okay; however, the fewer
blue-text words, the better.

25. Here is a list of some shortened or “slang” words that should be typed as they are dictated, using
verbatim. Our normal dictation is a modified verbatim, which consists of using “gonna,”
“wanna,” “gotta” and “kinda.” Also type “sorta”, but NOT “lotta.”

26. Numbered phrases within a sentence:

“I stated that, 1.) The president should be present, 2.) We want everyone there, and 3.)
We want to have the decision tonight.”

27. Always type out the word “percent.” Do NOT use the % symbol. Use numerical digits with
“percent,” for example: “5 percent”

28. Type the time out as follows: “10:00 or 10:00” NEVER type the word “o’clock.”

29. Please spell out numbers ten and under. Use numerical digits with any numbers 11 and
over, except in the case of “percent” or scales; for example, “on a scale of 1 to 10.” This also
applies to using numerical digits with measurements; i.e., “5 cm or 11 inches.” With weight,
please do not abbreviate, i.e., 6 pounds 11 ounces. With height, please abbreviate as follows,
i.e., 5’11”.

30. Please type full dollar amounts using NUMERICAL DIGITS; for example, $3,243.00, EVEN if
the number of “cents” is zero. With “millions,” please type it as $10 million. The “dollar sign”
signifies “dollars,” so no need to type “dollars.” Same with all money amounts. The ONLY time
you type “dollars” is as in this example: “He made literally thousands of dollars on the project.”

31. When there are speakers talking over one another, please type [Crosstalk] at the left margin, and
make that bolded.

32. ALWAYS type in and submit in Print Layout View and 100 percent Zoom!

Good luck! 