Transcription Resources

Training resources

• E.A. Schegloff has a Transcription Module on his website: “The transcription module is designed to provide practice in transcribing talk-in-interaction using conversation analytic conventions”.
• An introductory online tutorial on CA transcription and analysis, by Charles Antaki
• See some notes on transcription software here: CASE advisory on equipment for recording and analysing in CA
• Video introduction on Jefferson Transcription by Em does CA
• How to use CLAN and ELAN together by SaulAlbert (talk)
• lots of videos by Brian MacWhinney (creator of CLAN)
• lots of great CLAN video tutorials

Specialised Transcription Software

Free / Open Source transcription tools

• CLAN - download here: https://dali.talkbank.org/clan/ - a large array of transcript analysis tools including an editor for CA transcriptions.
  • A CLAN User's blog post on CLAN for CA
• https://tla.mpi.nl/tools/tla-tools/elan/ - a widely used tool for the creation of complex annotations on video and audio resources.
  • ELAN manuals and how-tos
• http://transag.sourceforge.net/ - a multi-platform general transcription tool for segmenting, labeling and transcribing speech
• http://agd.ids-mannheim.de/folker.shtml - a transcription tool designed to support transcription in the FOLK corpus.
• http://www.exmaralda.org/ - a large suite of tools including a partiture editor usable for transcription

Commercial transcription software

• Transana: software for the transcription of video data; download here: http://transana.org/
• http://www.audiotranskription.de/english/f4.htm - user-friendly transcription and annotation tool.
• http://www.inqscribe.com/ - a user friendly video transcription tool. highlight: automatic subtitle exports.

Comparison of Transcription Software

Software name	Creator	Software license	Platform(s)	Open source	Last updated	Link	Multilingual	Partition editing	Line-by-line editing	Syncs transcript with data	Jeffersonian	Machine-readable transcripts	File formats supported
ELAN	The Language Archive @ MPI	GPL3	Mac, Windows, *nix	Yes	March 22, 2021: Release 6.1	https://archive.mpi.nl/tla/elan	Yes	Yes	Yes
CLAN
Transana
Folker
TranscriberAG
Inqscribe
f4transrkipt
Anvil
Praat
Transcribe!

Other useful transcription-related software

• http://www.anvil-software.org/ - free video annotation / coding software
• http://www.seventhstring.com/ - commercial audio playback software for transcription
• http://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/ - free phonetics analysis and representation software

File formats / tips

• Advice on setting up a WORD document for transcription, by John Heritage (UCLA)
• Transcription in HTML
• Typing transcription in various word processing programs - Paul ten Have
• Typesetting EM/CA Transcripts in Markdown

Professional Transcription Services

• 1) Christianne Pollock & Hannah Wheat
• 2) Type. For researchers.

Literature on Transcription

There are a number of transcription-related resources in the EM/CA bibliography:

See also

• see also: Website: "Transcription in Action: Resources for the Representation of Linguistic Interaction", mainained by Mary Bucholtz
• Ashmore, Malcom., Darren Reed (2000) ‘Innocence and nostalgia in conversation analysis: The dynamic relations of tape and transcript.’ Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 1 (3). Available at:
  http://qualitative-research.net/fqs-texte/3-00/3-00ashmorereed-e.htm
• Bonu, Bruno, coord. (2002) Transcrire l’interaction. cahiers de praxématique 39: 1-159
• Bucholtz, Mary (2007) ‘Variation in transcription’, Discourse Studies 9: 784-808
• Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth; Dagmar Barth-Weingarten (2011) ‘A system for transcribing talk-in-interaction: GAT 2’, Gesprächsforschung - Online-Zeitschrift zur verbalen Interaktion 12: 1-51 [1]
• Duranti, Alessandro (2007) ‘Transcripts, like shadows on a wall’, Mind, Culture, and Activity13(4): 301–10.
• Goodwin, Charles (1994) ‘Recording human interaction in natural settings’, Pragmatics 3: 181-209
• Duranti, Alessandro (1997) ‘Transcription: from writing to digitized images’. in his: Linguistic anthropology Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 122-61
• Edwards, J.A., & M.D. Lampert, eds (1993) Talking data: transcription and coding in discourse research. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
• Have, Paul ten (2002) ‘Reflections on transcription’ cahiers de praxématique 39: 21-43 [text in PDF]
• Hepburn, Alexa (2004) ‘Crying: Notes on Description, Transcription, and Interaction’, Research on Language & Social Interaction 37:251-91
• Hepburn, Alexa; Galina B. Bolden (2012) ‘The conversation analytic approach to transcription’. In: Jack Sidnell, Tanya Stivers, eds. The Handbook of Conversation Analysis. Wiley-Blackwell: 57-76
• Jefferson, Gail (1985) ‘An exercise in the transcription and analysis of laughter’. In: Dijk, T.A. van, Handbook of discourse analysis. London: Academic Press, Vol. 3: 25-34
• Jefferson, Gail (1989) ‘Preliminary notes on a possible metric which provides for a ’standard maximum’ silence of approximately one second in conversation’. In: Roger, D., P. Bull, eds., Conversation: an interdisciplinary perspective. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters: 166-96
• Jefferson, Gail (1996) ‘A case of transcriptional stereotyping’, Journal of Pragmatics 26: 159-70
• Jefferson, Gail (2004) ‘Glossary of transcript symbols with an introduction’. In: Gene H. Lerner, ed. Conversation Analysis: Studies from the first generation. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins: 13-31
• Laurier, Eric. (2014)  The Graphic Transcript: Poaching comic book grammar for inscribing the visual, spatial and temporal aspects of action. Geography Compass, 8/4: 235-248
• MacWhinney, Brian; Johannes Wagner (2010) ‘Transcribing, searching and data sharing: The CLAN software and the TalkBank data repository’, Gesprächsforschung - Online-Zeitschrift zur verbalen Interaktion 11: 154-173 (www.gespraechsforschung-ozs.de)
• Mondada, Lorenza (2007) ‘Commentary: transcript variations and the indexicality of transcribing practices’, Discourse Studies 9: 809-821
• Ochs, Elinor (1979) ‘Transcription as theory’. In: E. Ochs and B.B. Schiefelin, eds. Developmental Pragmatics. New York: Academic Press: 43-72
• O’Connell, D.C., & S. Kowal (1994) ‘Some current transcription systems for spoken discourse: a critical analysis’, Pragmatics 4: 81–107
• Psathas, George, Tim Anderson (1990) ‘The “practices” of transcription in conversation analysis’, Semiotica 78 (1990): 75-99
• Traverso, Véronique (2002) ‘Transcription et traduction des interactions en langue étrangère’  cahiers de praxématique 39: 77-99