The Benefits of Using Transcription for Your Dissertation Research
For a long time now, university students collecting data for their dissertations have been relying on digital audio and video recordings to document their academic work. This method of recording information has been so beneficial – allowing students to remain focused on a task whilst effectively note-taking.
However, reviewing these digital recordings requires a hefty amount of time. There is so much stopping, starting and rewinding going on, with furious typing in between. An hour’s audio can very easily take four times as long to transcribe, which is a super ineffective use of time. Unless, of course, you’re a professional at transcribing.
To make better use of time, academics can use professional academic transcription services. Human transcription is the best method, as the automated services are notoriously inaccurate. We have 5 reasons why using professional transcription is beneficial whilst working towards your dissertation:
1. Catch every detail.
No more rewinding to figure out who said what in an audio recording! The use of transcription services will eliminate any replaying of the audio for this reason ever again. Rather than wasting your time on this, you’ll have more time to be considering your analysis and focusing your research further.
A professional transcriber will catch every detail in a clear written manner. A weight lifted off your shoulders.
- More time for the important stuff.
Conducting research interviews, meeting with focus groups, and attending lectures already takes up hours – and the work from this build-up too. On top of this, you try to transcribe hours of audio from the interviews? There just simply isn’t enough time in the day.
By using transcription services, you’ll have more time to focus on what is important.
- Make your content easily accessible.
When it comes to quantitative data, the researcher can quickly begin action once they have the research there. Having the numbers written out, with trends easy to spot speeds everything up. This isn’t the case when the data has been recorded digitally.
A professional transcriber will lay out all this information – so you can get straight to the analysis. Cutting out a significant amount of work.
4. Make your content easily accessible to everyone.
Analysing content from a recording might be manageable for just one researcher working alone – but how often does this happen?
Having a clear typed transcription will make the content more easily accessible for everyone. If people need a hand understanding or getting to a certain point of the recording, a transcript will be handy. Everyone will be able to get involved and have a real insight into the project.
- Turn your content into something you can search through.
Major parts of research and your dissertation is the analysis and reviewing stages. So, all the information you present must be accurate.
It can be a hard task going through and checking it over when it is audio. You also can’t search through to different sections of the conversation. With a transcript and a simple keyboard command (command+F), you’ll be able to find a part of the interview through search. It’s a game-changer!
