Transcription of the remaining interviews

The transcription is going slowly but smoothly. Most of the interviews have been transcribed already and I am revisiting them to confirm I didn't omit anything or over-corrected.

To transcribe means to transform, to change from one form to another. Attempts at verbatim interview transcriptions produce hybrids, artificial constructs that may be adequate for neither the lived oral conversation nor the formal style of written texts. Transcriptions are translations from an oral language to a written language; what is said in the hermeneutical tradition of translators also pertains to transcribers: traduire traittori – translators are traitors.

Computer programs facilitate the analysis of interview transcripts. They replace the time-demanding ‘cut-and-paste’ approach to hundreds of pages of transcripts with ‘electronic scissors’. The programs are aids for structuring the interview material for further analysis; the task and the responsibility of interpretation remain with the researcher.

The reliability of transcription may be improved by securing the quality of the sound recording and by providing clear instructions for the mode of transcription.

No valid transcription of an oral account exists, but a variety of forms of transcribing, which will be valid for different uses of the transcripts.

Source: Kvale, S. (2007) Transcribing Interviews. In: Doing Interviews, Qualitative Research Kit. London: SAGE Publications, Ltd pp. 93-100. Available at: http://www.doi.org/10.4135/9781849208963 (Accessed 25 February 2021)