Languages can be represented in different mediums and in different forms. This necessitates the conversion between the mediums of language representations. For example, languages represented in vocal mediums should be converted to written formats and vice versa. This enables easy understanding of the information or data transferred through those mediums and enhances communication. This type of conversion is called transcription.
Transcription in the sense of linguistics can be defined as the process of converting one type of language representation into another, usually without the change of language, but only the form of it. A person who does transcription is called transcriptionist. It requires several electronic and manual techniques to convert one form of language representation in to the other. Transcription is not translation, because in translation one language is translated to another language, but not the medium of representation.
Transcription is classified into different types on the base of its use in specific industries and modes of conversion. For example, Conversion of Audio form of language representation into written format is called Audio Transcription On the other hand, transcription process in Medical field, especially in pharmaceutics, is called Medical transcription and in Legal arena, it is called Legal transcription. Another type of transcription is the conversion of Braille into text format. The conversion of text format into other formats is also a type of transcription. For instance optical scanning of books to make digital versions of text documents is called digital transcription.
Recently many software applications have been introduced for transcription into various formats. Express Dictate is one of the software available for Audio transcription. ABBY Fine Reader is used for digital transcription of text documents. Likewise, large numbers of software and hardware applications have been implemented for industry specific transcription services.
Increase in the demand for transcription based services has in effect introduced a new service sector called transcription services. Newer technologies and software applications has increased the scope of this sector. Because of the critical aspects of business transcription, many multinational companies look for secure transcription service providers. This requirement is now fully satiated by the companies in developing countries like India, Mexico, Russia, etc.
Outsourcing of transcription services is advantageous in various ways. The developing countries have able and talented human resources who are skilled for transcription activities. With the support of new-age software programs, they further their skills in transcription and enable top-quality services. In addition, transcription services outsourcing helps the industries to stick on to their core objectives and serve critical business functions. It also offers cost advantage for companies by overhead reduction and short turn-around time.
Concluding, transcription helps in the conversion of one type of language representation forms to another. It is widely used in business, legal, art and medical industry. Transcription services are classified into various categories according to the industry it serves and the methods of transcription. Outsourcing of transcription activities is advantageous for multi-national companies in terms of quality of output and cost. Advancements in technology will enable application of transcription services in wide number of sectors.
