Varieties of Transcriptions
Over the past twenty years at least, it has become clear that transcription is not a simple mechanical
process. It is a process of selection of what to move from one medium (the voice, the movement) to
another (the paper, the table, the picture or graphic). This "what" must be determined on theoretical
grounds. The very nature of the final representation must be carefully thought out since it will always
constitute theoretical choices that should made be explicit
(Ochs 1979).
The following is a set of possible styles of transcription each accomplishing different tasks, from the
purely archival (designed to give the researcher a rough handle of what is on a recording in case it is
needed for further analysis) to the analytic (designed to summarize graphically the findings of
analysis).
With an emphasis on the audio track
With an emphasis on the video track
From transcripts to models (analytic representations highlighting
properties of the event) that:
- highlight who participates
- highlight who does what
- highlight how people mutuallly
organize their bodies
October 19, 1999