Transcript forms
Edited transcript
A transcript where the content is kept, but phrased in whole, readable sentences.
An edited transcript renders what was said, phrased in whole sentences. Hesitation, false starts, repetitions and the workarounds of spoken language have been tidied away.
This is the form most people actually want, even when they ask for “word for word”.
Compared
| Form | Content | Manner of speaking | Used for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Verbatim | Everything | Everything, hesitation included | Research, court cases |
| Clean verbatim | Everything | Without hesitation | Journalism, interviews |
| Edited | Everything | Rephrased into whole sentences | Summaries, notes, articles |
Where the line runs
Editing is not rewriting. The rule is that the content must be the same, and that the person who said it should recognise themselves in it.
What is fine: removing the “er”, gathering an interrupted sentence into one, correcting obvious slips of the tongue, adding punctuation.
What is not fine: tightening up an argument that was not tight, removing caveats, merging two people’s points into one, or making a tentative statement sound certain. All of these change the content, not just the form.
When quoting
If you are going to quote somebody directly, stricter rules apply. Then you should either quote from a clean verbatim transcript, or mark changes with brackets. And if you have a recording, the quote can always be checked, which is the whole point of recording.