As transcribers, we come across various types of jobs that we have to transcribe. They can range from telephone conferences, where the speakers speak in very fragmented and unstructured sentences, to speakers delivering presentations in a high level forum or symposium. Although not too much can be done for unstructured speeches for providing a clear transcript, a lot can, however, be done for structured ones like in presentations, which can enhance the quality of the transcript.
While giving a presentation or while recording it, the transcript quality may not be foremost on the minds of the speakers and the organizers; however, for a good quality transcript, a number of factors come into play. These factors can be internal, meaning factors the transcription provider has control over and external, meaning factors which are beyond a transcription providers’ control. These external factors are in control of the recording company which records the audio/video; the organizers of the symposium/forum which choses a hall with, say, less reverberation; to the speakers themselves who prepare the PowerPoints and speak fluent English at the correct pace. Today, we will look into some of these external factors and look into what can ensure a better quality presentation and, thus, a good quality transcript.
1. Proper PowerPoints: Speakers giving presentations in symposiums and forums usually have a PowerPoint presentation (PPT) to help them present their ideas and thoughts in a very structured manner to the audiences. These PPTs, when made correctly, can greatly enhance the speakers’ thought process and help present a clearer picture to the audience. There are a few pointers that should be kept in mind while making an effective PPT.
a) No. of Slides: The speaker should keep in mind that the number of slides of the PPT should be kept at a moderate number to make the right impact with the audience. Fewer slides will give very less detail about the idea presented and thus the audience will have to rely mostly on the speaker’s speech for information flow, whereas too many slides will lose the attention of the audience as their focus will be divided between reading the content of the slide and listening to the speaker.
b) Logical Flow of Information: The flow of ideas presented in the slide should be logical. Disjointed flow of information in the slides will create confusion in the minds of the audience.
c) Grammatically Correct English: The sentences used in the slides should be grammatically correct. Many speakers bring with them slides that are marred with improper English which leads to ambiguous sentence formation and, ultimately, ambiguous interpretation on the part of the audience.
These PowerPoints are frequently sent to the transcribers as references along with the voice file. Hence, keeping in mind the above points while making a PPT will not only help the speaker deliver a smooth and logical presentation, but also help the transcriber enhance the accuracy of the transcript.
2. Using the PowerPoint Presentation Correctly: For an effective presentation, the speaker should not only prepare a good PPT, but should also complement it by presenting and elaborating on ideas given in the PPT in a logical sequence and at a correct pace. The speaker should, as much as possible, stick to the PPT and not jump across the slides. Also, the speaker should pick a slide, elaborate on it, provide examples where necessary, and then move on to the next slide. Jumping across slides will lead to confusion for the audience. It will also create confusion for transcribers because most of the time, they have access to audio files of the presentation only without any access to video footage.
(To be continued to 2/2...)
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