15 Transcription Skills for Beginners

A transcriptionist puts an audio recording into a written format. The job calls for professionals who can listen to recordings and type them out on a computer, stenotype machine, or similar device. Those who excel in this field have an attention to detail, strong spelling and grammar skills, quick typing skills, a good memory, and many other attributes that are beneficial in many industries.

Doctors might use a recording device to take notes on patient conditions and then rely on a transcriptionist to turn the recording into a written report that can be added to the patient’s file. An interviewer might use a recording device so they can focus on the conversation. A transcriptionist can then turn the recording into a readable document for the interviewer to review.

Many professionals interested in flexibility seek transcription jobs. The industry generally allows professionals to work remotely and set their own schedules. There are a variety of specialties within the field, including general transcription, legal transcription, and business transcription.

In this guide, we’ll explore the skills needed to excel in a transcription position as well as how to find open positions if you want to build your career in this area.

Top transcription skills:

• Typing
• Language, spelling, and grammar
• Copy editing
• Research
• Careful listening
• Communication
• Good memory
• Attention to detail
• Computer skills
• Time management
• Multitasking
• Ability to focus
• Curiosity
• Motivational skills

Typing

Transcriptionists need to take an audio recording and type out what they hear, transforming audio into documentation. Therefore, the ability to type quickly and accurately plays a key role. Typing slowly will make it difficult for you to earn a living or build a reputation as an effective transcriptionist.

The average transcriptionist can type at least 50 words per minute (WPM), with those taking on more time intensive projects typing at 65-75 WPM. Transcriptionists who work at a slower rate or mostly take lower-stakes projects may type at 40-45 WPM.

If you need to improve your typing skills, practice is key. Make sure you have good posture and know the proper typing positions. If you have not formally learned how to type, then you may also find it beneficial to take an online course to learn typing best practices.

As you work on your typing, focus on accuracy without looking at your fingers. As you master the location of each key, you’ll start to increase your typing speed.

Language, spelling, and grammar

As a transcriptionist, when you submit the complete transcript of a recording, you want it to reflect dialogue accurately without errors. It’s easy for a program like a basic spell check to miss important errors, such as a typo in a word that accidentally creates another word, so you’ll have to know proper language, spelling, and grammar for yourself.  

You also have to know how to use commonly confused homophones, such as there, their, and they’re. Having a solid understanding of language and grammar can help you produce quality transcription work.

There are digital tools that transcriptionists can use to help them further their grammar and language skills. Programs like Grammarly can be used to highlight potential typos and errors that the transcriptionist can then review. However, these programs aren’t 100% accurate, especially when work calls for a full verbatim transcript that includes fillers words (like um and ah) and non-grammatical speech.

Those who wish to expand beyond general transcription and work in particular fields, such as medical transcription, will also want to spend time learning important vocabulary related to those fields. These specialized fields also often call for certifications, such as a medical transcription certification.

Copy editing

Alongside skills in language, spelling, and grammar, interested transcriptionists should also develop their copy editing skills. Copy editors read text deeply to check for its consistency, accuracy, and completeness. They ensure that sentences, paragraphs, and sections build logically, are formatted correctly, and blend well together.

You can build your skills in a number of ways. Read your favorite blogs, books, or newspapers deeply and with a critical eye, asking yourself why the authors and editors chose to phrase things the way they did. You can also take courses, either online or on many college campuses. As your skills develop, you can volunteer to proofread others’ work to get practice so you can more efficiently proofread your own transcripts.

Improving your copy editing skills can help you catch errors in what you’ve typed and can also help you catch nuances in what you hear, improving your transcriptions’ accuracy. It will also help you give structure to the notoriously amorphous format of the spoken word.

Research

Research will play an important role in the professional lives of transcriptionists. There are a few different ways you may use these skills.

• Familiarize yourself with the industry in which you transcribe. If you need to transcribe for a company in the tech industry, for example, you’ll want to understand the vocabulary related to their products or services. Background knowledge can help you know the right words to use, and to accurately spell them.
• Use research to help you solve problems you encounter as a transcriptionist. Since you will likely work from home independently, struggles you encounter will probably need to be personally resolved. Learning how to troubleshoot problems with your transcriptionist programs will be invaluable.
• Research to uncover ways to build and advance your career. Learn how to build a profile on Upwork, for example, and search for jobs. This first step can go a long way in helping you build your clientele. Learning more about the latest technology to use on the job and potential opportunities will also help you grow.

Careful listening

If transcriptionists want to be effective, they’ll need to hone careful listening skills which play a critical role in the profession. People speak at their natural pace, and transcriptionists will have to develop the listening skills to accurately record what they say, even when people speak quickly, start and stop, or mumble.

Often, recordings will have other noises in the background that can make the job a bit more challenging. Sometimes people in recordings talk over one another as well (known as crosstalk), which adds another layer of complexity. As the transcriptionist, you must have the patience and attentiveness to piece out what’s being said, and the skills to record it in a way that is readable.

You also might encounter challenging audio situations with regards to the speakers themselves. Someone might have an accent you’re not accustomed to, or you might encounter someone speaking very softly on the recording, and it might be easy to miss words. You’ll need to find ways to work past these issues.

Practice can help you master listening skills. Use opportunities like movies or radio to actively listen to what people are saying, even if you have to increase the volume to hear every individual involved in the discussion or debate. Practicing active listening can help transcription come more naturally to you on the job.

Communication

Good communication skills will help a transcriber navigate the complexities of transcribing challenging audio files. There’s more to transcribing, after all, than just writing down the spoken words. You want to make sure the finished product is clear and useful for the client.

This means more than understanding how to use English language conventions like paragraph breaks, ellipsis, and pause notations to make the writing clearer. It also means being able to understand who’s speaking, to know by their tone when they are being sarcastic or ironic, and to know how to annotate that.

Communication skills can also help establish the parameters for the job you were hired to complete. Many businesses have their own guidelines and templates regarding how transcriptions should be developed. Following these guidelines and communicating any questions you have are important for success.

Good memory

As a transcriptionist, you’ll need to record each word spoken during the conversation. A good memory can help you do this effectively without you having to regularly pause or rewind the recording. If you build your memory skills, you can transcribe for longer stretches. This will be more efficient, in the long run, than having to stop and backtrack all the time.  

There are a few different strategies people use to improve their memory skills. They might try memorizing groups of words together (a process called “chunking” information). Visualization, or picturing what’s being said, is also popular. If you need to improve your auditory memory, experiment to see which strategy works best for you.

Attention to detail

Transcribing an audio file requires paying close attention to sounds and utterances that you might filter out in other situations. If a speaker says “Um” repeatedly, you might naturally overlook it in everyday conversations. However, you will need to record these types of sounds in your transcript for verbatim transcriptions. Depending upon the type of transcription you produce, you might also need to note details such as laughter, pauses, or inflection that shifts the speaker’s meaning.

Noting what people say when watching movies to practice this skill can help you incorporate it more naturally in your work.

Computer skills

Those working in transcription will often use a variety of different types of technology to help them manage their job. Aspiring transcriptionists should familiarize themselves with some of the common types of software and technology that will benefit their projects.

To get started, familiarize yourself with basic computer skills. Learn how to use programs like Microsoft Word, social media platforms, and email to help you access recordings, complete transcription, and communicate with clients.

It will also benefit you as a transcriptionist to build out your skills with audio devices, transcription software that allows you to playback audio and video recordings, and software to help you add subtitles if that applies to your work. Transcriptionists might also decide to invest in hardware that makes their job easier, such as a foot pedal that allows them to control the recording, to pause when needed or easily rewind.

If your computer skills do not seem equipped for this type of position, then taking computer skills classes or even transcriptionist training courses can help you navigate the technology and see how it will benefit you professionally.

Time management

A professional with good time management skills will do a better job at organizing their work day. As a contractor, you’ll need to set goals and know how long a given task will take. Time management skills will make it easier for you to get your job done efficiently and stay on task, and when it comes to transcribing, meeting deadlines is critical.

For people working from home, like many transcriptionists, time management is a crucial skill. Without officemates and supervisors watching you work, some people find staying on-task more challenging and getting distracted easier. However, time management skills can keep you on task and moving forward with your goals.

If you have not spent time working on your time management skills in the past, you should consider developing these as you start your transcribing career. To-do lists and project management apps can be handy tools to keep you on top of what needs to be done. Time yourself as you complete certain tasks so you gain a better understanding of how long projects actually take. Plan out your days with increasing accuracy moving forward.

Multitasking

Transcriptionists spend a considerable amount of their time managing multiple tasks. On the job, you’ll need to listen to the recording, type, and edit your content. The better you can manage these responsibilities simultaneously, the more productive you’ll be.

When you can multitask, you’ll end up moving through each job faster, helping you achieve your goals and potentially advance your career.

Ability to focus

Transcriptionists often have the unique ability to combine the skills of multitasking and focusing, even though these can seem like polar opposites. As a multitasker, you manage different parts of your job simultaneously, but you’ll also need to learn how to focus so you can remain on task for extended periods of time.

As a transcriptionist, you might find yourself at your desk for hours at once, listening to dialogue or lectures on something you might find mundane. The speaker may not be as engaging as you’d like, and the topic might make you want to doze off. Regardless, you’ll need to learn how to focus and accomplish the task with confidence. Self-control is needed to continuously listen to audio, accurately record what’s being said, and meet your deadlines.

Curiosity

In the field of transcription, you’ll likely work with content related to a variety of different topics. Learning to take an interest in the topic of the recording will help you improve skills like focus, accuracy, and motivation.

Transcribers who are curious will find it easier to excel. Look for opportunities to expand your work resume, build new skills, or find ways to improve your document presentation. You might even let your curiosity help you uncover new ways to use technology to improve your capabilities.

Build your curiosity by networking with other transcriptionists. They can help you see the potential you can achieve when you stay curious about your career and your future.

Motivational skills

As a transcriptionist, motivation will help drive you forward. Many transcriptionists will work remotely and even completely independently as a freelancer. To keep up with your professional potential, you’ll need self-motivation.

If you can harness your motivation, you’ll probably find it easier to get your job done well and on time. You’ll discover the drive necessary to keep looking for new tasks to pick up and to improve your weakest areas.

If you’re working on building great motivational skills, try a few different strategies to see what works. Many people find it helpful to reduce distractions in the environment so they can focus on the present task. You might also try using positive affirmations to help you calm your mind and focus on your accomplishments. Finding a mentor might be a good technique too to keep you encouraged on your professional path.

How to practice transcription skills

If you want to build your transcription skills, practice regularly. Quality practice can help you build all of the skills we’ve discussed.

To make your practice time effective, consider the following tips:

• Isolate the areas where you struggle the most. Look for solutions to build your skills in areas where you need improvement. For example, if you need help with typing or computer skills, look for online courses.
• Set goals for your targeted areas of improvement. If you want to increase focus or motivation, for example, set reachable goals. You might seek out a mentor or have a goal to slowly increase your focus time.
• Consider taking a transcriptionist course. There are courses designed to teach and certify professionals. While certification or targeted training is not required for many types of transcription jobs, it can help you build your skill sets. If you want to become a better transcriptionist overall, a course might be the best way to achieve your goal.
• Take every opportunity you can to practice. You can build your skills by picking up smaller jobs or looking for opportunities on freelance sites like Upwork.

Don’t worry…

If you are interested in becoming a transcriptionist, you may find this list of skills to be a bit intimidating. However, don’t let yourself get deterred before you even start. Chances are, you already have at least some of the skills necessary to succeed as a transcriptionist. The rest you can improve through experience as you start to take on jobs.

Those interested in becoming transcriptionists should focus on learning to type quickly and master basic computer programs before looking for chances to work on small projects. Once you get started, you’ll be able to pinpoint areas where you need improvement. Build important skills one at a time. With patience and dedication, you’re sure to reach your goal.

Find transcriptionist jobs on Upwork

Whether you want to work in healthcare transcription or find jobs as a general transcriptionist, finding positions as a freelancer can help you uncover new opportunities. Those interested in finding transcription work can find jobs through Upwork.

As the largest freelance marketplace, Upwork brings together clients and independent contractors, making it easy for professionals like you to find projects.

All you need is to create an account on Upwork, bid for transcription service jobs, and find positions that will help you establish your freelance career. Get started finding transcriptionist jobs today.

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