Putting together a thesis is no mean feat. Among other things, you need to carry out comprehensive research on the topic at hand. The final product needs to display a thorough understanding of the topic, not just a collection of snippets of information from various sources. In this article, we discuss how you can utilize transcription services to research for your thesis.
Elevate Your Thesis Research With Transcription
The ultimate quality of your thesis has a lot to do with the nature of your research. Anything that can improve your ability to research widely and accurately is definitely worth a try. Below, we look into the value that transcription adds to your research.
Remember, your thesis has a deadline, as is the case with every academic paper. Even as you put in your best in the research process, speed is of the essence, too. Read on to see how transcription services improve both the speed and accuracy of your research and how to incorporate this tool into the research process.
Gather Your Audio/Video Content
No matter your subject of research, you'll find that a lot of the content you come across will be in audio format. In the absence of transcription, you would be required to listen to hour upon hour of such lectures, interviews, or group discussions in an effort to extract the information that you need.
In addition to having to spend all this time, you cannot be sure that the content is relevant to your topic of research. While you do not want to leave out all this content contained in audio format, you also don't want to spend too much time listening to every minute of it.
Once you have transcribed your audio, you can quickly skim through the resulting transcript to assess the content's relevance and immediately use what you need.
With this in mind, you no longer have to worry about those four-hour audio files that you come across in the course of your research. Thanks to transcription, you can carry out comprehensive research quickly and effectively.
The Never-Ending Debate: Human or Automated Transcription?
Now that we've determined that transcription will help you access more information without spending too much time, you must decide how you want your content transcribed. Automated transcription is fast and relatively cheaper, as it utilizes speech recognition software to convert audio into text.
If you need your audio transcribed right away, you can log onto a platform such as GoTranscript.com, upload your file, and have your transcripts in your email within minutes, a couple of hours at most. Automated transcription works well for general information, where the overall message will still be conveyed even when the transcript is not 100% accurate.
If the topic of the topic of your thesis is more specific, you're better off going for human transcription. Here, you're looking for a transcriptionist who is well-versed in your field of study. Such a professional can figure out the conversation even when dealing with relatively poor audio quality.
It's unavoidable - audio files of interviews and focus groups often have inaudible sections, overlapping speech, background noise, deep accents, and other issues that an automated service may be unable to handle. That's no issue when a human drives the transcription, though. The ideal transcriber will also be able to decode industry-specific lingo, abbreviations, and concepts, significantly increasing the accuracy of the transcript.
You can also utilize both notions, where you use machine transcription to generate the first draft, which is then edited manually. The attention to detail that comes with the human touch makes a whole lot of difference.
For a massive pool of transcriptionists specializing in various fields, check out platforms such as Gotranscript.com. Here, you can always get a perfect fit for your project.
Format the Content
Once you have the transcripts, you can turn them into the format that makes it easier to get the information. A transcript gives you so many options that are not available with audio content.
You can summarize, highlight significant portions, include visual aids such as charts, break down the content with subheadings, list down separate points, and so on. Furthermore, depending on what you're looking for, you can condense a bunch of audio hours into just a couple of pages, which makes the content so much easier to go through.
Conclusion
Your thesis, to a large extent, determines your final score on your master's degree. For such a significant step in your academic journey, you want to put in your best. Including transcription services in your research helps you access a wide range of information and quickly narrow down to the details that are significant to your thesis. The best thesis should be original, clear, and compelling. By improving your research approach, transcription services help you achieve just that.
