Do their graders want you to fail?

Discussion in 'CastingWords' started by EllieFS, May 29, 2013.

  1. electricaltill

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    That's setting the bar pretty high. There's always going to be some level of personal preference as regards things like comma positioning and whether or not to split a sentence, or where, so there's not an objective measure of perfection.

    If you're just listening and reading, as opposed to listening, typing and reading, you can devote more attention to error checking. I find I'm more attentive to errors when I'm checking someone else's work; people sometimes get tunnel vision about their own work, and I'm as guilty of this as anyone.

    Mike@CW has told me about experienced transcribers who have been surprised when they've looked at their work with the eyes of an editor. But that's part of the reason for the edit process, and the approval process offers a third pair of eyes.
     
  2. aureus

    aureus New Member

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    It's not always a question of inexperience or sloppiness. I find that I can't agree with some of the common practices that we often see in some edited transcripts.

    I strive to transcribe complete and correct sentences. If the original speech was grammatically correct, then my transcript will be likewise.

    Some editors take an opposite tack. Given properly structured complete sentences (even of perfectly reasonable length), they'll chop them into fragments; trying to make them as short as possible, grammar be d*mned. The result is that a good transcript gets trashed, IMO.

    I tire of contesting these edits. I'm 'fighting city hall' here. CW accepts fragmented sentences to some extent. For as long as I stay with them, I'll continue to see some of my good transcripts senselessly shredded into fragments. That's how some editors roll.
     
  3. aureus

    aureus New Member

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    Some editors prefer to break off dependent clauses into sentence-fragments. For example, if I transcribe sentences of the form "If A, then B", an editor may decide to change them to: "If A. Then B."

    Perhaps such fragmentation may be increasingly popular in casual writing, but I see no reason for any good editor to make it a regular practice in professional quality transcription. If the original speech is grammatically correct, then I'll strive to transcribe it as such. If we spend extra time taking special care to accurately transcribe grammatically correct sentence structure, should we not be disappointed when we see that work put to waste for no good reason?

    I've complained (more than once). It has been suggested that I stop complaining.

    I'll stop complaining. I'll also stop working while I take the opportunity to re-evaluate my options. As I said before, I want to produce quality work and I want the customer to receive quality work.
     
  4. electricaltill

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    I've seen that too. The only time I'll admit to doing it myself (and hating it) is when the sentence is extremely long, because I know that's what's preferred. I say "long," I mean the example sentence you gave taking an entire paragraph.

    I understand the goal is supposed to be a readable transcript, and that sentences which are too long harms that goal, but splitting them in nonsensical places does so even more. But that's what's preferred.
     
  5. beo

    beo Member

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    Sometimes when I'm editing I'll change sentences that are split into fragments into one sentence if it'll only add a few more words to the sentence and make it grammatically correct. It's very rare that I have to split up sentences while transcribing and I can't find a place to split it and make it grammatically correct, but it does happen.

    There's a ton of bad work. I don't know how some people think that the stuff they're submitting will earn them an 8 or 9. My personal standard is that it should be pretty easy to fix the transcript without pausing it while editing if it's an 8, and 9 is pretty much perfect; an error here, an error there, no more than one a paragraph on average.

    I can't believe some of the stuff I see grading. You'd be surprised how many people have clearly never read the style guide or don't have a firm grasp on the English language and just mishear the simplest words.
     
  6. newbie2014

    newbie2014 New Member

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    Hi everybody. I'm another newbie who is so very frustrated. I was excited to start with Casting Words. From what I hear, they are the best at communicating with people and I enjoyed doing my first few HITS with them. The flexible schedule is wonderful. Having said that, I had one job that I made a "small" error that did require a lot of editing (so I actually agree with the score) but now I can't seem to find hardly any work. I tested with SpeechInk and got a 92 but then again, made a newbie mistake and now I'm relegated to the HITS that pay a few cents. I also ran into a lot of subjective editing regarding the non-verbatim HITS and so I feel that there will always be a risk of getting a low score, even though technically, the transcription is accurate.

    I feel that I have a good command of the language, grammar, spelling, etc., and worked in the medical transcription field for a couple of years, so I'm not completely inept :) I feel like tearing my hair out! Anyway, enough ranting. Here's hoping all of you have a good, productive, and profitable day!
     
  7. oldbones

    oldbones Member

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    I've been here at CW probably longer than any of you. What I can tell you is that Frustration is the name of the game. Over the years I've had to develop a high tolerance for frustration. The way I deal with it is to tell myself it's their company and they can run it any way they please. We're not in college composition classes here and they don't see things like we do. I've had 100s or better for years and years in both editing and transcription. So you see, whether you think I'm an idiot or not, I know how to both do transcription for them and also grading and editing.

    I'm so sorry that you think we editors are idiots and out to get you but there's a way of doing CW transcripts. They have to be very readable. They have to fit together into a final transcript that goes to customers. It has to adhere to the style guide to turn out a consistent transcript. If you get your egos out of it and just try to do what they want, you'll make money.

    I just gave a 9 to one of the posters here, Amy. I'm sure the rest of you will what they call "qual up," too soon.
     
  8. beo

    beo Member

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    Are you at least a five-year veteran, oldbones? Not too many people have been around longer than me :p
     
  9. oldbones

    oldbones Member

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    Yep. I wasn't sure exactly so I went back and checked. My first year was 2008. Guess I'm in a rut. :confused: :( You must be frustration-resistant, too.
     
  10. beo

    beo Member

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    Oh my, that's a long time. January of '09 myself ;P In the work I do for CW I don't have to deal with a lot of frustration. Usually I just type things (well) and have no issues with that ever. Maybe a few jobs in a thousand that I mess up and need help with.

    As for frustration from other people, well, I don't do many edits anymore...:p I do the occasional high-paying one or medical one, but aside from that, I usually let other people clean up the messes.
     
  11. oldbones

    oldbones Member

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    That's all very good. my editing days are over I guess. My eyes are getting so bad that I can't clean them up like I used to. Recently I left in an Iit's. it blew CW's mind so Editing is out now. i can't fix typos i can't see.
     
  12. plaintivecricket

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    Well, after I read your comments about SpeechInk I looked at your posted date. They have changed personnel or something, because I cannot seem to please them no matter what I do. They must have hired some English majors to review our work.

    Yes, all of this stuff is driven by 'the dollar' and they make more money when they can give us a zero (0) and not pay us for the hours of listening and typing we struggled to do well.

    I hate this injustice!
     
  13. oldbones

    oldbones Member

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    CW is getting out of control. They didn't like a one minute transcript I turned in, one of the difficult transcript Chinese ones and dropped my PPT 2 points! I was on automatic grading and I could usually rely on a good grade after giving it my best effort. I don't know...At this rate, my scores are going to drop like a rock and I won't be able to make much money at all. Rather discouraging since I am disabled and don't want to be forced to go out and get a real job.
     
    #93 oldbones, May 6, 2014
    Last edited by a moderator: May 6, 2014

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