How to Transcribe Interviews

by Chris Daniels, studioD

An interview can be a reliable source for fresh or hard-to-find information. However, in referencing the information contained within an interview or sharing the information with others, most cannot devote the time to listening to the recording of the interview in full. Transcribe your recorded interviews to text to make the most out of the information.

Transfer your interview recording to your computer. If you used a digital audio recorder or a recorder app on a Smartphone, plug the recorder or Smartphone into your computer and transfer the file by following the instructions that pop up on the screen. If you are transcribing from a tape, record the tape onto your computer via the microphone and native recorder program in a quiet room.

Open the audio recording in a media player that allows you to pause, fast-forward and rewind the recording.

Launch a word processing program and open a new document.

List the person who was interviewed, the interviewer, the date the interview was conducted, the person transcribing the interview, the date of transcription and a space for editors of the transcription at the top of the document.

Begin a new section with the name of the speaker followed by a word-for-word statement. When initially transcribing, don't take the extra time for paragraph breaks or formatting; these can be added during the editing process. Indicate the start-time in the audio recording for each section.

Indicate interruptions to the interview by making a statement in brackets. For example, write "[Interview interrupted by telephone call]" if the tape was paused to allow the interviewee to receive a business call. Ambient sounds that may be relevant should also be indicated this way. Omit non-word speech sounds such as "um" or "uh."

Indicate where changes were made to the text of the transcript. Place a word in square brackets when it is changed, for instance, to improve clarity. Acknowledge an error on the speaker's part -- as opposed to the person transcribing the interview -- by placing the word "sic" in brackets.

Indicate unclear words with question marks, for example, "?clearly?." If a longer phrase is not clear, indicate this in a statement listing the duration. For example, "[Unintelligible 15 seconds]."


  • Consider whether a full transcript of the interview is necessary, as a full transcript is word for word. In many cases, a summary is sufficient.
  • Speech-to-text programs or services are typically expensive, but can save you time and give you a starting point for a transcription.

About the Author


Photo Credits

  • Goodshoot/Goodshoot/Getty Images
Suggest an Article Correction