The Butler

          You know what’s odd about transcription? When sit in my corner I am not attentive to anything around me: my eyes on my screen, my mind on their words, and my headphones in my ears. For all intents and purposes it is solitary work. Unfortunately, I am a social person. I draw energy from people interactions and conversations. I thrive in movement and discussion–Which is probably why I think the interview process is so much fun. The surprising think about transcription to me is that I don’t feel alone while I do it. Even if I am not adding to the conversation, I get to listen to a conversation. While I type out their voices I assume almost the same silent-listening role as when I conduct the interviews.

As I predicted last time, the hardest part about transcribing my most recent interview (about the Butler movie with seven participants) at first was discerning one speaker from another. Some of the voices are very distinct, others less so.  Since I anticipated this problem, during the interview I noted which speaker discussed each topic so that, if I had trouble, I could just reference the notes. As I get farther along in the transcription, it gets easier to tell each of the ladies apart.

Also, many of the women from that interview were happy to give a follow-up interview based on the topics we discussed – which is super exciting. Therefore, while I transcribe this interview I am also noting several topics and discussions that they showed an interest in. Those topics can then be used as a springboard for their next interview.