7 tips for editing Q&A transcripts

Do you ever provide transcripts of question-and-answer sessions that you record and make available to clients and prospects? That’s something that I’ve suggested for many years, including in “Videos: 3 ways to make them palatable for video-haters like me.”

However, as I said in “Financial call transcripts: Are they good for marketing?”, a word-for-word transcript could turn off your readers. To avoid that, consider my six tips to make your transcripts work better for you. The tips are listed in the order in which you might implement them.

Your freedom to edit transcripts will depend partly on whether you’re editing someone from outside your company, which limits you, versus someone within your firm who’ll review the transcript for accuracy before you publish. In either case, I highly recommend a prepublication accuracy check.

1. Decide if you’ll make audio or video available with the transcript.

Audio and video can engage people who don’t like to read. However, they also limit your freedom to tinker with the transcript text. If you don’t share audio or video, you can deviate more from the text of the recording, assuming you have the permission and approval of the speakers. They may be happy for you to smooth out their awkward phrasing or add clarifying text to their original answers.

Decide on your answer to this question before you edit your transcript.

2. Delete filler words.

Filler words, such as “you know,” “so,” or “kind of,” can add a more conversational feel to your transcript, so I sometimes leave them in. However, other times, they’re clearly mistakes, as when the speaker says “you know” two times in a row.

I delete more of these filler words when they are so numerous they slow the reader’s comprehension of the text.

3. Decide whether you’ll edit wording that sounds too casual.

For example, will you change “yup” or “yeah” to “yes”?

4. Use punctuation to provide clues.

I am particularly fond of em-dashes to set off comments that are clearly side comments in the middle of a sentence.

5. Spell out abbreviations that your readers won’t recognize.

Investment and wealth management professionals often talk among themselves about PCE. However, many individuals won’t realize that PCE is short for the “personal consumption expenditures price index.”

6. Explain unfamiliar abbreviations or terms.

What the heck does “personal consumption expenditures price index” (PCE) mean, and why should your readers care about it? Explaining that the Fed prefers to use changes in the PCE instead of changes in the Consumer Price Index to measure inflation provides useful context.

Of course, depending on the nature of your transcript, this might be too much information to add. Another alternative is to link the term in your transcript to a reputable definition of PCE, as I explain in “Help your readers by linking to definitions.”

7. Ensure that paragraphs break at the right spots.

Each paragraph should treat a different topic. However, human transcriptionists and transcriptions using artificial intelligence don’t always recognize when the topic has changed. That’s why I often add—and sometimes remove—paragraph breaks to provide a visual cue for a shift in topic.

 

 

Try these tips to delight your readers and get more mileage out of your transcripts!