SWITCHBOARD Transcription Manual Fourth revision: 17 March 1992 Part I: HEADER FORMAT AND INSTRUCTIONS 1. When the transcription is finished, fill out the template at the top of the text file as in the following example: CONVERSATION_ID: 3021 SPEAKER_ID_A: 1279 SPEAKER_ID_B: 1108 TOPIC#: 314 DATE: 910606 TRANSCRIBER: RDL DIFFICULTY: 1 TOPICALITY: 1 NATURALNESS: 1 ECHO_FROM_B: 1 ECHO_FROM_A: 1 STATIC_ON_A: 1 STATIC_ON_B: 2 BACKGROUND_A: 1 BACKGROUND_B: 3 REMARKS: Conversation was dominated by Speaker A. Near the end of the conversation there was a silence of about 30 seconds while B went to answer the doorbell. ============================================================ 2. The first five items are filled in from information provided on the log sheets for each conversation; the sixth is the transcriber's initials; the seventh through the fifteenth are "ratings", which are to be given by the transcriber immediately after finishing a conversation. The key to the ratings is given below in #3. The last item, "REMARKS:", is for brief comments about unusual characteristics of the conversation, if any. See #4 below for more details. If there are no comments, just type the word "None." There should be a blank line after the end of the remarks and two more blank lines after the "======" line, before the transcription itself begins. 3. Use the following key in rating each conversation; remember that 1 is good and 5 is bad. SWITCHBOARD CONVERSATION RATING KEY On a scale of 1 to 5, please rate the conversation according to the following characteristics: DIFFICULTY: The conversation was very easy (1) 1 2 3 4 5 or very difficult (5) to transcribe. TOPICALITY: The conversation generally stayed on 1 2 3 4 5 one topic (1) or strayed far from it (5). NATURALNESS: The conversation sounded natural (1) 1 2 3 4 5 or artificial or forced (5). ECHO_FROM_B: In listening to A separately, B could hardly be heard (1) or was nearly as loud as A (5) 1 2 3 4 5 (Caller A's side) ECHO_FROM_A: In listening to B separately, A could hardly be heard (1) or was nearly as loud as B (5) 1 2 3 4 5 (Caller B's side) STATIC_ON_A: There was no static-like noise or 1 2 3 4 5 (Caller A's side) distortion (1) or a great deal of it (5) FROM THE TELEPHONE LINE ITSELF. STATIC_ON_B: There was no static-like noise or 1 2 3 4 5 (Caller B's side) distortion (1) or a great deal of it (5) FROM THE TELEPHONE LINE ITSELF. BACKGROUND_A: The conversation was mostly clear 1 2 3 4 5 (Caller A's side) and intelligible (1) or distorted, muffled, or otherwise hard to understand (5) BECAUSE OF THE SPEAKERS' BEHAVIOR OR THE BACKGROUND WHERE THEY WERE CALLING FROM. BACKGROUND_B: The conversation was mostly clear 1 2 3 4 5 (Caller B's side) and intelligible (1) or distorted, muffled, or otherwise hard to understand (5) BECAUSE OF THE SPEAKERS' BEHAVIOR OR THE BACKGROUND WHERE THEY WERE CALLING FROM. In general, DO NOT REFER to tape-related problems in rating the conversation, or in the REMARKS, or in {comments} in the text (see below). If in doubt, say so in the comments and in the REMARKS section. EXAMPLE of a comment in the text: {dropout, possibly on phone line?} EXAMPLE of a REMARK in the header: REMARKS: Several episodes of very brief dropout on A's side might have been from the telephone line rather than the tape. Too short to be sure. Part II. GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS 1. Transcribe "verbatim", without correcting grammatical errors: "I seen him," "me and him gone to the movies," etc. 2. Do not try to imitate pronunciation; use a dictionary form: "no" will do for "naw," "nah," etc., "oh" for "aw,"; "going to" (not gonna or goin to); "you all" rather than "y'all"; "kind of" instead of "kinda"; etc. Nonstandard words which are not in the dictionary (e.g., kiddo) should be typed normally, i.e. without quotes or other special notation. 3. Follow the dictionary on hyphenating compounds in clear-cut cases. But "when in doubt, leave them out." 4. Try to avoid word abbreviations: Fort Worth, not Ft. Worth; percent, not %; dollars, cents, and so forth. 5. Contractions are allowed, but be conservative. For example, contraction of "is" (it's a boy, running's fun) is common and standard, but there'll (there will) be forms that're (that are) better left uncontracted. It is always permitted to spell out forms in full, even if the pronunciation suggests the contracted form. Thus it is O K to type he is and they are and we would even if it's he's and they're and we'd you heard. 6. Use normal capitalization on proper names of persons, streets, restaurants, cities, states, etc., but put titles (of books, journals, movies, songs, plays, TV shows, etc.--what would properly be in italics.) in ALL CAPS, i.e., uppercase letters. 7. If it is necessary to use accent marks, insert the number 3 before the letter which would receive the accent, e.g., fianc3e. 8. Punctuation: although normal punctuation rules apply, spontaneous conversational speech is full of difficult situations. Strive for simplicity and consistency, with the following specific guidelines: -- terminate each sentence with a period unless a question mark or exclamation point is clearly justified; -- use a comma instead of ... or -- or fancier punctuation when speakers change thoughts or grammatical structures in the middle of a sentence; --for more detail, and for special rules involving interruptions, etc., see below under SPECIAL CONVENTIONS. 9. Be sure to run a spell check upon completion of the transcript. Remember to watch for common spelling confusions like: its and it's, they're and there and their, by and bye, etc. PART III. SPECIAL CONVENTIONS FOR SWITCHBOARD CONVERSATIONS 1. Speakers should be indicated by "A: " and "B: " at the left margin, with two spaces after the colon, and with a blank line between speakers (i.e., an extra carriage return before each A: or B: ). On the audio tape, A will be THE SPEAKER ON THE FIRST OF THE TWO SEPARATELY RECORDED SIDES. IT IS IMPERATIVE TO KEEP THIS DESIGNATION CORRECT AND CONSISTENT, even when the crosstalk or echo is so strong that both speakers are equally loud. The log sheet for each conversation will show the first few words by each speaker, to help you confirm the assignment. EXAMPLE: A: Blah blah blah blah. B: Blah blah blah. A: Etcetera. 2. Spell out letter and number sequences: D F W, seven forty-seven, U S A, one oh one, F B I, etc., unless the letter sequence is pronounced as a word, as in NASA, ROM, DOS. Transcribe years like 1983 as "nineteen eighty-three," with hyphens only between the tens and ones digits. When a letter sequence is used as part of an inflected word, add the inflection with a dash: T I -er, B S -ing, the Oakland A -s, a witness I D -ed him. This leads to clumsy-looking possessive forms, as in: the U S -'s policy, the T I -er's last name, all the C E O -s' votes, but it saves lots of time later on. 3. Partial words: if a speaker does not finish a word, and you think you know what the word was, you may spell out as much of the word as is pronounced, and then use a single dash followed by a comma, -,. If you cannot tell what word the speaker is trying to say, leave it out. EXAMPLE: A: Well, th-, that's what they kept tell-, wanted me to believe. B: I, I, I just am not to-, totally sure, uh, about that. 4. Hesitation sounds: use "uh" for all hesitations consisting of a vowel sound (rather than trying to distinguish uh, ah, er, etc.), and "um" for all hestitations with a nasal sound (rather than uhm, hm, mm, etc.) 5. Yes/no sounds: use "uh-huh" (yes) and "huh-uh" (no) for anything remotely resembling these sounds of assent or denial; you may use "yeah," "yep," and "nope" if that is what the words sound like. 6. Punctuation: use commas instead of ... or -- or other "fancy" punctuation when speakers change thoughts or grammatical structures in the middle of a "sentence." Terminate each sentence with a period unless a question mark or exclamation point is clearly justified. Only use suspension dots ... if a speaker leaves a sentence unfinished at the end of his/her turn, and a period cannot be used, or at the end of a conversation where the speaker's turn was cut off by the computer timing out: EXAMPLE: A: I was going to do that, but then I ... B: Right, me too. Use a double dash if a speaker breaks a sentence off and picks it up at the beginning of the next turn, with another double dash where the pickup begins: EXAMPLE: A: I was going to do that, but then I -- B: Right, me too. A: -- thought I better not after all. 7. Non-speech sounds during conversations: indicate these using only the following list of expressions in brackets. When making judgments, pick the closest description; [noise] will be adequate to describe most sounds that are not represented below. Note underscores (not spaces or hyphens) to connect the double word descriptions. [TV] [baby] [baby_crying] [baby_talking] [barking] [beep] [bell] [bird_squawk] [breathing] [buzz] [buzzer] [child] [child_crying] [child_laughing] [child_talking] [child_whining] [child_yelling] [children] [children_talking] [children_yelling] [chiming] [clanging] [clanking] [click] [clicking] [clink] [clinking] [cough] [dishes] [door] [footsteps] [gasp] [groan] [hiss] [horn] [hum] [inhaling] [laughter] [meow] [motorcycle] [music] [noise] [nose_blowing] [phone_ringing] [popping] [pounding] [printer] [rattling] [ringing] [rustling] [scratching] [screeching] [sigh] [singing] [siren] [smack] [sneezing] [sniffing] [snorting] [squawking] [squeak] [static] [swallowing] [talking] [tapping] [throat_clearing] [thumping] [tone] [tones] [trill] [tsk] [typewriter] [ugh] [wheezing] [whispering] [whistling] [yawning] [yelling] If the event being described lasts longer than a few words, then indicate the beginning in brackets [ ], and the end in brackets with a "/", [/ ]. EXAMPLES: 1. Separate multiple sounds by a space, each one in brackets: A: Oh, that's funny. [laughter] [cough] Excuse me, I have a cold. B: That's all right, [sneezing] so do I. [barking] [child_talking] 2. Use "/" to show end of a continuous sound: A: Well, it all depends, uh, on, you know, [baby_crying] how the family reacts. I mean, it can be a positive or a negative thing, you know? B: Yeah, well, I guess so. It just seems [/baby_crying] to me that it's a very difficult, uh, difficult issue. 8. When a comment is needed to describe an event, put the comment in curly braces { }: {very faint}, {sounds like speaker is talking to someone else in the room}, {speaker imitates a woman's voice here}. EXAMPLE: 1. Curly braces to describe the speech: B: Yeah, yeah, I agree {very faint} right. 2. Combine curly braces and brackets if more explanation is needed to describe the word in the brackets: A: Did it sound like this? [clicking] {sounds made with mouth} B: No, more like [clicking] {sounds like a pencil tapping on a table} this. 9. When a word or phrase is not clear, type DOUBLE PARENTHESES (( )) around what you think you hear. If there is no way to tell what the speaker said, leave 1 blank space between the double parentheses, indicating speech has been left out because it was unintelligible. EXAMPLE: A: So when I finally did ((take up)) the violin, I progressed pretty quickly in the beginning. B: Of course, that was in college which was a long time ago, so (( )) I remember. 10. Simultaneous talking: Wherever possible, mark where both speakers talked simultaneously with TWO PAIRS of pound signs (#), ONE BEFORE AND ONE AFTER each of the segments spoken at the same time. One of these segments MUST BEGIN A TURN; in other words, if one person is an "interruptor", his interruption starts a new turn. Remember, BOTH speakers' turns must contain TWO pound signs each. A SIMPLE EXAMPLE: A: Okay, well, I guess that's about it. B: Yeah. A: Nice talking to you. B: # Right, bye. # A: # Bye bye. # ANOTHER EXAMPLE: A: I never heard such nonsense, you know, B: # Yeah, I know. # [B interrupts while A continues.] A: # as I heard that # day when I blah blah blah. [A continues beyond the simultaneously spoken words.] WHICH COULD ALSO BE WRITTEN: A: I never heard such nonsense, you know, # as I heard that # B: # Yeah, I know. # A: day when I blah blah blah ANOTHER EXAMPLE: A: I never heard such nonsense, # you know, # [A starts.] B: #Yeah, # [B starts to step on A.] A: as I heard that day when # I was at that meeting. # [A continues without stopping.] B: # I agree with you all the way # [B comes in over A again.]