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>>>$1.13 for writing a verbatim transcript of a 4 minute and 2 second audio clip What? That's actually pretty good...

by lqdc13 11y ago

JamesMcMinn 11y ago
Well, given that the average speaking speed is 150wpm, whilst average typing speed is only 40 wpm, it probably takes ~15 minutes to transcribe each audio clip, giving about $4.5/hour, which isn't so great.
- lqdc13 11y ago
  This is like the worst case scenario. If the person can touch type or if there are major pauses during the recordings (which happens a lot during lectures), you make $15/hr. If there are enough pauses, you can do two at a time and get $30/hr.
  - sp0rk 11y ago
    Your estimations are incredibly generous, even for somebody using a transcription pedal. The audio for the transcription jobs on sites like MTurk is often very low quality and recorded on a device that is clearly not close to the speaker(s). They are also often for things like local government meetings where the speakers are using a lot of proper nouns that you may not be familiar with. Both of these factors result in a LOT of rewinding to listen to a word multiple times.
anamexis 11y ago
I did this for awhile, and it takes surprisingly long to do these transcriptions. They are mostly transcribing accident interviews for insurance companies. The recordings are absolutely terrible, so you have to re-listen to each part many times to get it right. Additionally, since it is paralegal work, there are very strict requirements for formatting and accuracy. 30 minutes spent transcribing a 4 minute audio clip would not be unusual.
- lqdc13 11y ago
  I guess it depends on the task a lot. I transcribed a few college lecture fragments at one point just to figure out what it's like and i was able to type while listening as I could understand the accent right away. While giving out Turk tasks, I noticed some people are about 100x more efficient than others depending on the task.
tracker1 11y ago
That was my thought as well.. I don't think the majority of tasks will wind up much under $10/hr for most people. Only Amazon knows what the average person is making in an average hour of turn around time though. It would be interesting to find out though.
- pcthrowaway 11y ago
  Spend some time on mechanical turk.. the average transcription task takes a surprising amount of time to complete. I type 70-90 words per minute and a 30 second transcription might take me 5-6 minutes, due to having to replay parts over and over, and deal with formatting it according to the requirements
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]

>>>$1.13 for writing a verbatim transcript of a 4 minute and 2 second audio clip What? That's actually pretty good...

by lqdc13 11y ago

>>>$1.13 for writing a verbatim transcript of a 4 minute and 2 second audio clip What? That's actually pretty good...

Well, given that the average speaking speed is 150wpm, whilst average typing speed is only 40 wpm, it probably takes ~15 minutes to transcribe each audio clip, giving about $4.5/hour, which isn't so great.

lqdc13 11y ago
This is like the worst case scenario. If the person can touch type or if there are major pauses during the recordings (which happens a lot during lectures), you make $15/hr. If there are enough pauses, you can do two at a time and get $30/hr.
- sp0rk 11y ago
  Your estimations are incredibly generous, even for somebody using a transcription pedal. The audio for the transcription jobs on sites like MTurk is often very low quality and recorded on a device that is clearly not close to the speaker(s). They are also often for things like local government meetings where the speakers are using a lot of proper nouns that you may not be familiar with. Both of these factors result in a LOT of rewinding to listen to a word multiple times.

anamexis 11y ago

I did this for awhile, and it takes surprisingly long to do these transcriptions. They are mostly transcribing accident interviews for insurance companies. The recordings are absolutely terrible, so you have to re-listen to each part many times to get it right. Additionally, since it is paralegal work, there are very strict requirements for formatting and accuracy. 30 minutes spent transcribing a 4 minute audio clip would not be unusual.

lqdc13 11y ago
I guess it depends on the task a lot. I transcribed a few college lecture fragments at one point just to figure out what it's like and i was able to type while listening as I could understand the accent right away. While giving out Turk tasks, I noticed some people are about 100x more efficient than others depending on the task.

tracker1 11y ago

That was my thought as well.. I don't think the majority of tasks will wind up much under $10/hr for most people. Only Amazon knows what the average person is making in an average hour of turn around time though. It would be interesting to find out though.

pcthrowaway 11y ago
Spend some time on mechanical turk.. the average transcription task takes a surprising amount of time to complete. I type 70-90 words per minute and a 30 second transcription might take me 5-6 minutes, due to having to replay parts over and over, and deal with formatting it according to the requirements
deleted 11y ago
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