Take Some Basic Refresher Courses
You may need to take some basic refresher courses in English and/or typing to polish up your grammar skills or typing speed before you apply to a transcription company, especially if you've been away from office work for a while or just away from school for some years.
While most word processing programs catch typos and misspellings with Spell Check programs, there are quite a few words and phrases that it might miss, so you can't always rely on technology to correct your mistakes.
So here are my suggestions for some steps you can take to get geared up and ready to tackle some general transcription work:
- Check with your local community college for some basic courses in English, grammar and writing. Most community colleges offer at least creative writing courses which should help.
Or even English as a second language would teach you the basics of spelling, grammar and punctuation.
- Check with your local community college also for some typing or computer keyboarding courses.
This will get you more familiar with the keyboard, which in turn will help your speed.
- After you've completed your basic refresher courses, you can practice with online business podcasts until you feel comfortable with applying at different transcription courses.
If you feel you could benefit from taking actual transcription training, read our article about the different ways formal college education can help you plus tips on what to look for in an online transcription training program.
Additional Computer Skills:
While you're learning or brushing up on your computer skills, don't forget to pick up some shortcut pointers with MS Word Tips. These shortcuts are a must to improve speed and proficiency.
Types of Transcription You Can Specialize In:
Podcast transcription
Transcribe podcasts for smaller companies to help them build their businesses. Focus Groups
Build up some creditentials with a couple of contracted companies doing focus groups. Interview Transcription
Interviews can take place in person or over the phone and can be an interview of one or more people. This type of work can come from a variety of clients from authors to seminar speakers. Corporate Transcription
The material can be from corporate presentations, quarterly earnings release calls when companies announce their financials for the quarter and year end; teleconferences, seminars, lectures, and conference presentations. Dictation Transcription
This is one speaker recording notes, a journal, instructions, chapters of a book, just about anything while alone.
Go to About Me from Basic Refresher Courses
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