Interview Analysis with MAXQDA

FAQs

• What is an interview transcription?

  Transcription refers to the process of converting spoken language into a written form. Consequently, an interview transcription denotes the process of converting a (pre-)recorded interview (typically an audio or video file) into its written form. Several interview transcription methods exist that mainly differ in their strictness of what is transcribed from the recording. For example, while a strict verbatim transcript includes non-verbal nods like “um hmm”, an edited transcript might exclude these utterances to obtain a more readable transcript. As a result, you have (a more or less edited) transcript of your interview that you can use for further analysis, such as manually coding the transcript.

  With MAXQDA’s Transcription tool you can quickly and easily transcribe interviews, no matter their file format.

• What are interview transcription methods?

  Interview transcription might seem straightforward, but once you get started you will recognize that people stutter, repeat words, and use non-verbal language. Consequently, interview transcription methods arised that mainly differ in their strictness of what is transcribed from the recording. To empower you in coming to an informed decision, we briefly present the most common interview transcription methods.

  1. Verbatim transcript: A strict verbatim interview transcript includes every word and sound that was recorded, including filler words, repeated words, stuttering and stammering, non-verbal nods, and if possible, non-verbal expressions of emotion, such as laughter or groaning. While verbatim transcription usually takes longer compared to other transcription methods, it can be worth the effort, as those non-word sounds can convey information about the interviewee’s state of mind. For example in the legal context, a verbatim transcript can give information about the witness’s confidence.
  2. Intelligent verbatim transcript: By contrast, the intelligent verbatim transcript is a more readable form of the verbatim transcript. The idea is to exclude distracting repetitions and filler words to obtain a more readable transcript while preserving the participant’s intended meaning. There are no strict rules about what to exclude. Things that an intelligent verbatim transcript might exclude: filler words, non-standard words (such as “dunno”), repeated words and sentences, off-topic utterances, pauses, caughing, and general noises
  3. Edited transcript: An edited transcript modifies the original recording even more than an intelligent verbatim transcript. Typically, the researcher corrects grammatical mistakes, and incomplete sentences to obtain a readable, concise, and clear transcript. But the interviewee’s voice may be changed. One area of application is business communication. Business communication tends to be formal and error-free, therefore an edited transcript might be the way to go.
  4. Phonetic transcript: A phonetic transcript includes notes on how the spoken words are pronounced using special phonetic symbols. Using phonetic transcription, you can analyze whether the pronunciation of a certain word changes (in the course of the interview/sound recording) or compare the pronunciation of certain words between dialects.
• What is the best way to transcribe interviews?

  As there are different methods, scientific disciplines, and contexts in which interview transcription is used, it is difficult to determine “the best way”. In general, it is a good idea to carefully think about your interview transcription and subsequent analysis prior to transcribing your interviews. Are you interested in how your interviewees respond? Then including non-verbal utterances in your interview transcripts can help to identify the interviewee’s state of mind, confidence, etc. Are you more concerned with what your interviewees say? Then an edited transcript (without non-verbal utterances) that is grammatically correct and more readable might be better suited. Knowing if and which filler words, non-verbal utterances, ans so on, you want to include in your transcript allows you to transcribe systematically from the beginning. By this, you can save a lot of time, as it will not be necessary to re-visit your interview transcripts.

  Using MAXQDA for your interview transcription can also save you a lot of time and makes your interview transcription easier than ever before. With MAXQDA you can adjust the rewind interval and the playing speed to your own transcription pace. You can define abbreviations that MAXQDA automatically spells in full, and you can define speaker names that MAXQDA automatically inserts when you add a new paragraph.

• How do you write an interview transcript?

  As in all aspects of scientific work, preparation is the key to success. Carefully think about the purpose of your interview transcription and decide what level of detail your transcript needs and which interview transcription method you want to apply. Next, familiarize yourself with MAXQDA’s advanced transcription tools, and adjust the settings to your needs (for example define a rewind interval, and abbreviations to replace). Then, start transcribing a first rough draft (with no or low rewind interval) which can include spelling mistakes and notes about unintelligible segments to revisit. In a next step, you can revisit and edit the transcript to get a readable transcript which you can use for your subsequent interview transcription analysis.