Transcribing audio data for
             thematic analysis
            Virginia Braun and Victoria Clarke
          Overview
          • Transcription is not a straightforward process of 
            translation, but an active process of transformation.
          • Factors that contribute to (orthographic) transcript 
            quality.
          • Ethics and transcription.
          • Transcription notation system for orthographic 
            transcription (revised from Braun and Clarke, 2013) - 
            also available as a handout.
          • The transcription process.
          • Transcription exercise.
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          Transcription is not a 
          straightforward process of 
          translation(1 of 2)
          • The point of transcription is to produce a written record 
            of an audio recording – and that transcript usually 
            serves as the foundation for analysis, the material you 
            predominantly work with in coding, theme 
            development and interpretation. 
          • But transcription is not straightforward. Whole books 
            have been written about transcription – it is far from a 
            simple ‘technical’ concern.
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          Transcription is not a 
          straightforward process of 
          translation(2 of 2)
         • For a start, spoken and written language are very 
          different. We speak in really messy ways, without 
          ‘grammatical’ punctuation, and it’s often a jumble of 
          pauses, repetition, and hesitations. We regularly change 
          things like the pace, tone or volume of our speech. 
         • This means a transcript of speech looks nothing like 
          written language – or what you might expect from 
          dialogue as it appears in say a play, or a novel. 
         • For much qualitative research, and thematic analysis, it’s 
          important the transcript captures ‘real’ speech – what 
          was said and (to a greater or lesser extent) how it was 
          said. 
                                                                        5
        Transcription is an active process of 
        transformation(1 of 2)
          • Transcription is better understood as a process of 
           transformation rather than replication. 
          • Sandelowski (1994 ) suggested that transcription turns 
           “raw” data (for example, audio recordings) into 
           “partially cooked” data (the transcript thereof) – some 
           processing of the data and change has occurred. 
          • The process of transcription involves a range of 
           decisions about what information to include and what 
           to exclude, and things are lost and gained in the 
           process. 
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