Hello all. In a bit of a dilemma's.

I am conducting semi structured interviews, and having transcribe them verbatim. They last an hour each, and take me about 8-10 hours to fully transcribe. I have transcribed 3 (plus 3 'pilot interviews' to practice technique, coding, etc). While I can see the benefit of transcribing (data immersion, seeing important concepts), I'm pretty slow, my back hurts and I get rather fed up!

I have just been 'given' 1500 quid by a sponsor which would pay for 24 interviews transcribed by a pro (this would cover the cost of most my interviews)...I will still listen over to the recordings over and over, read and re-read the transcripts (once typed), but not have the painful task of actually transcribing. I'm not looking for an easy way out, but just want to be as efficient as I can be

Also, I could get on with reading, analysing previous interviews whilst some little Christmas elves are transcribing....
:-)

i.e if money/cost was no option would you get your interviews /FG's transcribed professionally, or is it 'always' better to do it yourself?

BTW I am using grounded theory, and will aim to conduct 25-30 interviews...before my transfer in July 2011(sprout)

Hi.

I did about half the number of interviews that you are planning.. so keep that in mind when i say that, for me,  i would have to do them myself. I did and God I suffered, yes 8-10 hours each was about right.

I found it "helped" me to think about what was said in a far more intense way.

I didn't use GT but its my limited understanding of that method that being immersed in the data is key.

My view, for my number of interviews, is its the difference between reading a paper, and reading a paper with a highlighter pen - being active during the process makes it more real. 

That said, maybe i just want you to suffer too. ;-)

What else could you spend the 1500 quid on ?  Barbados ?   8-)

Best, Chuff

I have done both. Have transcribed all of my interviews, and had them transcribed by a service.

Neither is perfect. As you get quicker with the transcribing it will take about 5 hours for each hour of recording. I have found that it is easiest if you listen with headphones, it just seems to make hearing what the interviewee is saying much easier, and I have also found that slowing the speech down to about 60-70% helps a lot too.

When you pay to have them transcribed you still have to listen back to them to make sure that there are no errors. The transcribers seem to type without the context, so they can make a lot of mistakes, so you will have to listen back and make sure that it is all correct.

I don't think that you 'know' the transcriptions any better if you transcribe them yourself - particular as you are using grounded theory, you will end up reading them hundreds of times!

Sorry, I'm not much help, although 1500 quid is a lot, not sure what the grant is for, but it might be better spent attending a conference or 2? :-)

I transcribed 40 1hour interviews, I think they took me about 3 hours each max to transcribe. I used this program and would definitely recommend using the 'automatic pause' function on it as it speeds things up immensly http://download.cnet.com/Transcription-Buddy/3000-2064_4-10221579.html?tag=mncol;;1

its free 30 day trial, but if you uninstall it and then reinstall it you can use it continuously for free.

It is a difficult one, some say you need to type everything yourself, others are not so bothered. could you try one and see? - get someone else to do one, then check how well you can familiarise yourself with the content when compared with one you have transcribed yourself. If there is little or no difference i would go with getting someone to do it for you. This is someone who has somewhere between 6,000 - 7,000 e-mails to sort out before I can even start to analyse any of the content and I know on-one can do that for me, but if they could I might very well go for it. I can't decide whether to print them all out first, or clean them up a bit before I print them out as some have left the original question on them, some have left that question and several of the replies etc, so they are much longer than they need to be, and I need to remove any identification refs from the texts and sources. Looking at several long sessions here and not looking forward to that at all.:-(

======= Date Modified 06 Nov 2010 14:03:33 =======
I interviewed 60 children using social networking sites (God help me) while they went online, qualitative stuff.I worked overtime, generated the money and got them transcribed and my thesis is 4 months away from submission. For me, it was neevr a moemnts reconsideration.I had to compelte in way under 3 years, had 3 jobs and was drained out totally, and have very high eye power. I just couldnt have done it. I dont think they made an iota of difference to my analysis.

xx

======= Date Modified 07 Nov 2010 05:18:57 =======
I transcribed forty interviews of between one and three hours before I cracked. I got a grant to transcribe the final ten because I just couldn't do any more. I won't lie - it was terrible. Although I think it was helpful because it did force me to start thinking through the data at an early stage. I used to keep a word document open called 'cool ideas' and would make a note of anything I picked up on as I went through transcribing. So it didn't feel like a complete waste of time, but there were times when I really just wanted to scream and throw the laptop out the window! I used a programme called express scribe that can be downloaded free online. It was really helpful.

For my research it wouldn't really have been all that ethical to have someone else transcribe some of the interviews as one group were talking about particularly sensitive issues and I did say on the information sheet that only I would get to listen to the recordings. The ten I got done were really not sensitive and the information sheet was different for them. So I think that's something to keep in mind too.

It is do-able but if you are really pressed for time and don't need the money for anything else then you might be just as well getting them done for you. I don't think it is essential to do them yourself unless there are ethical issues, but it certainly isn't a totally pointless exercise from my experience if you do end up doing them.

Good luck!

Thanks all for the replies- really useful to hear the experiences of others. It seems like its a choice depending on finances, circumstances, ethics and personal preferences and ability....

I'm not sure what to do. As was mentioned, I will try and have a few transcribed proefssioally and see how I 'feel' and how engaged with the data I can become. Plus I will see if I really do get on with other tasks such as analysis.

I could think of a million things I could happily fritter the money on (Ipad, holiday, Credit card bills, chrissy presents), but have not other expenses re. PhD, and this is my major expense. Costs of conferences will be covered by my other sponsors (I've sold my soul- my employers are my sponsors- thus have to work for them for ever once finished:-(

I'll let you know how i get on


Thanks:-)

Well, I had 40 interviews in Greek and I had to transcribe them and then translate them into English....
It was very difficult. Most of the time I wanted to throw my computer off the window or smash it with something heavy! I was almost always dizzy and my eyes were really sore.
But I got really familiar with my data, and I have managed to remember a lot them and know where to look for them

I did about 50 interviews, of between an hour and three hours duration and had to transcribe them myself. It took a looooong time but I had no other choice. However, I did find that it helped immerse me within the data, and through trial and error I found some methods that were helpful. As someone else suggested headphones are very useful, as is slowing down the speech. I found that contrary to what I expected, it was easier for me to write longhand than type, which meant i wan't concentrating on the screen and getting sore eyes. I had help with the typing up afterwards, but again did most of it myself. Maybe you could try this, and use some of the money for a typist? I also got up an hour and a half early three days a week to do it, and this soon added up. Good luck