CAPTIONING STANDARDS
PLEASE NOTE: Even if your assignment/class/session provides auto-transcripts (whether through Zoom or YouTube), you are still expected to caption the class because the automatic transcripts are never accurate and they do not follow Habitat Learn's captioning and transcripting standards.
Captioning and the production of transcripts are very different from a regular set of notes. Please familiarize yourself with Habitat Learn’s captioning standards that are listed in this module.
Captioning and the production of transcripts are very different from a regular set of notes. Please familiarize yourself with Habitat Learn’s captioning standards that are listed in this module.
- - The goal is to ensure that all transcripts that are produced by Habitat Learn’s captioners are uniform across the board and the speech is captured verbatim.
Transcript Requirements and Formatting
Instructions: Press the plus sign next to each component below to read about the respective transcript rules that you're expected to follow when you are captioning. There is also an example below of how a transcript should look on Messenger Pigeon. If you want to add context to your transcript and it's not part of the speech, you can always include it between square brackets e.g., [refers to slides], [points to the diagram]. Or use two dashes at the beginning and at the end e.g., -- Discussion about Question 2 on quiz--.
INDICATE SPEAKERS
Type One: Classroom setting
Type Two: Non-Classroom Assignments
- Indicate the professor or presenter.
- Indicate the students but do not name them for confidentiality purposes.
- Include the speaker legend before the start of every transcript.
- At the beginning of the transcript indicate:
- [Speakers: Professor (P); Student (S)]
- As the transcript progresses, you may just use “P:” or “S:” to identify the respective speakers.
Type Two: Non-Classroom Assignments
- Indicate the speakers in capital letters followed by a colon.
- E.g., SALLY FIELD (SF):
- If Sally Field continues to speak throughout the transcript, you may use her initials followed by colons instead of retyping their whole name. - The names of first time speakers should always be indicated in full followed by their initials in brackets.
- If you wanted to use the pre-programmed keybinds that are programmed on the Messenger Pigeon, you should indicate the speakers between two square brackets.
- Keep it consistent throughout the transcript.
CAPTURE NON-VERBAL SOUNDS/SOUND EFFECTS
- Sound effects should be captured between two square brackets and be in lower case.
- They should be written in present tense, never past tense.
- If a music is played, note down the title and band/artist if known.
- o E.g., [“Titanium” by Sia plays in the background]
- o E.g., [“Titanium” by Sia plays in the background]
AUDIBLE SPELLING
- If the speaker spells out a word, type out the word in capital letters and use hyphens.
- E.g., A-P-P-L-E
- E.g., A-P-P-L-E
STUTTERS
- Don’t write out stutters or repetitive words.
WEBSITES AND EMAIL
- Write out websites as they would be written out on the browser’s address bar.
- Write out email addresses as you would when composing a message to the recipient.
EQUATIONS
- Math and chemistry equations that are spoken have to be spelled out.
- E.g., X squared plus one minus twenty
- E.g.2., Copper oxide plus hydrogen chloride
Non-verbal indicators
Your transcripts should not typically contain headers because they aren't verbally said out loud. But if you find it helps to include them in some situations (for reference sake), enclose them between two hyphens. E.g., --pouring the acid into beaker--.
Or you may also indicate them in between two squared brackets. E.g., [refers to slide on slime growth]. The general rule is that anything that is not verbal should be distinguishable from actual speech.
Or you may also indicate them in between two squared brackets. E.g., [refers to slide on slime growth]. The general rule is that anything that is not verbal should be distinguishable from actual speech.
USING ELLIPSES (...)
- If the speakers suddenly switches their thought or there is a significant pause in the speech, use ellipses.
- Ellipses consist of three consecutive periods.
- You can also use ellipses if the professor is speaking too quickly and you miss a portion of the sentence. It's better to indicate missed speech than include speech that does not make sense.
ITALICS
- Any readings of an excerpt from a book or poem should be italicized.
- If it is quoted, remember to include the text within quotation marks.
SAVING THE DOCUMENT
- Save the transcript onto a word document and upload it onto Habitat Learn’s Google Drive - this serves as a back up just in case Messenger Pigeon undergoes maintenance.
- Title the document:
- School - Course Code – Date (Month, day, year) - TRANSCRIPT
- School - Course Code – Date (Month, day, year) - TRANSCRIPT
- *If the school you're covering gives you extra editing time, make sure you edit the captions on MP as well because that's how some of the student are going to revisit the transcript. The document is an offline alternative for them to access the information.
MISSED SPEECH
- In the event where the instructor speaks too quickly and you miss parts of the speech, you may use ellipses (...) to indicate the missed speech or consecutive hyphens (---) to show that something is missing from that sentence.
- If majority of the sentence consists of a too many segments of missed speech, take it out completely.
- You may also opt to indicate the missed speech portions with [incomprehensible] or [inaudible], which are options in the keybind shortcuts. Those are really useful especially if you're manually typing all your captions.
transcript format for non-messenger pigeon assignments (*exceptions)
** This only applies to captioning assignments that do not use Messenger Pigeon. All captioning assignments are Messenger Pigeon based unless you are explicitly instructed otherwise.Once in a while, we receive assignments that require a captioner to manually produce a transcript on a Word document.
- Each paragraph should not consist of more than three sentences.
- If you are captioning on a Word Processor other than Messenger Pigeon, always use font Verdana and Font Size 12.
- At the top of the document, include the course/session name and date.
- Include page numbers in the footer as well as the first letter of your first name and your last name in full.
Using Messenger Pigeon
Please read and get acquainted with the entire Messenger Pigeon guide. You should have gotten a practice MP ID that's unique to you so you can play around with the software on your own time.