I’m Sheila
Findlay and for the past four years I’ve been transcribing for the Dumfries and
Galloway Study, having worked on over one hundred interviews and sound extracts
to date. I studied Scottish Ethnology as
part of my Economic and Social History degree at the University of Edinburgh and
it was there that I was introduced to oral history and the art of transcribing. Since graduating I have also transcribed for the
SAPPHIRE (Scottish Archive of Publishing and Print History and Records)
initiative. I am a founder member of
Penicuik Oral History Resource and have undertaken all aspects of oral history
collecting while with it and have contributed to its projects aimed at making
the resultant material available to the wider community.
When people ask me
what transcription involves and I explain the mechanics of the process to them,
they invariably respond by saying ‘Oh, like audio-typing.’ Well, yes, like that, but a lot more
too. The equipment I use is much the
same: dictation software with a foot pedal to enable me to start, stop, fast
forward and rewind (I do a lot of rewinding and restarting!); a set of
headphones and my laptop.
An audio-typist
will spend most of his or her time typing formal letters and documents and will
be given grammar prompts such as where to insert commas and where one sentence
or paragraph ends and a new one begins.
Also, they will most likely be familiar with the voices that they hear
and will be familiar with the spelling of technical, legal or medical terms that
occur because that is the environment they work in. Background noise on the recording will
probably be limited to paper rustling, phones ringing and the occasional knock
on the door and conversation as the person creating the recording is
interrupted.
Oral history recordings
are quite different. These involve an
interviewer and one or more people who have agreed to talk to them about their
life or a topic relevant to a particular project. So, what I hear through my headphones is a
conversation, usually a sort of question and answer session although sometimes
the interviewer is a discreet presence who just helps the flow of the narrative
along. There are no grammar prompts for
me, I have to judge where a sentence ends and, as the spoken word is quite
different from the formal written word, this can be tricky. A wrongly placed comma or full stop could
lead to a slight change in meaning to the narrative. I also have to consider whether what sounds
like a statement might be a question.
For example the interviewer might say ‘You went to school when you were
five.’ Is this a question? Usually it is but until I hear the response I
don’t know.
Language is the
next challenge. While the audio-typist
will be hearing Standard English, I hear a mix of that and Scots. Usually an interview starts off in Standard
English as both parties might be a bit tense and hesitant about what they say
and how they say it but usually, before long, they will have slipped into their
normal speaking voice. I like this
change, signalling that all parties are comfortable with what is happening. Then the fun begins! I was brought up at that time when working
class children spoke two languages – that of the classroom and that of the
playground. I learned to read and write
Standard English but spoke Scots to my friends and at home a midway version was
used: Standard English infused with Scots words and phrases. So, when transcribing, my problem is that I
can understand what I hear but sometimes I don’t know how to spell it, as I was
never taught to read it. This is where
the Concise Scots Dictionary is worth its weight in gold, although without knowing
the spelling it can be tricky to find the word I’m looking for! The spelling of place names, especially
village and farm names, will probably be unfamiliar to me, and these may no
longer even exist, so I have to do a search of any resources I have to hand,
often the World Wide Web, to confirm the spelling. Christian and surnames are a bit more
problematic e.g. if a Willie Macdonald is referred to is this Willie or Wullie
and Macdonald, McDonald or MacDonald? Again,
I try to track down the correct name but am often stumped. If this is the case then I make sure I use my
choice consistently throughout the transcription. Many interviews include details of lost
working practices and words associated with these may be completely alien to me
so this is when I refer to the Scots Thesaurus for help.
Another language
challenge is that the spoken word is quite different from the written. It has a natural flow, not constricted by
grammar and punctuation, and we often add bits and pieces to a narrative as we
go along, as we remember them. When, as
a student, I first started to transcribe my brain had a wee issue with this and
it used to unscramble what I was hearing and then present it as formally
structured text in Standard English. I
wasn’t even aware that I was doing this until I checked back on my work. Happily, this rarely happens now so I can
only assume that my brain has trained itself to leave well alone and let my
fingers type what I hear.
I’ve already
mentioned possible background sounds on the recording the audio-typist is
listening to. On an oral testimony there
seems to be no limit to what might pop up in the background. Some recordings are done in community
premises such as libraries and arts centres and I can hear phones ringing,
doors and lifts opening and closing, and the general hum of a busy public
place. However, most recordings are done
in the informant’s home and I hear phones and doorbells ringing, clocks
chiming, dogs snuffling and trying to get attention, cats meowing, family or
friends popping in to check up on the informant and, the one I like best, the
tinkling of china as a welcome cuppa is brought in to refresh the
participants. If the windows in the room
are open birdsong and passing traffic sometimes make their way onto the
recording too. Occasionally a third
person, who has obviously been sitting very quietly, surprises me by interrupting
to correct a point or add some extra information. When this happens I listen carefully for
clues as to who this is so that they can be identified in the final
transcription.
In the course of
any conversation emotions and moods can come to the fore and oral testimonies
are no different. Once the participants
have relaxed into the procedure, laughter is often heard and I can identify this
on the transcription by [laughs] or [laughter]. Other emotions will be evident to the
interviewer who can see body language and facial expressions but are not so
obvious to me, although sorrow and sadness can, I think, be detected in a
voice. One particular interview I recall
is of an elderly lady who spoke of Darkie, the working horse that the family
had owned when she was young and how, when her father died, the horse wouldn’t
allow anyone else to handle it. Darkie
was then requisitioned by the Army for World War Two but proved impossible to
handle so was brought back to them. The
eventual outcome was that Darkie had to be put down, as it was felt that he was
a danger to anyone near him, and on the day before this was to happen the whole
family went to say their goodbyes to their faithful friend. The anguish I could hear when this incident
was being recalled, some seventy or more years later, was, I’m sure, as palpable
as it must have been when the lady was present at this sad time.
The content of the
interviews that I transcribe is much more interesting than a formal business
letter and transcribing provides a wonderful opportunity to learn about a
particular time and place. The
interviewees all have a unique story to tell and even if they have done similar
things the experience will have been different for each of them. For example, some liked school and others
were only too happy when it came time for them to leave. The range of information that an individual
interview provides is wide. Topics such
as childhood, schooling, home life, work, community life and much more occur in
most of them. When a whole body of
interviews is scrutinised they create a picture of a changing society. The movement of people from the land to the
towns as farming practices changed and the effect this had on communities; the impact
of closing rail lines and the changeover to road transport; changes in leisure
pursuits; the effect of World War Two on small communities; the loss of
community events such as gala days and sports events; National Conscription and
the impact it had on those men who had to leave their homes and work to serve
in very different environments, all this and much, much more are reflected in
the testimonies gathered for the Dumfries and Galloway Study.
So, I’m happy to
transcribe and learn so much in the process rather than dealing with ‘Dear
Sir…Yours faithfully’!
