Oral Personal History: Difference between revisions

*In addition, the transcription gives them a chance to see where they might want to enlarge on an event described. As I’ve mentioned before, the subconscious mind might come up with some more details. The person can decide if they want to included them or after reading what they said the first time, come to the conclusion the existing answer was good enough. <br><br>

*Then there is the just the fact that here is something which is easier to review than a recording. Areas that need more details or explanation can be marked for additional research. This is hard to do on a recording.

If creating a transcript seems like a difficult task, the computer and do it for you. Transcribing in the computer age is easy today.<br>Years ago you had to listen to a sentence or two and then type what was said, then go to the next two or three. This took a lot of time. Now, however, you can get computer software that will convert the voice recording to the printed page. <br><br>These transcribing computer programs are called “Voice Recognition” software. When you get back to your computer, you download the recording and the voice recognition software produces a printed copy of the interview. <br><br>If you should have a lap-top computer with you during the interview, you can see the words appear on the screen as the interviewee is speaking. If you had a printer with you, you could print a copy of the interview right then and there. These programs are wonder but they are not perfect. There will always be some words that the computer just could not make out and so you may have to go over the recording to figure out what was said.<br><br>In addition, you will probably have to do a small amount of editing. There are always, sentence fragments to complete, unfinished sentences to either remove or figure out what they were trying to say, and stamerings to get rid of. In short you’ll have some clean-up of the text to make it more readable. <br><br>Again, you can circle those areas that may need to be clarified.  

Most recorders are equipped with a built-in or a hand held microphone. I don’t use either one of them. <br><br>First, the built-in microphone produces a poor quality sound and will pick a lot of sounds in the room. Second, the hand held microphone can be intimidating to a lot of people. <br><br>They will have a hard time thinking and remembering when they have to talk into one. In addition, you’ll find that you’ll have to keep reminding them to hold it up to their mouth as the hand has a tendency to drop as the interview progresses. <br><br>For these reasons, I use a small microphone that clips to the lapel under the chin. By using a lapel microphone, the person soon forgets they have it on and will relax. <br><br>However, your machine has to have a jack for an external microphone. If your machine doesn’t have one, then you’ll have to make do. However, if you don’t have a machine and need to buy one, make sure that your new machine has an external microphone jack so you can use an external microphone. If you do buy a lapel microphone, be sure and get a long cord as well.