Review Guide

Introduction
Review is the second step of our 4-step process. As a certified transcriber on Scribie.com, you have
been working on transcription. Review comes after transcription where we check the raw transcript for
mistakes and guideline violations, add time codes and speaker tracking. The step after Review is
Proofreading.
This guide provides the rules and other details about the review step of the process. It is intended for
our certified transcribers as a reference. For any questions or suggestions, please contact support.

Payment Rate
Aim for QC promotion for higher payment rates

The payment rate for reviews varies from $5/ah to $25/ah (ah stands for audio hour), unless you're a
contractor in which case the payment rate is fixed. We also pay a monthly bonus for 3 or more hours
completed each month. The rates are higher for later steps in our process as there are fewer people
there. Therefore QCs are paid the highest rates.
The rates are determined by an algorithm which takes into account various factors such as deadline,
difficulty level, system load, your average grades, etc. If you see only lower rated files, that's because
all the higher rated files have already been selected.
The payment is credited once the file has been delivered to the customer and graded. Rejected files
are not paid.

Review Instructions
The goal of the Review step is to check for guideline violations, correct mistakes in the raw transcript,
add timestamps and speaker initials. The most important part of Review is to ensure that the raw
transcript is correct and matches the audio as closely as possible and the speaker labeling is correct.
Therefore each word of the raw transcript has to be checked against the audio. The following are the
instructions for Review.

 Play the audio and match each word in the transcript with the audio. Use the  button to
highlight the word as it is played.
 To make any corrections, pause the audio and edit the transcript directly.
 For each blank, either fill it up or insert a timestamp before it using the button on the
shortcut.
 Correct the mistakes in the raw transcript as you review. Apply contextual judgment for words
which are not related to the topic of conversation but sound similar.
 Make sure that the Transcription Guidelines are strictly adhered in the raw transcript. Also,
ensure that the paragraphs are broken correctly for each speaker.
 Add speaker tracking and timestamps by running the speaker tracking tool.
 There should be no more than 1 mistake per 10 words in the reviewed transcript (90%
accuracy). Blanks which remain unfilled after proofreading are not counted as mistakes. Files
which do not meet these criteria will be rejected.

Files with major violations of the Transcription Guidelines should be reported instead of being

reviewed, e.g., sometimes files are incomplete where a section of the audio is omitted which is a
violation of guideline II. Please do not complete such file during review as you will not be
compensated for transcribing the missing parts. The report option is in the dropdown menu next to
the timer.
Sample Reviewed Transcript
The following is a sample reviewed transcript which illustrates the formatting required. Please also
check the corresponding raw transcript for this file.

Highlights

 Each paragraph starts with a timestamp and speaker initial. The speaker initials always start
with S1.
 Blanks are time coded. It indicates the time in the audio file when the blank occurs so it can
be easily checked during proofreading.

Speaker Tracking
We also provide tools in the Editor to help with speaker tracking. The tool loads 3 voice clips from
each speaker in the file as predicted by our AI in the backend. You have to play the clips and re-
arrange them by each speaker. Drag and drop the clip into the correct row of the table to re-arrange
them. Our AI is conversative and predicts duplicate speakers if the voices are similar. This tool helps
to remove the duplicate speakers and correct the labelling.
The speaker tracking tool presumes that the paragraphs are broken at each speaker turn. If not, it can
lead to multiple voices in the same paragraph which has to be manually corrected as you go through
the file. Therefore, we recommend that you run this tool at the start before making any edits.
This tool will also join consecutive paragraphs of the same speaker and break long paragraphs. You
can however undo/redo the changes made by this tool with Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y.
A speaker identification tool is also available for individual paragraphs. Right click on a paragraph and
choose Identify Speakers from the dropdown. This tool loads the known speaker clips (in blue) and
one clip from the current paragraph (in green). You have to match the green clip with the blue one
and drag and drop it to the correct row to update the speaker label.
We recommend that you run this tool before you make any edits to the file.

Difficulty Levels
We provide guidance for difficulty level with each file. The difficulty levels are: Low, Medium and High.
These levels indicate the amount of changes required with respect to the automated transcript to
achieve 99% accuracy. Please refer to the following table for the percentage of words which have to
be corrected.

Difficulty Level Corrections Percentage

Low
Less than 10% of all words

Medium
Around 10-20% of all words

High
More than 20% of all words

We have extensively tested this algorithm and these ranges are accurate to +/- 5%. This algorithm is
based on a Linear Regression model which predicts how many words in the automated transcript are
likely to be wrong based on all the files which we delivered in the last 3 months.
Accents
The accents of the speakers in each file is also provided, whenever available. The accents are coded as
follows:

Accent Code Description

NA
North American

CA
Canadian

AU
Australian

GB
British

IN
Indian

AA
African-American

AF
African

RW
Rwandan

GR
German

FR
French

IT
Italian

PL
Polish

EU
European

SP
Spanish
Accent Code Description

RU
Russian

FN
Finnish

TK
Turkish

ID
Indonesian

MX
Mexican

HP
Hispanic

LA
Latin American

BR
Brazilian

PR
Portugese

NL
Dutch

ME
Middle Eastern

IR
Irish

AS
Asian

CN
Chinese

KO
Korean
Accent Code Description

SG
Singaporean

EA
East Asian

NZ
New Zealand

AB
Arabic

MY
Malaysian

JP
Japanese

SE
Southeast Asian

SA
South African

JM
Jamaican

WI
West Indian

AG
Aboriginal

SC
Scottish

NP
Nepalese

EG
Egyptian

AI
Indigenous American
 Accent Code Description

N/A
Unsure/Unknown/Not Applicable

NN
Other Non-native/Mixed

Performance
In reviews, the Average Review Grade and the Rejection Rate is used to monitor performance. Please
note that Average Transcription Grade does not affect the Average Review Grade in any way.

 These rules come into effect only after 1 audio hour of submissions has been credited.
 Only reviewed and rejected files are considered in the average grade; canceled or timed out
files are not counted. Rejected files have a score of 0.

The following rules apply for the Average Review Grade.

 The minimum Average Review Grade requirement is 3. Your account will be disabled if it falls
below that mark anytime.
 Conversely, self-reviews will be enabled for you if your Average Review Grade is above 3.
Thereafter the Transcription history tab will have a self-review link after you submit a raw
transcript and clicking that link will assign the same file to you for review.
 The running average grade has to be maintained over for the last audio hour of submissions
and reviews will be disabled for a week if the average grade is lower.
 Further, you will be promoted to a Proofreader if your average review grade is 3.5 or more
and rejection rate is less than 4% after two audio hours of reviews have been credited.

The Rejection Rate is the percentage of your review files which have been rejected after proofreading
due to the accuracy being lower than 90%, our minimum quality standard for reviews. Reviews will be
disabled if the Rejection Rate is 5% or more after 3 audio hour of reviews have been proofread.
Once reviews is disabled, the only way to get it enabled is to dispute the files. This minimum grade
and rejection rate is fixed and is enforced automatically.

Player History
We collect player history data in the Editor for all assignments. The data contains information about
which parts of the audio were played and when. This data is submitted along with the file and is
available to the reviewers, proofreaders and QC. The player history is also used for performance
monitoring and during audits in case a file is returned by the customer. Assignments therefore have to
be completed within the editor and cannot be submitted without a player history.
Player history also is used to detect inactivity. If no audio is played for more than 2 minutes, the
editor will automatically close. Please re-open the editor whenever you're ready to start again.
Assignments may also be flagged for investigation if the full audio is not played.

Grading Criteria
Audio quality, accents, past performance, etcetera, are not grading factors. The only factors are
number of major changes and difficulty level of the file.
Grades are based on major changes found in the submission and the difficulty level of file. The
following table lists the grade corresponding to the number of major changes, for a 6-minute file.

Majors

Grade Low Medium High

Rejected 6 or more 12 or more 24 or more

Poor (D/1) 5 10 - 11 20 - 23

Bad (C/2) 4 8-9 15 - 19

Average (B/3) 3 5-7 10 - 14

Good (A/4) 2 3-4 5-9

Excellent (A+/5) 0-1 0-2 0-4

The following table lists the types of changes and their category.

Category Type Description

Soundalike Major Words which sound similar but differ in meaning, e.g., allude and elude.

Mishear Major The spoken word does not match the typed word

Omission Major Words which were spoken but not typed

Misspell Major A spelling mistake, e.g., typo

Filler Minor Frequently repeated words or phrases, e.g., like

False start Minor A phrase followed by an immediate correction

Style change Minor A change of style which does not alter the meaning, e.g., percent to %
 Category Type Description

Subjective change Minor Any change which does not alter the meaning

Disputes
We encourage you to dispute the changes if it does not correspond to the audio or if the change
should not be major. The disputed changes will be investigated by our admins and resolved. To raise a
dispute, please click the compare link in the History tab and click the Dispute button at the bottom.
This option is available only after the file has been delivered to the customer.
The status of the dispute will be shown in the dispute column of the diff summary table. After
resolution, it will list the category of the dispute and the file will be re-graded.
Changes which have already been marked as major by our admins cannot be disputed.

Dictated Punctuations
The following rules apply for punctuations which are dictated by the speaker. Such files are typically a
single speaker file in which they are either dictating a note or a letter which has to be typed out. All
our Transcription Guidelines still apply, except the rule for spelled out names. The speakers have to be
labelled as S1 always.

 Period, comma, exclamation, question mark and hyphen should be transcribed as symbols.
 Parenthesis, brackets, and braces should be transcribed literally, e.g., open bracket and close
bracket.
 For lists, bullet items and new paragraph, a new paragraph should be started.
 Spelled out names should be transcribed without the dashes.

Background Conversation
Always transcribe background conversation if it is clear and audible

Background conversation is very subjective and different people perceive it differently. Customers are
certain to return the file if they disagree. Therefore it should be used as sparingly as possible. The
thumb rule is: if it is audible and clear, it should be transcribed. If the file is strict verbatim, all
background conversations should be transcribed.
However, there are some clear cases. E.g., a waiter's voice in between an interview being conducted
in a restaurant is definitely background conversation. The audience chatter before a speech is also
background conversation. Another common example is the discussion amongst off-camera crew
members in a video interview or commercial; the direct questions and answers are important, the
discussion about lighting and other things are background conversation.
On the other hand, if a voice goes faint at any time (e.g. muttering/whispering), then it should be
blank rather than a background conversation. If you are unsure then you should transcribe it or insert
a blank and leave it up to the QAs to decide.
If any part of the audio is omitted as background conversation but transcribed in later stages of our
process, then it will be counted as a mistake. Conversely, if any transcribed parts are removed and
marked as background conversation, it is not counted as a mistake. To be on the safer side, you
should always transcribe all parts of the audio if it is clear and audible.

Monthly Bonus
We pay a monthly bonus of $5 for every 3 hours credited over the period of the calendar month. The
following are the rules for the bonus.

 The amount is credited on the 1st day of each calendar month, for the previous calendar
month.
 Only submissions which have been credited (i.e., delivered to the customer) in the previous
calendar month are counted.
 Submissions which are un-credited are carried over and counted in next month's bonus
calculation.
 Our timezone is +5:30 UTC. Therefore calendar month starts at 12:00 AM UTC +5:30 of the
first day of the month and ends at 12:00 AM UTC +5:30 of the last day of the month.
 You will be notified via email if your Earnings Credit mail notification setting is enabled.

Timeouts
Each review assignment has a timeout of 2 hours. The timeout can be extended once after the initial 2
hours has elapsed. The extension granted is 1 hour. Therefore in total, the assignment has to be
submitted within 3 hours.
The Request Extension option is available in the dropdown menu next to the timer. It is enabled only
when the initial time has elapsed, i.e., when the timer starts blinking.
A grace period between 1-5 minutes is also granted once the timer starts blinking. The timeout may
occur anytime within those 5 minutes.
Once a file has timed out, it can be re-assigned from the History tab and re-submitted within the
grace period, provided it is still available.

Best Practices
The best practices for transcription files also apply to reviews. The following are some specific
suggestions for reviews.

 Go through the blanks once before submitting. Use the shortcut Ctrl+B to cycle through the
blanks.
 Report files with too many mistakes. If there are more than 2 major mistakes in the first
minute of the raw transcript, it is highly likely that the file is bad and should be reported.
 Avoid working on files with audio issues or accented speakers. Such files have a higher chance
of being returned to the customer.

Get Started
Please visit the Reviews page to start.