Proofreader

Babbletype is in the transcription business. We start with an audio recording of people talking and convert it into written transcripts. The recordings we work with include single speakers, one-on-one interviews, and focus group recordings with several people talking. Subject matter can be almost anything: from consumer through business, technical, medical, pharmaceutical, and so on. But, broadly speaking, most of our work is general transcription, as opposed to say, true medical, legal or other specialized forms of transcription. We also do a great deal of translation — converting audio recordings in foreign languages into written transcripts in English.

Please note that Babbletype only works with native English speaking transcription contractors. To be considered a native English speaker, you must either have been born and raised in, or currently reside in, a country where English is the primary language spoken and the primary language learned by people residing there. People born or resident in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand are considered to be native English speakers. Native English speakers from other English-speaking countries, such as South Africa and the Caribbean are considered on a case by case basis.

All of this work needs to be of the highest quality. “Quality” in our world means a few different things. First, it means that the content is accurate against the recording, with no meaningful content that is incorrect or missing. Second, it means that the written content needs to be in clean, professional English, without obvious errors of typing, spelling, punctuation or grammar.

Proofreading for Babbletype is of course similar to all proofreading, in that you read and correct written documents, so that the English language quality is at a professional level. For typical English transcripts, this work is straightforward. For translations from other languages, it can be a little more involved, with more effort needed to lightly rephrase passages to correct the English.

Where transcription proofreading differs, however, is in the fact that there is always an audio recording that the transcript was created from. There is always a potential for error in transcription. Transcriptionists capture the wrong meaning, or skip content, or mark small stretches they cannot understand. When proofreading transcripts, it’s always essential to have access to the original recording. You don’t listen to the whole thing, but you do check suspect content, and listen to sections marked as unclear to try to clean them up.

Here’s how this works. Babbletype operates on a daily assignment cycle. New work is posted once each day about 6PM EST. You can then review, select and sign up to work on an assignment. All assignments are due back 22 hours later, at 4PM the next day

Once you are in our system, you will receive an email once each day letting you know about new available assignments as they are released each day. If you don’t have time available to work that day, you don’t need to do anything. If you do have time, you click a link to our assignment tool, pick an assignment to work on, and sign up to do it. The amount of work available varies. Sometimes there will be very large amounts of work available, and sometimes less. Generally proofreaders can pick up and complete multiple assignments throughout the day (one at a time) as transcription work is completed.

If you like, you can also pick up “audio auditing” work, which is fully listening to and correcting a failed transcription.

Now, let’s talk about how we pay. The rates Babbletype currently offers for English language proofreading are listed in the current rates section of the application page. Babbletype processes payments weekly, and we use PayPal to send you payments for your work, so you’ll need an account, which is free.

And that’s about it. You can work when you want to, at whatever time works for you, provided you meet our deadlines. Babbletype adds you to our system, emails you when work is available, and pays you weekly for the audio minutes you transcribe.

PROOFREADING / QA (available only after qualifying in all formats)

If the above sounds like a good fit for you, please go ahead and complete the application.

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