Transcriptionists are best known for having fast fingers. But they have a keen eye as well. Therefore, there are other types of work a transcriptionist can do, such as proofreading and data entry. Read on to find out more about these skill sets.
Proofreading
As I mention in my book, Transcribe Like a Pro: Making Money from Home, a
transcriptionist needs to have good proofreading skills. She makes sure words
are spelled correctly and punctuation is correctly placed. Sometimes she has to
improve the speaker’s grammar, especially if the language being spoken is not
native to the speaker.
To make sure words are spelled correctly, she may need to do
some research or have her favorite online dictionary readily available for
those unfamiliar words that she is transcribing. The same is true when
proofreading a written document, such as for a book or magazine article. People
often misuse or misspell words. And they often use punctuation incorrectly.
Commas tend to be the most incorrectly used punctuation that I find. So, I
encourage you to become familiar with the best use of commas. For example, you
should know when to use them to divide a series of words or phrases. At other
times, a period, question mark, or semicolon may make better sense.
Grammarly.com has helpful tips on all types of punctuation as well as grammar
solutions.
You already have the skills of a proofreader as a
transcriptionist. Yet, this is only one of the other types of work a
transcriptionist can do. So, if proofreading isn’t your preference, perhaps
data entry will be.
Data Entry
Data entry can be great work to do in between your
transcribing jobs. Many, if not most, data entry jobs involve research skills.
As I have already mentioned, research is something a transcriptionist is very
familiar with. Sometimes clients will provide a few documents for you to
retreive information from and incorporate into a spreadsheet or a database. The
latter, of course, is the easiest.
Spreadsheets and databases, however, aren’t the only forms
of data entry. Sometimes people want you to address digital envelopes or copy
names to be used in the salutations of letters. You may also be asked to
research information to copy and paste into a Word document. Be sure to cite
this information with the web link, author’s name, and date of publication. And
if you are entering any information by hand instead of using the copy/paste
method, be sure to proofread your work for accuracy as you go. Because a data
entry error can be costly for both you and your client.
Proofreading and Data Entry Summary
The data entry examples listed in this post are just the tip of the iceberg. And proofreading jobs may also require you to fix syntax errors, paragraph placements, and more. So, be sure you’re comfortable with many types of editing if you’re interested in proofreading. Download my free 7 Freelance Websites ebook to find remote proofreading and data entry jobs.
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