by Jack Day
If you’re a chartered surveyor with any experience then you’re probably aware of the importance of quality dictation. Your surveying results need to be recorded for transcription so it is vital to have a good grasp of how to dictate effectively.
As property surveyors are not always public speakers, the key principles of quality dictation may not have been explained during job training. So if you’re a chartered surveyor who’s unsure how to dictate effectively the required information, we’re here with some expert advice broken down into four key points.
Before commencing dictation it is important to state the title and/or subject of the document at the beginning. This lets us know when the dictation formally starts and tells us the title and what to save the document as. Without having the title or subject spoken at the start, we may not have the correct name to save the file as.
After you’ve actually begun dictating, it is vital to remember to deliver the dictation clearly. Speak clearly and enunciate your words while maintaining a consistent volume and speed. Mumbling your dictation or speaking too softly can make it harder for us to determine what words we’re supposed to be transcribing.
Try to maintain a consistent volume and pace so the transcriber can keep up with the described content. Typists often work best when there’s a rhythm to maintain and this can be helped with consistent pacing and appropriate use of pauses and intonation to convey sentence and paragraph breaks.
To keep the recording itself clear, keep the microphone reasonably close but not touching and speak towards it, while following the guidance for the particular device or dictation app you are using. This helps prevent your voice from becoming too quiet or being drowned out by background noise.
It is also advised to dictate in a relatively quiet area to stop external noise from affecting the recording. When recording dictation for transcription, either do so within a quiet space or pause your recording during times of heightened noise.
Sitting next to the coffee steamer in a cafe, for example, is generally not recommended.
Property typists are specialists at transcription, but they are not audio engineers or trained to decode scrambled messages.
Good quality audio also makes the transcription process considerably more efficient. You can read more about how the process works in What Is Audio Transcription for Chartered Surveyors?.
When dictating, it is important to indicate what formatting will be used in the document. Though you may choose to entrust some of this to the transcribers, it is recommended that you specify formatting instructions as you dictate to help outline how the finished document is intended to look.
This can prove especially useful when dictating longer documents with many headings and multiple sections that need to be labelled.
When stating which sections are intended as headings, please say “heading” beforehand to signify this to the transcriber.
If you’re dictating a list, please structure it into numbers or bullet points and clearly indicate when each item in the list starts and ends. This can be done with a simple pause. This helps keep the listing order comprehensible in the audio and allows the typist to correctly format it.
While reciting the list, also be sure to fully enunciate the numbers to prevent the typist from potentially mishearing anything.
Clear instructions are particularly important when a dictated report needs to follow an established layout. We look at this further in Why Report Formatting Matters More Than Most Businesses Realise.
When dictating the results of a property survey, you may come across words and phrases that are rarely used in other contexts. While property typists are already familiar with the jargon employed within their field, you may also need to dictate complex or uncommon terms.
If you have come across a term you are unfamiliar with or are listing names of streets, buildings or people that are spelled unusually or are difficult to pronounce, we would advise simply spelling the word out rather than risking it being misunderstood.
Property typists are familiar with the important terms used within chartered surveying and will understand most standard surveying terminology.
With names, addresses and unusual terms, however, it can be safer to spell them out. Mispronouncing or mishearing a name could result in inaccurate information appearing in the transcription.
As many names and titles in the English language are not spelled the same way they are pronounced or may use a different spelling than the standard version of the name, simply spelling out certain names can actually prove more effective for transcribers than speaking them as they’re pronounced.
When faced with dictating acronyms or abbreviations, it is generally better to say the full term the first time it is used, particularly if there is any possibility of ambiguity.
Property typing is by nature a collaborative effort, with the typists themselves transcribing the dictation sent to them by their clients. The final key principle of dictation within the field is therefore collaboration between the surveyor providing the dictation and the typist producing the document
As the dictator you are one part of the equation and can make adjustments to help the process work effectively.
In addition to providing formatting instructions, it is recommended to provide specific formatting and layout requirements in your brief and to provide a style guide where appropriate to ensure consistency between documents.
If later edits or revisions are desired, please provide clear instructions on what is to be altered from the original version - typists are not psychics who can predict what you want without it being said.
Continuing with the fact that this is a collaborative process, building a good relationship with your typists is highly recommended. A typist who becomes familiar with a client’s terminology, templates, preferences and working methods can provide a more consistent service.
This is also one of the advantages of using specialist property typists rather than treating transcription as a general administrative task. See Fee Earner or Typist? Why Outsourcing Typing Works.
When dictating sensitive or potentially confidential information it is even more important to know that appropriate confidentiality and security measures are in place. Sensitive information should be handled through secure systems and by people working under appropriate confidentiality obligations.
As the surveyor, you should also be confident that your communication is being sent through secure channels. If the information is meant to be secure, it is expected to remain that way.
A typist who is familiar with your company's approach to dictation will also generally produce quicker and more accurate results. While it is still advised to provide your typist with details of each document's specific style requirements and to indicate the formatting instructions within the recorded dictation, having a property typist who already knows your company's standard procedure for style and formatting can help expedite the transcription process.
In the beginning dictation can seem like a cumbersome or draining task, but hopefully following these steps will ensure that you find the process of recording speech a simpler and more rewarding task instead.
We have been providing property transcription for over 20 years and consider this guide to encompass the primary tenets of quality dictation for chartered surveyors.
Remember to speak with clarity, employ specificity, correctly use jargon and work in collaboration. Keep those four tenets in mind and we’re sure you’ll do great.
Here when you need us, on standby when you don’t.
BackupTyping has been working for chartered surveyors across the nation for over 20 years. If you’re interested in collaborating with experienced specialist property transcribers, contact us by email or 020 7096 1663 now and download our free dictation app to try our service for yourself.
