Do their graders want you to fail?

Discussion in 'CastingWords' started by EllieFS, May 29, 2013.

  1. EllieFS

    EllieFS Member

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    I'm serious. Do the CastingWords graders have a vested interest in making sure you fail? I don't know what's going on with these guys but it's ridiculous. Their style guide is decent enough and easy to follow.

    But the graders are just morons. Plain and simple. There's no other way to put it. I'll turn in a perfect transcript (I know that sounds wrong, but I proofread the ever loving hell out of my transcripts, they're impeccable) only to get a 7 because of "Missing punctuation". This is their favorite. When there's literally nothing wrong with the transcript, "Missing Punctuation" is an easy way for them to justify giving you a 7. My personal favorite is, "Should remove filler words". Obviously, it's in your style guide. But oh, remove too many filler words and they get upset and start saying you're actually leaving words out now and you get a 7. Filler words are just so broad and everyone uses them, so again, it's an easy out for them not giving you the full bonus.

    Seriously disingenuous requester. they pay so quickly but it seems like I'm never getting to get my PPT to 85 (which is when you can actually start making a decent wage) no matter how well I do because all they have to say is that I'm missing a comma and I instantly get a 7 and get downgraded. They kind of suck.
     
  2. deeriley

    deeriley User

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    My theory about CW is that they're running a false bonus program to entice people to do their hits. When you see a hit with a huge bonus, don't ever expect to get it in full. There will always be a frivolous complaint that prevents you from getting it. I've handed in perfect transcripts as well, and I can never get a 9. Even if it's one of those ultra short and sweet, super easy transcripts that no one could possibly fail in. Even those get 8's.

    I was so angry that I was about to send a very angry PM to CW, but I said, "You know what? Forget it." Now I just try to do work for SpeechInk (who actually "thank you", not snipe when you hand in good work) and will only come back to CW once in awhile when things are slow. I don't knock myself out for these guys anymore, which is what they want you to do.
     
    #2 deeriley, May 30, 2013
    Last edited by a moderator: May 30, 2013
  3. EllieFS

    EllieFS Member

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    Yeah, I'm thinking about going ahead and switching to Speechink. I hear their approval is painfully slow but anyting is better than CastingWords, at this point. Just got a 7 because I, "Should have used more em dashes".
     
  4. ewd76

    ewd76 User

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    Among other reasons, CastingWords isn't right for me, because I don't know what an em dash is.
     
  5. electricaltill

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    It's in the style guide.
     
  6. deeriley

    deeriley User

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    That's funny, because I got penalized once for using em dashes (told there was no reason to include them), so then I started avoiding them like the plague. CW doesn't know what it wants.
     
  7. electricaltill

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    I don't think this issue would prompt me to downgrade a transcript unless em dashes were everywhere, although I do give feedback on their usage sometimes. Mostly it's because CW's style is a bit unusual in this regard. Use of punctuation marks doesn't vary that much, so the transcriber has probably not thought to check that there is any difference, especially with something like this that isn't used often.

    I think it's a bit unfair to penalize something like this, and I see it rarely enough that every time is probably a "first offence," so to speak, so I just give feedback to the transcriber on CW's em dash style.

    CW's style is certainly not common usage of em dashes, or the way I would use them in my own writing. I almost never use them when I'm transcribing. Where I would put em dashes in my own writing, in a transcript they're almost always just commas. It's odd, but there it is.
     
  8. ayeembored

    ayeembored Active Member

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    Here's the thing. If you truly think you've been misgraded, email support@castingwords.com with all the details that you have. They'll look into it. Report rogue graders. It helps everyone except those sumbitches who grade everything a seven because, "Hey, 7 is a C. A C is passing. Anyway, actually grading is too much work. I want to punch out a hundred of these in an hour. Let's give them a C."

    But make sure that you really were misgraded. Look at the final edits on workers.castingwords.com and see what changes were made. You might be making a mistake that's flying under your radar.
     
  9. electricaltill

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    Agree with ayeembored. Also, editors and graders make mistakes too. I've had editors and graders act inconsistent with the style guide on my transcripts in the past. It sucks, and is frustrating, but it happens.

    The only way things get changed is by telling support. If you are genuinely being under-graded, you are doing yourself a disservice not at least trying to get it fixed, because it drags down your average, which makes it harder for you to increase your PPT.

    All this stuff is laid bare in the final edit. If no changes were made to your transcript by the editor, it's a 9.

    Tell support about it, state specific instances, BE CIVIL, and they'll help you out.
     
  10. EllieFS

    EllieFS Member

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    Yeah, Mike already changed my PPT three times over what I considered to be unfair grading. He said he isn't doing it again. Honestly, the entire thing is just bogus. There's no justification for being downgraded for something as abstract and arbitrary as an em dash.
     
  11. EllieFS

    EllieFS Member

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    Lmao. Just got a 7 because "Okay" should have been "OK". **** this shit.
     
  12. hworbust

    hworbust Active Member

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    I got the same thing!
    The exact same reason.
    I don't understand.
     
  13. EllieFS

    EllieFS Member

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    Yeah, hopefully Speechink gives me my qualification in the next year. Casting Words is the absolute worst. Never working with them again, that was the last straw.
     
  14. hworbust

    hworbust Active Member

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    When did you do your test?
    I submitted mines like 4 days ago.
     
  15. EllieFS

    EllieFS Member

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    It was 4 days ago, today. I heard they were slow in just about every regard but I don't really have a choice.
     
  16. ayeembored

    ayeembored Active Member

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    Because the CW style guide says, "Okay = bad, OK = correct."
     
  17. pattyp

    pattyp Active Member

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    The best way to cash out with Casting Words, in my opinion, is to be an editor. I'm not sure exactly how this happens, as I was granted the grader and editor qualification without requesting it. And I had done literally one or 2 small HITs for them. The bonuses are awesome. I have yet to receive anything below an 8. I do 5 HITs and I'm guaranteed at least $15. It's so much easier and QUICKER editing transcripts that are already done than actually transcribing. Plus the pay is better. And if you're as meticulous as you are when you transcribe, editing is a breeze.
     
  18. electricaltill

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    I'm glad someone is doing them! I usually can't be bothered sitting through the audio. You usually have to do the 30-40 minute edits to get the money you're talking about, and in the time it takes to do 5 of those I could have made 100 bucks on expediteds. True, the work isn't there in high volume, but I found that once I'd worked so hard and long to get my PPT high enough, I suddenly became a lot more selfish with my time.
     
  19. deeriley

    deeriley User

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    I'm going to tell you a story of how CW deliberately screws over workers. But I'm going to be vague, because I obviously don't want anyone there to know who I am.

    One day, I handed in one of those super difficult transcripts filled with scores of technical terms (you know which ones I mean, the ones with medical, legal, computer, or scientific terms that are a mile long and difficult to research). I researched every single one to a tee and because the bonus was high paying (I think it might've been $18 total or something?), quadruple checked it backwards, forwards, and sideways. And there was not one [xx] or [?] or anything to be had, since the audio was clear as a bell.

    This transcript was dinged with an 8. Infuriated, I wrote back to support. Support tells me that I spelled something wrong and didn't run my transcript through a spell checker (excuse you? I don't do what???). I didn't spell it wrong at all, I used an alternative spelling that's used interchangeably (kind of like how there's "grey" and "gray"), but their autobot Spellchecker 2000 (TM) deemed it wrong. Instead of telling me, "Sorry we accused you of spelling it wrong," support tells me that that's not how CW wants it spelled, so my transcript will remain an 8. So support went from, "You were blatantly wrong" to "Well, maybe you're not wrong, but you didn't spell it the way we wanted to."

    And we were talking about one word in a perfect 1,000+ word transcript. One word, and they're quibbling over petty stuff like this. No, "Thank you for all these hard to spell, scientific terms you researched," no, "Wow, amazing that you got all these Asian/ Arab/ African foreign names and places researched." No, "Wow, this transcript caught every word, followed our Style Guide to perfection." Nothing.

    So pardon me if I don't appreciate people patronizingly telling me (and others) that we may have "missed" something or something flew under our radar. A lot of the interactions I've had with support have been very telling about how CW grades. I've had transcripts that were filled full of [xx]s and [sp]s (because it was hard researching terms) graded the same as a transcript that had none, each downgraded for two different reasons.

    In the first instance, the excuse is that I don't deserve full bonus because of all the [xx]s and [sp]s (which is fair, I guess), but then in the second, it's completely arbitrary like the em dash I mentioned earlier and the, "We have our way of spelling it that's not in the Style Guide."

    Like one time, swear to God, I did this one transcript about a software program, which was spoken as "version 8.14123" and I was dinged because it should have been typed as "v8.14123" or something esoteric like that. Yet there was nothing in the notes that suggested that this was how it was supposed to have been spelled. Not that it should've mattered.

    So make no mistake, CW consistently plays games with their grading system. It's so consistent, in fact, that I'm at the point where it's no longer worth giving a job a second listen to double check the transcript or even research terms anymore. Whether I submit a perfect, heavily researched transcript or a transcript where I lazily don't research difficult terms and replace them all with [xx]s doesn't matter. It all gets graded the same either way.
     
  20. ayeembored

    ayeembored Active Member

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    And I've had the exact opposite experience working for Casting Words.

    I stand by what I have said. CW responds every time I have had a question. I might not agree with the response. Sometimes the response doesn't get back in time before I have to submit the job. But they respond.

    When it comes to style guide oddities, it's their shop. Their style guide can be as wonky as they want it to be. It's our job to be true to it.

    CW has been understanding of simple mistakes like hitting submit on HITs while blank and allowed me to email them the transcript in .doc format. And other mistakes that were worse and I got a deserved rejection. Never, though, have I gotten a smackdown because I communicated with them.
     

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