CastingWords Transcription - Worth It??

Discussion in 'General' started by bearcatnat, Sep 18, 2012.

  1. bearcatnat

    bearcatnat Member

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    Hi all,
    So I've been turking for a few months and thought I'd try my hand at transcription. I did my first transcription job the other day for CastingWords. It was only a 2 minute recording, but it took me 45 minutes!! My problem wasn't so much remembering how to format, but trying to figure out what in the heck was being said! It sounded like a radio show with a caller, and it was very, very difficult to understand. I couldn't find any other hits that seemed any better quality of recording. Is it just me, or are they all this hard?

    Also, I did get a small bonus and a score of 8.00. I was wondering if they score on a 10.00 scale, or what? I signed into their website, but couldn't really find out the scale for accuracy/bonuses.:confused:
     
  2. Chytay

    Chytay User

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    If you got an 8 for your first job, you did pretty good. After you learn the ropes, you should be able to do a transcript in about 4 or 5 times the audio length. So a 2 minute would probably take about 8 - 10 minutes.

    Look for clear transcripts with just one speaker or two at most. Sermons and lectures are great to start with. Try to avoid group discussions, they tend to talk all over each other plus it's hard to distinguish speakers sometimes.

    Don't be scared to return a hit. I've actually returned hits that I've worked on several minutes.The audio got horrible, and I didn't want to take a chance of dropping my PPT, so I just returned it.

    Also, remember to keep your sentences and paragraphs short, but not choppy. A big point for graders.
     
  3. bearcatnat

    bearcatnat Member

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    Thanks for your input. I saw other people mentioned looking for sermons and lectures, too. Is there a way to identify what type of job each hit is? I only see them marked with locations or names, nothing really identifying. Also, the transcription I did was called "Easy" in the title, so I was like, if this EASY, I'd hate to hear a DIFFICULT hit.
     
  4. PhobicTurk

    PhobicTurk User

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    Bearcatnat congrats on your 8 right out of the starting gate! That's awesome.

    When you were given your qualification, did they give you a link to register at http://turkers.castingwords.com/feedback ?

    That way you can not only see and keep track of your submitted transcripts, but you can also see a better list of available HIT. That link is http://turkers.castingwords.com/hit/list

    I search through there to find HITs to work on, it can give you a somewhat better idea. It's still listed by names, but they're more descriptive than the HIT titles that show up on MTurk

    Good luck!
     
  5. bearcatnat

    bearcatnat Member

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    Thanks, Phobic. I did two more hits last night and got 8's on those, too. Yes, I registered at CastingWords. I saw in the comments about my work there that I forgot to put OK instead of Okay for one of the hits. D'oh! I did one last night that was really clear, some kind of discussion about Greeks. Easy, except it had Greek historical figures I had to look up the spelling on.

    I also realized that you can x out the warning at mTurk that you are in preview mode and listen to the audio before you accept it. That helps! I'll try using the list of work at CastingWords, too.
     
  6. odd123

    odd123 Member

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    No, I definitely don't feel like its worth it. You can usually make much more by doing other things like surveys.
     
  7. naturegirl

    naturegirl User

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    I echo the congratulations, bearcatnat, on getting an 8 on your first transcript! Definitely hard to do. You obviously checked out the style guide, and it seems to be rare that people do, when starting out. :) And clearly it was no fluke, since you keep getting 'em. Good job!

    Agree with the comments that you should choose audio wisely. Sounds like you're on the path to being able to do Express, which always pays better and (I think) has pretty good audio quality much of the time. At PPT of 99, you'll be able to do Expedited, which pays at a very worthwhile rate.

    I think the answer to your question about whether it's worth it depends on how fast you are or can get and on what else is out there that day. If you need 5x the audio length or more to do a good transcript, surveys will pay you as well or better, but transcription can remain a nice option if you want a change of pace.

    However, if you're down to needing 5x the audio length or less to do a transcription, and you're consistently getting high marks, you're probably ready to go to one of the off-MTurk transcription companies, which will pay you substantially more but still hire you on a freelance basis, kind of like MTurk requesters do.

    So if you've got transcription skill, don't sell yourself short (or transcription generally)---look around and see who else besides MTurk might hire you for it as well! At that point you would definitely be making far more than doing surveys, and you could always supplement with MTurking, including CW or even SpeechInk transcription.
     
    #7 naturegirl, Sep 20, 2012
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 20, 2012
  8. melissa71642

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    Most outside companies won't hire you unless you can transcribe 1 hour of audio in 4 hours or less. The ones I work for are actually less than that but they pay REALLY good and I've been doing this for years and can turn around 1 hour in less than 3 hours unless the audio is really bad. Castingwords will get you the experience you need to get started, however most companies are FAR different than CW in terms of formatting and spelling, but it's something for you to put down on your resume as experience, and yes, you can use CW on your resume as an independent contractor. Another thing to keep in mind is that CW seems to be the place where people who have really bad audio end up because no other company will take the work.
     
  9. melissa71642

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    The thing with CW is, though, you're not under contract to do any audio they have up and when you get with an outside company, turning down work is not as easy as returning a hit on Mturk. Mturk and CW definitely has advantages and if you can get a PPT over 99 and are able to catch the expedited hits, they pay $1.00 per audio minute, which adds up a whole lot faster than the .30 per minute audios that are up.
     
  10. naturegirl

    naturegirl User

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    I admire your transcription speed, melissa. :)

    Also, ITA with what melissa's said about putting CW down as transcribing experience, as well as the fact that other transcription companies will have different (and I'm pretty sure much more comprehensive) style guides. I think any freelance transcriber will have to learn how to adapt to a client's style guide, and the more able they are to switch between different style guides without getting too confused, the better. I believe in not putting all your eggs in one basket.

    I like CW; they're a solid operation, as far as I can tell. No shadiness. And yes, the ability to return HITs if something better (or something else) comes up is nice. There have to be pluses, though, to get you past the low per-minute rate. It's not as low as SpeechInk's (JMO! nothing against SpeechInk). And the bonuses for high quality help a lot. So I still think it's smart to use them to fill in gaps if things are slow at anyplace else you freelance. Then again, since other companies or private payers will pay substantially more, I'm personally less likely to want to turn down their assignments, as compared to how I might be willing to give back CW's.

    Although...30 cents an audio minute? With CW? I've seen 20 cents an audio minute or slightly higher, but even among their Express...never up to 30 cents a minute. Although with bonuses for the best-graded transcripts, even at Express pay you can get to .45 or .60 per audio minute.

    I think $1/audio minute is where industry-standard rates start, so yes, I am happy to hear that Expediteds do pay that! Do they have bonuses on top of that, too, or are you counting in bonuses?

    This actually has not been my experience, although I agree that no one will hire you at much slower and not have some expectation that you're going to speed up. I imagine folks' mileage will vary on that.
     
    #10 naturegirl, Sep 20, 2012
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 20, 2012
  11. clogan98

    clogan98 User

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    Speaking of castingwords, I just heard of them tonight and did my first one with them (I always did speechink before). My question is how the hell do you download the audio to use in express script because they don't have hotkeys on the mturk page like speechink (i usually trasnscribe right on the mturk page)does and I can not live without the use of hotkeys while transcribing!!! Seriously, I need to figure this out or there is no point in doing any with them for me. It took me forever without them.
     
  12. Maggiemw

    Maggiemw User

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    On the work page, not the intro page, on the right side of the screen, about 1/3 of the way down, you'll see a little box in beige with information about the assignment. On the last line of that little box, it will say "get audio." Double-click it and save it, then open it with your Express Scribe. The files are mp3 format and are easy to use with Express Scribe.
     
    #12 Maggiemw, Sep 23, 2012
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 23, 2012
  13. naturegirl

    naturegirl User

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    Hello,

    I remembered answering a thread about this about a week ago, and that somebody posted a helpful screenshot there, so I found it for you. I just searched "castingwords download". Believe me, with the small font CW uses on their HIT instructions, others have had trouble finding this stuff, too. :) So a lot of these types of questions will have been asked before and can be found through searches here.

    Also, there's an official CastingWords Q&A thread, if you'd like to post any other questions there. It's 22 pages, too, full of great stuff! Search "castingwords questions answers".
     
  14. clogan98

    clogan98 User

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    Got it, Thanks!! I was only able to double click which would open it in another web tab. I didn't save link as thinking it would just save, literally, a weblink. Thanks so much for the help
     
  15. twistedangels777

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    Im going to go ahead and try and get a qualification with them tomorrow sometime. It seems their pay is much better than redwoods and the crowdsurfs, I just like how the crowdsurfs pay so quickly. You should defiantly look into them.
     
  16. beo

    beo Member

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    Express and expedited jobs pay up to $1.00 per minute of audio. It's quite possible to make $15-$20 an hour with CastingWords. I've never had a job unfairly rejected with them and I recommend them highly, and approximately only 0.8% of my jobs have been graded less than an 8. I don't know why people have bad experiences. If you follow the style guide and don't make mistakes, you'll get an 8 or 9 and the promised bonus. (CastingWords pays quickly, by the way; jobs are paid every six hours or so.)
     
  17. saragomsa

    saragomsa Member

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    #17 saragomsa, Nov 1, 2013
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 1, 2013
  18. Appifanny

    Appifanny New Member

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    I just wanted to say thank you all for the great information you have provided I am quite new to mturk and I am loving being able to start transcribing as well. I have submitted my first few through CW and SpeechInk. I was was excited to get a bonus with the first 2 but then disappointed when my PPT dropped. However, after much searching, and thanks to the helpful people of the forums this is totally normal. So I'm sure I will be checking in regularly. :)

    By the way naturegirl your ebook was one of my first stops, and yes it was extremely helpful.
     
    #18 Appifanny, Nov 3, 2013
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 3, 2013
  19. deeriley

    deeriley User

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    No, it's not quite possible to make that at all-- not unless you get a high PPT score. Until workers get that, at best they can earn maybe $7-$8 an hour. That's because all of the best paying hits for everyone other than the "elites" (95 PPT+ workers) usually have some major issues with them that take 2-3x longer to complete.

    CW never rejects. That doesn't make them a sterling requester.

    You'll get plenty of 8s, but you will hardly get any 9s. CW's bonus program is not legit. In theory, you should be able to get 9s whenever you hand in perfect work, but in practice, CW rarely gives them out and will even make up "problems" with your transcript to downgrade your work from a 9 to an 8, like complain that you used "gray" instead of "grey" or shouldn't have used an em dash (when it's actually allowed in the Style Guide).

    That's because CW has no intention of honoring its program. If you do quality 9 work 80-90% of the time, you will never actually be awarded a 9 more than 5% of the time. This is what FallonR is talking about, when he mentions getting "better and better" at transcription but finding it more difficult to get the full bonus. It's the truth.

    CW is so consistent in this regard that whenever I see any hit promising X amount, I never expect to get paid the full amount. If it claims to pay a total of $18 (top bonus and all), I know that the most I will be rewarded is $15. I don't even waste my time thinking, "Oh, I could get $18 if I work hard enough," because no matter what I hand in it gets an 8, with nitpicky complaints that were never in the Style Guide.
     
    #19 deeriley, Nov 4, 2013
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 4, 2013
  20. beo

    beo Member

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    The style guide does specify spellings for certain words, like gray, and it clearly says that em dashes are used only to show emphasis, not in the traditional, grammatically-correct manner. And I have to disagree with you; almost all of my jobs are 9s.
     

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