Field notes ยท 8 min read
What transcription accuracy really means
Accuracy is more than a percentage. Here is how to evaluate a transcript when names, timing, and context matter.
Measure the errors that change meaning
A transcript can look clean and still be unreliable. Prioritize errors that change meaning: a missed negation, an incorrect number, a person's name, or a product term that becomes a different word.
Listen to a sample from the start, middle, and end of a recording. Different speakers, rooms, and microphone positions reveal different failure modes, so one perfect minute is not enough evidence.
Use timestamps as evidence
Timestamps make accuracy review practical. When a segment is uncertain, you can go straight to the source, resolve the ambiguity, and leave the surrounding transcript untouched.
For publishing, timing is part of accuracy. A caption that arrives too early or too late can be technically correct and still fail the viewer.
Keep a human review step
Automatic transcription is the first draft, not the final authority. A short human pass over names, numbers, and key claims usually produces a bigger quality gain than rewriting every sentence.
Keep the original draft alongside the edited text. That record makes later corrections faster and gives your team a clear answer when someone asks what the recording actually said.