Transcribing & Abstracting — What's the Difference?

This topic may seem basic to you, but sometimes it can get confusing about the two. So, what are a transcript and an abstract? How do you transcribe and abstract a document? I will share what each of these terms mean and demonstrate them using an example.

Terms to Know

A transcript is an exact copy of the document. This means not correcting spelling, punctuation, and the wording (in the context of the document). If there are 5 words in a line and continuing to the next line, keep 5 words in a line. Preserve the way it's written.

An abstract is a summary of what the document contains. The abstract should include all the important (main) details of the document.

Now that you have a little understanding of the terminology, it's time to put them into focus.

Transcribing

If there is a specific software that you use, go ahead and use it. Whatever works for you is best.

I will be using Microsoft Word for this demonstration. I've transcribed the 1st page of a document my great-grandmother wrote about her family history.

As you can see in the screenshot, the document is left-sided align. The transcript is somewhat similar to the original document. Make sure the format of the document is the way it was written.

Tips for Transcribing

If some of the word(s) in the document aren't legible, then use brackets around the word or part of the word you can see.[ ]

Turn off spell/ grammar check.

Abstracting

1. Remove any Boilerplate language.
2. Summarize all relevant information

Hopefully, you have a better understanding of transcribing and abstracting a document. We can do these simple steps to analyze the documents themselves and the understand context of them.

Comments

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