Transcribing for Social Research
- Alexa Hepburn - Rutgers University, USA
- Galina B. Bolden - Rutgers University, USA
Qualitative Research (General) | Social Research Methods | Sociological Research Methods
How can we capture the words, gestures and conduct of study participants? How do we transcribe what happens in social interactions in analytically useful ways? How could systematic and detailed transcription practices benefit research?
This book demonstrates how best to represent talk and interaction in a manageable and academically credible way that enables analysis. It describes and assesses key methodological and epistemological debates about the status of transcription research while also setting out best practice for handling different types of data and forms of social interaction.
Featuring transcribing basics as well as important recent developments, this book guides you through:
- Time and sequencing
- Speech delivery and patterns
- Non-vocal conduct
- Emotive displays like laughter, tears, or pain
- Talk in non-English languages
- Helpful technological resources
As the first book-length exposition of the Jeffersonian transcription conventions, this well-crafted balance of theory and practice is a must-have resource for any social scientist looking to produce high quality transcripts.
Supplements
The authors’ calm and well-organised coverage pays tribute to a generous variety of transcription styles in the Conversation Analysis tradition. The book is an invaluable source of techniques for capturing the words, whoops, gulps, sighs, eyebrow-flashes and head-nods of language in all the complexity of its performance.
An excellent, clear and comprehensive guide to the transcription of talk-in-interaction from the perspective of conversation analysis, demonstrating the continuing 50 year influence, relevance and productivity of Gail Jefferson’s ground-breaking initiatives.
The authors argue that standard orthography is unable to represent the ‘words, gestures and conduct of the people being studied’. Drawing on insights from conversation analysis which show how social phenomena are ‘realised through talk in interaction’, as well as discursive psychology and ethnomethodology, Hepburn and Bolden show the reader, in ten succinct and well written chapters, how to capture words and interactions and record them accurately on paper
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Transcribing for Social Research his an invaluable contribution to the methodological literature which will appeal to researchers across a range of disciplines who wish to successfully capture speech in all its complexity.
Transcription is often be viewed as merely recording what people have said in written form. Simple. In contrast, this book emphasises both the importance and complexity of this element of research..
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..it is pitched at a level which is appropriate for those with a wide range of experiences. Ultimately, this book is likely to become the go-to text for transcription in the social sciences, for both novice and expert researchers alike.
