Transcription Conventions

(Rutherford-Quach, 2013, adapted from Hutchby & Wooffitt, 1998)

General Formatting: For this course, there are a few general formatting conventions that we are asking all participants to follow so that shared conversation transcripts are easy to interpret and analyze. First, each conversation segment sample should include three pieces of introductory information: the context, objective, and conversational prompt. The context should be a short description of the context in which the recorded conversation happened (e.g. grade level, subject, topic or unit of lesson, action that preceded conversation, etc.) The objective is the learning objective what where the student supposed to accomplish during this lesson and/or conversation? Finally, the conversation prompt is the question or instructions that the students received (usually from the teacher) right before their paired conversation began. We also ask participants NOT to use proper names for either teachers or students, but instead to employ the terms Student A, Student B, and Teacher. The basic format for the transcription samples is to list the turn number, the speaker or intended speakers title, a colon, and then the content of that speakers turn. No elaborate tables or formatting are necessary. The following conversation excerpt from the CAT Screencast provides a clear example of the desired transcription format: Context: In this 4th grade English language arts lesson, the students read a story aloud about a young girl who had recently had lost her grandmother to cancer and was struggling in her new school. Objective: Students will determine the theme of a story and support it with evidence from the text. Conversation Prompt: What do you think the theme was of this story? Discuss with your partner. Conversation Transcript: (1) (2) (3) (4) Student A: I think the theme was work hard. Student B: I think it was be yourself, you know, like we have to work hard in school. Student A: Yeah. But it could be to not forget people. Student B: Like her grandma?
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Student A: Yeah. I want to remember my grandma. Student B: The lesson might be to be nice to others. Student A: Maybe, but she worked hard, you know, for the money. Student B: OK. I dont know.

Simple and Frequently Used Transcription Conventions () (guess) Bold Empty parentheses indicate an unclear fragment on the recording The words within parentheses indicate the transcribers best guess at an unclear utterance. Bold lettering indicates that a word or segment is stressed.

More Advanced Conventions (Not required for our purposes, but may be useful)

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Indicates instances of overlapping turns The number in parenthesis indicates a time gap in tenths of a second A dot enclosed in a parenthesis indicates a pause in the talk of less than two-tenths a second The equals sign indicates latching between utterances Square brackets between adjacent lines of concurrent speech indicate the onset and end of a section of overlapping talk

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