Today’s dictation machines and recording devices often let us annotate the audio files. That means you get the benefit of not only recording your thoughts, conferences or other interactions, but you also get to add commentary after the fact. Whether you want to add helpful resources, ask questions or clarify details that may have gotten lost in translation, annotating your audio files is a way to enrich your documentation. Here are some easy tips to improve your annotations in Seattle, WA. For help with other conference dictation machine FAQs, just get in touch!
- Ask questions: Depending on who is going to see your transcription or hear the audio, asking questions can be enlightening. Whether you’re not sure what’s being said, you need further information to understand the material or you want to take note of questions to ask the subject, asking questions in the notes is a good way to highlight exactly what you need to learn or what you want to get out of the recording. That counts even if you’re the only person who will listen to the recording—focusing on where your understanding can be improved will help you organize your thoughts and research.
- Include resources: Speaking of research, you should annotate documents with helpful resources. That could be a website for further reading, dictionary definitions or encyclopedia articles, links to supplies or tools needed and more. Having all the information in one document or recording is a good way to stay organized.
- Give personal responses: Engaging with material is a good way to keep it fresh in your memory, so you might consider adding personal notes and responses. For example, if you’re listening to a recorded deposition, you’ll probably want to make notes where you think the facts and evidence don’t line up with the testimony, or to convey your personal impressions of the witness and subject matter.
- Highlight the important points: Another good way to use annotations is to highlight the important points, calling attention to what you want to remember or that to which you’d like to direct your listener’s attention. This could be as dramatic as an “a-ha!” moment in an investigation or as basic as crucial diagnostic criteria for patients. This makes it easier to find the important parts without having to listen to the entire recording again.
- Summarize the proceedings: Finally, you can use annotations to summarize the proceedings or recording. Taking notes throughout the recording allows you to create a summary of what happened, and to make it as detailed or as broad as you choose. When you go back over your annotations, you’ll already have an outline of the content. This is particularly useful if you need to explain a complex proceeding to someone else, or plan to give a presentation based on the information in the recordings.
Using annotations improves your recordings, and today’s recording software makes it easier than ever. Be sure to take full advantage of every feature your digital recorder has to offer.
For professional digital recorders and transcription equipment, or for answers to your conference dictation machine FAQs in Seattle, WA call Efficiency, Inc. today.