Transcription Work comes in many forms.
Transcription is the process of transforming the spoken word to the typed or written text. The biggest obstacle to this process is the fact that we ordinarily speak faster and more easily than we write or type. Fortunately, technology exists such that the speaker's voice can be recorded on tape or other media. This media can then be replayed by the transcriber so that the pace can be controlled. Medical transcriptionists are able to play recorded dictation on a transcription machine which can be controlled with foot pedals that control the speed of the playback so that the transcriptionist hears the voice in her earphones at a speed that she can easily type with her hands on the keyboard.

Another obstacle encountered in the process of transcription is that of the quality of the speech, which can be distorted by fluctuations in loudness or pitch of the speaker's voice, variations in speech from local dialects, foreign accents, or just simply poor grammar. Often the way we speak is not the same as we would like our words to be seen in print. On the transcriptionist's end, she may not be able to understand exactly what words were spoken. This is especially true when two words sound alike but may mean something entirely different. Also, if the words are not pronounced clearly, the transcription machine allows the transcriptionist to back up and repeat a segment of the dictation so that she can listen more closely or get a co-worker to listen and give a second opinion.

Transcription is most well known in the medical field, where doctors and other practitioners record their notes and have them transcribed into written form for the patient's chart. Courtrooms use stenography machines which transcribe in real time, where the speed of the speech cannot be controlled by a transcription machine. Businesses of all types can benefit from speeches and reports being transcribed into written text for correspondence and the proceedings of meetings and speeches.

A transcriptionist must be more than just a human recording machine. She must know the jargon and terminology of the field in which she is working sufficiently to recognize the words being spoken, know how they are spelled, and detect errors in the spoken dictation that need to be corrected for the written text. She must also know when to abbreviate and how, as well as decide between words that sound alike. She must have adequate reference books and materials on hand to help her make the decisions that would ordinarily be made by the speaker had he been writing the report rather than speaking it.

Transcription is an exciting field because the transcriptionist, in order to do her work, learns a great deal about the field of the person whose dictation she is transcribing. It is not uncommon for a medical transcriptionist to go back to school to study nursing and other healthcare careers. In typing a dictator's work, the transcriptionist becomes involved with the work being reported, and has a key role in its documentation.