Sudan Experience Project: Transcript Formating and Text Guidelines

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Contents:
General Format Guidelines
Text-Specific Guidelines

I. General Format Guidelines:

Document Type: Transcripts should be submitted in Microsoft Word.

Font: Transcripts should be in Times New Roman, 12 point.

Pagination: All transcripts must be paginated, with page numbers appearing on the bottom right-hand side.

Tape End: ADST editors must often refer to interview recordings to help clarify obscure points. It is therefore vital that they have reference markers. For this reason, the end of a tape side should be indicated as [END SIDE]; the end of a tape should be indicated as [END TAPE]; and the end of an interview should be indicated as [END INTERVIEW].

Text: Oral history interviews should use the following format;

* The interviewer's question or statement:
Q: When and where were you born?

* The interviewee's response:
SMITH: I was born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1930.

* Double space between question and answer.

* Do not indent paragraphs. Double space between paragraphs. Paragraphs should be created as best as possible: do not type in large blocks of uninterrupted text!

Title: The title should be centered at the top of the page, and follow the following template:

United States Institute of Peace
Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training
Sudan Experience Project

PARTICIPANT NAME

Interviewed by: Interviewer Name
Initial interview date: Month Day, Year
Copyright 2006 USIP & ADST

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II. Text-Specific Guidelines:

Abbreviations: We want oral histories that can be easily understood by those outside the U.S. Therefore, abbreviations such as "NY," "ASAP," "Lt. Col.," etc. should be spelled out.

Accents: When the interviewee is imitating, for example, a non-native English speaker's accent, the statement should be followed by a "translation" of what was said.

Ex.: Mr. Koenig replied, "Vhat ah you doing?" (What are you doing?)

Acronyms: Acronyms such as "UNHCR," "USAID," etc. should be spelled out the first time they are mentioned. A list of common acronyms will be provided.

Ex.: "When I was in college, a friend had told me about USAID (United States Agency for International Development)."

* Please note that "U.S." (United States) is the ONLY acronym that should have periods.

Capitalizations:

Names should be capitalized ONLY if they refer to a specific individual.

Ex.: "I played tennis with Ambassador Jones twice times a week."
"The ambassador met with Defense Minister Peres later that afternoon."
"The defense minister briefed the president hourly."
"My apartment was a 10 minute walk from the embassy."
"Embassy Paris was inspected shortly after my arrival at post."

Institutions and titles, such as "the Ministry of Health" or "the Minister of Defense" should be capitalized as appropriate, as these are equivalent to "the Secretary of Defense" or "the Department of State".

Dates: Years should be written in the following manner: 1960s, '70s, etc. Please note that there is NO apostrophe in "1960s."

Foreign Languages: All quotes in a foreign language should be followed by the English translation.

Ex.: "Je pense, donc je suis." (I think, therefore I am.)
All terms in a foreign language should be quoted and followed by the English transition.

Ex.: "The Iranians don't see why we resent so much their "fatwa" (religious edict) against Salman Rushdie."

Inaudibles: Inaudible portions of the recording should be rendered in the text by a blank line.

Ex.: The heat was unbearable, and I ____________________ until the late afternoon.

Numbers:
* The numbers one through nine should be spelled out; numbers 10 and above should be written numerically.
* Numbers 1,000 and above should have commas in them.
* Please note that in the following examples, the number should not be spelled out:
FS-01, B-1 bomber, etc.

Paragraphing: If the answer is lengthy, separate it into paragraphs when there is a change of subject or thought.

Spellings: Formal, rather than "slang", spellings should always be used (i.e. "yes" instead of "yeah"; "going to" instead of "gonna").

A list of common foreign words and names will be provided to transcribers. Interviewees may also spell out words during the course of the interview. Spellings that cannot be found on the reference sheet and are not spelled out in the interview should be spelled phonetically, followed by (PH) to indicate that a phonetic spelling has been used. Spellings of foreign names are often difficult. Even if the name cannot be properly found, it must be consistently spelled the same throughout the document!

Quotation Marks: All quotations must be in quotation marks. This includes when the interview subject indirectly talks out of person.

Ex. 1: President Kennedy said, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."

Ex. 2: So it was like, "What are we doing here? Why isn't the money there?"

Ex. 3: Basically they decided, "It's not our responsibility, so who cares?"

Run-On Sentances: Run-on sentences should be separated either by breaking them up into shorter sentences or by using semicolons.

Space Fillers: Space fillers ("um," "like", "you know", "I mean", "Well..." etc.), repetitions, and sentences started several times should be removed.

Titles: The titles of books, magazines, and newspapers must be underlined.

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