Build Your Own Oral History Transcription Style Guide

From the oral historian that piloted the Talking White: Transcribing Black Voices workshop in 2020, comes a workshop geared towards drafting unique transcription style guides that, while adhering to what unwritten, yet perhaps necessary, standards might exist across the field, also caters to your own project's needs. As always, the goal with oral history transcription is producing a useful document that honors our various narrators and the intricacies of their individual speech. In this three-hour virtual yet hands-on workshop, you'll receive a first hand step-by-step look at how the Margaret Walker Center Oral History Transcription Style Guide was created to do just this. 

We will examine the different benefits and drawbacks between the other existing oral history transcription style guides that are currently publicly available online. We will discuss why we transcribe and what our personal transcription goals might be while debating what ought to be considered imperative standards and what should be left to stylistic choice. Afterwards, we will work together on answering the questions that will allow you to create a document most useful for each of your varying organizations or projects, as well as a document that will be beneficial to any professional transcription agencies trying to meet your needs in the future. Participants of all skill levels and experience, whether transcriptionists, oral historians, or others, are welcome. You need not have an existing style guide or any other materials prepared in advance to attend. 

5:30 pm Opening and Introductions

5:45 pm Why do you need a style guide? & Making the MWCOH Style Guide

6:00 pm Publicly Available Style Guide Reading 

6:20 pm Publicly Available Style Guide Review

6:45 pm Why do we make transcripts? What do our style guides need?

7:00 pm Types of Transcription & Table of Contents Exercise

7:30 pm Break Out Room Reflection

7:45 pm What should it look like? & Listening Exercise

8:15 pm Closing and reflections. Encourage feedback survey

Alissa Rae Funderburk is the Mellon Foundation Oral Historian for the Margaret Walker Center at the HBCU Jackson State University. She maintains an oral history archive that, like the Center, is dedicated to the preservation, interpretation, and dissemination of African American history and culture. Previously, she taught an oral history course for high schoolers at the Roger Lehecka Double Discovery Center and has conducted freelance interviews for a number of clients. She holds both a bachelor's degree in anthropology and masters degree in oral history from Columbia University. In grad school, Alissa Rae served as Deputy Director of the Columbia Life Histories Project and her thesis on the religious and spiritual experiences of Black men in New York was a continuation of her undergraduate studies of race, culture, religion, and the African diaspora, as a John W. Kluge Scholar. Alissa Rae is creator of the Black Oral Historians Network, a virtual meeting ground for Black memory workers. Her most recent project, Thee Black Pride in JXN focuses on recording the life histories of Black members of the LGBTQ community in Jackson, Ms. In addition, her latest research centers on narrator compensation, reparations, and the transcription of Black voices. For more visit alissaraefunderburk.com.

Registration will be on a sliding scale, with registration free for participants based outside of the United States, and starting at $5 otherwise.

These events are open to all. You can use this quick survey to let us know how we could make these events more accessible for you. Note that we are able to provide ASL interpretation for any event, but need two weeks' notice. Please contact Rebecca McGilveray at [email protected] with specific access requests or questions.

Host or Publisher Columbia Oral History MA Program