Research in Action – Unlikely Search Tools

A few weeks ago I was typing a set of files all about collectible cars, mostly famous race cars, their drivers and different records set in the past. Every time I turned around they were talking about a different kind of collectible car that I was having to look up in Google. It was getting to be quite time consuming and was eating into my profitability on the files.

That's when I decided I needed a different method for researching. I got up from my desk, walked to my son's bookshelf, found a large hardcover book and sat back down. One of my son's favorite books is a book I purchased at a school book fair called Mega Wheels (The Most Exciting Cars in the World!).

Success! This book had all of the terms I needed. It has a page all about classic cars, one on recording-holding fast cars, different types of racing cars, muscle cars, everything. I went from typing into Google every three minutes to simply glancing down at this huge picture book laid open on my desk. Another benefit of the book was that it has information on multiple cars on each page. This way I had context and was able to remember spellings and acronyms when they referenced other cars later in the files.

This was definitely a lesson in how to think outside the box. Have you ever had success in researching for a file in an unlikely place?

Research in Action – Force Majeure

Have you ever heard of the term "force majeure"? It was completely unfamiliar to me when it came up in a file recently. According to the Yale University Library, force majeure is "clauses excuse a party from liability if some unforeseen event beyond the control of that party prevents it from performing its obligations under the contract."

When the term was mentioned in the financial earnings analyst day file I was working on, I could not for the life of me make out what the speaker was saying. He had a strong Southern accent (though the company ironically is in Wisconsin), and I didn't have any supplemental materials that would help me discern the term. The actual sentence in the transcript was:

"There's also an additional amount that's possible if you have force majeure costs, costs that are outside the control of the utility."

I tried googling for "costs outside the control of the utility," but that yielded nothing useful. Finally after listening to the section many times, I determined that the first word was either "forced" or "force," so I tried googling the name of the company with "forced * costs." If you remember from my post on the Google cheat sheet, the * represents one or more words between "forced" and "costs."

Unfortunately, that too yielded no results. However, on the next search I hit the jackpot, I searched for the company name with "force * costs," and there was the term I was looking for, "force majeure costs."

So if you don't find something on the first search, don't give up. Try a few additional searches with different wording, and you just might hit on the term you're searching for!

Research in Action – Verifying Search Results

One downfall of Google searches is that even an incorrectly spelled word or name can return dozens of results, giving the impression that it's spelled correctly. It is important when evaluating the search results page that we consider the sources as well as the context of the page.

For example, if you were to search coop de tat, it would return a page full of results. At first glance, you might think that the proper spelling should be coop d'etat. However, it's important to look through the list for reputable sites that would give a conclusive answer. Even the results from larger, reputable site (like findarticles.com, Harpers' Magazine and NOLA.com in this case) can be spelled incorrectly. These results do not give conclusive evidence that "coop d'etat" is spelled correctly; however, there is no indication of what the correct spelling is. In fact, the correct spelling is "coup d’état," but you might need to mark it as phonetic if you're unable to find that spelling and the conclusive evidence to support it through your searches.

If you're working on a financial earnings call, it's also important not to rely on the spelling from past transcripts as your confirmation, as there's no guarantee that that transcriptionist has confirmed the spelling.

Finding a Wikipedia page is often a good indication that you've chosen the correct spelling. (And as a side note, be sure to verify the spelling listed if a Wikipedia entry does pop up because sometimes you'll get the correct entry even with an incorrect spelling in your search.) Corporate, political and personal websites for the person, product or company in question or well-known industry websites for technical, business or financial terms are reliable sources to confirm spellings, as is the dictionary.

If however, you're left with any doubt, it's best to mark the word or name as phonetic and let the client review it themselves.

I'll admit that I sometimes find research very frustrating because it can significantly increase my turnaround time on a file. However, verifying names and terms is an important part of our job description, and it's important not to rush through this step.

Research in Action -- Searching for Glossaries

One of my favorite things to do when I have a file on a specific topic is to search for glossaries. Whether it's an internet marketing glossary or one with Jewish divorce terminology, they can be a huge help all the way through a file.

Usually I just do a Google search for the subject matter with either "terminology" or "glossary" and see what I come up with. Sometimes sites dedicated to the topic will provide a glossary to define words that are commonly used. For example, with my Jewish file I found a very helpful glossary on the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance site that took care of the majority of my rabbinical court terminology.

Research in Action

Earlier this week I was typing a file that dealt with computer software companies. The recording was done in a busy coffee shop, and understanding the participants was not always the easiest. At one point in the file the interviewee mentioned a company that sounded like "Ametrics." I couldn't find anything and continued with my file, marking the word.

A few minutes later the speaker mentioned the company was founded by a Paul Allen. Google quickly revealed the true name of the company to be Asymetrix, changed to Click2learn and then merged with Docent to become SumTotal, which explains why I had trouble finding concrete evidence for its spelling earlier. That search also yielded the interviewee's personal website, making future references much easier to find context for.

Research in Action – Using Contextual Clues

"First it's a real pleasure for me to be able to present to you what we do at L'Oréal in the field of arthropod experimentation."

Say what??? Surely L'Oréal is not testing their latest skincare product on spiders, but that's what it sounded like the speaker was saying through his extremely thick French accent.

Now, a poor transcriptionist would have typed exactly what I typed above without a second thought. Yes, that's right. I've seen many, many transcripts with these kind of gross errors, simply because some transcriptionists do not take the context of the rest of the content of a transcript into consideration. While proofing I've seen numerous instances of a transcriptionist just typing whatever he/she thought he/she heard, without stopping to think that it has no relevance to the subject at hand and giving it another listen.

A so-so transcriptionist might do a few Google searches, not come up with anything concrete, and mark it as unverified in some way and moved on.

A highly-skilled transcriptionist will go the extra mile to figure out what the term in question is, especially when it is used extensively throughout the transcript. Searching for L'Oréal experimentation turned up nothing, as did a few other terms from later in the transcript. (Important point – sometimes you can find a really good resource on the subject by using other terminology, and it will help you figure out other terms by scanning the website.)

As luck would have it, a few more minutes into the file, the speaker mentioned "the HTE approach," and I thought, "Hmm, I wonder what HTE stands for?" A quick Google search of L'Oréal HTE told me that it's an acronym for High-Throughput Experimentation. Eureka!!! That's when it clicked that he was saying "high-throughput," and not arthropod (which I already knew, but I didn't have to mark it as questionable)!

It's so satisfying to be able to fill in the blanks like that. Call me crazy, but it's one of the reasons I love transcription!

Research in Action - Google Shortcuts At Work

A few weeks ago I was transcribing a medically-laced dictation for a lawyer when I came across a term I was unsure of. A quick Google search revealed that the proper spelling was "laminectomy and fusion." I continued along until I reached a few other words that I needed to confirm. Remembering I had seen a PDF link that I thought possibly contained what I was looking for, I used Tara's Google Cheat Sheet to search only for PDF files.

Searching "laminectomy and fusion filetype:pdf" revealed the link I had seen prior. This one search sent me on the course of finding the long list of terms I was encountering regarding acute transverse myelopathy and sent me skipping happily along, giving me a new place to start my Google searches from there on out when I encountered terms like "erythematosus." It's amazing how finding that one necessary word can change your search just enough to provide the information you're looking for. Knowing how to focus your search definitely helps.

Research in Action – Phrases

I recently did a transcript with the following sentence in it.

The drug distribution business in south Florida can be a pretty rugged game, and some of these folks decided to shuffle off this mortal coil long before the cases could be brought to trial.

Now, I could not for the life of me make out what word he was saying after "mortal." Yes, I know (now) it's Shakespeare. Yes, I read Hamlet in both high school and college. Apparently sometime between college and now, that piece of knowledge was lost to mommy brain or some other memory lapse.

Luckily, I can rely on Google these days when my memory (and hearing) fails me. A great feature is that when you enclose your search query in quotation marks it searches only for instances of when those words appear together in exactly the order you've typed. I did a quick search for "shuffle off this mortal," and I was able to complete the phrase and refresh my memory on its origins and, mostly importantly, move on in my file.

We've got more great tips for research, so stay tuned!