Taking a poll on the importance of punctuation.

[Marla Sharp]

I'm taking a poll on how important reporters feel punctuation is in transcripts. Stop by my home page and cast your vote.

http://www.csrnation.com/profile/MarlaWilliams

[C Cipolla]

Hello Marla,

Hmm... I'm only a student CR, but have come across school test transcripts where it would have been nice if I had put the punctuation in, because at the end of a sentence, the witness says something like "I think", which could be "(comma), I think." attached to the preceding sentence, or "(period). I think..." attached to the following sentence.

Without punctuation, the meaning could be quite different depending on what those two sentences couching the "I think" are. This has happened several times on test transcriptions already... and each time, I've found that, upon listening to the audio tapes again, the intonation of the voice clearly puts the punctuation one way, and not the other. Hypothetically, if those two sentences are polar opposites in meaning, you could have a serious problem deciding where to attach the "I think"...