i am fed up with transcribing interviews and was wondering if anybody there used a professional transcriber to do the hard work

many thanks

I'm pretty sure that there is at least one software package that helps with this. I can't remember the name off the top of my head, but I'll look into it.

I know it's a hard slog but i still think it's worth doing it yourself as you become much more familiar with your data as you're doing it. I spent 100 hours doing transcribing and am about to embark on about the same amount again. The one thing that I did find useful was a foot pedal That sped me up from 4 hours transcribing per 1 hour of tape to 3 hours!

Hi epzds,

I am also doing the transcribing myself. Interviews are in German, and as I am not German myself, I have to ask a friend to correct my grammar. Although it takes a long time I think it is best to do it this way, as you get very familiar with your material and after some time you also get quicker and quicker.

Not sure whether voice software really helps.

thanks guys for the tips, i am transcribing my self as well and it helps understanding the wider context and helps with encoding etc, but it is just so time consuming.
thanks anyway

How baout something like this: http://www.qsrinternational.com/products_nvivo.aspx

I've not used it myself, so I'm not endorsing it or anything, but it might be worth you investigating things like this.