Inaudibles Formatting
How to mark and format inaudible sections for clarity and client review.
Inaudibles Formatting
Use square brackets to mark any part of the audio that is unclear or inaudible. Always include a timestamp in the format [ ___ 0:03:19 ] (hh:mm:ss) so clients can easily review these sections.
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Best Practices
- Guess phonetically where possible, especially for names, brands, or proper nouns—this helps clients identify the correct word.
- Spell recurring guessed words consistently. After the first timestamped guess, subsequent uses do not need brackets.
- Never omit unintelligible text without marking it as inaudible—it may be important to the meaning.
- Always follow inaudibles with appropriate punctuation.
- Do not end a sentence with an inaudible and no closing punctuation.
- Leave a space between the three underscores and the closing bracket.
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Format Examples
- Clear inaudible: [ ___ 0:03:19 ]
- Best guess: [Johnson 0:03:19 ]
- Subsequent usage: Johnson (no brackets needed)
This approach ensures clients can quickly find and review unclear sections in their transcripts.