Monday, July 4th, 2022

6 Most Dramatic Spelling Mistakes In History

Spelling mistakes, we all make them. Some more often than others. But did you know that a simple spelling mistake or grammatical error can have the most detrimental of outcomes? Throughout time there have been numerous occasions where a small error has resulted in a huge financial loss, a technology-altering change and even a problem 

Read More…


Thursday, February 17th, 2022

What are those little distractions doing to your work?

Imagine the scene. The sun is shining and that morning coffee tastes just right. You feel wide awake, and your mind is sharp and focused. The phone is silent. Your next meeting is in the afternoon. Amazingly, you find that the article you’ve been trying to write for days is suddenly a walk in the 

Read More…


Thursday, November 18th, 2021

AI Transcription – Sent From Heaven Or A Tool From Hell?

In a world where new technological advances are happening every single day, it’s no surprise that every single industry in the world has had to change. And ours is no exception. Speech recognition technology has improved considerably in the last few years, and it’s now at a stage that many businesses are starting to use 

Read More…


Thursday, October 7th, 2021

The Challenges of Transcribing Group Conversations

Have you ever tried to pick out one speaker from a group discussion? It might sound simple, but it’s trickier than you think! There can be a lot of overlapping words, different volumes of speakers, inaudible sections, background noise and rustling, all of which makes getting an accurate transcription of what’s actually being said a 

Read More…


Wednesday, July 14th, 2021

The Importance of Accuracy in Research Interview Transcription

One of the first steps in qualitative research involves transcribing qualitative data such as interviews and focus groups. Making notes is an essential part of the interview process. However, it’s still possible to miss out key information when relying on notes and memory, and that’s where interview transcription can help. Research interview transcripts are invaluable 

Read More…


Wednesday, July 14th, 2021

Everyone Loves A Bargain… But At What Cost?

In the immortal words of Oscar Wilde, ‘People know the price of everything and the value of nothing’. In this day and age, everyone loves a bargain. Whether it’s a BOGOF in Tesco or a last-minute sale item stumbled upon after hours of searching on eBay, it’s human nature to want to feel that we’re getting more than we’ve paid for. How many times, though, have we landed what we think is a fantastic deal only to find that after three washes, the cheap T-shirt falls apart, the unbranded TV breaks out of warranty, or the sale item from eBay doesn’t exactly match the description on the site? When it comes to clothing or consumer goods, such experiences leave us with little more than a sense of disappointment and chagrin at our unwise opportunistic gamble. However, translate this into the context of your business – and it becomes a little more serious.


Friday, May 7th, 2021

What a fabulous start to May for the McGowan Transcription team!

Below are Trustpilot reviews that we received within a 24 hour period earlier this week. We are so grateful for every single review we receive, so to receive this many in such a short space of time was really special.  If your current transcription company doesn’t wow you, please do get in touch so we 

Read More…


Monday, March 22nd, 2021

The Zoom Art of Herding Cats

As we adapt to lockdown, we have all needed to find new ways to work. Our continuing need to conduct focus group discussions has caused a shift to holding group interviews via Zoom, Teams, Skype, etc. This has brought new challenges to moderators, whose jobs can be tricky even with face-to-face group discussions. As a 

Read More…


Tuesday, March 9th, 2021

Illiterates: The words English speakers struggle to spell the most

“Favourite” is the most difficult word to spell across the English-speaking world, according to our research of Google’s search data.  Runners-up include “definitely” and “diarrhoea” (which is spelled ‘diarrhea’ in the United States).  These results take into account common search trends across countries that speak English as a first-language. Including the United Kingdom, United States, 

Read More…


Monday, May 18th, 2020

Recording In The Cloud

Don’t forget to ask permission to record! Consider your device: It is best to conduct cloud calls on a laptop, desktop or tablet device rather than a smartphone. Sound quality will be better and access to advanced features of the cloud-based platform will be more readily available and easier to use via a larger screen/device. 

Read More…