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Re: Captioning Verbatim or for Corrected English

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From: Guy Hickling
Date: Mar 11, 2016 7:59AM

Since we've mentioned the BBC I thought I would just take a look at
their captioning guidelines to see what they have to say about
correcting grammatical errors. It is illuminating. Interestingly they
confirm what Aaron has just said in the last post before this one
about keeping coloquialisms etc, but correcting mistakes in lectures
and factual stuff.

It is in their document "Online Subtitling Editorial Guidelines V1.1"
- yes, I know it's called subtitling, but that's the word we use in
the UK for captioning (and we manage just fine since we usually know
the context the word is being used in!) Their document and rules are
based on considerable research by and for deaf groups.

The quote is (I'm incuding the whole section here):

"DIFFICULT SPEECH
1. Unscripted speakers often ramble on, in sloppily constructed
sentences or sentences that never end. Remember that what might make
sense when it is heard might make little or no sense when it is read.
So, if you think the viewer will have difficulty following the text,
you should make it read clearly. This does not mean that you should
always sub-edit incoherent speech into beautiful prose. You should aim
to tamper with the original as little as possible - just give it the
odd tweak to make it intelligible. (Also see ACCENTS, p22)

2. However, this is more applicable to factual content, e.g. News and
documentaries. Do not tidy up incoherent speech in drama when the
incoherence is the desired effect.

3. If a piece of speech is impossible to make out, you will have to
put up a label saying why:
e.g. DRUNKEN SPEECH
or: SLURRED SPEECH
Avoid subjective labels such as "UNINTELLIGIBLE" or "INCOMPREHENSIBLE"
or "HE BABBLES INCOHERENTLY"."

And David has already quoted from the same document earlier in this
thread, on what it says about umms, but I'll include it again to place
both quotes together:

"HESITATION AND INTERRUPTION
1. If a speaker hesitates, do not edit out the "ums" and "ers" if they
are important for characterisation or plot. However, if the hesitation
is merely incidental and the "ums" actually slow up the reading
process, then edit them out. (This is most likely to be the case in
factual content, and too many "ums" can make the speaker appear
ridiculous.)"

I hope this is of interest in this discussion.

Regards,
Guy Hickling