LogueWorks Style Guide

Version: 5.0.4
Updated: 1/4/2019

Introduction
The following are guidelines to use when completing transcription work in LogueWorks. The list of
guidelines is extensive, but not comprehensive. In many cases you’ll be required to make a judgement
call. When this is required we ask that you choose the clearest, most accurate form of verbatim
transcription possible.

Where de-identification of personal identifiable information is involved, we ask you do as thorough a job
as possible. This is one of the most critical parts of our transcription. Err on the side of caution and do
not hesitate to contact us at support@logueworks.com for further guidance on these guidelines.

Another critical part of most of the work you will find in LogueWorks is related to the pharmaceutical
industry – drug names, pharmaceutical company names, clinical trial names, etc. Please take time to
research any term you are unfamiliar with. And please, above all else, do not guess at what is being said
in the audio recording.

We know not all audio files have high enough quality to be transcribed. If you encounter any audio that
is too poor to transcribe please return the job via the web application and cite the reason as “Poor
Audio Quality”.

From all of us here at LogueWorks, thank you for your support!

Formatting
 LogueWorks audio files will each have a unique Job ID; your transcript should be saved using this
unique identification number
 The transcription for an audio recording will contain all interactions captured by the recording, i.e. if
multiple interactions are recorded within one recording then all interactions will be transcribed
within one document

Note, your transcript document should not contain empty lines, headers, footers or page breaks.
Each line, or Turn, in the body of the document should feature a two-letter speaker code,
followed by colon (:), followed by tab strike, followed by text. Each new speaker turn should start
on a new line.

Below is an example of how your transcript should be formatted:

PT: Good morning, [PHYSICIAN NAME]. How are you?

DR: Good morning. What's going on here? Everything good?
PT: Yeah.
DR: How's your breathing? I heard it's getting worse.
PT: Well, yesterday, couple days, I had, like, a pain right here.
DR: What were you doing?
PT: Um, sitting.
DR: Just sitting? You weren't walking around?
PT: Huh-uh.
DR: Okay, because [PHYSICIAN NAME OTHER], you see [PHYSICIAN NAME OTHER]. Who's your
regular -
CG: [PHYSICIAN NAME OTHER]. I don't know why he, um, won't return my call.
DR: The EKG's unchanged from before. There's nothing new.
CG: It's still the same?
DR: It's the same. So, there's nothing new on there. If it were abnormal, I would have done a stress
test, but you don't need one.
PT: I'm, I was so tired for a couple, many weeks.
DR: Why? Because you don’t, uh, you don't leave the house.
PT: We didn't do anything. I'd lay on the couch all day. I can't walk that far, and my legs -
CG: You know, we go for a walk, you know -
PT: I do the best I can.
DR: Well, try to do as best as you can. And your knees, I know, hurt, but you can take Tylenol to
help.
CG: She's taking two Tylenol, two thousand milligrams. That's one thousand milligrams in the
morning.
DR: Fine.
CG: One thousand milligrams in the afternoon, and, um -
DR: That's a lot of Tylenol.
CG: That's what I'm talking about. She's taking a lot.

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General Rules
 Transcribe verbatim. All repeated words, hesitations and all speaker backchanneling should be
included in your transcript. Every time a speaker says something like "yeah" or "um-hum" or
"okay", we expect it to be transcribed.
 Whenever you hear a muted part of an audio file for a job requiring de-identification, insert an
Identifier into your transcript.
 Use normal capitalization on proper nouns. Do not capitalize common phrases like "happy
birthday", "happy new year", etc.
 ALWAYS use contractions if spoken as such in the audio.
 Capitalize all brand names, use lower casing for all generic names, e.g. Lipitor, Viagra, albuterol,
methotrexate. DO NOT use any other casing, e.g. "VESIcare" is not acceptable.
 Capitalize the first word of each turn and utterance. Never start a new turn/utterance with a
hyphen or a lower case letter, even if the sentence is a continuation from previous
turn/utterance broken by a new speaker.
 DO NOT use ellipses (…).
 DO NOT use exclamation points (!).
 DO NOT use the slash symbol (/).
 DO NOT use a hyphen (-) in the middle of a sentence to denote a hesitation or pause in
conversation. Replace with a comma. DO NOT use hyphens to connect numbers or full words
(using hyphens to connect a prefix to a word is acceptable). Only use hyphens at the end of a
speaker's turn to denote a turn that is interrupted by another speaker (with a space between
last word of the turn and the hyphen) or when a speaker stops speaking mid-sentence, leaving a
thought incomplete.
 End each line with punctuation—either a period, question mark or hyphen. If using a hyphen,
use a normal hyphen. DO NOT use em or en dashes (elongated dashes). Always put a space
between a hyphen and the last word of a speaker turn.
 DO NOT use abbreviations, i.e. "Dr. Pepper" should be "Doctor Pepper", "St. John’s Wort"
should be "Saint John’s Wort", "mg/dL" should be "milligrams per deciliter", etc.
 DO NOT use quotation marks (""). Should someone refer to something as quote/un-quote,
please write this out in transcript verbatim, otherwise, there is no need for special markup when
someone quotes someone else.
 When an acronym is used that is pronounced as letters, write it using capital letters, e.g. TV,
DVD, MRI, EKG, BID, PRN. DO NOT use periods or spaces between letters.
 When an acronym is used that is pronounced as a word, write it as a single word using all capital
letters, e.g. DEXA scan, PET scan, CT scan. DO NOT use periods or spaces between letters.

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 When a speaker spells out a word, write it using capital letters with spaces, e.g. W W W dot
Verilogue dot com, Product X Y Z, P R O V I G I L. DO NOT use hyphens to separate letters.
 ALWAYS use the correct spelling of a drug name, even if it’s mispronounced by speaker; if
speaker is unsure of a drug name, and doesn’t come close to pronouncing a real medication,
transcribe as [INAUDIBLE]. DO NOT spell a drug name as it sounds.
 When medical terminology includes a number in its name, transcribe the number as a digit, not
a word, e.g. A1c, HER2 positive, etc.
 When medical terminology includes a hyphen in its name, it is okay to use a hyphen in your
transcript, e.g. GLP-1, DPP-4, etc.
 When a speaker provides an e-mail or website address, spell it out entirely. DO NOT use special
characters like "@" or slashes, colons and periods, e.g. support@logueworks.com should be
"support at Logueworks dot com" and www.verilogue.com should be "W W W dot Verilogue dot
com".
 DO NOT guess at what’s being said. Use the [INAUDIBLE] tag in your transcript when you’re
unsure what’s being said.

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Preamble
 Transcription will begin with the dialogue that occurs after the physician has read what we call a
preamble:

“Today is [DATE] and the time is [TIME]. I am with [PATIENT NAME] who has
voluntarily agreed to participate in Verilogue’s Medical Marketing Research program.
The patient has read and has provided me with signed copies of the HIPAA
Authorization and the Participation Confirmation forms. [PATIENT NAME], are you
interested in providing your phone number so that Verilogue can contact you to
better understand your health and illness experiences? This information can be used
to help with communications to patients like yourself, and Verilogue will only contact
you for research opportunities. Please say either “no” or if you want to say yes, say
your phone number now. [PATIENT RESPONSE].”

 If the Preamble is not heard at the beginning of the recording but later, e.g. to separate one
interaction from another, or at the end of the recording where you can tell has been edited out
of the recording, please note this by typing [PREAMBLE] in the appropriate place within the
transcript.
 There is no need to include the [PREAMBLE] identifier at the beginning of a transcript.
 The Preamble audio should ALWAYS be removed. If it hasn’t, please report the audio editing
error in LogueWorks or let us know by contacting Support at support@logueworks.com.

Note, not all audio recordings will feature a Preamble.

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Speaker Codes
DR: Indicates when a doctor is speaking

PT: Indicates when the patient is speaking

NR: Indicates when a nurse or physician’s assistant is speaking

SR: Indicates when a clearly identifiable sales rep is speaking

CG: Indicates when a caregiver is speaking (this includes anyone who is in the room at the time with
the patient who is not a doctor, nurse or sales rep, e.g. husband/wife, sister/brother, friend,
children, resident or intern doctor, student, etc., or someone whose role cannot be clearly
defined)

IN: Indicates when an interviewer is speaking; can also be used when an interviewer plays audio
from another device

RE: Indicates when a respondent is speaking

RD: Indicates when a registered dietician is speaking (rarely used)

RT: Indicates when a registered therapist is speaking (rarely used)

SW: Indicates when a social worker is speaking (rarely used)

VO: Indicates when a voice over is speaking (rarely used)

Note, not all speaker codes are allowed on all jobs in LogueWorks. The job details page will let you
know which speaker codes are permitted for the current job.

If the audio contains only one person answering a question, use RE for the speaker code.

 DO NOT add a space before or after the speaker code.

 ALWAYS use a tab strike after the speaker code and colon before beginning an
utterance/sentence.
 DO NOT use a hard return within a turn/utterance; only use a hard return when speakers
change turns.
 DO NOT use soft returns, ever.
 ALWAYS use a colon with speaker codes; DO NOT use a semicolon.

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Troubleshooting “Invalid Speaker Code” Issues
Most commonly when you receive an "Invalid Speaker Code" error message, one of the following issues
is present in your transcript:

 There's a blank/empty line in the transcript. Check for and delete any empty transcript lines.
LogueWorks expects to find a speaker code on every new line; a line without a speaker code,
like an empty line, will cause this error.
 There’s a footer or header in your document. Remove any footers and/or headers from your
document.
 There's a malformed speaker code. Check that all speaker codes are written correctly and are
acceptable for the current job.
 There's a tab strike, soft return or some other special character in the body of your transcript
text. The only time you should use a tab strike is following a speaker code. Check the document
for extraneous tab strikes, and other special characters, and delete any that are found.

To most easily spot malformed speaker codes and extraneous tab strikes in the body of your transcript
text, there are a couple things you can do:

1. Show formatting marks

a. Navigate to File > Options > Display > select “Show all formatting marks”
b. Look for any unnecessary tab strikes, line returns, etc.
2. Use find/replace to narrow down issue
a. Open document in Word
b. Hit CTRL+H to bring up the Find/Replace feature
c. Enter "[SPEAKER CODE]:^t", e.g. “DR:^t”, for Find what, leave Replace with blank and hit
Replace All
d. Repeat Step 3 for all the different speaker codes used in your document
e. At this point all the speaker codes should be removed; any that aren't are the ones that
may potential be causing the issue
f. Search for "^t" which will search for any extraneous tab strikes; if you find any not near
a speaker code, delete
g. Search for "^l" which will search for soft returns, also known as manual line breaks;
delete or replace (with normal paragraph break) as needed.

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Identifiers
Use the following identifiers to remove personal identifiable information from transcription jobs
requiring de-identification:

 [PREAMBLE] - used to label the Preamble portion of a physician/patient interaction

 [PATIENT NAME] - used when patient’s name is spoken/spelled during conversation
 [PHYSICIAN NAME] - used when physician’s name is spoken/spelled during conversation
 [PHYSICIAN NAME OTHER] - used when the name of another physician is spoken/spelled during
conversation
 [NAME OTHER] - used when another’s name is spoken/spelled during the conversation that
does not fall into any of the categories above
 [AGE] - used when a specific age is spoken during conversation
o Examples: seven years old, fourteen months old, “…next year when you turn sixty
five…”
o Exception: Age ranges do not need de-identified. Example: “…between the ages of
thirteen to twenty four…”
o Exception: Non-specific ages do not need de-identified. Example: “…I was diagnosed in
my thirties…”
o Exception: Hypothetical ages do not need de-identified. Example: “…you have the body
of an eighteen year old…” or “…I wouldn’t ask an eighty year old to do this…”
 [DATE] - used when a specific date is mentioned during conversation:
o Examples: February fifteenth, March sixteenth, two thousand and six, the thirteenth
o Exception: References to simply a month or a year alone do not need de-identified.
Examples: “It was done in February,” “It was done in two thousand and eight,” “It was
done March two thousand and seven”
 [DEIDENTIFIED] - catch all for personal identifiable information that doesn't have a specific
identifier allocation
o DO NOT de-identify places visited if they are national chains or brands
 Examples: Walmart, McDonald’s, Home Depot or regional chains like Giant,
Pathmark, Publix, Kroger, etc.
o DO NOT de-identify celebrity names or newsworthy events
 Examples: Sally Fields, Chase Utley, Pittsburgh Penguins, etc.
o DO NOT de-identify a person’s field/title of employment
 Examples: Mechanic, Teacher, Dancer, Carpenter, Hair Dresser, etc.
o DO NOT de-identify a person’s insurance carrier
 Examples: State Farm, Blue Cross, etc.

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 o DO NOT de-identify drug names or pharmaceutical company names unless knowing
such information would reveal a person’s identity
 Examples: Lipitor, Abilify, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, etc.
o DE-IDENTIFY a person’s insurance if it is through their place of employment
 Examples: Ford, Paoli Hospital, etc.
o DE-IDENTIFY places of employment and/or job titles if only one person can hold the
position
 Example: “I’ll be the only [DEIDENTIFIED] in the whole city.”
o DE-IDENTIFY all previous, present and future school and educational level references
 Examples: fifth grade, Penn State University, Freshman, Sophomore, etc.
o DE-IDENTIFY locally visited venues
 Examples: Peacock’s Pharmacy, Aston Pharmacy, etc.
 [INAUDIBLE] - used to label audio that you are unable to transcribe

Note, not all identifiers are allowed on all jobs. For jobs listed as not requiring de-identification,
only the [INAUDIBLE] identifier is acceptable.

Note, this style guide does not cover every piece of information that should be de-identified. Jobs
requiring de-identification should meet current HIPAA-compliant standards at a minimum, with all
data considered personally identifiable information removed.

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Audibles
When you hear significant, discussion-interrupting instances of laughing, coughing or crying please
indicate using the following identifiers:

 [LAUGHING]
 [CRYING]
 [COUGHING]

Conservative use of audibles is preferred, i.e. if a baby is crying throughout an entire interaction, one
does not need to put [CRYING] every other turn, but should limit the use of the identifier to a handful of
times throughout the transcript so as not to create unnecessary clutter.

DO NOT use any other phrases between brackets other than those listed above. Please type identifiers
exactly the way they are listed above (all caps), making sure spelling is correct.

Foreign Language
 DO NOT transcribe any interaction where more than a "common expression" in another
language is used; return the job, specifying the other language you believe is being spoken.
 Examples of "common expressions" can include lines similar to "ciao", "c'est la vie", "a la carte"
and other borrowed terms and phrases widely used and understood by native English speakers

Numbers
 Spell out all numbers exactly as they are said, e.g. "it’s the year twenty seventeen", "she is on a
five milligram dosage", "his blood pressure is one twenty over eighty", "the time is six fifteen".
 DO NOT use symbols that require sub or superscripting, e.g. degrees symbol. Spell out units of
measure.
 DO NOT use hyphens to connect numbers, e.g. transcribe as "sixty five years old" not "sixty-five
years old"Using hyphens to connect a word to a prefix, e.g. "pre-authorization", "non-fasting",
etc., is acceptable.
 DO NOT use roman numerals, e.g. "type two diabetes", "stage four cancer"
 Only use numbers for medical terminology or drug names when the number is a part of the
name or acronym, e.g. "A1c", "HER2 positive", "PCSK9 inhibitors", etc.

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Expressing Pain and Excitement
 DO NOT use exclamation points or informal spellings of words to represent the expression of
pain or excitement displayed by a speaker; use only the spellings defined below
 Use "ow" or "ouch" to express pain
 Use "aw" or "oh" to express sentimental or sugary approval; protest, disbelief, disgust, or
commiseration
 Use “oh” to express surprise

Vocables/Hesitations/Backchanneling
 Use "uh" or "um" only. DO NOT use any other variations. Offset hesitations with commas.
 Use "uh-huh" or "um-hum" for affirmative backchanneling, "huh-uh" or "hum-um" for negative.
DO NOT use any other variations.
 Use "huh", "hum" or “hm” when used as in to say "you don't say". DO NOT use “hmm” or any
other variations.
 DO NOT transcribe partial words. An exception to this rule is if a speaker uses an abbreviated
form of a drug name or medical term, e.g. “oxy” instead of “oxycodone” or “sero level” instead
of “serotonin level”.

Commas
 Use commas to separate words and word groups in a simple series of three or more items. Do
not use the Oxford comma unless its omission would cause confusion.
 Use a comma to separate two adjectives when the adjectives are interchangeable
 Use a comma to separate stutters and hesitations (e.g. "So, um, we should, uh, meet, meet
again soon.")
 Do not run two independent clauses together by using a comma. Separate using a period.
 Use a comma after words that introduce a sentence, such as "well", "yes", "no", "hello", etc.
 Use commas to set off expressions that interrupt the sentence flow ("nevertheless", "by the
way", "you know", "however", "[PATIENT NAME]", etc.)
 Use a comma to separate a statement from a question (e.g. "That is okay, isn't it?")

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Physician Dictations
 ALWAYS transcribe verbatim. If a physician says “period”, “comma”, “parentheses”, etc., write
“period” or “comma” or “parentheses” in your transcript. Punctuate sentences in normal
fashion otherwise.
o Example: “Number one, impression, uh, hidradenitis suppurativa moderate to severe.
Next number, treatment, go ahead and do the preparatory work, period.”

Special Words
 "Okay" should be used (not "ok" or "OK")
 "All right" should be used (not "alright")
 “You” should be used (not “ya”)
 "You know" should be used (not "yknow" or “ya know”)
 "A while" should be used (not "awhile")
 "Yep" should be used (not "yup" or "yeap")
 "Copay" should be used (not "co-pay")
 “Cuz” should not be used to mean “because”.
 “A1c” should be used (not “A one C”)
 Separate with hyphen if two vowels are back to back, e.g., "anti-anxiety", "anti-inflammatory"
 Write as one word, e.g. "antidepressant", if "anti" is followed by consonant
 Write as two separate parts if second part is an acronym, e.g. “anti VEGF”
 Use "Ah" for throat-checking procedures, e.g. “Open up and say ah.”
 Use “Ah-ha” (with hyphen) to express a speaker’s sudden discovery or understanding
 Use title case for proper nouns, holidays, etc., e.g. “Fourth of July”
 Use title case for clinical trial names, e.g. transcribe as “Carmelina safety study” not
“CARMELINA safety study”

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Shortcut Keys
When transcribing or editing in the LogueWorks transcript maintenance interface, you can use shortcut
key combinations to produce special characters and identifiers.

To Do This... Press…
à, è, ì, ò, ù, À, È, Ì, Ò, Ù CTRL+` (ACCENT GRAVE), the letter
á, é, í, ó, ú, ý, Á, É, Í, Ó, Ú, Ý CTRL+' (APOSTROPHE), the letter
â, ê, î, ô, û, Â, Ê, Î, Ô, Û CTRL+SHIFT+^ (CARET), the letter
ã, ñ, õ, Ã, Ñ, Õ CTRL+SHIFT+~ (TILDE), the letter
ä, ë, ï, ö, ü, ÿ, Ä, Ë, Ï, Ö, Ü, Ÿ CTRL+SHIFT+: (COLON), the letter
å, Å CTRL+SHIFT+@, a or A
æ, Æ CTRL+SHIFT+&, a or A
œ, Œ CTRL+SHIFT+&, o or O
ç, Ç CTRL+, (COMMA), c or C
ð, Ð CTRL+' (APOSTROPHE), d or D
ø, Ø CTRL+/, o or O
¿ ALT+CTRL+SHIFT+?
ß CTRL+SHIFT+&, s
[LAUGHING] CTRL+[, L
[CRYING] CTRL+[, R
[COUGHING] CTRL+[, C
[INAUDIBLE] CTRL+[, I
[PATIENT NAME] CTRL+[, N
[PHYSICIAN NAME] CTRL+[, P
[PHYSICIAN NAME OTHER] CTRL+[, H
[NAME OTHER] CTRL+[, O
[AGE] CTRL+[, A
[DATE] CTRL+[, T
[DEIDENTIFIED] CTRL+[, D
[PREAMBLE] CTRL+[, E

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