A common misnomer about transcripts that people have is that any printed reading material is a transcript, which is not the case.
It represents a spoken word rather than a written word and because of this distinction, it's important to know the different kinds of transcripts that vendor's process, based on the needs of the clients.
Verbatim Transcripts: This format is an unedited or an exact version of what is documented by a transcriber based on what has been recorded, it consists of false starts, grammatical errors and unfinished sentences.
Corrected Transcripts: The opposite of the verbatim is the edited or corrected transcript.
This format allows a transcriber a liberty to eliminate "ums" "uhs" or words that are irrelevant to the gist of the script.
If an interview has some utterances that add 'flavor' to the narrations, they are unedited and new text added to the transcript makes it more interesting for the reader.
Revised transcript: This format offers the transcriber the freedom to create an enjoyable narrative, without changing the gist of the narration or its meaning and intent.
The transcriber may reorganize the paragraphs for maintaining the similarity of the topic and arrange them in a chronological order.
At times, an interview recording done on multiple cassettes has portions of a story narrated in non-chronological order, and the transcriber arranges it in order to maintain the story's continuity.
The transcribers change the style of Q & A sessions to make them appear as stories.
The transcript has sidebar information added for including historical references.
Between the three styles of the transcripts, verbatim is the most preferred format.