LTI English Guidelines

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Grammar considerations

  • All works should have the most accurate spelling possible. Transcribers and proofreaders are encouraged to use browser-integrated dictionaries (i.e. for Firefox) to help automate this process.
  • Intentional Audio events such as the result of "By round of applause, how many of you feel ..." should be transcribed for the benefit of deaf people. Do not include others unless they are significant to the understanding of what is occurring within the video.
  • Padding expressions (um, hmm, etc.) should not be transcribed/translated.
  • American versus British
    • English spelling should be consistent with the locale of the lecture or, if used, the speakers' presentation notes (spelling used on presentation slides, for example). In all cases, members should strive for consistency.
  • Note: Important phrases like The Venus Project, The Zeitgeist Movement, Resource-Based Economy should be capitalized at the start of all the words. If your language does not readily provide for a translation of these proper terms, please provide them in English for consistency.
  • Transcriptions should be presented in the most accurate grammatical sense in order to preserve the meaning of the original content.
  • While the state of punctuation is usually left to the translation teams' discretion, the English copy must have punctuation that conveys the original meaning.
  • Ellipses ( ... ) at the end or start of sentence fragments should not be used unless it represents an incomplete sentence that is never continued.
  • Spelling out :
    • Numerals : if the number is over ten, use the numeral, i.e "10,000" rather than "ten thousand"
    • Acronyms : use acronyms only if they are commonly known ('USA', 'UN', 'NATO'...)
    • Dates : use numerals, plus 'th', 'nd', 'rd' if the month is not mentioned (see examples)


ORIGINAL TRANSCRIBED
a thousand a thousand
one thousand 1,000
nine children nine children
forty or fifty 40 or 50
released on May tenth released on May 10
released on the tenth released on the 10th
released on the tenth of May released on the 10th of May


  • Periods of time or dates
    • BC and AD are acronyms and are usually preceded by dates. Their function as acronyms is obvious in this context, which means that they are to be written as BC and AD and not B.C. and A.D.
    • For numerals above 1,000, a comma is used to group blocks of thousands together, unless they're denoting years in dates. Floating point numerals use the period as a delimiter (i.e 6.5462 and not 6,5462, see table below)


INAPPROPRIATE APPROPRIATE
the 1980’s the 1980s
the 50’s the ’50s
a pottery from the 5th-century BC a pottery from the 5th century BC
a 5th century pottery a 5th-century pottery
The year 1,984 The year 1984
The army enrolled 10.000 men The army enrolled 10,000 men
We are exactly 584,9 feet above sea level We are exactly 584.9 feet above sea level


Punctuation & Letter Case

  • When words are joined with conjunctions (and), commas are NOT used before the conjunction. The only time we put a comma before and, but, or, nor is when independent clauses (or sentences) are joined together. It is important for us to punctuate according to correct English structure for the translators and not to the speaker's inflexions, which can be misleading.
  • In the following table's second example, we NEED the comma before 'and'. Two complete sentences are joined together.


INAPPROPRIATE APPROPRIATE
We live in a world of perpetual warfare, and crime, and corruption. We live in a world of perpetual warfare and crime and corruption.
A war ends in one location and it begins in another location. A war ends in one location, and it begins in another location.
The theater of war rotates but it never goes away. The theater of war rotates, but it never goes away.


  • Ellipses are used only when words are left out. In the example below, the speaker leaves no words out; he’s just completing his sentence.


INAPPROPRIATE APPROPRIATE
If you really wish to bring an end to war, poverty, hunger, and most crimes...

...what we have to do, eventually, through education is declare all of the earth's resources...

If you really wish to bring an end to war, poverty, hunger and most crimes,

what we have to do eventually, through education, is declare all of the earth's resources...

I would like to see an end to war, poverty, unnecessary human suffering...

...and I can't see it within a monetary-based system,

I would like to see an end to war, poverty, unnecessary human suffering,

and I can't see it within a monetary-based system,


  • The table below shows examples of run-on sentences. An independant clause ends with a period, unless it is followed by another independant clause that is closely related to it (if it uses the same subject, for example) or when using a comma followed by a coordinating conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so).


INAPPROPRIATE APPROPRIATE
They were malicious, but once the states had joined together, the maliciousness disappeared,

there was no need for it.

They were malicious, but once the states had joined together, the maliciousness disappeared.

There was no need for it.

I don't say this can be accomplished in one swoop,

it's a slow process of education.

I don't say this can be accomplished in one swoop;

it's a slow process of education.


  • Do not capitalize the first word after a colon, unless what follows the colon is a complete sentence.


INAPPROPRIATE APPROPRIATE
I see constant repeat of the same series of events:

War, poverty, recession, again...

I see constant repeat of the same series of events:

war, poverty, recession, again...


  • When introducing a quotation with words like "He said", "She whispered", "It stated", etc., no punctuation is needed to separate "He said" from the direct quote that follows it.
  • Spaces before question marks/exclamation points at the end of sentences are omitted. Spaces before colons are also omitted.
  • The following items are to be capitalized [dead link] :
    • proper nouns (names of specific people, places, organizations, and sometimes things or family relationships (when used as proper names - e.g. I went to the market with Mom - with the proper noun 'Mom' directly replacing her name)
    • the names of God
    • specific deities
    • religious figures and holy books (exception: non-specific use of the word "god")
    • events as depicted in religious writings (the Great Flood, Easter, Christmas)
    • titles preceding names (for politicians: President, Senator, Congressman, Representative, etc.)
      • Always capitalize President when it refers to the President of the US even when the title is not followed by a name. (example: The President met with members of Congress at the White House yesterday.)
    • the days of the week
    • months of the year
    • holidays (but not seasons used generally, only when used in a title)
    • the names of countries
    • nationalities and specific languages
    • the first word in a sentence that is a direct quote
    • major words in the titles of books etc.
    • members of national, political, racial, social, civic, and athletic groups
    • periods and events (but not century numbers)
    • Celestial bodies, planets, stars (Mars, Jupiter, the Moon, the Sun, Proxima Centauri)
    • trademarks
  • The use of the semicolon in English indicates that what follows the semicolon is an independent clause (complete sentence) in which a conjunction has been omitted. The independent clause that follows the semicolon should be closely related. A colon indicates that what follows defines or explains what precedes it.


INAPPROPRIATE APPROPRIATE
You can only find the answers by innovation;
by studying the systems and the problems and working on methods of alleviating those problems,
not through law.
You can only find the answers by innovation:
by studying the systems and the problems and working on methods of alleviating those problems,
not through law.
Therefore, living to yourself; your little isolated colony; all of that has no basis for survival. Therefore, living to yourself, your little isolated colony, all of that has no basis for survival.


Speaker Identification

  • Hyphens ( - ) are used to convey an exchange between two or more people. It is the commonly accepted convention for this usage, which is why it was chosen over tildes ( ~ ) or inequality signs ( < > ). The hyphen, in this case, is always immediately followed by the text (no spaces in between).
  • If more than two participants are involved, the name of the speaker or his role in the segment (Interviewer #1, for example) is added, in parenthesis.



Other considerations

Use of hyphens

  • Hyphens are to be used exclusively to convey a change of speaker in conversation situations. In the case of parenthetical information, parentheses will be used.


INAPPROPRIATE APPROPRIATE
Rather than speculate, which is what the great majority of public does -and I'm going to talk about it later as an argument that moves against us. People often bring this up.- let's actually think about what we actually know. Rather than speculate, which is what the great majority of public does (and I'm going to talk about it later as an argument that moves against us. People often bring this up.) let's actually think about what we actually know.


Use of quotes (simple, double)

  • Double quotes are used for direct quotations. Notice the omission of punctuation before the quote.


INAPPROPRIATE APPROPRIATE
A wise man once said, « The most profound understandings tend to be the most obvious, yet overlooked. » A wise man once said "The most profound understandings tend to be the most obvious, yet overlooked."
The question becomes « What traits are universal across the whole of the human species? » You really can't define human nature. The question becomes "What traits are universal across the whole of the human species?" You really can't define human nature.


  • Single quotes are used for expressions and titles (book titles, movie titles, magazines articles, etc.).


INAPPROPRIATE APPROPRIATE
You know that « of course mentality ». You know that 'of course mentality'.
... and if you hadn't seen my prior presentations, « Social Pathology » I strongly suggest them, but that's not the point. ... and if you hadn't seen my prior presentations, 'Social Pathology' I strongly suggest them, but that's not the point.


Intonation

  • Do not emphasize a word using all capital letters except to indicate screaming.
  • If the speaker is not visible on screen, or if there are no visible clues or a speaker's emotional state, indicate it in square brackets. (i.e [shouting], [whispering]...)
  • When people are seen speaking, but there's no audio, add "[silence]".


Slang, language considerations

  • Slang and profanity usage is permitted to preserve a speaker's persona.


INAPPROPRIATE APPROPRIATE (ACCEPTABLE, RATHER)
What are we, f*ing stupid?! What are we, fucking stupid?!


  • Do not translate utterances in foreign languages (using [Speaking Spanish], for example), or transcribe them in their original language.)
  • Indicate the regional accent of the speaker, and keep the flavor of dialect, as long as it doesn't impede readability.


INAPPROPRIATE APPROPRIATE
You say, "Come on, eat, it's good food." You say [Italian accent] "Come ona, eat, it's a gooda food."


Music

  • Surround the lyrics of the song using the musical note icon provided in dotSUB special characters panel.
  • If the lyrics' flow of text exceeds comfortable standards, indicate the title of the song and its performer(s). Example : [Musician performing "The Zeitgeist Movement tune"]


Text Editing

Editing is to be performed only when a string exceeds what the transcriber deems to be acceptable standards of readability. Please keep in mind that the whole meaning of the sentence has to be conveyed.

  • It is acceptable to omit certain pieces of text if they do not contain any relevant information.


INAPPROPRIATE APPROPRIATE
so I had to retroactively go through this big mess. So, anyway, but, you know, as far as the film itself, religion was always... so I had to retroactively go through this big mess. As far as the film itself, religion was always....
"And then a lot of people that see the film, they get the wrong impression" "And then a lot of people who see the film get the wrong impression"


String Division

When a sentence is broken into two or more strings, it should be divided at a logical point where speech normally pauses, or at a convenient point grammatically, so as to ensure that the 70-character-per-string guideline is always respected.


SyntacticTree.png


As the diagram above indicates, we have broken down the sentence "The collapse of the money system was imminent" into its different constituents, from a general perspective (on top, node N1), to the precise context of the word (bottom, node N6). As a general rule, a transcriber must strive to divide strings at the highest node level possible..

If we take the sentence shown in the diagram, we can have the following divisions :
Division at the fifth node (N5) :

"The collapse of the
money system was imminent"

Division at the second node (N2) :

"The collapse of the money system
was imminent"

In this example, the second string division is more appropriate, as we try to convey pieces of information that are as complete as possible, so that our brains don't have to strain too much to put the sentence together. The text flows better, allowing for a more comfortable read, thus enabling a better understanding of the information.


String division, continued

The following section describes some good practice in terms of line division, with excerpts from the video Jacque Fresco's full interview with Larry King, 1974[1]

1. Do not break a modifier from the word it modifies.

INAPPROPRIATE APPROPRIATE
On the outer edge of the city, we have the agricultural
belt
On the outer edge of the city, we have
the agricultural belt


2. Do not break a prepositional phrase.

INAPPROPRIATE APPROPRIATE
We can build dams under
the ocean
We can build dams
under the ocean


3. Do not break a person’s name nor a title from the name with which it is associated.

INAPPROPRIATE APPROPRIATE
My guest is an extraordinary Miamian: Dr. Jacque
Fresco.
My guest is an extraordinary Miamian:
Dr. Jacque Fresco.
The science is socio-cyberneering, the man behind it is Dr.
Jacque Fresco
The science is socio-cyberneering, the man behind it is
Dr. Jacque Fresco


4. Do not break a string after a conjunction.

INAPPROPRIATE APPROPRIATE
The entire money-structured and
materialistic-oriented society is a false society.
The entire money-structured
and materialistic-oriented society is a false society.


5. Do not break an auxiliary verb from the word it modifies.

INAPPROPRIATE APPROPRIATE
Our cities have
been designed a long time ago
Our cities have been designed
a long time ago


6. Never end a sentence and begin a new sentence on the same line unless they are short, related sentences containing one or two words. From Zeitgeist Moving Forward :

INAPPROPRIATE APPROPRIATE
"In a decaying society, Art if it is

truthful, must also reflect
decay. And unless it wants
to break faith with its social function
Art must show the world
as changeable. And help to change it.
-Ernst Fischer"

"In a decaying society

Art, if it is truthful, must also reflect decay.
And unless it wants to break faith with its social function
Art must show the world as changeable.
And help to change it.
-Ernst Fischer"



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