On completion of this training sequence,
you will be able to produce coherent text while respeaking
by extracting and combining the information
conveyed with the speakers’ material.
You will identify which non-verbal elements need to be turned into verbal
for each LTA trained working context by applying techniques
like changing colours or font-size or inserting labels.
You will type/dictate punctuation while keeping the pace of the speaker.
This is the agenda of this presentation.
I will first recall the skills of the respeaker
to then concentrate on the meta-linguistic skills,
with a focus on the dictation of punctuation.
Punctuation is essential during a respeaking performance
because it improves texts’ functionality
in terms of accuracy, readability and legibility of transcripts.
I will finally focus on main punctuation characters
that you will be requested to practice along the course
to develop, reinforce and maintain the skills at hand.
As you have seen,
a respeaker has to do many things at the same time.
In Element 2 – LO1, we have dealt with Meta-linguistic skills.
They are all those skills
related to being able to improve
textual, verbalization and dictation skills at the same time,
which is another set of skills a respeaker has to possess.
In particular, for a respeaker to be able and become a professional in the field,
he or she has also to be able to process and guarantee
a good functionality of the final product.
He or she has to guarantee accuracy,
readability and legibility of the text produced.
This all involves firstly and foremost the ability of the respeaker to perform
a good analysis, synthesis
and reformulation of the speaker’s discourse.
While you can only develop these competences by the time
and thanks to ad hoc exercises,
you may be interested in knowing how this meta-linguistic skills work.
Indeed, this is exactly what we will see in the next section.
In this Element 2, we will deal with the dictation of punctuation.
As we know and as in any multitasking process
which involves doing different things at the same time,
two main types of skills are involved in respeaking.
The first is understanding, aimed at comprehending the source text.
The second is respeaking,
aimed at making the most out of understanding
under stressful conditions
and with a reduced processing capacity than usual.
Typing/Dictating punctuation while keeping the pace of the speaker
is another important skill in order to render
the functionality of the final respoken text.
Important to such a good performance are the ability to understand
the communicative intention of the source message,
to understand the red thread of the discourse,
the capacity to select and focalize the relevant information
and to divide between main and secondary ideas
and to deliver an accurate oral punctuation.
More, the capacity to identify the discourse connectors,
while deducing meaning through context and extra-linguistic elements.
Last but not least, there is the ability to condense information
and to segment information in sense units.
This is the result of a good mix of accuracy, readability,
and legibility of the text produced as a final text.
In the case of respeaking,
the most common method used to evaluate
the quality of subtitles produced in real time
consists of assessing accuracy.
Needless to say, where quality is concerned,
there are also other features to be considered,
such as delay, positioning, character identification and speed,
as well as factors relating to their reception by readers,
such as comprehension or perception.
Readability is about arranging words and groups of words
in a way that allows the reader's eye to access the content easily
and in a way that makes sense.
It is important to understand
what makes one typeface more legible than another.
But basically, legibility is the quality deriving from a text
which can be read and understood without much effort.
It also means that the message can fully and immediately reach the recipient.
The main rules to follow when dictating the text
are dictating in an orderly manner while keeping the pace of the speaker
and making sentences which are not too long.
Punctuation plays a paramount role in this structuring of the text.
We have already highlighted that using punctuation in respeaking
improves the readability and usability of transcripts.
As a fact, punctuation used in the right place
significantly improves the readability of transcripts
and reduces the time it takes to edit them.
It is the use of special marks to enable readers to understand a piece of writing.
Good punctuation follows the rhythms of speech,
telling the reader to pause at the right points
and to organize the information in the document that he or she is reading.
It reduces misunderstandings and makes the writing clear.
But how important is punctuation
and which are the most commonly used punctuation characters
in real-time subtitling?
We are now going to dive into its importance in transcription,
describing how we intend and how we use punctuation.
First of all, it is important to highlight
that punctuation marks fall under the domains
of both verbal communication and non-verbal communication,
which includes any communication act except speech.
In particular,
full-stop, comma,
exclamation mark and question mark are the marks used
within the real-time subtitled communication context,
and other signs such as parenthesis, quotation marks,
ellipsis and others are the signs used for the non-verbal communication.
Specifically for the non-verbal communication context,
what I will explain will be a general overview,
but it is important to bear in mind
that the use of punctuation marks depends on the country of reference,
meaning that in different countries
we make a different use of the punctuation marks.
While, on the other hand,
the punctuation marks pertaining to the verbal communication
are generally shared in their use.
A full-stop marks the end of a complete sentence
that is not a question or an exclamation.
It looks like other marks
such as decimal points and abbreviation points in acronyms,
but it does a different job.
It ends a unit of sense
and in the reading process marks a similar but longer pause than commas do.
When respeaking, you can also use periods at the end of phrases
that are not fully sentences.
For example:
I like to break my writing up. You know.
Obviously, in respeaking,
subtitles and lines are to be broken at logical points.
The ideal line-break will be at a piece of punctuation
like a full stop (more than a comma).
If the break has to be elsewhere in the sentence,
the respeaker avoids splitting the following parts of speech:
1. article and noun, for example the + table; a + book;
2. preposition and following phrases, for example on + the table;
in + a way; about + his life;
3. conjunction and following phrase/clause,
for example and + those books; but + I went there;
4. pronoun and verb, for example he + is;
they + will come; it + comes;
5. parts of a complex verb, for example have + eaten;
will + have + been + doing.
Commas break sentences up into smaller parts
that are easier to understand.
They signify natural pauses, segregate pieces of information,
and separate items in a list, whether nouns or adjectives.
We use comma for pausing for breath.
You can use a comma to insert a natural break
between two parts of a sentence,
or to join two short sentences.
For example:
He ran down the street as fast as he could,
and tripped over his shoelaces.
Here, the comma, together with "and", joins the two sentences:
"He ran down the street as fast as he could"
and "He tripped over his shoelaces".
Commas of this kind reflect the fact
that sometimes you need to pause your train of thoughts
to make sense of the words.
We also use comma to inserting additional information.
Commas are also useful when you want to insert groups of words
that add new information to a sentence,
but which do not change its basic meaning.
For example:
Michael, who was taller than James, was the eldest of the children.
"Michael was the eldest of the children" makes sense on its own,
but commas allow you to add the fact that "Michael was taller than James"
without simply sticking it awkwardly on the end of the sentence.
More, we use comma to separating items in lists.
You can also use commas to separate items in lists.
One fixed rule is that lists of three or more items need a comma
between the first and second items.
A comma is also needed between the second and third items
if the list has four items, and so on.
The exclamation point is a mark of punctuation
in verbal communication.
To be effective,
the exclamation point should be used in moderation.
At the end of a sentence,
the exclamation point is a mark of terminal punctuation.
As such, it should not be followed by a period or question mark.
Some will use both a question mark and exclamation point
for an exclamatory question,
but only the exclamation point is truly necessary.
For example: What in the world are you doing up there!
The question mark is used at the end of a direct question.
Indirect questions take a period.
For example: What is she doing tonight?
or: I wonder what she’s doing tonight.
When a direct question occurs within a larger sentence,
it takes a question mark.
Note in the example:
Would they make it on time? she wondered.
The colon has grammatical uses but also non grammatical uses.
Grammatically, it is used to introduce a list of items.
For example:
The bookstore specializes in three subjects:
art, architecture, and graphic design.
In real-time subtitling, and as for the non-grammatical uses,
the colon is used in order to introduce a direct speech
which cannot be turned into indirect speech.
For example: She said: What’s your name?
Instead of she asked what her name was.
Moreover, colon is used for quoting citations only in some countries,
among which is Italy.
Other countries use quotation marks, instead.
As for the non-verbal communication, again,
it is important to remark
that what I will explain will be a general overview.
However, it is important to bear in mind
that the use of punctuation marks depends on the country
the real-time subtitler works for,
meaning that in different countries
he or she makes a different use of the punctuation marks.
While, on the other hand,
the punctuation marks pertaining to the verbal communication
are generally shared in their use.
The non-verbal communication punctuation marks may include:
parentheses (in Italy), or brackets (in UK and USA),
quotation marks, ellipses (in Italy) or dashes (in UK),
and other signs always according to the country in question,
for example sign major or minor than.
We will now see these signs,
the so-called paragraphematic signs for non-verbal communication.
The parentheses indicate additional information or concepts
which are different from the spoken discourse.
Important to say is
that bracketed information should be an addition, not a substitution.
For example: (Michael laughs),
intends to pass the concept that besides the verbal speech,
something is happening
which cannot be respoken by the real-time subtitler.
Also, if a quotation includes a foreign word or phrase
that might not be understood,
parentheses provide a translation
to better understand the meaning of the whole sentence.
For example: I seldom spoke in French class.
When I did, I usually just said je ne sais pas
(I don’t know).
Quotation marks clarify written language for both readers and writers
by marking quotations, titles, translations and other words and phrases.
In respeaking, quotation marks perform the following basic functions:
1. Enclose direct quotations:
direct quotations are quotations that are repeated verbatim.
For example: President Franklin Roosevelt said,
“The United States of America have been suddenly and deliberately attacked
by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan”.
2. Titles of works: use quotation marks with titles works and parts of wholes.
For example: In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
the first chapter is “The Boy Who Lived”.
3. Highlight novel uses of words and phrases:
use quotation marks around words and phrases
to indicate a special sense of use.
For example:
The motherboard is sometimes considered
the “brain” of a computer.
Again, there is an important note to make here:
in Italy, quotation marks are not used to cite.
Rather, respeakers use colon.
In other countries they are used instead with these different uses.
An ellipsis is a set of three periods ( . . . ) indicating an omission.
It is also used for omitted material within quoted sentence.
For example: Jean argues that by simplifying one’s life,
the laws of the universe will appear less complex . . .
At the same time, dashes are used in the place of ellipses
to mean that someone has been interrupted while speaking.
Again, a specific difference for the anglosaxon countries.
After this overview,
a real-time subtitler should bear in mind
the concept that verbal communication and non verbal communication are featured
by several and different punctuation marks.
The fundamentals in this distinction is
that verbal marks of punctuation are almost shared in all countries,
while they are country-specific in non verbal communication,
and can change accordingly.
In this LO we have introduced the main competence of the respeaker,
the meta-linguistic skills in the form of dictation of punctuation
as one important feature guarantying the functionality of a text in respeaking.
In particular, we have dealt with two important aspects:
a theoretical one that is the text functionality,
whose characteristics are accuracy, readability and legibility,
and a more practical one
on the use of the most important punctuation characters used by a respeaker
both for verbal and non verbal communication
in order to deliver an optimal target text to the reader.
This, too, has to become a mechanic and automatized action
when respeaking.
To do so, dictating punctuation is the exercise to start with.
In the homework section, we will see how to do this in practice.