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question on partial lines - nuance newbie

Posted: Jun 05, 2012

Have a couple of questions for those of you who have been with Transcend/Nuance.

I had a very short report the other day and actually counted each character and space. It was only 2 sentences long, so wasn't too much to count, but the total characters divided by 65 was equal to 10.8 lines. My first question is whether there is pay for partial lines? I looked at my matrix after submitting the report and got credit for 10 lines, but there is no decimal and partial lines listed. Is it kept as a running total and counted as a 65 character line on the next report if it adds up to enough? Have any of you ever asked you supervisor?

Second question is whether or not the spaces after a period are counted as 1 or 2 and whether there is credit for DS? My report was only 2 sentences and it ended up with a partial sentence, so not sure if there was 2 spaces counted after the period or not. I thought I read somewhere that all spaces are counted as 1, regardless of how many spaces there are. I have no idea about the double spacing between paragraphs.

Thanks!

partial lines - good question

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Would like the answer to this myself as I suspect that is what has happened to my line count in comparison from my prior job. Anyone?

partial lines - nuance newbie

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Hi all, OP here. I see this post has a lot of views but no one seems to be able to answer. I would hate to think that every report I do that does not end with a perfect 65 character line is just getting dropped and not counted toward my production.

As I said, I have actually counted the characters and spaces and divided by 65 to get line count and the matrix will only give me the rounded down amount, not rounded up or a .whatever is leftover towards credit on that line.

I haven't gotten my first check yet to verify this, so was kind of relying on some of you who have been there a while. Do your lines on your check match your matrix perfectly? If so, then there is no credit for all of the partial lines (pretty much every report) that are not a perfect 65 character line, even if your final line is = to 60 characters.

This a great question...sm - Old Anon

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and I, too, would like to know the answer. I don't work at Nuance, but my company uses their platform. I have also noticed that the line counts are all even numbers, so what happens to those fractions of a line? I calculated that if I transcribed 25 reports and each report had only a 0.1 fraction of a line, that would amount to an extra 2.5 lines for that day. Say I did the same amount of work every day for 6 months (highly unlikey scenario) which would amount to approximately 150 days times 2.5 lines, I would have been shorted 375 lines and possibly more because some of those reports could end up having a higher line fraction, even up to 0.9. Of course the company may be rounding up or down, but we don't know that.

I'd also like to know if we are paid for 2 spaces after a period which is required of us or are they eliminating one of those lines in our line calculation.

Please let us know if you find out anything about this, and thank you for posing this question.

Oops, misspeak in my post...sm - Old Anon

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I meant to say "eliminating one space (not line) in our line calculation, in regard to the 2 space after a period question. Sorry.

partial lines - nuance newbie

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Well I did the actual count for a very short report and found that the report calculated out to 10.8 lines but my matrix gave me credit for 10. I can see rounding up or down by traditional standards, because I feel it would for the most part balance out. BUT, getting credit for 10 lines when 10.8 were edited is highway robbery! Especially when you consider that probably 99.9% of every report you do will have at least some amount of a partial line left over.

If I do not get a definitive answer, I am going to email the lawyers involved in the case against Transcend as a heads up on something else they should check into.

I think we should also get paid for headers, but it is not the case and I know this. However, if I am editing lines in the body of the report that I am not getting credit for, then they are either getting that work done for free, or the overall line count divided out is not as stipulated. I can see how this would be of interest to labor lawyers!

Do contact the lawyers - someone just had a

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conversation about this with them. Ask not for Dolley but 1 of the worker bees working the case. They will be informed on what you are calling about! : )

Are you on Escription or EditScript? - sm

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I am starting to think there is a difference. I know they are related and I use Escription as a platform to look up reports, etc., but do not actually work in the platform. The platform I am in is EditScript MT. Now, that said, I have checked several reports over the course of the last year and the lines are always rounded up to an even number. I have counted them in Word (typed the report in Word and then cut and paste). The Word count is ALWAYS lower than what EditScript gives me.

So, I suspect there are 2 different platforms we are working on, as I do believe everything you are saying about your lines. I just have not seen it happening at all. Good luck.

Exactly and therein lies the problem - No company is going to

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be paying you for more lines than you transcribed. It's a racket and you can mark my words on that. Let me repeat it, NO COMPANY is going to pay you for MORE LINES THAN YOU ACTUALLY TRANSCRIBED. You buy into that and think it's "great" you are helping to screw yourself. This is happening at more than 1 company. It seems to be an unspoken and very hush hush tactic.

partial lines - nuance newbie

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It is my understanding that Word calculates the characters per line based on margin settings, and actally calculates per line and not number of characters/65. So a large font will have less characters per line, wider vs. smaller margins will make a diff., etc. I have asked the question on a couple of other transcription boards, and everyone seems to agree that a direct conversion from transcription platforms to a Word docutment will not give you an equal comparison.

If you want to calculate your actual lines on a document, you need to count the actual characters and spaces and /65. This can be done relatively easily if it a report like a quick progress or discharge note where the doctor is only updating on a patient with 2-3 sentences. I have done this actual calculation and I came up with 10.8 lines. After uploading, ES gave me credit for 10 lines, but they do not list lines on the matrix in a 0.0 manner, just the whole number, and it would appear that I got ZERO credit for a line that was 0.8 of a 65 character line. Almost an entire line appears to have been dropped from my count!

Again my question is - Has anyone ever asked their TL or anyone else whether we get credit for partial lines. I feel like if I asked mine at this point, and given the fact that I am new, she will be able to identify who I am and I don't want to be labeled a troublemaker right off the bat. Asking those who have been around a while what their experience has been.

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