One way of looking at it - Good Luck

Just my opinion, of course, so others may have a different way of looking at it.

Everyone is different.  One person may be great at straight transcription and do miserably when they try SR Editing.  Another person may have been on the brink of being fired for not producing minimum lines with straight transcription and end up being one of the highest producers when switched to SR Editing. 

No one can tell you which is best for you or which will make you the most money, be the easiest, or even the most enjoyable.  Only actually doing the work will give you that answer.  It is truly a very personal thing.  

You wrote that you can do 2000 lines a day.  I am going to assume that is because you know those dictators forwards and backwards, use tons of expanders, have lots of canned phrases or even whole reports that you can just load in, and your platform runs smoothly and quickly.

What I would do if I had to make that type of decision is this:  One day, the last report of the day, after you have met your quota so you have time to objectively do this, do a comparison.  Last report, write down the start time (the second you bring up that report) and the end time (the second you are ready to send that report).  Write down the total time and the number of lines.  Copy that report and put the copy in Word or whatever software you use (so you can release your last report of the day and sign out of work).   

Now, imagine the report you are looking at just came in from your Speech Recognition program.  Imagine it has wrong punctuation that needs to be deleted, misspelled words that have to be corrected, and formatting that needs to be changed.  You not only have to read every word, but you have to listen to the report as you read it to be sure that is what was dictated.  As you know, with Speech Recognition, you cannot just read or proof the report, you have to listen to it.  It may read perfectly correct if SR put in:  The patient lives in New York, when the dictator actually dictated:  The patient lives in Newark.  (Simplistic, and the only example I could come up with off the top of my head, but a good example nonetheless.  Medical terms that sound alike but mean entirely different things have to be listened to, not just read.) 

Keep track of your time again.  This time, see how long it takes you to read EVERY word.  For the sake of a little more accuracy, change a couple of headings, change some punctuation, and maybe stop to look up the name of an instrument or another word that might be unfamiliar if you ran across it for the first time.

Write down the time it took you to Edit the Speech Recognition report.

Now, you will need to get out your calculator and do some basic math.

If you will be paid 50% less for Speech Recognition Editing than for straight transcription, here is what you will need to do, every hour, every day.

In order to make the same amount of money per day (2000 lines per day at 8 cents per line), if you are getting paid 4 cents per line for Speech Recognition Editing, you will need to do 4000 lines per day.

In other words, if that report took you 5 minutes to straight transcribe, in order to make the same amount of money, you would need to have edited it in 2-1/2 minutes or less. 

If you will be paid more than 50% for Speech Recognition Editing, you may need to do a little more complicated math, but I think you can get a pretty good idea with basic calculations. 

There are a tons of other variables – how good the SR program is, if other things have to be inserted such as demographics, how fast the reports download and upload, how good the audio is, and the usual “new job” learning, such as new account specifics, ESL, etc. 

Hope this did not confuse you too much. 

Good Luck in whatever you decide. 

If you can type, you can edit. The biggest issue is whether you can do - the 4000 lines to match

Thanks! - LB

LB, your chances aren't good for traditional. You'll - probably end up editing anyway. Best

I would hope that the straight transciptionist is also as skilled as the - VR transcriptionist

VR editing. - MT Too long