How to Transcribe, Proofread & Publish a Sermon

Welcome! This document outlines the process we follow to produce sermon transcripts. This process can be broken down into 3 stages: transcribing → proofreading → publishing. Detailed advice regarding what to do in specific scenarios while proofreading can be found in the Conventions page. This document summarises our newest video tutorial:

I encourage you to do all your work within Notion itself (within the ‘hidden page for editing transcript’ page located underneath the ‘TRANSCRIPT’ heading). However, you are welcome to do the proofreading portion of the process within Microsoft Word or any other word processor.

Transcribing

1. Retrieve the transcript that YouTube (YT) has generated for a given Sunday or Friday livestream using: https://youtubetranscript.com/
2. Isolate only the sermon and closing prayer. We do not transcribe the pastoral prayer due to potentially personal/sensitive prayer items being mentioned.
3. Process the transcript in ChatGPT to make it readable.
4. Spot and rectify any errors that ChatGPT makes by comparing its processed transcript with YT’s transcript using: https://countwordsfree.com/comparetexts

Proofreading

There are 2 principles that must be simultaneously applied in proofreading:

1. FAITHFULNESS: Despite YouTube and ChatGPT’s efficiency at transcribing, both are liable to making errors. Possible mistakes each program can make include:
1. YouTube may mishear the preacher’s words. ChatGPT may pick up such mistakes and correct them, however occasionally it will also fail to do this.
2. ChatGPT may “hallucinate”, meaning it will either fail to process the transcript you feed it, or it may start to generate a new sermon altogether. Also, ChatGPT will never produce a transcript that is grammatically incoherent. Therefore, it will attempt to correct for both YouTube’s mistakes, as well any mistakes made by the preacher. This is usually a good thing (because of the second principle described below), however, it may also incorrectly attempt to correct the grammar of scripture quotations, or the preacher’s own words.

One more thing to constantly check is quotations from Scripture. Please have a Bible app or website open to constantly check if Bible quotes are correct. There is nuance here regarding whether the preacher is attempting to directly quote, or paraphrase, or a mix of both. See the Conventions for further details.
2. COMPREHENSIBILITY: While our transcripts must be faithful to their original sermon, they must also be as clear and understandable as possible. We always assume that the person reading this transcript has never or ever will listen/watch the sermon audio/video recordings. This means making minor changes wherever necessary to prevent confusion on our readers’ part. Possible mistakes to correct include:
1. Grammatical errors: Pastor will occasionally make grammatical errors without realising. ChatGPT will usually correct most, if not all, of these for us.
2. Misspoken words: Eg. “Believers will go to Hell – or rather Heaven, Believers will go to Heaven.” ← Such an error and correction is not necessary for a reader.
3. Unnecessarily repeated phrases: Eg. “Please turn to Genesis 1:1. Genesis 1:1. If you are there, let us read together. Genesis 1:1…” ← Such repetition makes sense in real time as the preacher waits for his listeners to flip the passage in their Bibles.

Other things to edit for the sake of comprehensibility include:

4. Paragraph lengths: try to keep paragraph relatively short and digestible so they don’t become overwhelming to read, especially on mobile phone screens. Here are 2 examples of transcripts with idea paragraph lengths.
5. Capitalisation: please capitalise words as necessary. Eg. References to God such as “the Father, the Son, the Spirit, the Giver, the Creator, our Redeemer, our Saviour”. References to the Scriptures such as the “Word”. References to places or events such as “Heaven” or “Armageddon”.
6. Scripture references: if the preacher quotes or references a passage from Scripture but does not explicitly mention its book, chapter or verse reference, please add this for our readers’ convenience. This are various scenarios regarding this described in the Conventions.
7. Sermon main points and sub-points: please denote these as heading blocks in Notion (either Heading 2’s or Heading 3’s).

Publishing

Once you are happy with your transcript, please:

1. Copy and paste it within the column underneath the “TRANSCRIPT” heading of its sermon page.
2. Ensure the sermon’s main point (and sub-point) headings are the correct heading blocks (H2/H3), and are showing up in the sermon outline table of contents located at the top right of the sermon page.
3. Ensure there are NO empty blocks located anywhere they shouldn’t be in the page.
4. Add 5-10 subheadings to the transcript within the ”hidden page for editing transcript” for YouTube managers to add as “Chapters” to the YouTube sermon video later.
5. Write a short 5-10 sentences description of the sermon for YouTube managers to add to the YouTube sermon video later. Think of this description as a written “hook” to encourage people to watch the sermon by generating intrigue. Further details and examples of this can be found in the YouTube Descriptions page and in the latest tutorial video, starting at 01:08:03.

1. Complete the Notion page’s properties:
1. Copy and paste the entire transcript into the “Transcript” property.
2. Copy and paste the value within “Reading Time Calculation” property into the “Reading Time” property.
3. Set “Status” property to “Proofread and Formatted”.
2. Replace the page’s video icon with a keyboard icon to denote the availability of a transcript.

If you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to ask Josh or any of your fellow Transcription Team members! This process might seem overwhelming at first, but will become easier and easier, until it’s second nature (hopefully)! I pray that you find proofreading these sermons a blessing as you meditate on God’s Word that extra mile more.