What Is Clean Verbatim?

Direct definition

Clean verbatim is a transcript style that preserves meaning and sentence structure but removes fillers, false starts, and obvious stutters. It is more readable than full verbatim and still closer to the speaker than a rewritten summary.

The sections below explain how clean verbatim is used in transcription and subtitle work, what people often mix up, and which VideoText workflow applies when the next step is a file or review pass.

Key takeaways

• Clean verbatim is an editorial style, not a different ASR model.
• Do not silently rewrite sentences; remove noise, keep wording.
• Confirm the client’s style guide before deleting “um.”

How clean verbatim works

The transcriber (or a reviewer after ASR) deletes specified noise tokens and may tidy obvious restarts, while leaving vocabulary and clause order intact.

Example

Spoken: “I, I just — um — I think we should ship Friday.” Clean verbatim: “I think we should ship Friday.” Full verbatim would keep the restart and the filler.

Clean verbatim vs full verbatim

Full verbatim is for evidence of how something was said. Clean verbatim is for a readable record of what was said. VideoText’s guideline formatter exists to apply those rule sets after the words are captured — it does not invent a new verbatim standard.

Related terms

• full verbatim
• verbatim transcription
• transcript QA
• All glossary terms

Sources

1. Rev: Rev Transcription Style Guide