Schedule 1
BLOOMBERG TRANSCRIPT STYLE GUIDE
TRANSCRIPT OVERVIEW
Bloomberg Transcripts has a tremendous responsibility to its subscribers to deliver high-quality Event
Transcripts. This research, style and formatting document provides guidelines for writing and editing
Event Transcripts.
General Overview:
Non-biased, straightforward and verbatim documentation of the call without opinion or
analysis.
Key points of the calls are covered without any spillage of information.
Main Components of Transcript:
Transcript Header (Event Title & Corporate Participants)
Presentation Summary
Questions & Answers
Need for Transcript:
To document the information contained in the conference call.
To act as a reference source for users who need relevant information.
Ticker Research
Researching the Conference Call
The first step to prepare for a conference starts with proper, adequate, reliable Ticker Research. Ticker is
the way the companies are specified in the exchanges. Spending 30 to 45 minutes upfront in preparing
helps in becoming familiar with the terminology that might be used during the call. Key resources are:
Corporate website
Google Finance
EDGAR Filings
Key Research Items:
Business Description.
Current Press Release.
Archive Press Release.
Product lists.
Segment Details.
Management Details.
Analyst Details.
SEC Filings.
Key Developments.
Naming Guidelines
NAMES & DESIGNATIONS
Company Name
Company names will be entered the way it has been registered by the Board. Words specifying the
board, which refers to the corporation hosting the Event, will be capitalized (Board). Be cautious not to
capitalize it in generic references. Company’s name should be spelled and punctuated the way it is
shown in the official website.
Operator
Operator names generally don’t have any relevant reference, so we need not enter it as phonetic but one
can use the most commonly used appropriate spelling.
Speaker Names
Other than the operator, it is important to name every speaker, if possible. If the voice cannot be
confirmed or if a full name was not given and research efforts fail, use the following labels as applicable:
NAME WHEN TO USE
Operator When the operator speaks.
Unidentified Speaker For an unknown speaker who is from the Company.
For an unknown speaker who is not from the
Company: an unidentified analyst, media
Unidentified Participant
representative, private investor, or conference
moderator.
Label the speaker as the name is stated on the call, using the research methods listed above to verify
spelling. Use nicknames if that is how the speaker is introduced, but omit abbreviations and titles in
participant section (General, Dr., CFA, MD, Jr., etc.).
The XYZ Corporation website lists William A. Gates as Chairman and CEO, but he is introduced
on the call as “Our Chief Executive Officer and co-founder, Dr. Bill Gates.”
Speaker Name within Transcript: Dr. Bill Gates.
Participant Section: William A. Gates, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer - XYZ
Corporation
Participant
Corporate participant names should have proper reference source. Company website is the ideal option.
Always enter the names the way it is specified in the company site. Use the full name to determine the
name by searching all available resources and use the reliable source of information. If the full name
couldn’t be found, use the "Unidentified Speaker" option.
Analyst
Most callers in conference calls will either be analysts or investors. Other possibilities are participation of
Private Investors and Media. Enter each speaker's affiliation and title as introduced in reference with the
company site. Never enter an affiliation for an Unidentified Participant, even if one is given.
Operator introductions of analysts need to be verbatim.
Special Conditions
Operator Instructions:
Transcribe the operator's opening remarks as dictated, except the queuing instructions. Operator’s
instruction to get connected to the event is generally same across most of the conference calls, which can
be replaced with (Operator Instructions).
The conference call moderator is defined as Operator, so do not use any other variation such as
Conference Facilitator or Moderator. If a name is given, do not phonetize it; just choose any spelling and
use it consistently thereafter.
Good morning and thank you all for holding. Your lines have been placed on a listen-only mode
until the question and answer portion of today's conference. If you would like to ask a question, please
press star one on your touch tone phone. And I would like to remind all parties, the call is now being
recorded. If you have any objections, please disconnect at this time. I would now like to turn the call over
to Tom Skinner. Thank you, sir. You may begin.
Good morning and thank you all for holding. Your lines have been placed on a listen-only mode
until the question and answer portion of today's conference. (Operator Instructions). I would now like to
turn the call over to Tom Skinner. Thank you, sir. You may begin.
Always include the operator’s closing remarks at the end of a call, including replay instructions.
Phonetic
If the dictation is unclear and the spelling of a name or term used couldn’t be confirmed, use [ph] to
indicate the phonetic spelling. Show the word is phonetic with the [ph] only the first time, just type the
phonetic spelling consistently thereafter. For speaker names, do not use the phonetic names in the
Participant Section.
We do have enjoyed a very good career and relationship both on a personal basis as well as a
business place with our good friends at CARQUEST [ph].
Operator: John Doe [ph], Merrill Lynch.
Inaudible & Others
If the dictation is unclear or noise obscures the words, such that the words are hard to comprehend, we
can use the following options.
Type Usage
Unclear Dictation (inaudible)
Audio break/other technical problems (technical difficulty)
Overlapping conversation/dictation (multiple speakers)
Inaudible Audience Questions (inaudible – audience question)
Uninterpreted Foreign Language (foreign language)
Number Style Guide
Currency Codes
The US dollar is indicated by a dollar sign ($). For all other currencies, use the official currency codes.
The common name for a currency is always lowercase. Thus, euro is not capitalized, just as dollar is not
capitalized.
For detailed list of currency codes, please refer to the following link:
[Link]
Percentages
Whenever percent is spoken with a number or can be inferred, use the percentage sign (%). If the
speaker dictates a number in percentage points or if the word percent or percentage alone is spoken, it
will be written out. Always insert zero before an opening decimal point.
Stated: point 7
Typed: 0.7
Stated: a two to six percent rise
Typed: a 2% to 6% rise
Numbers
Spell out all numbers between zero and nine except financial numbers and dates. Any
number above nine should be left as a numeral.
Negative Numbers
Transcribe the word minus or negative as spoken before a number. Never use a minus sign (-) or
brackets ( ) to indicate that a number is negative. Likewise, do not use + if plus was said.
Inferring Unspoken Numbers
Many a time, speakers dictate only part of a numeric range or omit units. Transcribe range or units as
dictated, do not infer unspoken numbers or units. Try to insert currency, percentage (%), and unit
indicators wherever possible. For currency and percentages, use the full indicator each time. Such
expansion is not needed with other categories.
Stated: It weighed one, two or three hundred milligrams.
Typed: It weighed 100, 200 or 300 milligrams.
Stated: Yields were up eight to twelve percent on average.
Typed: Yields were up 8% to 12% on average.
Stated: Seven to eight hundred million dollars
Typed: $700 million to $800 million
Not Acceptable: $7 to $800 million
Not Acceptable: $700 to $800 million
Misstated Numbers
If the speaker dictates the numbers wrongly and there is a proper reliable source of reference, spell out
the number as dictated and put it as a phonetic.
Transcript Style Guide
Punctuation and Paragraph
Punctuate the content to retain the meaning of what was said and paragraph appropriately as per the
topic of discussion. There may be instances where the dictation may be ungrammatical, but don’t make
any external alteration and stick to the original.
Dashes
At instances where the speaker is trying to get more clarity on the subject and altering the flow of
sentence or there is a change of thought, use a double dash (--) to indicate the broken thoughts. Do not
use an ellipsis (...).
On the retail sales, what are the areas -- what are you seeing in terms of mass retail
sales?
Symbols
Symbols accessed by simple shifting can be used, such as $, %, &, @, in the transcript, which doesn’t
throw up an error in the file. Usage of asterisk (*) or colon (:) in the body of the transcript may introduce
errors, so never use them. Use currency codes instead of their symbols.
Diacriticals
Usage of diacriticals (accents on letters) may create error, so writer should be doubly cautious with them.
Some examples are: résumé (acute), façade (cedilla), château (circumflex), chère (grave), señor (tilde),
naïve (umlaut).
Quotes, Apostrophes and Dashes
Transcribe quote-unquote if spoken, but avoid actual quotation marks within the transcript unless the
words are an accurate quotation.
We call these, quote-unquote, irrelevant data. (Not “irrelevant” data)
The Pioneer called us a master in our field. (Not “a master in our field”)
Pretty soon everyone is saying - - count me in, I’m with you; when do we start? (Not “Count…start?”)
He asked me - - what do you expect? (Not: He asked me, what do you expect?)
Fillers and Irrelevant Utterances
Meaningless words such as “um, ah, you know” need not be included in the transcript. Include words
such as “you know,” "sort of" and "kind of" only if it is relevant to the sentence structure. Certain words
may be omitted that have no relevance to the call.
Stated: Hi, guys. Hope you are doing good? I kind of have a couple of questions.
Typed: Hi, guys. Hope you are doing good? I have a couple of questions.
