Reel Transcript Guide · Published 31 October 2026
How to Distinguish a Recommendation from Personal Use in an Instagram Transcript
Transcribe the claim the speaker actually makes. “I recommend” does not by itself say “I use,” and “I use” does not by itself say “I recommend.” Keep the relevant wording and surrounding qualification. If personal use is not stated, leave it unstated rather than adding it to a transcript or quotation.
INSTANT REEL TRANSCRIPT
Get the words from a Reel
Paste a public Instagram Reel link and get its spoken words as text.
Review the speech, not an assumed experience
When preparing a quotation from an Instagram transcript, it is easy to replace a careful statement with a more confident one. Keep a recommendation and an account of personal use as separate claims. A speaker may make either, both, or neither; the transcript should not decide that relationship on the speaker’s behalf.
W3C’s transcription guidance says to represent spoken wording accurately rather than change or add to it. The claim-checking method below is our original editorial workflow for that task. It is not an official W3C classification or a method for proving someone’s experience.
Original R01 example: a suggestion is not a use history
Fictional teaching example, not a real Reel or testimonial: “I recommend keeping a paper checklist by the door. I have not tried that routine myself; my own reminder is a note on my phone.”
A faithful transcript keeps both the suggestion and the stated limit. “I keep a paper checklist by the door” invents personal use. “The speaker recommends a paper checklist and says they have not tried that routine” is an editorial summary, not the original quotation; label it accordingly and keep it separate.
Conversely, the invented line “I keep a note on my phone” records a practice without saying that everyone should adopt it. Do not silently rewrite that line as a recommendation.
A recommendation/use review worksheet
| Question | R01 source wording | Review decision |
|---|---|---|
| What is recommended? | I recommend keeping a paper checklist by the door | Preserve the suggestion as spoken |
| Is personal use claimed? | I have not tried that routine myself | Keep the explicit limit |
| What practice is separately described? | my own reminder is a note on my phone | Do not merge it with the paper checklist |
| Does the transcript verify the account? | No independent evidence supplied in this fictional example | Do not label the practice independently verified |
Five passes before quoting
- Locate the exact passage. Replay the accessible source, including nearby sentences that qualify the claim.
- Keep the claim verb. Record “recommend,” “use,” “tried,” or the actual alternative spoken. Do not normalize them into the same verb.
- Check the object. Make sure the recommendation and the use statement refer to the same routine or item before connecting them.
- Keep the limit. Preserve a spoken denial of use or a distinction between current and past use when it is relevant to the excerpt.
- Separate the review note. If the passage leaves use unresolved, write “personal use not stated in this passage” outside the transcript. That note does not mean the person never used it.
Questions about recommendations and use
Can I change “I recommend” to “I use” to shorten the sentence?
No. That changes the claim. Quote the spoken wording, or write a clearly labelled summary that preserves what the source actually states.
Does “I use this” prove the speaker recommends it?
No. Keep the statement of use and look for any separately spoken recommendation. Do not add one if it is absent.
What if the Reel shows an item but the speaker does not claim to use it?
Do not turn the image into additional spoken words. If visual context matters, describe it separately and distinguish what is visible from what you infer.
Sources and scope
Checked: 2 November 2026. Primary reference: W3C WAI — Transcribing Audio to Text, on accurate representation of speech. The R01 example, diagram, worksheet and review passes are original editorial guidance, not an authenticity test, a measured benchmark or official transcript notation.