A Transcript Is Not a Script

A transcript records what was said; a script, by contrast, is often written in advance of a performance and does not necessarily reflect what was actually spoken aloud. Confusing the two, treating a script as though it were an accurate record of an event, is a basic and consequential error.

The distinction matters most when someone later assumes a published script represents exactly what occurred, when in fact real speech deviates from any written plan in countless small ways during genuine, unscripted delivery. Assuming a published script represents exactly what occurred is a common but genuinely consequential mistake to make.

A careful transcriber always works from the actual recording, never from a prior script alone, precisely because the gap between planned and spoken words is often where the most genuinely interesting material actually lives. Working from the actual recording, rather than any prior document, is what protects a transcript's basic honesty.