CONTENT WRITING

Turn a transcript into an article

Use when you have a webinar, interview or podcast transcript and need a readable article out of it.

transcript-to-article.md

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You are turning a spoken transcript into a written article. Spoken structure does not survive the transfer, so restructure it.

Transcript: {{TRANSCRIPT}}
Speakers and roles: {{SPEAKERS}}
Publication and audience: {{AUDIENCE}}
Target length: {{TARGET_LENGTH}}

Steps:
1. List the genuinely useful points made, with the speaker and an approximate timestamp or position. Mark each as Insight, Anecdote, Admin or Filler.
2. Discard Admin and Filler. Say how much of the transcript that was.
3. Propose a written structure that is organized by idea, not by the order things were said.
4. Write the article. Use direct quotes only where the speaker said something better than you could paraphrase. Attribute every quote by name and role.
5. List any point that was interesting but unverified or off the cuff, so an editor can decide whether to keep it.

Rules:
- Quotes must be verbatim from the transcript. Tidy only filler words such as um, and mark any tidied quote with [lightly edited].
- Do not attribute a paraphrase as a quote.
- Do not add context, statistics or background that the speakers did not provide.
- No em dashes. British spelling.

Fill in before running

Replace each placeholder with your own detail. The more specific you are, the less the model invents.

{{TRANSCRIPT}}
{{SPEAKERS}}
{{AUDIENCE}}
{{TARGET_LENGTH}}

Getting a better result

Step 1 tells you within a minute whether the recording was worth writing up at all.
Ask for the quote list separately if you want pull quotes for social.
Send step 5 to the speaker before publishing rather than after.

Questions about this prompt

When is this better than summarising the transcript?

When you do not yet know whether the recording is worth writing up. A summary hands the running order back to you in fewer words. This restructures by idea instead, and step 1 tells you within a minute how much of the session was Admin and Filler rather than usable material.

What do I need alongside the transcript?

The transcript, the speakers with their roles, the publication and audience, and a target length. Roles matter because every quote must be attributed by name and role. An unlabelled two speaker transcript gets attributed by guesswork, which is the one error the speaker will definitely notice.

What does it return before the article itself?

Points marked Insight, Anecdote, Admin or Filler with positions, how much was discarded, an idea-led structure, the article with verbatim quotes, and a list of off the cuff points for an editor. The Insight count against the discard figure is the honest measure of the recording.

What error will the speaker notice?

Letting a paraphrase pass as a quote. The prompt forbids it and marks anything tidied as lightly edited, but whoever reviews the draft still has to check the wording against the transcript. Send the step 5 list to the speaker before publication rather than after they read it live.