I’m turning a recorded interview into a company blog post. The guest makes a useful point, but the transcript includes repeated words, false starts, and a qualification that makes the sentence less punchy.
For example, they said: “We, we saw fewer support tickets—well, fewer of the basic setup questions—after we changed the onboarding.” An editor suggested: “We saw fewer support tickets after we changed the onboarding.”
Removing the repetition seems harmless. Removing the qualification feels like it changes what improved.
Where should I draw the line when editing interview quotes? Is there a practical distinction between cleaning up speech, paraphrasing with attribution, and making a change that needs the speaker’s approval? I’d also like to know whether a general “edited for clarity” note is sufficient when wording changes inside quotation marks.
