Transcriptions are invaluable resources for spoken discourse data in research; they provide details of produced speech and/or action that may not be evident from listening alone. Unfortunately, transcriptions often inadequately capture vital aspects of spoken conversation. Transcriptions of Chinese discourse in particular are often very broad-standard transcription methods contain essentially no ways to indicate filled pauses, interjections, and discourse markers and particles that occur in the turn-initial position. This paper examines the problem of transcribing these turn-initial discourse particles, and it proposes a standardized system for representing them in transcriptions of Chinese spoken conversation. Having a conventionalized, easily understood means of transcribing these turn-initial items allows us to preserve more elements of Chinese spoken conversation in written transcription and can enrich our understanding of real-time conversation as a multivalent interaction.