Condensed From: Dictation: How to Talk to Your Computer

Condensed from: Dictation: How to Talk to Your Computer

Dan Newman

1.  Speak clearly. Give the corners of your mouth a work out. Instead of “Jeet?” say "Did you eat?” Be sure to pronounce each word.

2.  Pause if you like. When speaking to the computer, you can pause as long as you like, to think, take a break, or arrange your notes. The computer won't get bored.

3.  Give it context. Your accuracy will increase if you speak in complete sentences because the computer has more context to use in deciphering your sounds.

4.  Leave out the fillers. Dictation software will usually mistake “uh" and “um” for “a” and “of” and similar sounding words. When you feel an "um" coming on, just say nothing.

5.  Speak with inflection. When talking to the computer, people tend to imitate the robotic voices of computers and old sci-fi movies. But using a flat monotone will reduce your accuracy as well as put you to sleep.

6.  Breathe. Breathing fully and sitting straight will help you to speak clearly.

7.  Close your eyes. If you are composing, dictating while looking at the screen tends to be distracting—it makes your speech more hesitant and less natural. Try dictating with your eyes closed. Most people get significantly better results this way. If your boss [teacher] thinks you're taking a nap, try looking at the wall or some pictures on the wall.

8.  Be alert. Tired people tend to mumble and speak without energy. You'll get your best results when you’re most alert.

9.  Relax. Stress and tension change voice quality and degrade recognition accuracy. Frustration makes you more tense, changing your voice, which generates more mistakes, more frustration, and still more mistakes. It helps to have a sense of humor about the computers errors, and the computer is great at generating real howlers of mistakes. You say "fresh squeezed lemonade" and the computer types out: "fresh grease lemonade." Don't try that beverage at home. Good posture, rest, exercise, and meditation not only improve general well-being but also, amazingly, make NaturallySpeaking recognize your voice better.

10.  Compose: start by reading. We all learned to type by copying printed passages. The best way to learn to dictate is to begin the same way--by copying. By dictating something already on paper, you can practice learning the voice software without having to worry about composing sentences at the same time. Choose a letter, memo, or e-mail message typical of the type of writing you do. Then read it to the computer as if you are speaking to another person. Say "comma," "period," and other punctuation as needed. As you read, pretend the computer is not even there. Reading aloud will help you adapt to talking to the computer. After a bit of practice, added a few sentences of your own thoughts. By starting to compose out loud interspersed with reading, you'll overcome any natural inhibitors you might have.

1. Easy and chatty. When learning to compose by voice, start with what's easy. Try dictating a few sentences about today's weather, make a list of things to do, or compose a chatty letter to a friend.

C:\1 Loesel\2007\Computer Tech I\NaturallySpeaking\Dictation Tips.doc

Source found online at: www.speechtechmag.com