The above is what happened when I started trying Google’s new voice to text program. This program is available on Google Docs or Google Drive, and I’m using it right now to write these words. or to speak these words. And to have Google right them for me. there are occasional issues with the software. sometimes homonym confusion happens sometimes words are not capitalized when they should be, but these are minor errors. they are easily fixed with a little editing – this program is wonderful for knocking out a very quick first draft.
But it raises some interesting questions. Dictation is a different expression of idea than writing. I’ve noticed differences in my writing style when I write long hand in a journal as opposed to when I type a composition. There all kinds of reasons for this. typing and writing speed vary from person to person I can type faster than I can write, But this is a minor difference compared to that experience when composing via dictation. I find myself pausing, often, giving myself time to collect my thoughts giving myself time to fight my predilection to cliche, the default forms of tired and uninteresting language that is forgivable in conversation but unpardonable in composition.
This is not a condemnation of the tool itself. the tool is good. but must be borne in mind that a tool of dictation will, foremost writers, create a different sort of end result in their composition. this might the incredibly useful – it seems a fantastic way to break out of a rut, to unstick oneself from writer’s block. and for someone like me, someone who hates typing out something previously handwritten, it’s an easy work around that allows me to persist in a benign form of laziness. I certainly intend to use it for that, extensively, and I intend to experiment with it as a mode of original composition as well.
note: this entire post was composed on Google’s voice to text software and left unedited.
