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Does Anyone Else Here Feel Like Dragon Naturally Speaking Hurts Their Writing?

by pheonix44
14 replies
I have been using DNS for a while now, and I am becoming very frustrated with it because I feel it hurts the quality of my writing. I find when I am about to write something I struggle to come up with content because I am trying to think too fast. Even if I have a good outline in front of me it seems like I end up saying the same phrases over and over again. I feel like when I write by hand I am able to think better, slow it down, and better get out my ideas. Am I the only person who feels this way or are there others who experience the same frustration?
#dragon #feel #hurts #naturally #speaking #writing
  • Profile picture of the author getsmartt
    I think you will find this is a matter of opinion. Some people operate better under certain conditions.

    I know myself, if I am brainstorming, I need a pen/pencil and a piece of paper. No matter how hard I try to use mind mapping software, or other digital means of capturing ideas, I just think better when I am using a pen and paper.

    Audio books are the same way, I love them for weeding through a lot of books in a relatively short period of time, but if I find one that "sounds" good, I always buy the hard copy and actually read it because I absorb the information better.

    So, basically what I am saying is play to your strength, if you write better typing it in, then do it.

    James
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  • Profile picture of the author paulie888
    Originally Posted by pheonix44 View Post

    I have been using DNS for a while now, and I am becoming very frustrated with it because I feels it hurts the quality of my writing. I find when I am about to write something I struggle to come up with content because I am trying to think too fast. Even if I have a good outline in front of me it seems like I end up saying the same phrases over and over again. I feel like when I write by hand I am able to think better, slow it down, and better get out my ideas. Am I the only person who feels this way or are there others who experience the same frustration?
    It's a matter of personal preference, of course, but I feel exactly the same way you do. There's just this disconnect between what I am thinking and what's appearing on the screen which is pretty disconcerting to me. I prefer typing or even writing, and I suppose when you're used to seeing your thoughts appear immediately on paper or the screen, the delay that you experience with Dragon is a little hard to get used to.

    While Dragon is ultimately faster, it's just that the delay between speaking my words and having them appear on the screen causes an interruption in my thought patterns, and I have to constantly adjust for that. Perhaps with more practice and use I'll get better at it, but for now I think I still prefer good old-fashioned typing.

    Paul
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  • Profile picture of the author KevinBurns
    I agree with getsmarrtt...

    When I am writing articles I can fire up Dragon Speak and save myself
    a ton of time. Then there are times when I need to open up notepad
    or take out a pen and paper and write it down.

    Maybe you might consider doing both?

    You could start off writing down your thoughts and use Dragon Speak
    to transfer your written thoughts to your pc.

    Hope this helps
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    • Profile picture of the author paulie888
      Originally Posted by KevinBurns View Post

      You could start off writing down your thoughts and use Dragon Speak
      to transfer your written thoughts to your pc.

      Hope this helps
      Kevin, that's definitely a very helpful suggestion, especially for people who can write much faster than they can type. I'm not one of them, but I'm sure there are people out there who could utilize Dragon this way.

      Paul
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      • Profile picture of the author KevinBurns
        Originally Posted by paulie888 View Post

        Kevin, that's definitely a very helpful suggestion, especially for people who can write much faster than they can type. I'm not one of them, but I'm sure there are people out there who could utilize Dragon this way.

        Paul
        Paul,

        Yeah I first started using Dragon when I started rewriting PLR articles for
        others and it was a life saver and cut my article writing time in half.

        I found that it works best for me when I just read the PLR article in my
        own words and let Dragon Speak do the rest.
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  • Profile picture of the author Thomas W
    I never tried Dragon speaking.. But now this sounds interesting.
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  • Profile picture of the author cindybidar
    I've never tried DNS, largely because I don't write linearly. I might jot down a couple sentences of the final paragraph, add some sub headings in the middle, write the first paragraph, rewrite the last, etc. It's very rare that I start at the beginning and write through to the end, so I just don't think it would work for me, as much as I'd love to save my hands from all that typing.
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    • Profile picture of the author Justin Jordan
      While I could probably train myself to use something like DNS, I'm the sort of person who thinks better when I can jot down notes. I'm a visual thinker and being able to see my thoughts in a concrete form is helpful.

      That said, it's not necessarily an issue that you're using the same phrases over and over - you can always edit the stuff after. The thing you want to be mindful of is whether or not it's actually saving you time.

      If it takes you five minutes to dictate an article and twenty minutes to wrangle it into shape when it takes you fifteen minutes to write an article the old fashioned way, it's not worth it.
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  • Profile picture of the author profitsforall
    This is interesting timing - i'm about to install dragon naturally speaking on my pc now.

    I tried it before, and struggled with stage fright, the second i started to talk i blanked out.

    However, i am just going to take my time and see how it goes.

    Incidentally - one thought, if watching the words appear with a delay is an issue, try not watching the screen. I guess you would have to be confident that the majority of the words are correct - then read back and edit. (I'll certainly be trying that).

    I'll also try to imagine i'm explaining the subject to a friend - i never seem to stall when i'm talking about IM to others.

    I'll let you know how things go for me.
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  • Profile picture of the author pheonix44
    This is interesting timing - i'm about to install dragon naturally speaking on my pc now.

    I tried it before, and struggled with stage fright, the second i started to talk i blanked out.

    However, i am just going to take my time and see how it goes.

    Incidentally - one thought, if watching the words appear with a delay is an issue, try not watching the screen. I guess you would have to be confident that the majority of the words are correct - then read back and edit. (I'll certainly be trying that).

    I'll also try to imagine i'm explaining the subject to a friend - i never seem to stall when i'm talking about IM to others.

    I'll let you know how things go for me.
    I had the same problem when I first started. I had to use a system to get me over this but I do not like it because it takes far too long.
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  • Profile picture of the author profitsforall
    A quick update.

    Installed dragon naturally speaking 11. Got it setup and read a passage to tune it in to my voice.

    Tried a few sentences and short article intros just to see how it's recognition went - and it's pretty darn good.

    Even when it got it wrong it was with slight variations on what I was actually saying.

    I tried some various sentences that microsofts inbuilt speech recognition balked at repeatedly and Dragon got it right.

    Even though I'm a touch typist i can see this helping to generate my articles/content quicker.
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  • Profile picture of the author DNChamp
    Using Dragon has helped me so so much. Now I can write more and faster!!
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    • Profile picture of the author Ted_B
      Thanks for this post, DNS is actually on my Christmas list, but all the posts got me curious so I began to play with the built in speech recognition in Windows 7. It's actually amazingly accurate, way better than I expected, but I find myself rambling and not being able to think as fast as I want to speak, if that makes sense. I tried writing an article with it, but I'm not too happy with the way it came out. It will need many edits to get it where I'd like it to be, and the edits are cumbersome with the speech recognition. ( Or maybe it's just my inexperience with it ) Anyway,if you have windows 7 you might want to give it a try. Headset not necessary, it uses the built in mic in my webcam just fine.
      Also, Windows Vista has it built in as well, although I read it's not nearly as good as the W7 version.
      Anyway, just my 2 cents thanks again for the great posts.
      Ted
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