Voice Dictation Affecting Writing

Still experimenting with voice dictation, I find it changes how I write and also how I think when I write. It feels more like I how I write when using a writing utensil, rather than with a keyboard. With the latter, words are disposable. You can always go back and easily replace something you’ve written. With handwriting and dictation, it’s not as easy. Instead, one has to think about how the entire sentence will sound. Otherwise, it means needing to distract from the writing process and make edits.

The result is that, at least with dictation, you have to think through the entire sentence and then speak it out. There might be a significant pause in between sentences. This, however, means that the initial writing is likely to be of higher quality.

I’d be curious to see if certain elements of writing change with dictation instead of typing. For example, do authors present a more positive sentiment in their text when they dictate versus type? Is the writing more understandable and easier to consume?

Maybe we’ll see a renaissance the voice dictation as the accuracy becomes even better than human transcribed speech.