Speech-to-Text: Prewriting by Speaking

Let’s face it, scholarly writing can be frustrating—sometimes you might face writer’s block, sometimes you might face issues juggling school, work, and other responsibilities, and sometimes, yes, sometimes, you just don’t feel like writing. Period. I don’t mean just the mental tasks involved with scholarly writing, but the physical one too (so much time staring at a screen and typing!).

That said, one of the hardest parts about being in a position as such can be when you are beginning a writing project.  For this blog post, I will be discussing how you might use your computer’s speech recognition software to enable Microsoft Word’s speech-to-text features for prewriting (i.e., brainstorming, freewriting, journaling, creating an outline, or otherwise organizing your thoughts). Since this post is more theoretical, I won’t be discussing the technical “how” of using MS Word’s speech-to-text, but rather the “why.” If you have questions about using MS Word features and functions, you can contact the Academic Skills Center's Microsoft Word tutoring team. I also found this tutorial on setting up speech recognition on my computer helpful.

My own introduction to using MS Word’s speech-to-text was as a graduate student. More specifically, as a graduate student, I wrote three twenty-five page papers per semester (and that’s not including, of course, discussion board posts and other shorter assignments). Over the course of my masters and doctoral studies, this clocks into about fifty twenty-five page papers. It’s easy to believe how sometimes I got tired of writing but still needed to keep the momentum up.  So, I started to use speech-to-text as a way to both get myself motivated to write and to help with the process of writing.

Brainstorming, Freewriting, and Journaling

I sometimes used speech-to-text just to brainstorm ideas for paper topics. For instance, when I wasn’t sure what I wanted to focus a paper on, I would “talk through” ideas on paper without having to sit down and write. Similarly, other times I would have a loosely articulated idea and I would use speech-to-text as a way to freewrite, or journal, to flesh my idea out more. For me, the physical act of writing could sometimes lead me to more writer’s block issues, making me feel like I had to come up with something and start drafting. Thus, speech-to-text allowed me to just freely brainstorm, freewrite, or journal while simultaneously keeping notes, taking some of the pressure off and leading to actual drafting as opposed to more writer’s block.

Creating and Outline and Organizing Thoughts

In addition to helping me brainstorm and flesh out ideas further, speech-to-text was also helpful when I wanted to use an outline to draft those larger papers. For example, those longer course papers required a lot of planning, and outlining provided a way to layout and manage my argument which took some of the head work and time out of the process. Thus, for me, speech-to-text helped with time management. Like many students, I had several other responsibilities outside of my coursework, such as teaching, so having a program that helped me with time management, to include cutting down my typing and drafting time, was a huge plus. To be clear, I could work on an outline while making dinner or in-between teaching sections of classes. Then, when I was ready to start drafting, the process went more smoothly because I there was less struggle with starting up.

Motivation

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the ability to use speech-to-text in Microsoft Word to brainstorm, freewrite, outline, and organize my ideas helped to keep me motivated to write. Rather than sit down in front of my computer and feel blocked about what I wanted to write about, struggle with fleshing out my loosely formed ideas, or face issues with time management and drafting, I could use speech-to-text to keep me motivated to write because it helped break down the process of drafting in ways that sitting at a computer often didn’t. For me, sometimes the act of writing itself creates writer’s block because I fail to see the trees amongst the forest. Taking some of the typing time out of drafting relieved some of the pressure and helped motivate me when it was time to sit down and start drafting.

Next time you are faced with a writing assignment—or maybe even the masters thesis or dissertation—you might try using your computer’s speech-to-text programs to help with brainstorming, outlining, and keeping you motivated. Whether you use speech-to-text or not, I do recommend prewriting as a way to support a smooth writing process. As my dissertation chair once said to me—slow and steady wins the race!

Let us know if you’ve tried  speech-to-text for prewriting in Microsoft Word. How did it go? Have you used any other technology for prewriting? Share in the comments below!

Veronica Oliver is a Writing Instructor in the Walden Writing Center. In her spare time she writes fiction, binge watches Netflix, and occasionally makes it to a 6am Bikram Yoga class.

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