Computer vs. typewriter vs. long hand

Posted by Franz Grieser
Jun 4, 2014 at 10:33 AM

Dr Andus wrote:

>There is one more method still: dictation with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.
>I did try it many times and have always reverted to typing in the end
>(though with the help of PhraseExpander), as with typing I don’t really
>need to think through the shape of the entire sentence upfront, but
>Dragon requires one to compose a more or less full sentence in one’s
>head, which I’m finding a lot more taxing activity mentally speaking.
>Somehow using the hands frees up the mind to think up the next part of
>the sentence, while dictation requires one to pause to think.

That’s what I used to think.
When last year I couldn’t use my right hand after a dog had bitten me, I gave Dragon Dictate a try - I had urgend deadlines to meet. I found I could mimick my way of writing using DD and my keyboard or mouse: Instead of formulating the entire sentence in my head, I would simply start to dictate half a sentence or so. While waiting for DD to type the words out, I would think about the rest of the sentence. If I noticed that I wanted to make a correction, I would use the mouse or keyboard to jump back and would dictate another 2 or 3 words that should be inserted at the cursor position. So: “patchwork writing” is something you can do with dictation software, too.