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13
Speaking and Dictating
When you’re trying to impress someone at a cocktail party, you’ll
probably try to speak in complete, grammatical sentences. If you
lose your train of thought in the middle of a phrase, your new
acquaintance might look at you strangely.
Talking to the computer is a different matter. The computer
doesn’t care about your grammar or word choice, or even if you
stop speaking for minutes at a time.
Most of us have had limited experience conversing with our
little gray boxes—besides cursing at them when they crash. To
speak effectively with NaturallySpeaking, you’ll need to unlearn
old habits and gain new skills.
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How to Speak to NaturallySpeaking
Speak Clearly
In conversation, people tend to mumble and slur words together,
knowing others will still understand what they say. If you say
”Jeet?” your friend will understand it as “Did you eat?”
Computers, however, are less adaptable than people. To achieve
accurate results from NaturallySpeaking you must speak clearly.
Pretend you’re Dan Rather or Katie Couric reading the news, or
imagine that you’re giving a presentation to a small group. You
may end up speaking more loudly than usual, and that’s fine. For
a useful exercise, see “Moving Your Mouth,” below.
Moving Your Mouth

or left out altogether. Here’s an example.
Read this sentence out loud to a friend, standing so that she
cannot see your face. Notice that the sentence is missing a
word—to be grammatical, it should say “to a computer.”
“The book I’m reading is about speaking to computer.”
Have your friend repeat back what she heard. Chances are
she’ll fill in the “a” to make the sentence grammatical.
Because our brains reconstruct missing sounds so easily
(especially small, common words like “a,” “the,” and “of”), in
everyday speech we tend not to pronounce every sound and
word. It’s just not necessary.
A computer transcribing speech tries to reconstruct missing
sounds, too, taking its best guess at what you actually said.
However, it often guesses incorrectly. For accurate transcription,
it’s important to make sure every word you say to the computer
is pronounced, not “missing.” A sentence that is perfectly
understandable to a person might not be clear enough to a
computer.
This change in speaking style does not mean that you have to
slow your natural pace. It’s fine to dictate to NaturallySpeaking
as rapidly as you like. Just be sure to speak clearly and
pronounce each word.
Pause If You Like
Your friends might think it odd if during an animated
conversation you halt mid-sentence to gather your thoughts.
When speaking to the computer, though, you can pause as long
as you like, to think, take a break, or arrange your notes.
NaturallySpeaking won’t get bored waiting for you.
Give It Context
Your accuracy will increase if you speak in complete sentences

understand your words. See Chapter 15 for more information on
good posture at the computer. The breathing exercise below can
help you notice what it’s like to breathe more fully.
Breathing
While seated, put your hand lightly on your belly. Breathe in and out
slowly from the top of your chest, without letting your hand move. This
is breathing “shallowly.” Now breathe in so that your belly expands,
moving the hand that’s resting on it. When you breathe out, your belly
(and hand upon it) should move back to its original place. This deeper
breathing can help you speak more clearly and may make you feel
healthier in general.
Close Your Eyes
Dictating while looking at the screen tends to be distracting—it
makes your speech more hesitant and less natural. Try dictating
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with your eyes closed. Most people get significantly better results
this way. If your boss thinks you’re taking a nap, try looking at
the wall or at the photos of your friends.
Be Alert
When it’s 4:00 a.m. and you’re still dictating the proposal that’s
due tomorrow, your recognition results will suffer as much as
you’re suffering. Tired people tend to mumble and speak without
energy. You’ll get your best results when you’re most alert.
Relax
Stress and tension change voice quality and degrade recognition
accuracy. When you’re new to speech recognition software, you