Glossary
Oral composition
Oral composition is working out and shaping a text by speaking it, whether to a dictation tool, to a recorder or silently in thought. Research on letters finds that planning takes most of the time, however the text is produced, so speaking mainly changes how the words get onto the page.
Updated October 16, 20264 cited facts, each traced to its source
Also called composing aloud, thinking aloud.
Oral composition is the process of working out what to say and shaping it into a text by speaking. You can compose aloud to a dictation tool, to a recorder or to another person. You can also compose silently in your head before you write. In each case the words are formed by speech, and the text comes after.
Planning takes about two-thirds of composing time
The clearest measurement comes from IBM's 1978 study of business letters. About two-thirds of the time spent composing a letter was planning, and the share was similar whether people wrote, dictated or spoke the letter 1. Planning here means the pauses when the author was not producing words.
This is why oral composition is not simply typing with a microphone. The bottleneck is deciding what to say, and that work happens in the same way whatever the output method. A dictation tool changes the speed of the output step and leaves the planning step largely alone.
Dictation is quick to learn for letters
The same study found that novice dictators learned within a few hours to dictate letters as fast and as well as they wrote them, although they did not believe they were doing that well 2. That result concerns dictating to a typist, so it does not measure speech software directly.
Speech software is a different case, and its speed depends on how you use it. Earlier reported composition speed using speech software was 8 to 15 words per minute, which the authors describe as much lower than normal speaking speed 3. Those figures come from older software and early use, and current tools are faster, but the lesson holds: the words per minute you can speak is not the same as the words per minute you can compose.
Thinking aloud does not distort work, but explaining does
Thinking aloud, which means saying your thoughts while you work, is a research method and a habit. Fox, Ericsson and Best reviewed studies that compared performance with and without verbal reporting. They found that procedures that entail describing or explaining thoughts and actions are significantly reactive, leading to higher performance than silent control conditions 4. In plain terms, asking yourself to explain each step can change how you do the task, while simply verbalizing your thoughts changes it much less.
For a writer this suggests that talking through a draft is a legitimate way to work, but that stopping to explain each sentence may slow the draft or change its shape. The studies used lab tasks rather than essays, so treat the result as a guide rather than a rule.
Why oral composition matters for dictation
Dictation makes oral composition practical for longer text. The usual method is to compose the sentence first, speak it in one phrase, then edit by keyboard after the draft is complete. Our guide to how to dictate describes the steps. The guide on whether dictation changes how you write covers how spoken drafts differ from typed ones, and getting used to dictation explains how to build the habit.
Oral composition also explains the fillers you hear when people compose aloud. Pauses and "um" sounds mark the planning, as described in our entry on filler words.
Related terms
- Dictation: speaking so that software writes your words as you say them.
- Voice typing: the name most platforms use for dictation.
- Filler words: the sounds people make while they plan.
Guides that cover it
Evidence
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Related terms
- Dictation and Voice Typing: How to Talk Instead of TypeThe topic this term belongs to
- Automatic punctuationAutomatic punctuation is when speech software infers commas, periods and question marks from your speech and inserts them without a spoken command. It can be switched on or off, and it works only in supported languages.
- DictaphoneA Dictaphone is a machine that records a speaker's voice so that another person can play it back and type it later. The name began as a brand, and it became the everyday word for dictation machines.
- DictationDictation is speaking your words so that software writes them as text, usually into the app that has the cursor. Phones and computers now include it, and people also call it voice dictation or voice typing.
- Dictation foot pedalA dictation foot pedal is a footswitch that controls playback of a recording, so a typist can start, pause and rewind audio without using their hands. It is the traditional control for transcribing dictation.
- Digital dictationDigital dictation is recording speech as digital audio, then sending the file to a typist or to speech recognition software for transcription. It replaced tape with files that can be encrypted, uploaded or routed for processing.
- Filler wordsFiller words are sounds and words such as um, uh, like and you know that speakers produce while they plan what to say next, without adding content. Many dictation tools can remove them automatically, and research on transcripts found they can be deleted without compromising meaning.
- HomophoneA homophone is a word pronounced the same as another word but different in meaning, spelling or both, such as to, too and two. Dictation software has to choose the right spelling from context, so homophones are one of the most common errors in dictated text.
- Noise-canceling microphoneA noise-canceling microphone is designed to filter ambient noise, so it picks up mainly the speaker's voice. It can help dictation in noisy rooms, but it does not remove all noise, and it is different from the active noise cancellation in headphones.
- Push-to-talkPush-to-talk is a dictation mode in which you hold a key while you speak and release it to stop, so the software writes only the speech made while the key is down. Some tools also offer tap-to-start and tap-to-stop.
- ShorthandShorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases the speed of writing compared with longhand. Trained writers used it to take dictation before recording machines, and it still underpins court reporting.
- Spoken punctuationSpoken punctuation is saying the name of a punctuation mark, such as comma or question mark, so that dictation software writes that mark into the text. It is the manual alternative to automatic punctuation.
- Voice commandA voice command is a spoken instruction that the software carries out, such as delete or stop listening, rather than writing the words as text. Dictation tools must separate commands from dictated words, and the rules differ by product.
Pages that use this term
- Dictation and Voice Typing: How to Talk Instead of TypeTopic
- What Is Dictation? Voice Typing and Talk to Text ExplainedGuide
- Dictation vs Typing: When Speaking Beats the KeyboardGuide
- Does Dictation Change How You Write?Guide
- Can dictation help with writer's block?Question
- Which famous authors dictated their books?Question
- Filler wordsGlossary