How do you practice dictation?

To practice dictation, do short sessions every day rather than occasional long ones. Each session has three parts: speak a few sentences on a topic you know, read them back, and fix the errors with whichever method is fastest. Count your corrections across the week. The evidence supports the habit of short, regular sessions and the habit of measuring corrections. It does not come from a study of any particular practice app or exercise, and we did not find one that tests them.

Short daily sessions beat occasional long ones

The most direct evidence on habit formation comes from Lally and colleagues. In their study, 96 volunteers each chose a daily behavior and repeated it in the same context for 12 weeks ¹. Performing the behavior more consistently was associated with a better model fit ². Missing one opportunity did not materially affect habit formation ³.

The habit study used everyday behaviors, not dictation, so it is evidence by analogy. A similar analogy comes from memory research. A 2006 review found that the gap between study sessions that gave the best retention grew as the retention period grew ⁴. Dictation is not a memory task, so we use this only to support spreading sessions over days.

Speak in phrases, and pause at the marks

Practice the way Dragon's own guidance recommends. Nuance's guidance for Dragon recommends dictating in longer phrases rather than single words ⁵, and it tells users to pause briefly before and after dictating punctuation ⁶. These are one vendor's instructions, so test them on your own speech.

A pause can also help you check the text. In an online study, adding a pause between words improved how well people identified speech recognition errors by ear, compared with no pause ⁷. That study tested listening to synthetic read-back, not reading your own draft, so use it as a hint for reviewing, not as a rule for proofreading.

Practice fixing, and count the fixes

Correction can take most of the task time ⁸, and early in the learning curve it takes more. A radiology study found that new users corrected 11 characters per report, against 6 for experienced users, on average ⁹. We expect your correction count to fall as you practice, so track it to check. Practice switching to the keyboard for quick fixes, so you learn which method is faster for which error.

A four-week plan

The stages below follow the order in the getting-used-to-dictation guide. The order is our suggestion from the correction evidence, not a tested curriculum.

Each session follows the same steps. Speak at a normal pace, in phrases. Do not stop to edit while you speak. Then read the text back, fix it, and write the numbers in a notes file. Review the numbers once a week rather than after each bad day.

Dictation practice apps and exercises

We searched for dictation practice apps and exercises, and we did not find a study that tests them. Before you use one, check whether it measures what you need: dictation speed, correction count, or accuracy on your own text. The free browser dictation tool lets you practice without installing anything, and the built-in tools described in the main dictation page are enough to start. If you try a third-party app, such as Yap, which we make, judge it by the same numbers you track yourself.

What changes the routine

The routine works best with a few conditions in place:

• A fixed time and place. Consistency is the part of the habit the evidence supports most. Attach the session to something you already do each day.
• A quiet place and a good microphone. Noise and distance add errors, which add correction. See the microphone guide.
• Topics you know. Composing and speaking at once is hard when you also look up facts.
• No need to catch up. If you miss a day, pick up the next session.

Next steps

Start tomorrow with one message and count your corrections. For how long the habit takes, see how long it takes to get used to dictation. If the first sessions feel strange, read why dictating feels so awkward at first. For the speaking technique, see the how to dictate guide. Terms used on this page are defined in the glossary entry for dictation, the entry for voice typing and the entry for spoken punctuation.