If you are in school, but some sort of academic, you know that time is precious. One of the ways that I’ve learned to save time in school school especially around all the writing that has to happen, is to use speech recognition software to dictate simple content, or my spoken presentations. Actually, I’m using Dragon dictate to post this blog.
Generally speaking, I do not recommend paying for software when in school. There are too many free options out there for everything we need. But dictation has saved me a lot of time and energy on a variety of projects. Dragon dictation is available for both Mac
As a graduate student, I built my hours either at $20 an hour, $40 an hour, or $100 an hour, depending on the project and customer I’m working with. This translates to either one day of work or 3 days of work for the cost of the software and a headset. Once I took the plunge, I noticed that when I work on projects for clients or professors, I tend to write my drafts in a fraction of the time. I start with an outline and key phrases, then go at it…. before I know it I have pages of key text, ready for editing and citations (though sometimes I add those, too).
Though dictation may not be for everyone, I certainly have found it to be extremely useful. I hope this little trick can save you time on your next 1st draft.