For this task, I have chosen to use Google docs as my voice-to-text. Full disclosure though, I am a huge fan of voice-to-text, and generally, whenever I need to brainstorm ideas or write a long paper, I use the voice-to-text feature to write my rough draft. Truthfully, I think I have actually gotten to a point where I am pretty good at using speech-to-text because I feel comfortable saying things like “comma” and “period” when talking out loud. I prefer using speech-to-text because when I use it, I also turn off my spell check, and that prevents me from going back and trying to fix all the underlined words. Also, it allows me to capture my honest and uninterrupted stream of consciousness, which can be very fruitful when trying to articulate a challenging topic. However, for the purpose of this assignment, I will abstain from my habitual practices and use the feature like it’s my first time. 

Here is my five-minute story that I said through Google text to speech:

When covid happened all of the restaurants near me and coffee shops near me shut down and I really missed my Starbucks when I you know was in school I was having Starbucks all the time every day you know between like classes I grabbed a coffee how to pick me up in the evening and it was strange when everything shut down and then I no longer was able to get my coffee so why I ended up deciding to do is you know buy a espresso machine and where the nicest espresso machines but they were all super expensive so I had to find one on Facebook Marketplace that was a little less expensive and I did and I did I was able to find one for only $100 and the woman was so sweet the woman who sold it to me she said you know here’s this coffee machine it’s served me well let me know if you have any problems and she gave me her being grinder for free as well and we actually hugged it was very sweet and I was super super excited to come home and try on my new espresso machine because I could finally have espresso on ice with coconut milk like I love to get at the coffee shop and I told my roommates Hey listen I finally got this coffee maker it’s an espresso machine it actually dropped Frost milk and you can use it and everyone was super excited we were all you know looking forward to having espresso in the morning to finally having good coffee in the morning my roommates and I all three of us we went to Shoppers Drug Mart one of the few places open during the early part of the pandemic and we found some beans and they were ungrinded beans cuz we wanted to grind our own beans and so we found these no really expensive like $25 a bag beans and we grinded a little bit up and had some espresso together and my roommate Frost their milk and it was all very very exciting for the whole of a pandemic all I had was this espresso every morning and every afternoon it was addicting I used all the time and I’m I was so happy I got it it was well worth the money the only Annoying Thing about the coffee or like the espresso make espresso maker was that my roommates would grind the beans so early in the morning before their classes so they would put in the beans at like 7:00 in the morning when I’m sleeping and it would just the whole morning and I couldn’t stand it and it would just you know make so much noise I literally couldn’t I couldn’t deal with it however once things open up I started getting my coffee again and I stopped using the espresso machine as much but you know what it was so good I definitely think I should pull it back out again give it another go because I save so much money just grinding my own beans and like pressing my own espresso so definitely something I highly recommend to everybody if they ask I’m always looking forward to trying you know new kinds of coffee and it was really fun just being able to like make my own concoctions as well. 

Speech-to-text analysis

The most obvious grammatical error is that there is no punctuation in this paragraph and there is only one period at the end. It’s clear this is a free-flowing story and the microphone captures some of my speech fillers as well, such as “like” and “you know” – which I occasionally say when I am chatting with somebody. There are random letters that are also capitalized when there is no reason for them to be capitalized. Also, some of the words are misspelled and there are a few verbs that do not have the right conjugations. A reader would likely be able to put together the story and know what is being said, but it certainly would not be an easy read. I think if I had scripted the story, it probably would have made it slightly more clear and more concise. The scripted story would likely not have all my filler words or any word repetitions. When using speech to text though, there are several tips and tricks to using it effectively, like saying the punctuation out loud. I did not use any of the tips and tricks, but if I had it planned out I would probably know when my idea is done and I could incorporate punctuation. 

Oral storytelling is very similar to written storytelling in that it has tone and emotion, but oral storytelling is not held to grammatical standards. Oftentimes, in oral storytelling, particularly when it’s anecdotally to a friend, it’s raw thoughts. Oral storytelling relies on the speaker to add contextual elements such as body movements and facial expressions; ultimately, adding layers of meaning behind the language. In writing there is the opportunity to revise, reflect, rewrite, and so on and so forth so that the words we use are perfect and express exactly what we want. As Walter Ong (1982) says “Written words are residue. Oral tradition has no such residue or deposit. When an of ten-toldoral story is not actually being told, all that exists of it is the potential in certain human beings to tell it”. With writing, there is the opportunity to leave the writing and come back to it long afterward, but oral storytelling has an immediacy and is constrained by time.

References

Ong, W. J. (2002). Orality and literacy: The technologizing of the word. Routledge.