My Five-Minute Voice to Text Story
I used the online program Speechnotes (https://speechnotes.co/) to record the following story describing how I incorporated my love of plants into my everyday life and career.
When I was a child I used to go for walks with my mom and she always joked that it would take 2 hours to go around the block because I needed to stop and look at everything i’ve always been interested in plants and really anything in the natural world but plants really held a special place in my heart when I was about I don’t know 6 or 7 I asked for a pumpkin patch for my birthday so my parents spent hours digging background of the yard so I could grow pumpkins for the summer as I got older I wanted to be a naturalist or maybe an environmental scientist and in my second year of my biology degree I couldn’t get into the ology so I ended up taking some very intensive plant courses and just absolutely fell in love with the internal workings of plants the taxonomy of plans morphology and adamy anything I can learn about plants I was happy to do so after graduation of the first biology related job I got it was working as a botanist for an environmental consulting company I got to know hundreds and hundreds of different plant species within Saskatchewan travel from the far south to the far north of the province and see all kinds of different ecosystems and the different plant species that made up those habitats and the work was hard but I found a lot of joy and exploring the natural world after that I worked on a Market Garden for a couple of Summers long days out in the field growing things and there is a real satisfaction in in watching the seeds turn into the produce he sell at the Farmers Market my current job is teaching biology Labs at the University of Saskatchewan and i coordinate the plant physiology lab this is really rewarding for me because I get to see other students who are similar to how I was when I was in school they just have a spark and a passion for learning about the way these amazing life-forms work throughout all of course I’ve maintained Garden I have a native m Garden in my front yard and a big vegetable garden out back and I call gardening my free therapy
How does the text deviate from conventions of written English?
This text is one long run-on sentence. It contains no punctuation aside from the apostrophes in the conjunctions such as “I’ve” and “haven’t”. Depending on the type of written English, conjunctions may be considered a mistake. For example, when writing formally, one would be expected to write “I have” and not “I’ve”. Due to the lack of punctuation, it is difficult to tell where one idea ends, and another begins. The change from one idea to the next is conventionally denoted by a line break to indicate a new paragraph.
What is “wrong” in the text? What is “right”?
Some of the most obvious errors in the text are incorrect words, including:
Background = back corner
The ology = zoology
Plans = plants
Adamy = anatomy
He = we
M = pollinator
I was surprised to see that without ever having a chance to “learn” the way I speak, the program was able to interpret and correctly spell most of the words I said.
What are the most common “mistakes” in the text and why do you consider them “mistakes”?
The most common mistake (aside from the lack of punctuation) is inconsistent capitalization (for example: the word “Garden” is capitalized several times for no apparent reason, while “i’ve” is not). In written text, the capitalization of the first letter of a word generally indicates a proper noun, a name if you will. It looks almost like the word “garden” is referring to a specific, well-known place, while it has actually been used to describe different locations that provide a similar function.
What if you had “scripted” the story? What difference might that have made?
If I had scripted the story, I think it would be more logically organized and use more formal language. I would have memorized it or read from the script, and would probably have spoken more clearly and meticulously, leading to fewer errors in the words that were recorded. I may have left some parts out and emphasized others in more detail as I analyzed their importance to the story. As the story is now, it is more like a stream of consciousness; I jump from one thing to another as I think of them to explain how I came to love plants today.
The text would likely be longer, as well. Since I was just talking as I would to a friend for the five minutes, I found myself taking longer pauses as I thought and maybe speaking more slowly than I would have if I knew exactly what I planned to say next.
In what ways does oral storytelling differ from written storytelling?
I believe that written storytelling follows a more linear path while oral storytelling has the ability to be more fluid. For example, if I read a novel more than once, each sentence, paragraph, and plot point will occur in exactly the same order as the last time I read the story. When stories are shared orally, the speaker can deviate from the path of the story and integrate new meaningful words that help make connections for the listeners or help to contextualize an old story within the current time period. The ability to engage with listeners is an important part of oral storytelling. The storyteller can gauge the interest and understanding of the listeners and impart clarifications and change the tone of their voice to bring more meaning to the words.
To me, parts of teaching feel like storytelling. I can give my students written exercises and readings to help them understand the movement of water in plants, but at the end of the day, can they tell the story of how and why water moved from the soil, through the plant, and into the atmosphere?