Dr. Jablonski,
Here is my paper proposal, such as it is.
Title: Taming the dragon: effective use of Dragon NaturallySpeaking speech
recognition software.
Feng and Sears in their informative article “interaction techniques for users
with spinal cord injuries: a speech-based solution, make what I take to be
eye-opening claims about the voice recognition software Dragon
NaturallySpeaking. They claim seven out of every eight initial users eventually
abandon the program in short order, due to slow rate of production (17 to 20
words per minute, as opposed to 30 words per minute typing by hand, or 120 to
150 words per minute in casual conversation. Moreover, they claim that upwards
of 75% of an individual user's time is spent simply in correcting recognition
errors. Moreover, other issues such as the need for privacy during dictation
can also lead to abandonment the program by inexperienced users according to
Wobbrock and Myers.
I do not deny any of this. Moreover, I freely admit I am an experienced user of
Dragon NaturallySpeaking software having used five of its ten versions so far.
Voice recognition software is not a miracle worker. However, it is my intention
to show that with the proper expectations, Dragon NaturallySpeaking can be a
boon to those who are willing to employ it. I intend to show through scholarly
research and my own experience what I believe are the proper techniques for
employing Dragon NaturallySpeaking software most effectively including methods
of training the device including employing training texts which users are
encouraged to read into dragon when beginning using the program but many do not
leading to needlessly poor speech recognition. Moreover speaking in a
recognizable tone, that is to say learning when to employ pitfalls the device
will help to avoid speech recognition errors which often frustrate beginning
users especially those who are used to typing by hand.
I do not intend to be exclusionary in this piece. Far from it, I intend to show
through research and my own experiences how Dragon NaturallySpeaking software
can be used as a tool of universal access not only for the physically disabled
like myself but for everyone with a passion for writing. I believe from this
paper I will be able to show many able-bodied persons who might never think of
using voice recognition software the benefits of attempting it in their daily
lives.
Therefore, my audience is not simply physically disabled students like myself
but anyone involved in English composition or the other humanities in which
frequent writing is a necessity. In particular I believe special education
teachers will find my work most useful as they try to integrate new
technologies into their classrooms in order to help students expressed
themselves who might otherwise be unable to do so. Moreover, I believe the
teachers of composition at the 101 and 102 level will also find my analysis
useful as they increasingly find themselves both dealing with a diverse student
population and with less time in which to grade papers and provide feedback to
students. I believe voice recognition software like Dragon NaturallySpeaking
can be a great assistance in all these areas. I believe when properly
acclimated to voice recognition software anyone who loves to do for his
required to do a great deal of writing will eventually find it a great aid in
what they are doing.
I am giving you this now because I do not know if I will be in class this
Thursday. I have begun experiencing the same types of headaches that led to my
hospitalization at the beginning of the semester, only they are worse than
before. I do not know for certain if I will wind up having to have surgery
again but it is looking more and more likely. It is all I can do to concentrate
long enough to type out this proposal and e-mail to you. I intend to post my
blog entry for this week right now before I forget. Again, here is my proposal,
hopefully it is good enough, because right now I do not have the strength to
produce another. With any luck I will be healthy enough to see you at our first
class meeting after spring break.
Thank you for your time,
James Altman
James,
ReplyDeleteWe looked over your proposal in class. We agreed it was generally a relevant topic and a good draft. While your background section defines the problem or gap as there being negative views of Dragon NaturallySpeaking software, naming apparently sources from outside comp studies, you could do a better job of situating the proposal in the context of composition studies. You need to improve the introduction by reviewing how this fits in the field’s interests and with more references to composition scholarship, such as "Scholars in computers and writing have studied how such applications as word processing software affect the writing process. One under-examined area, however, is software applications that aid students with disabilities..." something like that.
Your middle section where you describe what you will do in your proposal is good. It seems your clearest statements of purpose come later about 2/3 through the proposal in the third paragraph, so you might combine and rearrange paragraphs 2 & 3 to more clearly state your purpose at the beginning of the second paragraph.
There was some talk about whether or not your scope is too broad, in terms of what all you plan to cover. You will have to consider how much and in what depth you can cover.
Lastly, there is a touch of wordiness that could be edited out, such as the adjectives and adverbs in phrases such as "informative article" and other colloquial expressions.