[marvin]

Do you have a citation of some sort for this? Seems a bit far-fetched unless it's a person that specializes in typing language very fast. I've used computers for >8 hours a day for two decades, writing a lot of long texts in that time, and I'm nowhere near being able to type as fast as I can talk. Certainly not when it comes to a sustained pace for more than a few minutes.

[hluska]

I'm not the op, but here's one quote that deals with the issue. (Source - http://www.speakeasysolutions.com/blog/2011/06/01/the-myths-...)

(Short answer = that depends...and software like Dragon has many other advantages/drawbacks that factor in.)

"For myself, let’s compare typing vs dictating, given the above information and a 1,000 word email.

Straight typing: 90 wpm = 11.11 minutes, no proofreading allowance, correcting errors as typed.

Dictating with Dragon: 140 wpm dictating (7.14 minutes) + 300 wpm proofreading (3.33 minutes) + correcting 10 errors @ 10 seconds each (1.67 minutes) = 12.14 minutes.

For an average professional, typing speed is rated at 50 wpm. A 1,000 word email would take approximately 20 minutes to type.

For an average professional, their dictation with Dragon stats would approximate my own (12 minutes) — they are not unreasonable."

[marvin]

Cool, thanks :) I agree that comparing dictation speed to typing speed is a different question if you're a fast typist. On a phone, it's no contest -- for me, even in my native language, dictating with Siri is vastly quicker -- but I wouldn't actually want to dictate when I write comments online, for instance.

When dictating, you also hit the classical problem of your thoughts not forming fast enough to be able to formulate yourself in writing in real time, leading to a lot of breaks as you dictate. The guideline "think, then speak" of radio communication also holds for dictation, in my experience.