Dictation Resources
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If you want to eventually caption speakers, you will need to be able to take dictation. Here are some tools you can use to listen and practice along to dictation.
- Steno Arcade Steno Arcade is a project funded by the Open Steno Project, developed by For All To Play. It contains Steno Hero, a game where you write lyrics in time with a singer and get graded on accuracy. You can create custom song files for use in the game by using wavelyric. The easiest song requires a speed of about 50 WPM.
- Television Try captioning your favorite TV show once you are able to. Nature documentaries are especially good for beginners because they tend to have long pauses between dialogue.
- Twitch and other streaming sites Game streams can provide a variety of casual vocabulary and, depending on the streamer, have enough pauses to be easier.
- YouTube You can find a variety of videos on YouTube. There are videos specifically for dictation (search "dictation X WPM"), as well as material designed for ESL students, and speeches by your favorite speaker. You might want to download a browser extension (available for both Chrome and Firefox) which allows you to control the video playback speed with more fine-tuned control.
- Platinum steno Platinum steno is a court reporter course that is now free for all on YouTube. It provides theory lessons (although it uses a different theory to Plover's), and a large amount of dictation material from 60 WPM to 225 WPM. Paul Fioravanti has written two excellent blog posts on following their course: one on doing the theory courses after learning Plover theory, and one more general post on using Plover with Q&A style dictation.
- Stenonymous's Resource Page This resource page has lots of great resources, including links to many dictation services. It also has information on whether or not they are paid services and what speed they go up to.
- StenoTube A selection of dictations, though mostly at higher speeds.
- Pitman London Pitman London has a page of dictation for people learning pen shorthand. The dictation ranges in speed from 40WPM to 130WPM.
- IPS Dictations ranging from 100 WPM to 280 WPM.
- Court Reporting Help CRH has some free dictation posts. Especially useful is the Magic Drill, for beginners and experts alike.
- englishlearning.webgarden.es This repository of ESL resources has some simple texts with slow dictation. In particular, "Easy Reading Texts" for 1st and 2nd year students and "Reading Texts" for 3rd and 4th year students tend to be dictated at around 100 WPM.
- www.stenolife.com Many short pieces are available across a wide range of speeds. Making an account is required.
- www.ev360ultimate.com A repository with longer pieces and guided practice sessions. Making an account is required.
- Make your own: Christopher Day has an article on How to Create Timed Dictation and Josh Grams has a tool for adding timing marks (which can also repeat/shuffle lists of problem words, if you want to dictate those at a particular speed).
Volunteer Projects Needing Transcription
- Library of Congress By the People Project Volunteer project transcribing historical texts.