Writing, dictating, and speaking letters

It is commonly assumed that dictation requires a long time to learn, but authors eventually dictate much faster than they write. Performance results now show that novice dictators can learn in a few hours to dictate with the speed and quality with which they write. However, they do not think they perform this well. Dictators with years of experience are from 0 to 25 percent faster than novices, depending upon the complexity of the letters. Planning time is about two-thirds of composition time, regardless of the method of composition. Copyright © 1978 AAAS.