Category: Editing

Inviting a welcome friend: using text-to-speech software to read assignments

Daren MansfieldLeave a comment

AI is everywhere now. Some hail the positives, while others concede the negatives of job losses and increased automation of the workforce, seemingly unstoppable since the Industrial Revolution. Personally, I’d rather go to a till staffed by a friendly employee than use a self-checkout machine in a supermarket. Society needs human contact, which is essential for our emotional wellbeing, mental health, and a sense of belonging. One of the positives to come out of AI is undoubtedly text-to-speech software which converts text into spoken words, effectively reading it for you. As our awareness of neurodiversity grows, so too our knowledge and appreciation of assistive technologies. Text-to-speech has come a long way since it was first developed in the 1930s.

Development of text-to-speech software

Text-to-speech has surprisingly long origins. The first computer-based speech-synthesis systems emerged in the 1950s, yet the earliest known text-to-speech programme was VODER , developed by Bell Laboratories in 1939 and was demonstrated at New York’s prestigious World’s Fair. In a fascinating blog post Grundhauser (2017) described that this first attempt at replicating the human voice apparently spoke ‘like a robot demon’ and ‘could create 20 or so different electric buzzes and chirps, which the operator would manipulate using 10 keys, a wrist plate, and a pedal’. It is even credited with inspiring Numbers by Kraftwerk that transformed musical genres as diverse as techno, hip-hop, new wave, and early rap (Sanusi, 2023). A general English text-to-speech system was developed by Noriko Umeda in 1968 at the Electrotechnical Laboratory in Japan.

Sounds like a real human

In recent years text-to-speech has drastically improved since the mechanical narration it used to render. There are some exceptions to this innovation like eBook text-to-speech, for instance, which need some development. We have named some of the pros and cons in our Library Wellbeing guide. The deliciously-named IceCreamApps site provides a list of eight recommended eBook screen readers, if you are interested. The fundamental issue is that there is no universal screen reader that works for everything online. That aside, the revelation is Microsoft’s Speak text-to-speech feature. It reads like a dream. Or rather, like a human voice. The ’voice’ is female, well-spoken, annunciating to give emphasis, giving pauses where needed and is easy on the ear.  If you are not happy with the ‘voice’ then you can go to Microsoft’s Speech Platform enabling you to choose a different voice package. It’s a bit like choosing your speech choice on a SATNAV when you drive a car. Text-to-speech software has been humanised, the ultimate acclaim of any person-centred AI technology.

Drawbacks are minimal. Homonyms are occasionally an issue like the word ‘reading’ (e.g. reading text) pronounced as ‘Reading’ (the Berkshire town located west of London).  I have also caught myself anthropomorphising the ‘voice’ as a person (‘her’). There are many benefits to using text-to-speech.

Benefits on literacy

Although few studies indicate whether text-to-speech increases literacy, rates of listening comprehension was found in a study by Brunow & Cullen (2021) to be beneficial, although it is not comparable to the interventionist support of a human teacher. Research conducted by Svensson et al. (2019) have found that reading ability, motivation, and performance increases with the use of text-to-speech. These suggest that text-to-speech is supplementary, rather than comprehensive, and does not substitute human involvement in the educational process (Wood et al., 2018).

Visual stress

One of the benefits of using text-to-speech is to alleviate visual stress, reducing eye strain. This function is necessary when someone has a neurodiverse condition like dyslexia or ADHD. Text-to-speech relies upon auditory skills rather than the complexity of visually reading a page. This is a revolutionary step for dyslexic students struggling to read text on the screen.

Editing and proofreading

For the purposes of editing and proofreading the immediate benefits of text-to-speech are huge and impactful, allowing for error detection, spelling and grammatical mistakes, awkward sentence structures and consistency and coherence.  I have found it particularly useful in identifying word misplacement.

Writing style analysis

Even though I am not dyslexic I use MS Speak. I used it repeatedly for this blog post, both in Word and in WordPress. What does my writing sound like? Are there any errors, misplaced words, gaps, too many words..? How does it flow? What is the personality of my writing voice? These are simple questions and text-to-speech, I feel, has the ready answers. Such writing style analysis identifies your writing voice using natural language processing (NLP) tools, analysing writing patterns, sentence structures and other linguistic features.

The allyship of text-to-speech software

Text-to-speech software has become an indispensable ally in writing. Will you invite this accessible technology into your assignments and check your writing? Nowadays I would not write a longer piece of writing without it. Text-to-speech is a welcome friend in that regard.

References

Brunow, D.A. & Cullen, T.A. (2021). Effect of Text-to-Speech and Human Reader on Listening Comprehension for Students with Learning Disabilities. Computers in the schools: Interdisciplinary Journal of Practice, Theory, and Applied Research, 38 (3), 214-231.

Grundhauser, E. (2017). The Voder, the first machine to create human speech. Available from: The Voder, the First Machine to Create Human Speech – Atlas Obscura [Accessed 15th May 2024].

Icecreamapps.com. (2024). Best Text To Speech Book Readers 2024: Top 8 – Icecream Apps. Available from: Best Text To Speech Book Readers 2024: Top 8 – Icecream Apps [Accessed 21st May 2024].

Sanusi, T. (2023). From Hawking to Siri: The evolution of speech synthesis. Available from: From Hawking to Siri: The Evolution of Speech Synthesis | Deepgram [Accessed 15th May 2024].

Svensson, I., Nordström, T., Lindeblad, E., Gustafson, S., Björn, M., Sand, C., … Nilsson, S. (2021). Effects of assistive technology for students with reading and writing disabilities. Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology, 16 (2), 196–208.

University of Lincoln. (2024). Screen Readers – Screen Readers and Accessibility – Guides at University of Lincoln. Available from: Screen Readers – Screen Readers and Accessibility – Guides at University of Lincoln [Accessed 21st May 2024].

Wood, S.G. et al. (2018) ‘Does Use of Text-to-Speech and Related Read-Aloud Tools Improve Reading Comprehension for Students with Reading Disabilities? A Meta-Analysis’, Journal of Learning Disabilities, 51(1), 73–84.

The Importance of Editing.

Molly BrooksLeave a comment

Editing. The part always left until the end, the part we always dread – and most often, the part that is left out. It is a crucial fragment of the academic writing process yet is most often ignored due to lack of time management, panic or sometimes not recognising its importance.

Most often in my appointments, I find that the advice I give out time and time again is surrounding editing and the value of reading through your assignment with a critical lens. Students often doubt their work, not giving themselves the credit they deserve – my view: if you have the ability to write in depth about your subject knowledge, you know what you are talking about. Step one to the editing process is all about confidence, when you read through your work you have to imagine you are reading secondary material – would you use this yourself? Why not? That’s your starting point.

By identifying the gaps in your argument, you are able to make adjustments before the deadline allowing yourself to get better marks. A quick skim read an hour before the deadline will only create panic and anxiety if you notice the mistakes but have no time to correct them. Failing that, by not editing at all, the first person to see the mistakes is your tutor.

We can break editing into three parts: academic, grammar and what I like to call, ‘easy reading.’

1. Academic – this is arguably the most important reason to edit. In an essay you are being marked on how well you can articulate your academic knowledge, but also how well you can present your own ideas. When you read through your assignment as an editor, not a writer, you must focus on identifying your key ideas and whether the way you have presented them is clear to the reader. The best way to tackle this is to read aloud (maybe not on the library third floor – but at home, or to a friend) to make sure that it makes sense. By changing the way you read your own work, you will notice things that you would have missed previously. If it doesn’t make sense, or you would not contribute this idea in a seminar then it is time to either re-word or scrap it. (Be brutal.)

2. Grammar – whether you love it or hate it, grammar is a crucial part to any form of writing but especially within the academic world. While the first recommendation will always be to familiarise yourself with grammar rules, it is not always realistic – especially when its assignment season! There are plenty of tools to help you get acquainted with these pesky rules, the most accessible at any time of the day is online grammar guides. While googling ‘is it a semi-colon or a comma?’ may help you temporarily it is not a permanent fix and can often disrupt writing flow. Use a guide that breaks it down step-by-step, but one from an academic source (universities, recognisable websites from classes etc.). As tempting as it may be AVOID AI generated editors – they may do the work for you, but not always in the correct way (Not to mention the risk of an academic offence – remember you’re the one getting a degree, not your computer!).  As with academic tone, by reading your work aloud it will help you identify grammar mistakes, for instance if you are running out of breath you definitely need a comma! For more tricky issues, come and see us in Writing Development!

3. ‘Easy Reading’ – while this isn’t marked like academic argument and grammar, the way your work reads to the marker makes a massive difference in terms of how generous your marks are. This is mainly because if an assignment reads well, it is easy to identify what the student is saying. Well, what does ‘reads well’ or ‘easy reading’ really mean? There is no distinct way to define this, but essentially you want to make sure your work reads smoothly, with no clunky sentences, random capital letters or awkward spacing. This also includes following layout guides in your subject handbook. Fortunately, if you have taken the time to edit academic tone and grammar, this should naturally fall into place. The final stage of editing is to be able to read through and/or read aloud your assignment without having to pause due to awkward phrasing or clunky sentences. My top tip in this stage is to print your work and read it from paper rather than a screen – our eyes become adjusted to the laptop so much that sometimes they are unable to identify the mistakes that we spot on paper (our default settings!).

By following this step-to-step, and giving your work the editing it deserves, you should find that you will naturally benefit from a reduced word count, higher quality writing and clearer ideas which in turn generate higher marks. However, in order to get the most out of editing, you must factor in time to your writing process. Once you have finished writing your assignment, don’t look at it until the following day so you can then read it with fresh eyes. By not allowing enough time, you are not allowing yourself to edit properly – because if not properly, why edit at all?