[stylist] JAWS and Our Craft

Sat Mar 15 02:44:24 UTC 2014

Yes, when I edit, I slow JAWS way down.

Bridgit

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of
Applebutter Hill
Sent: Friday, March 14, 2014 6:33 PM
To: 'Writer's Division Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [stylist] JAWS and Our Craft

Bridgit,
I'm sure that Jaws won't make anyone be a good writer, but it does have
advantages, and we might as well celebrate them. That said, I think that
there are a few things that screen reader users do that tend to blurr
the advantages. The most important is the speed. I know people who read
at a high rate of speed. Heck, I do it myself sometimes. But, when
you're editing, this is essentially shooting yourself in the foot.
You're flying by so fast that you aren't noticing that the sentence
structures would add more to the piece if they were subtly varied. You
also probably miss the subtle differences in Jaws' pronunciation that
would alert you to the fact that you've used the wrong word. Donna

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Bridgit
Pollpeter
Sent: Friday, March 14, 2014 12:35 AM
To: 'Writer's Division Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [stylist] JAWS and Our Craft

You would think this, but as an editor, I read several pieces written by
screenreader users, and their writing is still appalling, LOL!

But yes, as a person who relies mostly on JAWS for writing and editing,
I think it actually can work to my advantage. It depends on your comfort
level with screenreaders though.

At university, I was often asked to help classmates during small groups
with the technical aspect of their writing. We worked in small groups
like this often, and the instructor placed each of us for specific
reasons within the group. One of us had a strength in character
development, some with sentence structure, etc. I usually was placed for
writing dialogue, dream sequences and editing, which is pretty cool
considering I'm blind. Once my profs. Got to know me and my writing,
they realized I wasn't so different from my sighted classmates.

Bridgit

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of William L
Houts
Sent: Thursday, March 13, 2014 8:17 PM
To: Writer's Division Mailing List
Subject: [stylist] JAWS and Our Craft

Glancing over some recent messages concerning screen readers and
writing, I thought I'd pony up some experience of my own.  In general,
my experience with Jaws as I carry on with my second novel has been
spectacular, especially when considering that blindness itself is, to
put it mildly, somewhat sub-optimal.  I wrote my first novel using JAWS
with the Eloquence synthesizer  (I'm one of that screen reader's older
customers --my serial number is only five figures long).  And as I
prepare to plunge into the last third of my current book, I'm seeing
that my writing has actually improved. And I think that might be because
writing with a screen reader forces the writer to pay attention to each
and every word in a sentence, and make editorial decisions based

on rock solid standards about things like run-on sentences and the use
of ten dollar words where two dollars would serve the purpose just as
admirably.  Also, nowadays I have no patience for adverbs which clutter
up my prose line.  Noun, verb phrase period, that's the way many of my
sentences go.  Well, no, actually that's a bit of a lie.  I write a
comparatively poetic prose line, but it's rooted, I think, in elementary

grammar, the exception being when I think a semicolon and dependent
clause might be called for.

Anyway, I'd like to  know how other folks look at their writing from a
technical perspective, and whether they feel that writing with a screen
reader has helped or harmed their craft.  Any takers?

--Bill

--
"Let's drink a toast now to who we really are."

           --Jane Siberry

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