Art and Business of Speech Recognition: Creating the Noble Voice, The

Some Subtleties of Prompt Writing

Some words and sentence constructs work better than others in speech-recognition systems—even when both are grammatically correct. Contrary to the protests of millions of elementary schoolchildren over the years, there are many reasons why we should speak using proper grammar—even in speech-recognition applications. The two biggest reasons? Precision and clarity. Grammatically correct language (unless it sounds extremely awkward) leaves less opportunity for misunderstanding.

I'm not overly pedantic about correct grammar and usage—it can be taken to ridiculous extremes—but a disregard for language betrays a certain sloppiness or lack of attention that reflects on a person or a company. For example, why do most ...