As a law student, I have hundreds upon hundreds of pages of reading to get through every week. And it's nothing like reading hundreds of pages of a novel. Law casebooks are difficult to slog through - full of Supreme Court cases and treatises and things you'd never read for pleasure unless you're insane.
Since I really hate going back to these 50 pound monsters over and over again, my technique is to read really carefully and take really detailed notes the first time through. While this is great when it comes to studying at the end of the semester, it makes the reading go a lot slower and results in a lot of typing during the semester, which isn't always easy for me.
That's why I'm pretty much in love with my dictation software - MacSpeech Dictate. While I read, I wear a little headset and just speak the notes I want to take out loud. Then the software types the notes for me. It is awesome. I actually wish I had used dictation software in law school before I got RA - it would have saved me so much time!!
But while the dictation software is awesome, it is not, however, perfect. Sometimes it doesn't quite hear you or it misunderstands what you said. This can be pretty amusing. Yesterday, while I was reading for Environmental Law & Regulation, I was working through a section on toxics regulation and de minimis risk, which basically means risk too small to be worth spending limited regulatory funds on. Not too exciting. So I was pretty amused when I went back through my reading notes for this section and found this gem:
Since I really hate going back to these 50 pound monsters over and over again, my technique is to read really carefully and take really detailed notes the first time through. While this is great when it comes to studying at the end of the semester, it makes the reading go a lot slower and results in a lot of typing during the semester, which isn't always easy for me.
That's why I'm pretty much in love with my dictation software - MacSpeech Dictate. While I read, I wear a little headset and just speak the notes I want to take out loud. Then the software types the notes for me. It is awesome. I actually wish I had used dictation software in law school before I got RA - it would have saved me so much time!!
But while the dictation software is awesome, it is not, however, perfect. Sometimes it doesn't quite hear you or it misunderstands what you said. This can be pretty amusing. Yesterday, while I was reading for Environmental Law & Regulation, I was working through a section on toxics regulation and de minimis risk, which basically means risk too small to be worth spending limited regulatory funds on. Not too exciting. So I was pretty amused when I went back through my reading notes for this section and found this gem:
The regulated community has promoted the notion that regulators should recognize the concept of penis risk in establishing health-based standards.Made me giggle.
1 comment:
We are SO using this software for that Get-Out-Of-Debt-Free project (Code Name: The Princess Rides)!
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