# Writing the word "comma" using dictation softare
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-the-word-comma-using-dictation-softare/974558
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [November 8, 2022, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-the-word-comma-using-dictation-softare/974558 "2022-11-08T06:38:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Billy-o](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Billy-o)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2022, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-the-word-comma-using-dictation-softare/974558/1 "2022-11-08T06:38:41Z")
I work as a teacher, and have recently discovered the joys of using dictation software to comment on student papers – it’s a HUGE timesaver over handwriting comments! However, I’m slowed down when commenting on punctuation.
For example, if I say “You need a comma to separate these two clauses”, what comes out is “You need a, to separate these two clauses.” Do you know of a way to make Microsoft’s dictation software write the spoken word “comma” (or other punctuation words) as the actual word?
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### Author:  [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2022, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-the-word-comma-using-dictation-softare/974558/2 "2022-11-08T06:47:45Z")
I seem to recall, from yeas ago when I used Dragon’s _Naturally Speaking_ software, that you can say the command “start spelling” and then spell the punctuation name. But that might be a bit cumbersome for your purpose.
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### Author:  [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2022, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-the-word-comma-using-dictation-softare/974558/3 "2022-11-08T08:53:30Z")
I suspect that the simplest solution is to type it in afterwards. I have used Dragon quite a lot and there are always some errors that need to be corrected.
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### Author:  [@saje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saje)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2022, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-the-word-comma-using-dictation-softare/974558/4 "2022-11-08T10:52:24Z")
I think you can spell it out:
“You need a cee oh em em ay to separate these two clauses.”
It might come out as an all caps word, but I think that’d be easier to see and correct than just the punctuation mark.
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### Author:  [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2022, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-the-word-comma-using-dictation-softare/974558/5 "2022-11-08T12:47:35Z")
I run into this sort of thing when I dictate on my Android phone-- texts, emails, and/or notes.
I’ll say, “plans for today colon” and sometimes I get the punctuation mark “:” and sometimes I get the word “colon” written out. I haven’t figured out how to consistently get the punctuation mark.
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### Author:  [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2022, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-the-word-comma-using-dictation-softare/974558/6 "2022-11-08T12:52:52Z")
Something I do with names in Word is to dictate a short nonsense code like “cm” and afterwards, do a search and replace for the word or symbol you want.
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### Author:  [@Billy-o](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Billy-o)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2022, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-the-word-comma-using-dictation-softare/974558/7 "2022-11-08T14:04:41Z")
Thanks for the suggestions! **saje** is correct that spelling out a word yields all caps. I also like **bob\_2** ’s suggestion of just saying a code, then doing a find/replace.