Productivity
From what you said to what you'd send
Spoken English is more direct and less formal than written business English. Closing that gap is a small, specific job — and the thing to watch is a rewrite adding content you did not say.
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The gap is smaller than people think
Most business email is already too formal, and the spoken version is usually clearer. "I'll send it Thursday" is better writing than "I will endeavour to forward the aforementioned document by close of business Thursday", and the second one is what people type.
So the job is not converting speech into corporate prose. It is removing the four things speech has that writing does not — and stopping there.
- Fillers. "Um", "so", "basically", "you know".
- False starts. "I think we should — well, what I mean is".
- Missing punctuation. Speech has no full stops.
- Run-on structure. Three sentences joined by "and" that should be three sentences.
Fix those four and a dictated email reads as well as a typed one, usually better, and it took forty seconds.
What a good rewrite does and does not do
| Should | Should not |
|---|---|
| Remove fillers and repetitions | Add a greeting you did not ask for |
| Place punctuation | Invent a deadline or a figure |
| Split run-on sentences | Soften a clear "no" into a maybe |
| Apply your self-corrections | Add a commitment you did not make |
| Raise the register modestly | Replace your voice with corporate boilerplate |
| Keep every fact you said | Add facts you did not |
A worked example
What you said (24 seconds)
hi Marcus so um thanks for sending the revised scope over, I've had a look and honestly I think the timeline's still too tight, the bit that worries me is the integration testing because we've only got a week for it and last time that took nearly three, um, I'd rather we pushed the go live to the eighth than tried to squeeze it, let me know what you think
What goes out
Hi Marcus,
Thanks for sending the revised scope over. I've had a look, and I think the timeline is still too tight.
The part that concerns me is integration testing. We have a week allocated, and last time it took nearly three. I would rather we pushed the go-live to the eighth than tried to squeeze it.
Let me know what you think.
Nothing was added. "Honestly" went, the fillers went, the run-on became three sentences, and the paragraph breaks appeared. Every fact — the week, the three weeks, the eighth — is exactly what was said.
Raising the register by hand
If you would rather not use an automatic rewrite for anything that matters, this is a thirty-second pass and it is reliable:
- Delete the fillers "Um", "so", "basically", "honestly", "you know". They are visible immediately.
- Break the run-ons Find the "and"s joining complete thoughts and replace them with full stops.
- Add paragraph breaks One idea per paragraph. This does more for readability than every other change combined.
- Check the opening and closing Speech tends to start abruptly. A greeting and a sign-off are usually the only additions needed.
- Read it once more For the plausible misrecognition — the one that is grammatical and wrong.
When to keep it spoken
- Internal messages. Colleagues do not need formality and often read it as distance.
- Bad news. Direct and plain is kinder than formal and hedged. Spoken register is better at this.
- Anyone you know well. Suddenly writing formally to someone you normally message casually reads as a signal you did not intend to send.
- Anything urgent. Speed and clarity beat polish.
Where to raise it: first contact with someone new, anything contractual, complaints and escalations, anything that may be forwarded to people you have not met, and anything that might end up in front of a lawyer.
Questions
Will a rewrite change what I meant?
It can, which is why what matters is the behaviour when it is uncertain. VV compares the rewrite against what you actually said and falls back to your raw words rather than paste something it cannot vouch for. Read the result regardless — a polished email invites less scrutiny, not more.
Does the rewriting happen on my Mac?
In VV, yes — the writing model is local, which is why it works with no connection. In many apps this stage is a cloud API call that sends the text of your email. Worth checking specifically.
Should every email be run through a rewrite?
No. Internal messages and anything to someone you know well usually read better in your spoken register. Use it where formality matters: first contact, contractual matters, escalations.
Can it add a greeting and a sign-off?
An Email style can. Whether you want it to is a preference — some people prefer a snippet for the sign-off, which is deterministic and always says exactly what they chose.