Here’s a copywriting hack for reviewing your own writing, from emails to manuscripts!
If you have young kids who like story time, the last time you read aloud could well be very recently! Aside from that, we don’t tend to do it very much as adults. In fact, we can become quite self-conscious if for any reason we’re asked to read some text aloud in public.
It’s a shame that more of us don’t practise this skill, because as a writer and editor, I find that reading text aloud is one of the best ways to improve it. I often share this tip with students and customers who ask me for advice on improving their own writing, but I’m not sure how many of them actually do it. Perhaps it’s easier if, like me, you work in an office alone, without anyone to overhear!
Six ways that reading a draft aloud helps to improve copy
1. It helps you avoid over-long sentences. If you run out of breath before the end, there are probably too many words! A lot of clauses or linked ideas can be difficult to follow: we forget the beginning of the sentence before we reach the end. Breaking long sentences into shorter ones is one of the tasks I spend most time on during an edit. When you have a lot to say about a topic you know well, it’s tempting to pack it all in, but this can be overwhelming for a reader who’s trying to process new information.
2. It can help you turn your internal monologue into externally focused copy. Even when we start writing with a plan or structure in mind, we’re still formulating our thoughts as we write. First drafts can veer towards a stream of consciousness, as we set down interesting ideas and angles that occur to us. When you re-read your work aloud, you step up your objectivity, because you hear what you have written as well as seeing it. You’ll find it easier to identify multiple threads and ideas within a paragraph that might be better separated out.
3. It’s a big help with punctuation. You’ll naturally put pauses in as you read, which tells you where the commas should go. (If, like my adult children, you had a rigorous grammar education at junior school, you may even be able to throw in some colons and semi-colons to help the text flow!)
4. You experience the tone and level. People often try to elevate their authority and credibility in writing by using long words and complex language. This can feel patronising or even aggressive when someone else reads it. If it feels awkward to speak what you’ve written, it’s probably overblown. It’s fine to use specialist terms and language appropriate for the topic and audience, but you don’t want your text to sound like a litigious lawyer or a pompous professor has written it. Even in terms and conditions or academic papers, I argue that clarity is paramount: the language shouldn’t get in the way of the reader’s understanding.
5. It’s easier to identify repetition or errors when you speak a text. Even when I’ve written an email, I tend to read it aloud to myself before I press send. When I just run my eyes over it, I find that I see what I expect to see, rather than properly noticing the details.
6. Even for longer documents, reading aloud helps you pick up continuity errors, recurring phrases and lack of clarity. I find it can also help to identify inconsistencies in style. For example, any paragraphs that have much longer sentences or are markedly different in tone. As we get to the end of a longer written piece, we often run our thoughts together in our eagerness to get it finished: contrasting how the beginning sounds out loud compared to the end can be a very useful check. If you think this is impossibly time-consuming, consider that even for complete novels of 70,000+ words, many authors use automated reading aloud software to help them polish their work.
Talking books have taught me lessons about how I read and write
My zeal for reading aloud has increased even more since I became a convert to talking books. I’ve always been a fast reader, which can be useful in work and study, but also means that I tend to skim-read. When I do my reading using the Audible app, I hear every word. The steadier pace has increased my enjoyment and appreciation of the writing and made me think about how important it is for texts to read well aloud as well as on the page. It’s deepened my understanding: I’m less frequently confused by characters and settings that I’ve paid scant attention to! I’m also less likely to have that feeling of gorging that can come from rapidly flipping the pages to get to the dénouement of a gripping thriller.
In listening to talking books, I think I’ve become more discerning about the style and language. When the speaking narrator can easily convey the sense and emphasis, I recognise how well written a book is, compared to some where the spoken version is awkward or confusing because the writing is inelegant or over-indulgent. It’s this principle that means I will always advocate for reading your writing aloud to yourself before you share it with the wider world.
Photo credit: Natasha Hall via Unsplash