Read it out loud

An easy way to make your writing better

I’ve always loved to write, and so I was really lucky that my first job after college was a year-long internship at USA Today. Some of the best writing advice I’ve ever gotten came from one of the editors I worked with there.

She said it in passing — something along the lines of “You know Laura, when people are reading things silently in their heads, they’re still hearing the words as if they’re spoken.” The take-away: you need to write as if your words are being read out loud.

I realized, immediately, how brilliant this was — because it’s true. Next time you’re reading something, notice how you’re processing it. You probably hear the words in your mind, even if you’re reading silently. That means things are more pleasing for the brain when they’re more pleasing for the ear.

The upside of saying your words

So how do you make your writing more pleasing for the ear? The easiest way is to read anything of consequence out loud before you publish it.

This step of reading it out loud will do several good things. First, you’ll write tighter — because wordy sentences are hard to say. When you find yourself tripping over a sentence, that’s a sign that editing would help, because your readers might get lost in the sentence too.

Second, you’ll vary your sentence length. If you’ve ever heard a really good preacher, you know that sermons often feature a few short sentences with parallel structure punctuated by longer ones. The preacher chooses this rhythm because it’s appealing, even for difficult truths. You want people to say this about your writing too.

Finally, you’ll end your sentences strong. In general, single syllable words provide the most satisfactory conclusion to a phrase. I don’t know why this is. I do know it’s true. You don’t have to always honor this truth. But your writing will be better when you can.

Written words often become spoken words

Now, I will admit that I don’t read my emails about next week’s schedule out loud before I send them. Some writing is purely utilitarian.

But with the growth of audiobooks (and podcasts), and text-to-speech technology, writing for the ear has turned out to be a useful skill even for people who only planned to write on paper. The odds are good that at least some people will be listening to your words, and not just reading them!

Given how much bad writing is out there, anything that makes your writing stand out can give you an advantage. So if you’re writing something that matters, take a few extra minutes to read it out loud. Adjust your words to make them sound better when you’re saying them. People might not know why they like reading what you’ve written, but I promise you that they will.