In 2009, the internet was blessed with a comment on 4chan’s video games board that can only be described as a monument to the importance of reading aloud: “Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?” Users shared their confusion across various platforms and eventually made it into a meme.
The advice that one should read their work aloud before sharing it with an audience borders on cliché, but it remains a crucial part of the writing process. Some prefer the authorial voice that echoes in their heads as they silently review their work in dulcet tones to the potentially awkward experience of hearing their voice fill the room and finding it unpracticed and less self-assured. While you may feel a little silly, the wealth of information gleaned from the physical act of reading aloud is worth the embarrassment.
The silent reader in your head is often an unreliable editor. If you’re like me, you are writing the words you are saying to yourself in real time. Unfortunately, all the words in your head don’t always make it down to your fingers and onto the page. A missing article or a forgotten preposition can alter the meaning of an otherwise well-crafted piece of writing. I have learned that carefully reading aloud what is on the page is the best way to chase down those missing words.
Reading aloud can also give you a sense of how your readers will experience the piece. Is your tongue twisted by unnecessary alliteration or superfluous, flowery language? Are you short of breath at the end of an interminably long sentence? Did you repeatedly trip over the same few sentences before you could decipher their intended meaning? Use these physical indicators as editing guides. Revise for clarity where your mouth felt contorted. Create sentence length variation where you felt winded. Be remembered for your ideas and highly quotable writing, not for pained confusion and a tortuous reading experience.
Kadee Whaley is the marketing associate at the Carnegie Center for Literacy & Learning and the co-founder and director of Read With Pride, an LGBTQ+ book nonprofit. The Carnegie Center, 251 W. 2nd St., is a nonprofit educational center offering seasonal writing, publishing, and languages classes, among other community programming. For more information, visit Carnegiecenterlex.org.