Read the copy out loud
June 5th, 2004 by Bill
One of the best habits I developed when I worked in radio was to read what I had written out loud. I find if you can’t read what you’ve written aloud, odds are it’s poor writing.
The application for radio is obvious. Radio copy is meant to be read aloud by someone - usually an announcer. But it’s also true for other forms of writing, even those not intended to be aural (like print copy, letters or Web writing).
Reading out loud can give you a clear sense for the pacing of what you’ve written. It will show you where the sentences are too long. (If you’re about to pass out for lack of breath your sentence is probably to long, or at least not broken up sufficiently with commas etc. for phrases, clauses and so on.)
It can show you where the rhythm is off - too many short sentences, which tend to create a staccato, abnormal quality. You’ll hear awkward syntax - the sentence will be difficult to read if this is the case. It will be hard to read aloud without stumbling and struggling with the words. Or it will simply sound weird. For instance, if in the middle of the copy you have a sentence like,
To our store, come on Friday for great savings.
You don’t really need to read that one out loud to see what is wrong with it, but hopefully it gives you the idea. Once you say it out loud and hear it, you’ll quickly make a change to something more like,
Come to our store on Friday for great savings.
Reading out loud also helps you hear the tone of what you have written. Personally, I want my writing to have a conversational sound. I want it to read as if a human voice is actually speaking. Sometimes that conversational tone is informal, sometimes formal. But either way, it should be associated with a human voice (as opposed to a faceless institution - you know, corporate speak).
Finally, when reading out loud - read out loud. Don’t mutter, whisper or slur through the words. Project your voice; speak loudly. This is really the only way to hear it properly. You also need to read at a normal pace. This is especially true if you are writing to time, like a 30 second ad. You wouldn’t believe how much copy is written that, when the people producing the radio or TV spot get it, is 40 or 45 seconds. Yet the writer thinks it’s 30 because he didn’t read it out loud, or didn’t read it at a correct pace.
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