Speech Tip: Hear Your Words in Word

How Does Your Writing Sound?

I record myself to hear how my writing sounds. You should too. I do this for my speeches and for my creative work. Even client work goes through this filter. Among other things, I look for natural and forced rhythm and the related drama as well as editorial errors.

In my prose critique group, a gathering of several professional writers meeting twice monthly, we don't read our own work. The person on our right does. They only know what's on the page and have no other input from me. There's an honesty that comes from that. If the story hasn't the intrinsic pacing through structure, punctuation, and internal tension, the drama won't be there. You'll hear your work as it is, not merely how you'd like it to be.

Hearing someone else read it tells me what's really there.

The handicap is my familiarity with my intention. In my head is how it should sound. Hearing someone else read it tells me what's really there. My intention may not be reality. A benefit of editing together is someone else reads your work with no other guide than the words on the page.

What about when you have no critique group or writing partner? Use Microsoft Word's read aloud tool. It is imperfect, but the voice software is getting better:

1. Open your file in Word.
2. Choose Review from the pull-down menu.
3. Choose the Read Aloud button (see my screenshot of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Premature Burial").
4. Read along and stop when an edit needs to be made. Or, work off a print version and make notes.

This won’t perfectly capture the drama or humor of your speech, but it will help fix editing errors and show you areas for improvement.

Give it a try. If you've any tips, let me know.

About Anthony:

Anthony Trendl is the principal speechwriter at AmericanSpeechwriter.com, an international executive communications firm. His work is regularly delivered by Fortune 500 leaders, athletes and notables, and is heard in places like Harvard University, Princeton University, UCLA, Singapore, South Africa, the Netherlands and beyond. His speeches have helped raise millions of dollars, and have increased audience engagement across the globe. For speaking and media inquiries, please see here.

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