How recording audio versions of my articles improved my writing

I’ve been recording audio versions of recent articles to give people the option of listening, whether it’s for preference or accessibility. An unintended side effect is that it’s actually improved the quality and flow of my writing. I’ll explain why as well as some other benefits of reading aloud beyond writing.

Photo by Jason Rosewell on Unsplash

Reading my articles aloud improved the clarity and succinctness

Last week I wrote about facilitating a remote workshop using breakout rooms. I started with writing the content, then I added images and finished with recording the audio version. However, when I was reading the article aloud for the recording, I got caught up in a few places where it didn’t flow very well. The simple act of reading my own writing, out loud, to myself, helped me improve it.

There were a few reasons why reading aloud helped me.

1. Reading aloud slowed me down - the voice inside my head is super fast and prone to skipping over mistakes. Reading aloud is about 100-150 words per minute slower than reading inside my head. Slowing down allowed me to spot errors and things that didn’t make sense.

2. I could hear the rhythm and flow of sentences - when I read things back, I could intuitively spot when things didn’t flow well or where I was missing words. One article describes it like “hearing a missed beat or a wrong chord in music, you just understand when your phrasing is awkward.”

3. I removed words or chose simpler ones - I can get a bit carried away with words when writing, both with word choice and length. Reading aloud helped me pick up on long sentences where I struggled for a breath or repeated myself.

Rehearsing for presentations made the story better

I’ve also found that reading aloud has helped me improve talks and presentations. For me, there’s a big difference between thinking about what I’m going to say and speaking about what I’m going to say. So when I’m preparing for a talk, I write out the content first, prepare the slides and then practice out loud to myself. And finally practicing together, if there are multiple speakers, which is really important to do.

I’ve found this has helped improve the content and stories I tell but also the structure and flow of the presentation.

Benefits beyond writing

Beyond helping me write better, I read a few articles that describe other ways reading aloud helps:

1. Improves our memories

2. Helps us understand complex things

3. Eliminates other distractions

First, reading aloud helps us remember what we read due to the “production effect” which means that producing written words, like reading them out loud, improves our memory of them.

“People consistently remember words and texts better if they read them aloud than if they read them silently.”

This comes from research by Colin MacLeod, a psychologist at the University of Waterloo in Canada. He extensively researched the impact of reading aloud on memory and showed that people consistently remember words and texts better if they read them aloud than if they read them silently.

Second, reading aloud helps people understand complicated or difficult things to read.

Sam Duncan, an adult literacy researcher at University College London, conducted a two-year study of more than 500 people all over Britain on reading aloud. “Some people find it helps them unpack complicated, difficult texts, whether it’s legal, academic, or Ikea-style instructions,” Duncan says. “Maybe it’s about slowing down, saying it and hearing it.”

Lastly, reading out loud helps us understand what we read better because speaking requires our brains to focus and eliminate distractions.

If you’re reading out loud, your mind is concentrating on both the pronunciation of the words and their meaning. It’s connecting the muscles needed to produce sound with the mental activity of attaching meaning to those sounds.

4 Reasons Why Reading Out Loud Is Actually Good For You

Try reading, your writing, out loud

As I was writing this article, I read my words and sentences aloud which helped me write more clearly and succinctly. When writing your next thing, try it out yourself and let me know how it goes.

Listen to this article on SoundCloud