Let Me Hear It
Noisy Newsrooms
I used to work in a newsroom. Actually, I’ve worked in five different radio and television newsrooms in Iowa. Newsrooms are loud, obnoxious working environments… especially when it’s close to air time. I thrive on all that activity – the talking, the screaming, the running and the panic.
If you work in a cubicle maze or a closed-off office, you may thrive on silence. Maybe you like to quietly tap away at your keyboard. But there’s one proofreading technique you could learn from a noisy newsroom… read your work OUT LOUD.
All the broadcast journalists I’ve every worked with read their copy out loud before going on the air. It’s a habit our professors taught us in journalism school. I still do it today.
Listen to Yourself
When you listen to your writing, you can catch mistakes before your co-workers or customers do.
- When you stumble on a word or phrase, take a closer look at the spelling and word choice.
- If you get lost in the copy, consider rewriting it to make your message more clear.
- If your voice naturally takes a break at a comma, think about using a period. Keep it to one thought per sentence.
It’s such a simple proofreading technique. It works on emails just as well as business reports. And if your cube mate doesn’t appreciate this technique, whisper. That works, too.
Catch the Errors
ACT’s WorkKeys Business Writing Assessment tests for those kinds of mistakes. In fact, ACT’s website lists the most common business writing errors. Here’s a few you could catch, if only you could HEAR them:
- Sentence Structure – sentence fragments, run-on sentences, comma splices
- Mechanical – misspelled words, incorrect or missing punctuation, extra capitalization
- Grammatical – incorrect verb tenses, shifts in tense, incorrect subject-verb agreement, unclear pronoun references, missing words
- Word Usage – improper or poor word or symbol choices that interfere with communication
To hear what these errors sound like, read this site out loud.
Tags: Business Communication, business writing, How to Communicate Better At Work, Proofreading Technique
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January 24, 2008 at 8:23 pm
I agree wholeheartedly! Reading my own rough draft aloud helps me hear it the way my audience hears (reads) it.
May I add another thought? Years of experience teaching high school writing classes forced me to find an alternate way for students to read aloud. They often found themselves in a crowded writing lab or a study hall. So as not to be sent to the office, I advised my students to mouth what they read. Mouthing one’s writing works too. Try it.