There are many tips and strategies that we can employ to improve our writing. The most obvious one is proofreading our text. Likewise, there are different proofreading exercises that prove to be effective for many people.

One of the most effective is often overlooked and sometimes never used. This great tip can help you identify problems with your text and, subsequently, improve it.

Here it is: Read Your Paper To Yourself Aloud.

That’s right. It may sound strange, but it works.

There are two reasons for this. One, when we proofread our own writing, it’s normally done silently. However, often we aren’t reading what we’ve written; we are skimming. This is natural because we are so familiar with the material. This can lead to our missing mistakes. Two, being humans, we are blessed with large brains capable of completing unimaginable tasks. One of these is being about to think faster than our mouths can speak. This is very helpful because we are forced to slow down, and this enables us to identify mistakes we might have overlooked. Also, because we are capable of recognizing sounds, we can “hear” our mistakes through the spoken word.

Go ahead and try it! If you are afraid of getting strange looks from others, find a place to be alone. If not, do it wherever you please. Who knows? Someone listening may have a better grasp of English than you and might hear something you are missing.

It doesn’t hurt anything to try. If you find this helpful, let me know.