Reflection on Reading Aloud

As the voices of 5(?) people reading aloud term papers to a partner filled the air, I realized that I couldn't hear anything other than the buzz of voices...

I have to say, though, that I think any writer should get in the habit of reading her work out loud - whether it be to a friend, uninterested co-worker, random stranger, or even a pet. I don't think that you can really get a feel for the rhythm of language until you practice reading it out loud.

As any of my friends know, a visit to my house is frequently an invitation to an open-reading of whatever the heck I happen to be working on that week. This past weekend the reader was multicultural - leya en espanol, por favor! Usually, however, the reading is in English - sometimes it's a story, a poem, or a particularly clever blog entry that I wanted to share with my "real-life" friends.

I love reading out loud to people - instead of me sitting anxiously waiting for my friend to finish reading my story du jour, I get to actively participate, viewing their facial expressions and reactions, and I can stop and say "are you bored? do you want me to keep reading?" at any time. Nice.

Comments:

I totally agree with you. Reading your paper out loud is something all writers should do. This helped me catch typos in my paper. There was a little rhythm in my paper now that I think about it.

Posted by: Ashley at May 4, 2005 06:36 PM

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