Avoid typos and grammatical mistakes by listening to your writing
April 15, 2006 – 4:25 pmWhen reading something I wrote, sometimes I see what I meant to write—not what I did write. My ears aren’t as easily fooled as my eyes, however. So when reviewing what I wrote, I have my iBook read it back to me. Having the computer speak it, instead of reading it aloud myself, allows me to focus on the content.
To have your material read back to you on a Mac, highlight the text, go to the application’s menu on the toolbar and select Services > Speech > Start Speaking Text. Then read along as the computer dictates what you wrote.
This step helps you pick up missing words that you’d normally add in your mind when reading, as well as when you misspell a word, but in doing so, correctly spell a different word (something spell check doesn’t catch).
(And welcome to the Lifehacker readers who clicked through that site’s post mentioning this entry.)
13 Responses to “Avoid typos and grammatical mistakes by listening to your writing”
Print your document as an Adobe PDF, then click “View,” “Read Out Loud.”
By Marjorie Wilner on Apr 21, 2006
There are a number of different ways to get an XP box to read to you.
Microsoft Reader has a text to speech engine:
- http://www.microsoft.com/reader/developers/downloads/tts.asp
There’s the Microsoft Speech Server
- http://www.microsoft.com/speech/default.mspx
And there’s always Microsoft Agent if you want Merlin to read to you
- http://www.microsoft.com/msagent/default.asp
- http://www.elr.com.au/src/msagent.htm
By Walter Hjelmar on Apr 21, 2006
I use the msagent Charlie instead of merlin and use a British female voice which sounds quite human. I use Cyberbuddy that runs the agent and have been using it for years without a problem. I use it everyday to read back to me what I wrote for my newspaper column and I catch a lot of mistakes with it. Charlie is a redhead and my friends think I gone over the deep end! //bob
By Bob Deloyd on Apr 22, 2006
Thanks for the Windows advice, Walter and Bob. I’ll have to dust off my old Vaio and check them out.
And good suggestion, Marjorie. The speech feature doesn’t work in Word (I just copy my text into a text editor and use the speech function there). Printing to a .PDF saves a couple of steps.
By Zach Everson on Apr 24, 2006
Can you tell me if I have a grammatical typo?
Hello Ray, My company has been doing work with Siemens at your location. I have heard through the grapevine that CH2M Hill is going to be a prime on a duct cleaning and mold remediation project. If possible I would like to get your contact name for CH2M Hill. I would like to talk to
them about being there sub.
By patrick on Jan 16, 2008
Overall it looks good Patrick, I just recommend a few changes:
-change the comma to a period after “Ray”
-replace “doing work” with “working”
-in the last sentence, replace “them” with “him or her” and “there” with “a”
Hope that info helps!
By Zach Everson on Jan 17, 2008
This is really interesting! However - I find I can only do this in my Mail program. Is there any way in particular to turn on this service so I can use it with Firefox, and/or Word? It’s a pleasure to copy and paste blogposts and listen to them. Like my own audible.com
By Nicole on Apr 30, 2008
Apple’s speech feature only works with some programs; Word and Firefox aren’t among them. Both TextEdit and Safari are compatible though.
By Zach Everson on May 8, 2008
Yes, Apple’s only works for some programs…. Maybe someday.
By Ramey on Jul 15, 2008