Spellcheck is great. Grammarly is wonderful. A general knowledge of English grammar rules will hold you in good stead. But, even professional writers can miss things while editing.
Whether you’re a professional writer or a business gent dashing off a quick client email – Mac’s Speech feature is the single best editing tool you’ll ever use. Seriously. It’ll save your bacon.
Because it’s easy to see words that should be there, but aren’t. It’s common to skim over extra words you mistakenly added. And chances are you really don’t want to add a second ‘o’ when you’re inviting customers to: ‘Poop’ by and explore the latest selection.’
However, it’s a lot harder to miss those mistakes when they’re read out loud – for you. That’s the key. When you read your own work out loud, you can still gloss over mistakes, by correcting the version that’s there.
When someone else reads your work out loud, suddenly all those mistakes are obvious!
Speech is a Mac accessibility feature that reads text out loud. It’s awesome!
The easiest way to access this feature is pressing: Option-Esc.
The computer can start reading from the beginning of whatever web page or document you have open. Alternatively, you can highlight the specific section of text you would like the computer to read. This is often preferable, as it allows you to make corrections before more of the text is read.
The PC version of this feature is called ‘Narrator.’ It can be accessed by pressing: Windows logo key + Ctrl + Enter.
Bonus Tip: Give Yourself Some Breathing Room
We’re all more prone to making mistakes when we’re rushing. First drafts are never perfect. And when you try to write and edit in one fell swoop, you’re often too close to the piece to see any simple errors you’ve made.
We like to try and draft all content 24 hours in advance. However, this isn’t always practical. So when push comes to shove, even just stepping away for five minutes can substantially improve your ability to spot misused words and typos.
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