My grandpa was a school teacher. He made all his students read aloud. He would listen carefully, make us stop and explain how to pause for effect. He also took our books and added vertical bars like this “|” for tiny pauses. Pause a little (at these marks), pause a bit more (at comma) and stop at the full stop, he would say.
I have heard advice for many writers that you should read aloud your writing. I knew some of the reasons. Today, I found an additional one.
Reading out loud to my tutor made me hear all my mistakes. I had read over the essay in my mind before the tutorial, but reading in your mind just uses the same sensory input and neural pathways as writing. You end up just confirming that you wrote what you intended. Reading aloud brings in a whole new set of senses and muscles, and gives you the next best thing to an outside opinion of your work. You’ll notice immediately when you overuse certain words or when your complex-compound sentences cause you to stumble.