Reading Aloud

Communication Across the Curriculum
Monmouth College

Reading Aloud: Goodbye [Many] Grammar Errors

(27 November 2006)

In the 8 September 2006 Chronicle of Higher Education, Ben Yagoda laments the consistent and repeated grammatical difficulties of his students, declaring, "if they spent more than a few minutes proofreading their efforts, or thought to consult the dictionary when in doubt about a word, they would catch many or most of their errors."¹

Suggesting that students spend more time editing is a great idea. Helping them to use this time productively and effectively is the key, though.

At the end of the semester, with many papers about to cross your desks, what can be done to help students edit their drafts more effectively?

Quite simply, ask your students to Read Aloud.

Reading aloud will not teach students the rules of grammar, but it can help them to spot the mistakes that they already know how to correct. With these moments of success, they'll also be more likely to use the handbook and to ask questions about grammar.

Process:
Your students will bristle at first, feeling like you're taking them back to second grade. Suggest, then, that they find a quiet, isolated spot and that, individually, each student read aloud from their near-final draft, pausing at each punctuation mark and slowing to articulate each word, as written. Simple enough.

Based on anecdotal evidence from the writing center, the process works, too. When the peer tutors ask the writers to read aloud, we see the writers pausing at awkward phrases, stopping to add or delete punctuation, marking spots that they want to look at more closely.

Why does it work? Reading aloud slows the writer down, encouraging critical thinking and closer examination of the text. Additionally, the oral version of the text is new to the writer, so she can approach it more objectively.

Variations:

	Invite your students to visit your office for an Editing Conference. As the student reads, look for patterns of grammatical errors. Often, the writer will know how to correct the sentence, and by focusing on patterns, he'll be more likely to recognize errors outside your office.
	Read the paper aloud for your student, if he's at first reluctant.
	Suggest that your students visit the Writing Center, where the peer tutors have been trained to listen to texts being read aloud.

¹ Yagoda, Ben. "The Seven Deadly Sins of Student Writers." The Chronicle of Higher Education 8 September 2006: B13.

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