Demian FarnworthYou know that conventional wisdom that you should read everything you write out loud? Let’s put a twist on that advice.
Say you lost your voice. Or are simply lazy. But you just finished a 300-word article, and are ready to refine it.
It’s natural to read it out loud to see how it sounds. So let’s say you do that two or three times. But you are still not satisfied with it. So you want someone else to read it.
But no one is around. Enter Ginger.
In this 5-minute episode you’ll discover:
- The free Google tool that will read copy out loud for you
- What Haitian Creole sounds like
- The silly origin of this idea
- The emotional temperature of a machine
- And so much more!
Listen to Rough Draft below ...
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The Show Notes
The Transcript
Let This Stupid Machine Read Your Copy Out Loud
Voiceover: This is Rainmaker.FM, the digital marketing podcast network. It’s built on the Rainmaker Platform, which empowers you to build your own digital marketing and sales platform. Start your free 14-day trial at RainmakerPlatform.com.
Demian Farnworth: Howdy! You are listening to Rough Draft, your daily dose of essential web writing advice. I am Demian Farnworth. Your host, your muse, your digital recluse, and the Chief Content Writer for Copyblogger Media.
And thank you for sharing the next few minutes of your life with me.
I got this idea from my daughter who was making us utterly crack up this weekend with her imagination. It wasn’t so much what she said. It was how she said it.
Rather how Ginger said it.
The Free Google Tool that Will Read Copy Out Loud for You
Ginger is the name we gave to the voice on Google Translate. Ginger is also my co-host from early episodes of this show. The other day my daughter was making Ginger say some of the most preposterous things.
For example:
“Hello, I am a stupid machine. Do you still love me? It is good that you love me since I don’t care. I don’t have emotions. Tell me what I should say. How I should feel. See, I am stupid. What’s the weather like outside? How old is that cat? I have mental problems. Can you tell?”
If you read those lines … it just seems silly. Listening to Ginger say them, however, is a flipping riot. Which got me thinking about that particular piece of writing advice that says we should read what we wrote out loud. This exercise is supposed to help you to hear if it makes sense.
So what if Ginger read your copy out loud? Give it a shot.
- Go to Google Translate.
- Drop your copy in first box.
- Translate in language of choice.
- Hit the speaker icon.
The Emotional Temperature of a Machine
I experimented with a few posts … and it was funny. But very bumpy. She has zero emotion. Misses inflection. And stops halfway through on long posts.
Give it a shot with a short piece, and let me know what you think.
Until next time, take care.
Hey Demian! Catching up on some past episodes here this morning and thought I’d share this: At the start of this year I wrote about a better way to have your computer read your articles to you, and it’s built right into your Mac already (assuming you use a Mac). No length limits and sounds quite natural really! Sooo helpful when writing or reading long articles: http://rileyadamvoth.com/make-computer-read/
Hey Riley, good to hear from you, man, and thanks for listening. I did not know that about the Mac. Will give it a shot. Great tip.