Ryan Lopano Blog

When you are writing, there is a clear difference between writing for a quick skim through from the eye versus reading it outloud for many to hear. Personally, when I am writing for reading internally, it is filled with much more context and details, as you don’t have the verbal inflections to go off of. Zinser mentions that, “Verbs are the most important of all your tools. in Chapter 10.” Giving this context, through verbs and other ways of speech, is important because it isn’t always obvious, and you need to let the writing do the heavy lifting.

You need to make sure that when a reader is going over your work, it is easy to tell the context. According to Zinser, “Writing that will endure tends to consist of words that are short and strong.” These strong words are really important when you aren’t audibly reading work. The words need to have an important meaning as they are the only thing the reader has to go off of. That is why it is important to include these when writing for internal reading.

Reading outloud doesn’t have this issue. You have the ability to hear and see what the reader wants you to see, so this gives you all the information you need to know. One disadvantage of listening to work out loud is that you don’t have the ability to go back. Because of this, it is important to absorb all the important information and try to understand everything that is being said. When giving speeches, you want to make sure you speak strongly so the listeners understand everything you are talking about and take it as intended.

Both reading and listening have their positives and negatives. It is really based on personal preference, but both are important. Knowing how to write both is very useful, and adding extra details based on which one you are writing for is very useful.