Foolproof Proofing App

Every writer/editor misses mistakes in manuscripts and copy. My worst was leaving out just one letter in my bosses title under her name in a regional press release. She was Director of Public Relations for our fine and snooty little liberal arts college. I’ll let you guess which letter I didn’t notice was missing.

I’ve long known and used all the techniques for editing, everything from red pen on paper to reading out loud to reading backwards, but a few mistakes in spelling, grammar, and punctuation have eluded me until it was too late.

The latest proofing tool I’ve added is Voice Dream. This app is designed to make screen-bound information more convenient to access. From virtually any source, web pages, Word documents, e-mail, Voice Dream will read the words to you, in your choice of voices, male or female, with accents from around the world.

Proofreading may not be the original purpose of this app, but I love it for listening to drafts. I just finished listening to a 13,000-word document that I thought was clean, but I heard two errors I had overlooked. One was smarted when I meant smarter, and the other was a very that didn’t need to be there.

Plus, as an avid audio book listener, it is a kick hearing my words through my smartphone, like I was Steven Pinker or somebody.