{"id":377,"date":"2026-04-22T16:55:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T16:55:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/dazed-starling\/?p=377"},"modified":"2026-04-22T16:55:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T16:55:30","slug":"reflections-on-editing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/dazed-starling\/2026\/04\/22\/reflections-on-editing\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflections on Editing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Andrea Velez<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Editing is not easy and can be tedious. After spending hours on a paper, the last thing you want to do is reread everything you just wrote. You might have closed your laptop in finality and satisfaction, or maybe in fear and relief. No matter how you are feeling, you should do one more thing. Go to your Word Doc, click on the Review tab, and press the option to Read Aloud. You will not regret it; I know it has helped me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learning to Listen<\/h3>\n\n\n
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According to Microsoft Support\u2019s \u201cListen to your Word Documents,\u201d Microsoft Word offers three main voice options: Microsoft David, Microsoft Zira, and Microsoft Mark. I did not know I could change the voice, so I have been utilizing Microsoft David’s voice since I began university. The synthetic voice may sound awkward at first, but I find its quirks, like stalling in the middle of a sentence and pausing needlessly after reading an author\u2019s name, to be useful. This voice is not going to fix your mistakes or give you editorial feedback. Instead, this Microsoft voice is going to read exactly what you wrote, word for marvelous word. It will bring to your attention any missing articles, any misspelled words, and any notes you left for yourself and forgot to delete. All you have to do is follow along, and, of course, edit your mistakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This editing tip has saved me from sending embarrassing emails to my professors several times. Once, I was close to submitting an essay. I had read every paragraph and believed it was perfect, but I decided to listen to Microsoft David read it aloud. Halfway through the paper, I heard Microsoft David say, \u201cInsert citation here.\u201d Another time, I closed my eyes to listen and zoned out until the pronoun \u201cI\u201d was robotically repeated twice. I had used a personal pronoun multiple times throughout my academic essay and had to edit it out.  I experienced many instances of Microsoft David repeating \u201cquote here,\u201d or \u201cdouble check page number,\u201d or \u201cdoes this actually make sense?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other Tips<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

There are so many editing tips and hacks I can give you. You should utilize Grammarly<\/em>, do not use ChatGPT, and have your friends and classmates read your writing. Upon reflection, I believe the tip that has significantly improved my editing in the small areas is hearing it read aloud by Microsoft David.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Works Cited<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\u201cListen to your Word Documents.\u201d Microsoft Support. 2026, https:\/\/support.microsoft.com\/en-us\/office\/listen-to-your-word-documents-5a2de7f3-1ef4-4795-b24e-64fc2731b001.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andrea Velez Editing is not easy and can be tedious. After spending hours on a paper, the last thing you want to do is reread everything you just wrote. You might have closed your laptop in finality and satisfaction, or maybe in fear and relief. No matter how you are feeling, you should do one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[20,15],"class_list":["post-377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-editing","tag-writing-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/dazed-starling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/dazed-starling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/dazed-starling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/dazed-starling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/dazed-starling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/dazed-starling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":379,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/dazed-starling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377\/revisions\/379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/dazed-starling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/dazed-starling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/dazed-starling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}