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Using Your Kindle to Proofread Your Work

February 3, 2012, 8:00 am

By Konrad Lawson

In October Ryan showed us how you can use the text-to-speech accessibility features on your computer to proofread work. Ryan offers the example of checking the accuracy of a transcription with this method, but he notes at the end of his post that this might be helpful for proofreading our own writing. Some of us may ultimately find that synthesized voice technology is still too far behind to create a tolerable listening experience, but I personally find it good enough when taken in moderate doses.

During a session on “methods of reading,” as part of a series of discussions on technology and historical research methods I’ve been joining in on, my friend and favorite medieval Korean historian Javier Cha mentioned that he finds text-to-speech to be a great help in proofreading his own work. However, instead of using the text-to-speech features of his Windows operating system, he uses the built-in features of the Kindle, allowing him to do his proofreading on the run or at least lounging on the couch (errors can be highlighted in the document for later fixing).

If you have a Kindle, you need only send your document, whether it is HTML, plain text, rich text file, Word document or PDF to your Send-to-Kindle e-mail (please read the details for transfer fees when not using a wi-fi connection) address. With Word documents on Windows, to create nice free flowing text documents on the Kindle, Javier recommends this utility provided by Amazon. The Chrome Send to Kindle extension or the Readability Send to Kindle feature are also handy ways of getting web based documents on your device.

After opening the document on the kindle, turn on the text-to-speech feature either by holding down the shift and “sym” keys at the same time, or activating it in the menu which appears when you press the “Aa” button. You can start and stop the reading with the space bar. In order to be able to highlight some text (should you find an error you want to fix later when in front of your computer), you’ll need to turn off text-to-speech to once again make the cursor available with the direction keys. Again the shift+sym key is the easiest way to do this).

I find the voice quality of the kindle to be good enough but not quite as good as the voices on OS X (the attention to detail is impressive on OS X, including a short breathe taken by the voice between sentences). Anyone else use the Kindle in this way or does anyone have good ways to do this on other portable devices on Android or iOS?

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  • jeffJ1

    This question is unrelated to this case, since I do not know all the details. But I am curious about the legal standing for someone to sue for something he chose to participate in. In particular, how can you claim someone “forced” you to drink so much alcohol when you could have simply stopped the pledge process, or at least stopped drinking. I know it’s naive to think that students can “just say no,” but the fact remains that he chose to do it, and peer pressure is not the same as a gun to the head. What is the theory here?

  • kerchner

    I am not familiar with California law, but in my home state of Pennsylvania (and, I believe, many other states) the laws are written that those being hazed are presumed to be doing it involuntarily, even if they claim otherwise.  If someone is forced to do something that is considered hazing under the statute in order to join an organization, those who are doing the “forcing” are presumed to be guilty even if the person being hazed claims that s/he was doing it willingly.  I would presume that even though this is about a civil suit not criminal charges, the principle would apply.  (As the ads say, I am a non-attorney spokesperson.)  

  • 12052592

    Two golden rules learned in law school:
    1.  Never EVER sue poor people (you will not collect)
    2.  Never EVER sue a Jewish organization for discrimination (you will not win and may be labeled as an anti-Semite)

    Warning: the above rules don’t really exist.  This was posted as SARCASM.  Just a disclaimer to cover my butt (see rule #2).

  • tlnorth

    Perhaps the Jewish fraternity is like others that have stipulated no hazing. (As I would expect UCDavis, my alma mater, to have stipulated at least on its campus). If this is the case I wonder why there is no mention of suing the fraternity at the national level as it is the national level that monitors and enables the local chapter to maintain its affiliation. 

  • jeffJ1

    I was not aware of that! Interesting. It begs the question, what is the theory behind putting hazing in a special class of activities. I can imagine a lot of emotional reasons but it seems like a thorny legal area.

  • old nassau’67

    Hazing is not so special: statutory rape and teacher-student sex also presume “those who are doing the ‘forcing’..to be guilty..even if the person being (hazed; violated?) claims that s/he was doing it willingly.”  For example, “Under a Texas law passed three years ago, teachers who have sex with
    their students may be convicted of a felony and sent to prison for up to 20 years”
    Period: the age of the student is irrelevant. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,200004,00.html#ixzz1djlZQ5W7
    In the military, any officer “fraternizing” with an enlistee can kiss his career and perhaps his freedom good-bye.

  • http://twitter.com/ik_ ik_

    That’s how I tend to review the extended essays my students hand in. Reading them on screen may be tiring while the eink screen with a piece of paper and a cup of coffee at the side could be rather productivity-friendly.

    By the way I use a B&N Nook Simple Touch. By far the best ereader till now, although the marketing team of Amazon has done wonderful things. I drop my doc files in Calbre and convert them in the appropriate format -ePub that is. I then send them to my NST.

  • minnesotan

    I’d probably proofread on the Kindle more often if all of my reading notes didn’t get jumbled into the same file. There isn’t a way to make it so that each file you edit creates its own, separate note file, is there? (“If not, there bloody well should be!” He says in his best Michael Palin impression.)

  • http://twitter.com/sjcprof Jane St Pierre

    Great way to proof “listen” to your written work.

  • ebinstock

    I have an old Kindle, the original one. Does it have anything like the text to speech features? 

  • claudettepeterson

    Does anyone know of a good iPad App that has a good text-to-voice feature for Word docs or pdf? I have a request from a blind student. Thanks!

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