[TomDavey]

Here's a technique for revising and improving prose that has no analog in programming: reading the text aloud to yourself.

This is the best way to fix a first draft, of short texts at least, without having to wait for it to cool off first. Often an email must be sent quickly, with no time to set the message aside. So always before I hit Send, I invest a minute to pronounce the text aloud, or at least under my breath while moving my lips.

I'm often amazed at the obvious typos I catch this way. As well, my oral fluency -- which appears to come from a whole different place than my written voice -- can often improve entire sentences with better word choices or figures of speech that emerge from my mouth spontaneously as I speak the text back.

Voilà! A much better second draft of the message in a very efficient manner.

And yes, I read this post aloud before I pressed "add comment." I hope it doesn't betray me.

[themacguffinman]

Arguably writing tests is the analog of reading prose aloud. It forces you to think through cases as a user of your code and often helps catch bugs as a side effect of your thinking than the test result.

Or perhaps a closer analog is the rubber duck where being forced to explain your problem leads to thinking more clearly about it and solving it.