The ancient Greeks in 345 BC would write you off for the way you read.

You’d attract more than a little scorn.

Because for them, voiceless reading, sitting back with a buttoned lip, was no way to move down the lines of an engraved clay tablet.

When the ancients read, they read aloud. Always.

They believed magic happened that way as a writer’s spirit is contained in a reader’s breath.

For them, a text had to be rendered in a living voice to be complete.

Fast forward to the Romans and the same thinking applies.

A spiritual connection to the writer’s intentions emerged when the text was read aloud.

As a copywriter, think about making your intentions one with your copy; start by reading it aloud.

Put a red pencil through anything that sounds second-hand, perfunctory and relentlessly dull.

Cross out sentences that clatter with formulaic, monochrome, inert thinking.

The ancients would tell you that second-rate writing is easy to spot in a verbal context.

Fast forward again, this time two millennia, to David Abbott’s work.

If you don’t know it, see his ads for Volvo, the Economist and Sainsbury’s.

He read his copy aloud, as we’ve heard from those passing by his office.

Some thought he was talking to himself.

But It was to ensure the writing had a voice that mirrored his thinking. 

That it sparked curiosity; that it was intelligent, pointed and witty enough to project empathy and drive engagement.

With David Abbott in mind, go back and read the ads you’ve had produced this year.

But give them a David-Abbott-out-loud-reading.

There’s every chance your ears will tell you one thing. 

Your work can be improved.