SpeechBee

Guide

Proofread by listening

When you reread your own writing, your brain fills in what you meant. When you hear it, you notice what's actually there. Here's how to proofread by ear on a Mac, free, and a routine that makes it fast.

By the SpeechBee team, who make SpeechBee. Checked against Apple's Mac User Guide on 12 October 2026

On this page
  1. What listening catches
  2. Set up your Mac to read to you
  3. A routine that works
  4. A more natural voice
  5. Questions
  6. Keep reading
  7. Sources

What listening catches

  • Missing or doubled words. "Send it to to the team" is easy to read past and hard to hear past.
  • Wrong but real words. "Their" for "there", "form" for "from", which spell-check misses.
  • Sentences that run on. If the voice runs out of breath, so will your reader.
  • Clunky rhythm and repeated words, which sound worse than they look.

It's especially useful for text you dictated, where a misheard word can look plausible.

Set up your Mac to read to you

  1. Open System Settings, click Accessibility, then Read & Speak, and turn on Speak selection.
  2. Click the info button next to it and set Highlight content to words or sentences, so you can follow along.
  3. Turn on Show controller to pause and change speed.
  4. Pick a voice you can listen to for a while from System voice.

Full details: how to make your Mac read text aloud.

A routine that works

  1. Finish the draft first. Proofread by ear at the end, not while writing.
  2. Listen a paragraph at a time. Select, press Option-Esc, and fix as you go.
  3. Slow the voice slightly. Normal speed is fine for reading; slower helps you catch small errors.
  4. Listen once more to anything that matters: a cover letter, a client email, a submission.

A more natural voice

Apple's voices are clear, and to our ears flatter than modern neural voices, which makes long listening tiring. SpeechBee, the app we make, reads selected text in any Mac app with natural voices that run on your Mac: select, press your reading key, and a small player lets you pause, skip and change speed. Your text never leaves the Mac. It also does dictation, so you can draft by voice and proofread by ear with two keys.

Voice to text
New message

Hi Maya, I'll send the revised proposal tomorrow morning.

SpeechBee's listening indicator on Mac
Hold your key, talk, let go. The text lands at the cursor.
Text to speech
Article

Most people read faster than they speak. SpeechBee reads the sentence you selected out loud, while you keep working.

SpeechBee's Read Aloud player on Mac
Select text, press your reading key, listen.

Draft by voice, proofread by ear. Free for 7 days.

Voice to text and Read Aloud on your Mac, iPhone and iPad. After the week, $9 a month, $79 a year, or $99 once. Every plan has every feature.

Download for MacGet it for iPhone & iPad

Questions

Does reading aloud help with proofreading?

Many writers find it does, because hearing text stops you filling in what you meant to write. It doesn't replace a careful read for facts and formatting.

How do I make my Mac read my document?

Turn on Speak selection in Accessibility, Read & Speak. Select the text and press Option-Esc.

Can Word or Pages read my document aloud?

Speak selection works in both: select text and press Option-Esc. Many apps also have Edit, Speech, Start Speaking.

Keep reading

Sources

All checked on 12 October 2026.