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Listen to some of the best stories ever written. We have them right here. Want to upload your own? Use the main player to upload epub files.

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TTSReader reads out loud texts, webpages, pdfs & ebooks with natural sounding voices. Works out of the box. No need to download or install. No sign in required. Simply click 'play' and enjoy listening right in your browser. TTSReader remembers your text and position between sessions, so you can continue listening right where you left. Recording the generated speech is supported as well. Works offline, so you can use it at home, in the office, on the go, driving or taking a walk. Listening to textual content using TTSReader enables multitasking, reading on the go, improved comprehension and more. With support for multiple languages, it can be used for unlimited use cases .

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Main Use Cases

Listen to great content.

Most of the world's content is in textual form. Being able to listen to it - is huge! In that sense, TTSReader has a huge advantage over podcasts. You choose your content - out of an infinite variety - that includes humanity's entire knowledge and art richness. Listen to lectures, to PDF files. Paste or upload any text from anywhere, edit it if needed, and listen to it anywhere and anytime.

Proofreading

One of the best ways to catch errors in your writing is to listen to it being read aloud. By using TTSReader for proofreading, you can catch errors that you might have missed while reading silently, allowing you to improve the quality and accuracy of your written content. Errors can be in sentence structure, punctuation, and grammar, but also in your essay's structure, order and content.

Listen to web pages

TTSReader can be used to read out loud webpages in two different ways. 1. Using the regular player - paste the URL and click play. The website's content will be imported into the player. (2) Using our Chrome extension to listen to pages without leaving the page . Listening to web pages with TTSReader can provide a more accessible, convenient, and efficient way of consuming online content.

Turn ebooks into audiobooks

Upload any ebook file of epub format - and TTSReader will read it out loud for you, effectively turning it into an audiobook alternative. You can find thousands of epub books for free, available for download on Project Gutenberg's site, which is an open library for free ebooks.

Read along for speed & comprehension

TTSReader enables read along by highlighting the sentence being read and automatically scrolling to keep it in view. This way you can follow with your own eyes - in parallel to listening to it. This can boost reading speed and improve comprehension.

Generate audio files from text

TTSReader enables exporting the synthesized speech with a single click. This is available currently only on Windows and requires TTSReader’s premium . Adhering to the commercial terms some of the voices may be used commercially for publishing, such as narrating videos.

Accessibility, dyslexia, etc.

For individuals with visual impairments or reading difficulties, listening to textual content, lectures, articles & web pages can be an essential tool for accessing & comprehending information.

Language learning

TTSReader can read out text in multiple languages, providing learners with listening as well as speaking practice. By listening to the text being read aloud, learners can improve their comprehension skills and pronunciation.

Kids - stories & learning

Kids love stories! And if you can read them stories - it's definitely the best! But, if you can't, let TTSReader read them stories for you. Set the right voice and speed, that is appropriate for their comprehension level. For kids who are at the age of learning to read - this can also be an effective tool to strengthen that skill, as it highlights every sentence being read.

Main Features

Ttsreader is a free text to speech reader that supports all modern browsers, including chrome, firefox and safari..

Includes multiple languages and accents. If on Chrome - you will get access to Google's voices as well. Super easy to use - no download, no login required. Here are some more features

Fun, Online, Free. Listen to great content

Drag, drop & play (or directly copy text & play). That’s it. No downloads. No logins. No passwords. No fuss. Simply fun to use and listen to great content. Great for listening in the background. Great for proof-reading. Great for kids and more. Learn more, including a YouTube we made, here .

Multilingual, Natural Voices

We facilitate high-quality natural-sounding voices from different sources. There are male & female voices, in different accents and different languages. Choose the voice you like, insert text, click play to generate the synthesized speech and enjoy listening.

Exit, Come Back & Play from Where You Stopped

TTSReader remembers the article and last position when paused, even if you close the browser. This way, you can come back to listening right where you previously left. Works on Chrome & Safari on mobile too. Ideal for listening to articles.

Vs. Recorded Podcasts

In many aspects, synthesized speech has advantages over recorded podcasts. Here are some: First of all - you have unlimited - free - content. That includes high-quality articles and books, that are not available on podcasts. Second - it’s free. Third - it uses almost no data - so it’s available offline too, and you save money. If you like listening on the go, as while driving or walking - get our free Android Text Reader App .

Read PDF Files, Texts & Websites

TTSReader extracts the text from pdf files, and reads it out loud. Also useful for simply copying text from pdf to anywhere. In addition, it highlights the text currently being read - so you can follow with your eyes. If you specifically want to listen to websites - such as blogs, news, wiki - you should get our free extension for Chrome

Export Speech to Audio Files

TTSReader enables exporting the synthesized speech to mp3 audio files. This is available currently only on Windows, and requires ttsreader’s premium .

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Science News Explores

Will you learn better from reading on screen or on paper.

One size doesn’t fit all situations. But for now, experts say, don’t throw away your books

Computers are very much a part of education today. But books and paper are still a good way to learn information. Depending on the material, they can be the easiest way, studies find.

Carol Yepes/Moment/Getty Images Plus

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By Avery Elizabeth Hurt

October 18, 2021 at 6:30 am

Want to know the current population of India? The internet is your best bet. Need a quick refresher on the phases of the moon ? Go ahead, read a story online (or two or three). But if you really need to learn something, you’re probably better off with print. Or at least that’s what a lot of research now suggests.

Many studies have shown that when people read on-screen, they don’t understand what they’ve read as well as when they read in print. Even worse, many don’t realize they’re not getting it. For example, researchers in Spain and Israel took a close look at 54 studies comparing digital and print reading. Their 2018 study involved more than 171,000 readers. Comprehension, they found, was better overall when people read print rather than digital texts. The researchers shared the results in Educational Research Review .

Patricia Alexander is a psychologist at the University of Maryland in College Park. She studies how we learn. Much of her research has delved into the differences between reading in print and on-screen. Alexander says students often think they learn more from reading online. When tested, though, it turns out that they actually learned less than when reading in print.

The question is: Why?

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Reading is reading, right? Not exactly. Maryanne Wolf works at the University of California, Los Angeles. This neuroscientist specializes in how the brain reads. Reading is not natural, she explains. We learn to talk by listening to those around us. It’s pretty automatic. But learning to read takes real work. Wolf notes it’s because the brain has no special network of cells just for reading.

To understand text, the brain borrows networks that evolved to do other things. For example, the part that evolved to recognize faces is called into action to recognize letters. This is similar to how you might adapt a tool for some new use. For example, a coat hanger is great for putting your clothes in the closet. But if a blueberry rolls under the refrigerator, you might straighten out the coat hanger and use it to reach under the fridge and pull out the fruit. You’ve taken a tool made for one thing and adapted it for something new. That’s what the brain does when you read.

It’s great that the brain is so flexible. It’s one reason we can learn to do so many new things. But that flexibility can be a problem when it comes to reading different types of texts. When we read online, the brain creates a different set of connections between cells from the ones it uses for reading in print. It basically adapts the same tool again for the new task. This is like if you took a coat hanger and instead of straightening it out to fetch a blueberry, you twisted it into a hook to unclog a drain. Same original tool, two very different forms.

As a result, the brain might slip into skim mode when you’re reading on a screen. It may switch to deep-reading mode when you turn to print.

That doesn’t just depend on the device, however. It also depends on what you assume about the text. Naomi Baron calls this your mindset. Baron is a scientist who studies language and reading. She works at American University in Washington, D.C. Baron is the author of How We Read Now , a new book about digital reading and learning. She says one way mindset works is in anticipating how easy or hard we expect the reading to be. If we think it will be easy, we might not put in much effort.

Much of what we read on-screen tends to be text messages and social-media posts. They’re usually easy to understand. So, “when people read on-screen, they read faster,” says Alexander at the University of Maryland. “Their eyes scan the pages and the words faster than if they’re reading on a piece of paper.”

But when reading fast, we may not absorb all the ideas as well. That fast skimming, she says, can become a habit associated with reading on-screen. Imagine that you turn on your phone to read an assignment for school. Your brain might fire up the networks it uses for skimming quickly through TikTok posts. That’s not helpful if you’re trying to understand the themes in that classic book, To Kill a Mockingbird . It also won’t get you far if you’re preparing for a test on the periodic table .

Where was I?

Speed isn’t the only problem with reading on screens. There’s scrolling, too. When reading a printed page or even a whole book, you tend to know where you are. Not just where you are on some particular page, but which page — potentially out of many. You might, for instance, remember that the part in the story where the dog died was near the top of the page on the left side. You don’t have that sense of place when some enormously long page just scrolls past you. (Though some e-reading devices and apps do a pretty good job of simulating page turns.)

Why is a sense of page important? Researchers have shown that we tend to make mental maps when we learn something. Being able to “place” a fact somewhere on a mental map of the page helps us remember it.

It’s also a matter of mental effort. Scrolling down a page takes a lot more mental work than reading a page that’s not moving. Your eyes don’t just focus on the words. They also have to keep chasing the words as you scroll them down the page.

Mary Helen Immordino-Yang is a neuroscientist at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. She studies how we read. When your mind has to keep up with scrolling down a page, she says, it doesn’t have a lot of resources left for understanding what you’re reading. This can be especially true if the passage you’re reading is long or complicated. While scrolling down a page, your brain has to continually account for the placement of words in your view. And this can make it harder for you to simultaneously understand the ideas those words should convey.

Alexander found that length matters, too. When passages are short, students understand just as much of what they read on-screen as do when reading in print. But once the passages are longer than 500 words, they learn more from print.

Even genre matters. Genre refers to what type of book or article you’re reading. The articles here on Science News for Students are nonfiction. News stories and articles about history are nonfiction. Stories invented by an author are fiction. The Harry Potter books are fiction, for example. So are Song for a Whale and A Wrinkle in Time .

In How We Read Now , Baron reviewed much of the research that’s been published about reading online. Most studies showed people understand nonfiction better when they read it in print. How it affects the understanding of fictional accounts is less clear.

Jenae Cohn works at California State University, Sacramento. Her work focuses on the use of technology in education. This past June, she published a book about digital reading: Skim, Dive, Surface . The biggest problem may not be the words on the screen, she finds. It’s the other things that pop up and get in the way of reading. It can be difficult to concentrate when something interrupts you every few minutes. She’s referring to pings and rings from texts or emails, pop-up advertisements and TikTok updates. All can quickly ruin concentration. Links and boxes that are meant to add to your understanding can be a problem, too. Even when they’re meant to be helpful, some can prove a distraction from what you’re reading.

Not all bad

If you want to do better in school (and who doesn’t?), it’s not quite as simple as turning off your tablet and picking up a book. There are plenty of good reasons to read on screens.

As the pandemic taught us, sometimes we have no choice. When libraries and bookstores close or it’s dangerous to visit them, digital reading can be a lifesaver. Expense is also an important factor. Digital books usually cost less than print ones. And, of course, you have to consider the environmental advantages of digital. It doesn’t take trees to make a digital book.

Digital reading has other advantages, too. In most cases, when you’re reading on-screen you can adjust the size of the letters. You also can change the background color and maybe the typeface. This is a huge help for people who don’t see well. It’s also useful for people with reading disabilities. People who have dyslexia, for instance, often find it easier to read material when it’s displayed in a typeface called Open Dyslexic . Computers, tablets and digital reading devices, such as Amazon’s Kindle, can offer this option. Many e-readers have apps that can be used on tablets, too. That makes it possible to get these advantages on a tablet or phone.

Reading online also allows editors to insert hyperlinks. These may help a reader dive deeper to understand a particular point or even just to learn the definition of a term that may be new or confusing.

Michelle Luhtala is a school librarian in New Canaan, Conn. She helps her school make the best use of digital material. She also trains teachers. Luhtala is not alarmed about digital reading. She points out that there are many ways to read on screens. Some e-textbooks and databases used in schools come with tools that make it easier, not harder, to learn, she says. Some e-books, for instance, let you highlight a passage. Then the computer will read it out loud. Other tools allow you to make notes about passages you’re reading and keep those notes after you’ve returned a book to the library. Most of these texts have pop-up definitions. Some link to maps, keywords and quizzes. Such tools can make digital material extremely useful, she argues.

Getting the most out of your digital reading

All experts agree on one thing: There’s no going back. Digital reading is here to stay. So it pays to make the most of it.

One obvious trick: Print anything that needs careful reading. You have this option when reading Science News for Students . (There’s a print icon at the top of every article.) But that may not be necessary. Other things can also make sure you retain the most from what you read on screens.

The most important thing, says Baron at American University, is to slow down. Again, this is about mindset. When you read something important, slow down and pay attention. “You can concentrate when you read digitally,” she says. But you have to make an effort. She suggests saying to yourself, “I’m going to take half an hour and just read. No text messages. No Instagram updates.” Turn off notifications on your phone or tablet. Only turn them back on when you’re done reading.

It’s also a good idea to do a little prep. Baron compares reading to sports or to playing music. “Watch a pianist or an athlete. Before they run the race or play the concerto, they get themselves in the zone,” she says. “It’s the same thing for reading. Before you read something you really want to focus on, get in the zone. Think about what you’ll be reading, and what you want to get from it.”

To really get the most from reading, Baron says, you have to engage with the words on the page. One great technique for this is making notes. You can write summaries of what you’ve read. You can make lists of key words. But one of the most useful ways to engage with what you’re reading is to ask questions. Argue with the author. If something doesn’t make sense, write down your question. You can look up the answer later. If you disagree, write down why. Make a good case for your point of view.

If you’re reading a print book, you can take notes on paper. If it’s a printout or if you own the book, you can write directly on the page. You can do this when you’re reading on your phone or tablet, too. Just keep a pad of paper handy while you read. Many apps also allow you to make virtual notes directly on a digital document, Luhtala points out. Some allow you to add virtual stickies. With some you can even write in the margins and turn down the corners of the virtual pages.

Like most things, what you get from reading on-screen depends on what you put into it. You don’t have to make a choice between print or digital. Alexander points out that when it comes to print versus digital, one is not better than the other. Both have their place. But they are different. So keep in mind that to learn well, how you interact with them may have to differ, too.

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Essay Reader: Online Text-to-Speech Tool

If you’re a college or high school student, you might constantly struggle with writing assignments. Whether it is homework or a task in the classroom, you can use the essay reading tool to write a better paper.

❓ Essay Reader: How to Use

• 🤔 Why Using the Tool?
• 💬 Reading out Loud Strategies
• 🔍 References

Essay readers are a part of assistive technology. You might be wondering how this online text speech tool works. So, here’s how to use it.

• Paste your essay to the window. Copy your essay sample (or a part of it) and paste it into the window. Our essay reader allows you to insert up to 5,000 characters at once.
• Choose the preferable voice. We have different variations of voices to read your essay. The options include choosing between male and female voices, picking the timbre, and setting the reading speed.
• Press the “READ MY ESSAY” button. Once you’ve clicked it, the tool will read your text for you.
• New essay. In case you want to listen to one more essay, press the button below. Alternatively, you can download the audio for the current text using the according link.

🤔 Why Using Our Essay Reader?

How does reading out loud benefit your essay? Reading something aloud makes the text appear differently in our minds. We can see it from different perspectives and identify what is lacking. Most people are used to hearing and pronouncing English rather than reading and writing it.

First, there might be typos or mistakes that are hard to identify. Although we don’t intend it, we might also miss a word or write it twice. If we look through the text, we tend to skip those mistakes. On the other hand, if you read it out loud, you’ll easily spot them.

It is also easier to check your paper’s readability if you read it aloud. Sometimes the sentences and the paragraphs are too long and complicated, which makes them hard to understand. Reading them out loud can help to fix the format, style and make your paper readable.

Your essay should make sense overall. If your essay is very informative or complicated, you might be focusing on delivering your points rather than its readability . So, check if your transitions from topic to topic are smooth and if your explanations make sense by reading them aloud.

Let’s find out how you can use our free essay reader to make your paper even better!

💬 Reading out Loud: 7 Best Strategies

If you have already tried reading the paper out loud but still don’t identify all the mistakes or typos, you probably have been doing it wrongly. Our mind tends to correct minor errors naturally. We gathered these strategies that you can follow for the best result.

• Try reading from a printed copy. It is easier to make notes by hand on a printed copy. These notes can help identify the most crucial parts of your paper so that you can spend more time on them.
• Follow the text by pointing at it. Following the text as you read helps to concentrate. Reading significant amounts of texts, you might quickly lose focus. By following the text pointing at it with your finger, you can also focus on grammar.
• Don’t read too fast. Try not to hurry while reading. The faster you read, the more mistakes our brain misses. Slow reading doesn’t mean spending more time. If you read fast, you might need to reread the same passage several times. So, slow reading can save you time.
• Read from the end to start. If you want to focus on scanning your essay for mistakes and typos, try reading from the end so you won’t focus on the whole paper but each sentence.
• Cover everything except for the passage you’re working on. If you still find it hard to concentrate on reading your paper, try covering the parts you are not working on at the moment. That can help you concentrate on a specific passage.
• Ask someone to read for you. Another option you can use is to ask someone to read it aloud. Another person can take a look at it from another perspective. Since you are the one who is working on the paper, you might get used to it and not see something others see. Try to make notes as they read it for you.
• Use technology. Technology helps us with our studying a lot these days. There are online timers, graders, grammar correctors, etc. If you don’t want to bother others, you can use text-to-speech technology to read the essay for you. It has a list of advantages. First, unlike humans, it doesn’t miss any mistakes. You can also control the speed, the number of reading times, and where to start or to finish.

Online Text-to-Speech Tool: How to Choose?

Here’s what you should take into account when choosing an online tool:

• Speed control. Can you adjust the speed or pause the reader? It may be crucial, especially if your text is long.
• Voice. Can you choose between the voices? Don’t they sound robotic? You can also switch between the voices so that you won’t get tired of listening to it several times.
• Text control. How does the software work? Can you upload the documents? Can you highlight the crucial parts?
• Accessibility. Does it work offline? Do you need to download and install it?
• Tool speed. How long do you need to wait to hear the result? What’s the volume of an essay that the tool can convert at once?

If you are wondering, “Where can I have an essay read to me?” you can check our essay reader out for free and see if it’s suitable for you!

✏️ Online Text-to-Speech Tool: FAQ

• You can spot typos, misspellings, and mistakes.
• You can check the paper’s readability.
• You can see if it is informative.

Try our essay reader to listen to your essay for free!

Updated: Oct 25th, 2023

🔗 References

• Teaching Techniques: Reading Aloud Artfully! | Scholastic
• 7 Powerful Public Speaking Tips From One of the Most-Watched TED Talks Speakers
• 10 Tips for Reading Aloud with Children
• What Are the Benefits of Reading Aloud? An Instructional
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The tool available here is designed to turn any text into speech. You can choose the voice type and its timbre to make it sound just the way you like. The tool can be useful for when you need to know how long it will take to red through your speech, how it sounds live, or when you need a quick voiceover.

The internet can be a dark and, quite often, violent place for women — many of whom are subjected to trolling, harassment, and threats on a daily basis. But it can also be a truly wonderful place, one that provides free access to news, educational resources, entertainment, communication, and wealth of incredible writing — including these empowering essays by women you can read online right now . Written by Cecile Richards, Lindy West, Lady Gaga, and more, these essays are filled with inspiration and wisdom to guide you through your day.

For female readers, the online world can sometimes feel like a minefield, one that is littered with destructive words meant to tear women down or shut them up. But for famous authors and writers, beloved celebrities, and popular athletes, it can also serve as the perfect platform to share their empowering stories, which often include plenty of inspirational anecdotes and practical advice that makes the whole mess of the internet worth it.

Whether you’re looking for a bit of guidance in your own life, or hoping to inspire your friends with some sage advice from more experienced women, here are nine empowering essays you can read for free online right now .

"The Most Daring Women Don’t Always Make Headlines" by Cecile Richards

"Today, women across this country are doing her proud. The earth is shifting under the force of millions of women standing up for themselves, for each other, for their daughters and their mothers and sisters," writes the former president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund Cecile Richards in her inspiring piece about women and activism for Harper's Bazaar . "Women are no longer asking for permission. They’re just diving in and taking risks. They know we can’t afford to sit this one out."

Read the full essay here .

"Rebranding Motherhood" by Diksha Basu

"If anything, so far being a mother feels quite delightfully self-indulgent. I have a daughter in whom I can constantly look for and find little bits of myself or, better yet, improved bits of myself," writes Windfall author Dikashu Basu in a moving essay for The New York Times about redefining motherhood. "Recently a construction worker called out to me on the street in Lower Manhattan and I got my angry anti-catcalling face ready to respond but he very respectfully said, 'You have a beautiful daughter, ma’am.' My vanity now has two bodies within which to reside — the sacrifice looks more like narcissism from certain angles."

Read the full essay here.

"This Is Survival" by Aly Raisman

In a heartbreaking but incredibly powerful essay for The Players' Tribune , American gymnast Aly Raisman opens up about her experience with sexual abuse, and offers some words of encouragement to anyone else who has gone through the same thing. "I am not a victim. I am a survivor. The abuse does not define me, or anyone else who has been abused. This does not define the millions of those who’ve suffered sexual abuse," the two-time Olympian writes. "They are not victims, either. They are survivors. They are strong, they are brave, they are changing things so the next generation never has to go through what they did."

"What I Learned at War" by Tammy Duckworth

Senator Tammy Duckworth has often spoken out about her time serving in the U.S. army, including in this persuasive essay about the price of war and what it can teach us that she wrote for Politico. "That day, I lost both of my legs, but I was given a second chance at life," she writes, recounting her experience fighting in the Iraq War. "It’s a feeling that has helped to drive me in my second chance at service—no one should be left behind, and every American deserves another chance."

"The 'Perfect Body' Is a Lie. I Believed It For a Long Time and Let It Shrink My Life" by Lindy West

If you have read Lindy West's memoir Shrill , you know that she has a lot of incredibly insightful things to say fat acceptance and body positivity. In an essay for The Guardian, she shares some of them, saying "The 'perfect body' is a lie. I believed in it for a long time, and I let it shape my life, and shrink it – my real life, populated by my real body. Don’t let fiction tell you what to do. In the omnidirectional orgy gardens of Vlaxnoid, no one cares about your arm flab."

"Bring It On" by Ibtihaj Muhammad

The first Muslim American to medal in the Olympics, fencing champion Ibtihaj Muhammad opened up about what it is like to compete in an sport where so few people look like her. "One day, during a fifteen-hour flight to a training camp in Beijing, I arrived at a moment where I said enough is enough — I’d spent years fighting for every win, every opportunity, every ounce of respect on my path to becoming an Olympian, and I was no longer going to allow other people to affect how I perceived myself or restrict what I was capable of," she writes in Lenny Letter. "When people stared me down at a tournament, I didn’t know if it was a race thing or a religious thing or that they weren’t ready for change, but I finally realized: Why was that burden on me to figure out? I didn’t have the time to acquire their baggage or analyze why anyone wanted to make me feel inferior. I had a job to do on that team, and that job was winning a medal."

"Why It's So Important That CEOs Like Me Speak Out Against Trump" by Reshma Saujani

In an essay about corporate responsibility in the age of Trump by Reshma Saujani, the Girls Who Code founder and CEO reminds readers that individuals have a lot of power to enact change. "But if every American has the power to sway a CEO," she argues in a piece for Teen Vogue, "then every American quite literally has a chance to sway public opinion, to shape the way we talk and think and act on our values system — to change the way we treat our fellow Americans and those who come here seeking a better life for their families."

"Ava DuVernay on How to 'Pivot Towards Positivity' in Trying Times" by Ava DuVernay

There are few creatives as wise, or as giving when it comes to advice, as A Wrinkle in Time director Ava DuVernay. "These days I’m a lot less competitive, a lot less concerned about what other people do. I’m much more focused on the things that make me happy," she writes in an inspirational essay for InStyle. "I believe that good comes when you put out good, and so I just try to emanate joyful vibes. Why not? I’m not going to spend my day hating on someone else. I’ve got so many better and more joy-filled things to do."

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The 5 best essay readers for enhanced reading and learning

Table of contents.

When it comes to enhancing our reading and learning experiences, especially in the realms of English and writing essays, the role of an essay reader cannot be overstated.

These innovative tools, often powered by text-to-speech (TTS) technology, have revolutionized the way we interact with written content.

From high school students grappling with their first college essay to professionals proofreading lengthy documents, essay readers offer a multitude of benefits.

This article delves into the top five essay readers, each a beacon of high-quality tech in the world of learning and literacy.

What are essay readers?

At their core, essay readers are tools designed to read text aloud, transforming everything from web pages to docs into audible speech.

This text-to-speech reader technology is a boon for learners of all ages and abilities, including those with disabilities like dyslexia.

By converting online text or free text from documents into speech, these tools help in overcoming challenges associated with reading and comprehension.

Top 5 essay readers you should try

1. speechify text to speech.

Speechify stands out as a versatile essay reader, adept at turning your ‘read my essay to me’ request into a pleasant reality.

Its user-friendly interface makes it accessible to everyone, from high school students working on their thesis statement to adults enjoying an audiobook .

What sets Speechify apart is its range of high-quality voices, including both male and female voices, which can be adjusted to suit your preferred reading speed.

It’s available as a mobile app for both iOS and Android devices, ensuring you can listen to your essays or books on the go.

2. Text to Speech Reader (TTSReader)

TTSReader emphasizes simplicity and ease of use, making it an excellent online tool for reading essays out loud.

It’s particularly handy for proofreading, as hearing your essay read aloud can help catch typos and awkward transitions.

TTSReader works seamlessly on various platforms, requiring no more than an internet connection to function. This makes it a reliable companion for learners and professionals alike.

3. NaturalReader

NaturalReader is celebrated for its natural-sounding voices and ability to handle a variety of text formats.

Its standout feature is the OCR capability, which allows users to convert printed material into spoken words – a feature particularly useful for learners with dyslexia.

NaturalReader supports multiple languages, including Spanish, broadening its appeal to a global audience. It’s also available as a mobile app, offering flexibility to users who prefer to learn via their mobile devices.

Murf distinguishes itself with AI-powered voice synthesis, offering a range of realistic voices for a more engaging listening experience.

It’s not just an essay reader but also a powerful voice-over tool, ideal for creating educational content or podcasts.

Murf’s real-time voice synthesis can transform any text, from a college essay to a professional report, into a captivating audio experience.

Play.ht rounds up the list with its comprehensive text-to-speech solutions. It offers a wide array of voice options and is compatible with various content management systems, making it a versatile tool for content creators.

Play.ht ‘s advanced features, like voice cloning, allow for a highly personalized experience, whether you’re listening to an essay or a podcast .

Benefits of essay readers

Essay readers are amazing tools that help you read and understand lots of text quickly and easily.

Think about those long college essays or novels you need to read – these tools can read them out loud for you! This is super helpful, especially when you’re trying to understand every little detail.

These tools are also a big help for people who find reading tough, like those with dyslexia . They change written words into spoken words, making it easier to understand and follow along.

It’s like having someone read the text to you, which can make learning a lot more fun and less stressful. One of the coolest things about essay readers is how they can make you a better writer.

When you hear your essay read out loud, you can catch mistakes or awkward parts that you might not notice when you’re just reading it in your head.

This way, you can make your writing sound better and even check if you accidentally copied someone else’s words (that’s called plagiarism, and it’s important to avoid).

Plus, these tools are super handy because you can use them on your phone. So, whether you’re on the bus, taking a break, or just chilling at home, you can keep learning and reading without having to sit down with a book or a bunch of papers.

Practical applications of essay readers

Essay readers are useful in lots of different situations. In school, they’re great for helping you understand and remember what you’re learning.

They’re especially good for students who like to learn by listening or who find reading tough. By turning your school books or notes into something you can listen to, studying can become more interesting and less of a headache.

For people who work, these tools are big time-savers. Imagine being able to listen to reports or important documents while you’re doing other things.

This is super helpful for making sure your work is the best it can be. When you listen to what you’ve written, it’s easier to find and fix small mistakes.

And for your own learning, essay readers can turn anything you find online, like articles or ebooks, into your own personal audiobook.

This is perfect if you love learning new things but don’t always have the time to sit and read. Whether you’re keeping up with the news, exploring cool topics, or enjoying stories, these tools make it easy to fit learning into your day, no matter how busy you are.

Experience reading like never before with Speechify Text to Speech

Dive into the world of effortless reading with Speechify Text to Speech , your go-to tool for transforming text into speech on various platforms.

Whether you’re using iOS , Android , PC , or Mac , Speechify offers a seamless experience, bringing your essays, books, and documents to life with its natural-sounding voices.

It’s perfect for students, professionals, or anyone looking to enhance their reading experience. Why not give Speechify a try and see how it revolutionizes your reading habits?

Download it today on your preferred device and step into a world where text speaks to you!

How can using a text-to-speech tool improve my writing skills?

Utilizing a text-to-speech tool can significantly enhance your writing skills in several ways.

Firstly, hearing your essay read out loud by the tool allows you to catch errors and awkward phrasings that you might miss when reading silently.

This auditory feedback helps in refining sentence structure and improving the overall flow of your writing.

Additionally, listening to well-written content through these tools can subconsciously improve your grasp of language and style, further enhancing your writing abilities.

Is a text to speech converter useful for practicing public speaking or presentations?

Absolutely! A text to speech converter can be an invaluable tool for practicing public speaking or presentations.

By converting your written content, like speeches or presentation scripts, into spoken words, you can hear how your words sound to an audience.

This practice helps in adjusting your pacing, emphasis, and intonation. It’s an effective way to prepare for actual public speaking scenarios, ensuring your message is clear and impactful.

Can I use a text-to-speech tool to help me learn a new language?

Yes, text-to-speech tools can be quite beneficial for language learners. By listening to essays or other texts read out loud in the language you’re learning, you can improve your listening comprehension and pronunciation.

Many text-to-speech tools offer a variety of voices in different languages and accents, which can be particularly helpful in getting accustomed to the sounds and rhythms of a new language.

This auditory exposure complements traditional learning methods and can accelerate language acquisition.

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Cliff Weitzman

Cliff Weitzman is a dyslexia advocate and the CEO and founder of Speechify, the #1 text-to-speech app in the world, totaling over 100,000 5-star reviews and ranking first place in the App Store for the News & Magazines category. In 2017, Weitzman was named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list for his work making the internet more accessible to people with learning disabilities. Cliff Weitzman has been featured in EdSurge, Inc., PC Mag, Entrepreneur, Mashable, among other leading outlets.

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Read My Essay to Me: FREE Text-to-Speech Tool

Our online text-to-speech tool transforms any typed text into audio. It is absolutely free!

By clicking Read My Essay to me you agree to our Terms

We Can Turn Your Paper Into a Perfect One

Read my essay out loud to me, what is an essay reader tool.

Now let’s explain what these tools that read my essay aloud are. The technical term for the app is a text to speech tool, abbreviated as TTS. As assistive technology, Read My Paper to Me will voice over any written text you paste into the provided form.

Another advantage of these tools is that they run on various digital devices, including cell phones, tablets, and PCs. Moreover, specialized apps allow any mobile operating system (typically Android or iPhone) to load the tool. All browsers can open the free essay reader without problems and can even transform entire websites into speech.

Websites like PapersOwl feature various free tools to help clients improve their paper composition skills. They can also write your college essay for a fee. Once you receive the ordered piece, you can check its flow and consistency by uploading it in the field specified for text reading.

If you wonder how the Read Me My Essay app works, you should know that your device will generate the sound through TTS. You can adjust the speed according to your needs and select a speaker. Though some voices are robotic, the quality is superior and humanlike in most cases.

As the machine read essay, words get highlighted. Advanced variants can also read wording from images. This technique is known as OCR or optical character recognition. Overall, these tools assist people in tracking reading and are super convenient for mastering a foreign language.

Why Use Our Essay Reader Aloud?

Some of you may doubt the use of these tools, so we wanted to pinpoint their purpose. According to scientists, reading out loud affects other brain segments and is more objective than reading the text silently. Our minds react to auditory stimuli differently, depending on who reads the material. Thus, we can see the essay from another perspective and identify what is missing.

The key reason to use our Read My Essay to Me is the ability to spot typos and mistakes that slipped through your fingers. For instance, you might have missed a preposition or written the same word twice. When looking at texts, we tend to neglect these errors, which is not the case with speech.

Another advantage of Read My Paper to Me is that it enhances readability. Sometimes, we write lengthy sentences and disregard their complexity. When someone unfamiliar with the topic will read your paper out loud, they might struggle to grasp your points. Long and complicated sentences and paragraphs impede reading, and that’s not what you want to achieve with your writing. Hence, you’ll get the chance to fix the format and emotional impact to make your work legible and easy to understand.

Any written work must sound logical and have a seamless flow of thought. But even if you pay to do your essay , unintentional mistakes can occur. In the case of complex reports, focusing on delivering your arguments and examples can blur the paper’s readability. The TTC will help you improve your transitions and evaluate your explanations.

Finally, the text to speech converter can ease the lives of the disabled. For example, for those who have problems with writing or dyslexia, assistive technology can be of exceptional help. It can make the process more comfortable and facilitate comprehension and fluency.

Online Essay Reader – How to Use?

Advanced essay readers are incredibly practical in this high-tech era. Since this assistive technology is relatively new, we wanted to explain how it works. Below, we list the steps you must take to listen to your essay:

• Open our website and find the blank area provided for your essay. Copy and paste or type your text into the window, and the app will read out loud the written piece. Note that you can insert up to 5,000 characters in one go.
• Select preferred type of voice. You can choose between a few variations, including male and female voices, and adjust the reading speed.
• Locate the button READ MY TEXT and press it. The machine will start producing speech instantly.
• If you want to hear it once again, request another reading. Or paste a new essay and repeat the same procedure. You also have the option to download the audio version.

Read my Essay Out Loud: Key Benefits

Using our Read My Paper to Me aid is ideal for proofreading and editing your words. Here are some of the critical benefits:

Error Detection

Our online essay reader helps writers to spot and correct typos and mistakes. PapersOwl is also a website that writes essays for you on any subject matter you need for college. It is a one-stop-shop place for all your academic worries. Now, you no longer have to beg your friend to proofread your papers so you can polish them.

Coherence and Attractiveness

When working on an essay, distractors such as typing, noises, citing, research, and fact-checking might impede the cohesion of the paper. Focusing on one aspect may produce a poor piece in terms of meaning and readability. Since you’re multitasking when you write, clicking read my essay is an excellent opportunity to polish your text.

Auditory Learners

Many students prefer to use audiobooks in high school and college. These tools are an ideal solution for auditory learners having problems with visual focus. They can insert almost any text into the online texttospeech app and listen to it while cooking or relaxing. Indeed, these learning machines open a whole new world of possibilities.

Foreign Languages

Typically, you can’t learn a language unless you hear it constantly. And besides speaking, the best way to memorize new words and phrases is to listen to them. You can choose the voice in your app depending on your learning style.

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12 English Reading Websites: Made for Native Speakers and Great for Learners

The internet connects people in ways that were never possible before. It’s also a place where you can find some incredible English writing.

When you think of practicing English reading , you probably think of books or magazines . You might think of going online when you want to learn internet slang or talk to others .

But there’s so much more to discover online!

There are some amazing websites out there for native speakers that provide great content for when you’re learning English. Here are the 12 best English reading websites for you to try! 

Hobbies and Entertainment

1. a beautiful mess, 2. nomadic matt, fashion and style, 3. refinery29, 4. the everygirl, 5. mantelligence, news and current events, science and technology, 8. discover, 9. techcrunch, history and trivia, 10. atlas obscura, 11. mental floss, 12. lifehacker, how reading english online will help you learn , tips for english reading on websites for native speakers, and one more thing....

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

What it is: Sisters Elsie and Emma share their favorite crafts, home decor and cooking projects in one of the most widely-read blogs online.

What to expect: The language is extremely upbeat and playful, and each blog reads as though one of the sisters is talking to you over a cup of coffee. Study their instruction posts to learn how to explain yourself clearly.

Sample article: “5 Easy Watercolor Techniques”

What it is: Matt has been traveling the world since 2006, and he shares his experiences and travel tips on this blog.

What to expect: Matt uses very simple language so anyone can use his knowledge to plan their own trips. You can learn a lot about other cultures here, how to plan a trip of your own (without spending too much money) and other topics that would interest fans of traveling.

Sample article:   “How to Plan a Trip to a Place You Know Nothing About”

What it is: A huge online magazine mostly for young women. There are articles about style, fashion, entertainment and some current events from a different perspective.

What to expect: Refinery29 uses an informal writing style, and sometimes uses internet slang. This is a good place to get in touch with how younger internet users write and speak (and dress). You’ll find a lot of articles with lists on what’s trendy at the moment, including some longer articles about the personal experiences of the writers. 

Sample article: “The Return of the Perm”

What it is: A magazine for career women who are (or want to be) successful while still looking and feeling fantastic. Many different topics are covered such as careers, fashion and wellness.

What to expect: Some articles are similar to Refinery29 , but they have a bit less slang in them and are slightly more sophisticated. They’re still perfect for intermediate and even beginner English learners. 

Sample article: “6 Ways to De-stress for Free”

What it is: Expert lifestyle tips for men, teaching how to live and dress like a gentleman.

What to expect: This is like the male version of the last two, but with a bigger emphasis on how to be classy (stylish or well-mannered). The language is somewhere between “intelligent man” and “bro.” That is, it’s a mix of more complex writing while still being friendly. Intermediate English learners should feel comfortable here.

Sample article: “57 Life Tips That Will Instantly Make You a Better Man”

What it is: Articles about pop culture, plus opinion pieces about serious current events and issues. Interesting things about the world we live in, and the people who live in it.

What to expect: Vice is not a typical media outlet, since it includes a lot of opinion in its articles, covers unusual topics and is targeted at young people. The writing is more complex, and may cause some trouble for early-intermediate English learners. Try an article: If you don’t get it, you probably need something a little simpler (work your way up to this!). 

Sample article: “It Used To Be An Oil Ship. Now It Helps Scientists Understand the Ocean.”  

What it is: News from National Public Radio, on everything from culture and current events, to art and music.

What to expect: Some of the articles on the NPR website are more difficult to read, as it’s a serious news and arts website. Many articles also include an audio clip, as well as a written transcript of the audio file, which makes this option perfect for English reading. Listen and read along, or read and then listen, to make sure you got things right.

Sample article: “ Honeybee Deaths Rose Last Year. Here’s Why Farmers Would Go Bust Without Bees.”

What it is: The latest news in science and nature, presented in articles for the average (ordinary) reader. 

What to expect: Discover takes scientific research papers and news, and turns them into enjoyable and approachable articles. You don’t need to know too many science-related vocabulary words to understand these articles, making them perfect for anyone who wants to learn more about the topic.

Sample article: “Honeybees Have Personalities (Sort Of)”

What it is: A tech news website with reviews and articles about gadgets, new technology, AI and more.

What to expect: TechCrunch assumes its readers already know some things about technology, so expect to look up some new tech words. The articles are of varying lengths. Some are shorter and some are features (long articles) so you can choose what you’re most interested in. 

Sample article: “Age of AI: Everything You Need to Know About Artificial Intelligence”

What it is: Interesting stories about strange places around the world. Tales from history about curious people, places and events.

What to expect: The writing on this website is a bit more complex, but if you love history, food and culture, it’s worth working your way through it just for the incredibly unique stories.

Sample article: “Is This the World’s Most Beloved Asparagus?”

What it is: Trivia and interesting facts about everything from nature and animals, to people and history.

What to expect: Unlike Atlas Obscura , Mental Floss uses a friendly and simple writing style. Check out their language section as well to learn some things you might not have known about the English language.

Sample article: “A Cool History of Ice Cream”

What it is: Tips and tricks for making your life easier, one small thing at a time.

What to expect: Clear instructions and informative articles make Lifehacker useful to anyone. Some “hacks” (tricks or ways to make things easier) even involve language and learning, and might be especially useful for English learners. Others are just useful!

Sample article: “How to Study a Language So You Can Actually Understand It”

Let me start by telling you that there’s a place where you can improve your reading skills with a wonderful twist:  FluentU .

Reading online has many benefits. Online reading is:

• Portable: That means you can take it anywhere! If you have a device that connects to the internet, and an internet connection, you can read. No need to carry around a bulky book or a large magazine.
• Always updating: When you finish a book, you have to get a new one. When you finish an online article, you can just wait a day or so for more articles to be published.
• Well-written: Not everything online is written in internet slang. Many websites have great writers and editing teams to make sure what you’re reading is the best quality English.
• Easy to understand: Online articles and blogs are meant to be read by everyone, so the language is usually easy to understand.
• Fun: There’s a website for everything! You’re sure to find something that you find interesting.

Since you’re probably reading this online on an internet-connected device, you’re already halfway there. All you need now is to choose a website (or a few websites) to learn from. Before you go exploring online, though, it’s important to understand how these websites can teach you English reading skills.

There are a few different kinds of websites that can help you practice reading English.

• Blogs are more casual websites with writing on them. They’re often personal and run by a single person who shares their experiences or thoughts with their readers.
• Some websites are more like online magazines , which publish longer articles about certain topics.
• Others are news websites , which usually have shorter articles about current events (things that are happening now).

All these websites can help you learn, if you use them the right way. When you’re browsing through our list of great websites to learn from, keep these things in mind:

• Level of difficulty: The ideal website should be slightly challenging for you to read. This will help you improve your reading and keep pushing yourself to get even better. If you’re an advanced English learner , don’t use a beginner resource. If you’re a beginner, don’t use a website for advanced learners.
• Type of language used: Blogs usually use friendly, casual language, while news websites use more professional and business-like words. Magazines can use either type of language—it depends on the magazine.
• Frequency of posting: How often does the website update their content? A blog that updates once a month might not be enough to learn from. A website that posts four articles a day might be overwhelming (remember that you don’t have to read each article, though).
• Topic: You want to read about something you care about!

Once you choose the perfect website based on these factors, you can begin to learn. Here are some ideas for learning with online content:

• Skim before reading: Before you even start reading, take a look at the article. Many websites separate their writing into chunks using subheadings. You can get some sense of what you’ll read by looking at these subheadings, and glancing at the pictures. Doing this will help you prepare for the reading, and maybe even understand it better.
• Read and summarize: After you read an article, try to explain it in your own words. You can write down your summary, or pretend you’re telling a friend about it.
• Make word lists: You don’t have to understand every word in order to understand an article, but there are some words you’ll just have to look up. Instead of stopping to check the dictionary every time you find a word you don’t know, write these words down. Look them up after you’ve finished reading. Then read the article again. Do you understand it better now?
• Read the comments: When you finish reading the article, scroll down to the comments (if there are any). Comments are not always useful, but sometimes they can add more information or another point of view to what you just read about. Add your own comment and join the discussion.
• Click on relevant links: If you find an interesting link in the article, click on it and move on to the next article. This keeps you reading—the more you read, the better you will get at it. To keep yourself from getting distracted halfway through an article, open all new links in new tabs (right-click on the link and choose “open link in new tab”).

Use these tips and you’ll improve your reading skills even faster!

The best thing about reading online is that you can start at any of these websites, and explore other related topics and websites from there.

Find your new favorite website, and practice your English reading skills with something you actually enjoy and care about.

If you like learning English through movies and online media, you should also check out FluentU. FluentU lets you learn English from popular talk shows, catchy music videos and funny commercials , as you can see here:

If you want to watch it, the FluentU app has probably got it.

The FluentU app and website makes it really easy to watch English videos. There are captions that are interactive. That means you can tap on any word to see an image, definition, and useful examples.

FluentU lets you learn engaging content with world famous celebrities.

For example, when you tap on the word "searching," you see this:

FluentU lets you tap to look up any word.

Learn all the vocabulary in any video with quizzes. Swipe left or right to see more examples for the word you’re learning.

FluentU helps you learn fast with useful questions and multiple examples. Learn more.

The best part? FluentU remembers the vocabulary that you’re learning. It gives you extra practice with difficult words—and reminds you when it’s time to review what you’ve learned. You have a truly personalized experience.

Start using the FluentU website on your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU app from the iTunes or Google Play store. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)

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• Importance Of Reading Essay

Importance of Reading Essay

500+ words essay on reading.

Reading is a key to learning. It’s a skill that everyone should develop in their life. The ability to read enables us to discover new facts and opens the door to a new world of ideas, stories and opportunities. We can gather ample information and use it in the right direction to perform various tasks in our life. The habit of reading also increases our knowledge and makes us more intellectual and sensible. With the help of this essay on the Importance of Reading, we will help you know the benefits of reading and its various advantages in our life. Students must go through this essay in detail, as it will help them to create their own essay based on this topic.

Importance of Reading

Reading is one of the best hobbies that one can have. It’s fun to read different types of books. By reading the books, we get to know the people of different areas around the world, different cultures, traditions and much more. There is so much to explore by reading different books. They are the abundance of knowledge and are best friends of human beings. We get to know about every field and area by reading books related to it. There are various types of books available in the market, such as science and technology books, fictitious books, cultural books, historical events and wars related books etc. Also, there are many magazines and novels which people can read anytime and anywhere while travelling to utilise their time effectively.

Benefits of Reading for Students

Reading plays an important role in academics and has an impactful influence on learning. Researchers have highlighted the value of developing reading skills and the benefits of reading to children at an early age. Children who cannot read well at the end of primary school are less likely to succeed in secondary school and, in adulthood, are likely to earn less than their peers. Therefore, the focus is given to encouraging students to develop reading habits.

Reading is an indispensable skill. It is fundamentally interrelated to the process of education and to students achieving educational success. Reading helps students to learn how to use language to make sense of words. It improves their vocabulary, information-processing skills and comprehension. Discussions generated by reading in the classroom can be used to encourage students to construct meanings and connect ideas and experiences across texts. They can use their knowledge to clear their doubts and understand the topic in a better way. The development of good reading habits and skills improves students’ ability to write.

In today’s world of the modern age and digital era, people can easily access resources online for reading. The online books and availability of ebooks in the form of pdf have made reading much easier. So, everyone should build this habit of reading and devote at least 30 minutes daily. If someone is a beginner, then they can start reading the books based on the area of their interest. By doing so, they will gradually build up a habit of reading and start enjoying it.

Frequently Asked Questions on the Importance of Reading Essay

What is the importance of reading.

1. Improves general knowledge 2. Expands attention span/vocabulary 3. Helps in focusing better 4. Enhances language proficiency

What is the power of reading?

1. Develop inference 2. Improves comprehension skills 3. Cohesive learning 4. Broadens knowledge of various topics

How can reading change a student’s life?

1. Empathy towards others 2. Acquisition of qualities like kindness, courtesy

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25 Great Nonfiction Essays You Can Read Online for Free

Alison Doherty

Alison Doherty is a writing teacher and part time assistant professor living in Brooklyn, New York. She has an MFA from The New School in writing for children and teenagers. She loves writing about books on the Internet, listening to audiobooks on the subway, and reading anything with a twisty plot or a happily ever after.

View All posts by Alison Doherty

I love reading books of nonfiction essays and memoirs , but sometimes have a hard time committing to a whole book. This is especially true if I don’t know the author. But reading nonfiction essays online is a quick way to learn which authors you like. Also, reading nonfiction essays can help you learn more about different topics and experiences.

Besides essays on Book Riot,  I love looking for essays on The New Yorker , The Atlantic , The Rumpus , and Electric Literature . But there are great nonfiction essays available for free all over the Internet. From contemporary to classic writers and personal essays to researched ones—here are 25 of my favorite nonfiction essays you can read today.

“Beware of Feminist Lite” by  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The author of We Should All Be Feminists  writes a short essay explaining the danger of believing men and woman are equal only under certain conditions.

“It’s Silly to Be Frightened of Being Dead” by Diana Athill

A 96-year-old woman discusses her shifting attitude towards death from her childhood in the 1920s when death was a taboo subject, to World War 2 until the present day.

“Letter from a Region in my Mind” by James Baldwin

There are many moving and important essays by James Baldwin . This one uses the lens of religion to explore the Black American experience and sexuality. Baldwin describes his move from being a teenage preacher to not believing in god. Then he recounts his meeting with the prominent Nation of Islam member Elijah Muhammad.

“Relations” by Eula Biss

Biss uses the story of a white woman giving birth to a Black baby that was mistakenly implanted during a fertility treatment to explore racial identities and segregation in society as a whole and in her own interracial family.

“Friday Night Lights” by Buzz Bissinger

A comprehensive deep dive into the world of high school football in a small West Texas town.

“The Case for Reparations” by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Coates examines the lingering and continuing affects of slavery on  American society and makes a compelling case for the descendants of slaves being offered reparations from the government.

“Why I Write” by Joan Didion

This is one of the most iconic nonfiction essays about writing. Didion describes the reasons she became a writer, her process, and her journey to doing what she loves professionally.

“Go Gentle Into That Good Night” by Roger Ebert

With knowledge of his own death, the famous film critic ponders questions of mortality while also giving readers a pep talk for how to embrace life fully.

“My Mother’s Tongue” by Zavi Kang Engles

In this personal essay, Engles celebrates the close relationship she had with her mother and laments losing her Korean fluency.

“My Life as an Heiress” by Nora Ephron

As she’s writing an important script, Ephron imagines her life as a newly wealthy woman when she finds out an uncle left her an inheritance. But she doesn’t know exactly what that inheritance is.

“My FatheR Spent 30 Years in Prison. Now He’s Out.” by Ashley C. Ford

Ford describes the experience of getting to know her father after he’s been in prison for almost all of her life. Bridging the distance in their knowledge of technology becomes a significant—and at times humorous—step in rebuilding their relationship.

“Bad Feminist” by Roxane Gay

There’s a reason Gay named her bestselling essay collection after this story. It’s a witty, sharp, and relatable look at what it means to call yourself a feminist.

“The Empathy Exams” by Leslie Jamison

Jamison discusses her job as a medical actor helping to train medical students to improve their empathy and uses this frame to tell the story of one winter in college when she had an abortion and heart surgery.

“What I Learned from a Fitting Room Disaster About Clothes and Life” by Scaachi Koul

One woman describes her history with difficult fitting room experiences culminating in one catastrophe that will change the way she hopes to identify herself through clothes.

“Breasts: the Odd Couple” by Una LaMarche

LaMarche examines her changing feelings about her own differently sized breasts.

“How I Broke, and Botched, the Brandon Teena Story” by Donna Minkowitz

A journalist looks back at her own biased reporting on a news story about the sexual assault and murder of a trans man in 1993. Minkowitz examines how ideas of gender and sexuality have changed since she reported the story, along with how her own lesbian identity influenced her opinions about the crime.

“Politics and the English Language” by George Orwell

In this famous essay, Orwell bemoans how politics have corrupted the English language by making it more vague, confusing, and boring.

“Letting Go” by David Sedaris

The famously funny personal essay author , writes about a distinctly unfunny topic of tobacco addiction and his own journey as a smoker. It is (predictably) hilarious.

“Joy” by Zadie Smith

Smith explores the difference between pleasure and joy by closely examining moments of both, including eating a delicious egg sandwich, taking drugs at a concert, and falling in love.

“Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan

Tan tells the story of how her mother’s way of speaking English as an immigrant from China changed the way people viewed her intelligence.

“Consider the Lobster” by David Foster Wallace

The prolific nonfiction essay and fiction writer  travels to the Maine Lobster Festival to write a piece for Gourmet Magazine. With his signature footnotes, Wallace turns this experience into a deep exploration on what constitutes consciousness.

“I Am Not Pocahontas” by Elissa Washuta

Washuta looks at her own contemporary Native American identity through the lens of stereotypical depictions from 1990s films.

“Once More to the Lake” by E.B. White

E.B. White didn’t just write books like Charlotte’s Web and The Elements of Style . He also was a brilliant essayist. This nature essay explores the theme of fatherhood against the backdrop of a lake within the forests of Maine.

“Pell-Mell” by Tom Wolfe

The inventor of “new journalism” writes about the creation of an American idea by telling the story of Thomas Jefferson snubbing a European Ambassador.

“The Death of the Moth” by Virginia Woolf

In this nonfiction essay, Wolf describes a moth dying on her window pane. She uses the story as a way to ruminate on the lager theme of the meaning of life and death.

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English Texts for Beginners

English texts for beginners to practice reading and comprehension online and for free. Practicing your comprehension of written English will both improve your vocabulary and understanding of grammar and word order. The texts below are designed to help you develop while giving you an instant evaluation of your progress.

Prepared by experienced English teachers, the texts, articles and conversations are brief and appropriate to your level of proficiency. Take the multiple-choice quiz following each text, and you'll get the results immediately. You will feel both challenged and accomplished! You can even download (as PDF) and print the texts and exercises. It's enjoyable, fun and free. Good luck!

• Wedding Wishes PREMIUM ? »
• Countries and Nationalities PREMIUM My workday starts at seven. ? »

10 Essential Essay-Length Memoirs You Can Read Online for Free

Short insights with big impacts.

• Photo Credit: Unsplash/Sincerely Media

Are you a fan of anecdotal reading, but lacking the time to dive into a 300 page memoir? Do you love the specificity of short essays? Or are you looking for a taste of an author’s work before you peek any deeper into their psyche? Then you might consider looking into some essay-length memoirs—think of them as memoir examples, rather than full-fledged books.

Whether you’re hoping to find a piece of writing that makes you feel less alone, or you want to expand your understanding of the human race, these true accounts will stick with you. Here are 10 phenomenal memoir examples you can read online right now for free.

Related: The Best Essay Collections to Add to Your TBR List

"Me Talk Pretty One Day"

by David Sedaris

• Photo Credit: Chris Karidis/Unsplash

Comedian and author David Sedaris wrote the memoir essay “Me Talk Pretty One Day” about his time living in Paris to learn the French language. While matriculating as a middle-aged man has its benefits—"No one will ever again card me for a drink or demand that I weave a floor mat out of newspapers"—it doesn't spare him, or any of his peers, from the abuse of their teacher. Sedaris recounts carrying a special brand of insecurity, tackling the complexity of language and the thrill of being a humorist going toe-to-toe with a stern and scathing professeure .

For collections of Sedaris’ writing, be sure to check out Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim and When You Are Engulfed in Flames .

Related: 13 Famous Memoirs Everyone Should Read Once

"Age Appropriate"

by Jen Doll

Jen Doll is a freelance journalist—whose credits include articles for The Atlantic , Esquire , and New York Magazine —and author of the young adult novel Unclaimed Baggage . In this anecdotal essay about a summer vacation spent with family, Doll explores what it means to bring your teenage self along into adulthood. Stuck between the frustration of being treated like a child by her parents, and the ever-present desire to run from the strains of adult self-sufficiency, she writes to come to terms with the different selves she houses in the context of her surroundings.

Related: 15 Best Memoirs That Will Change Your Outlook on Life

"The Price of Black Ambition"

by Roxane Gay

In “The Price of Black Ambition,” Roxane Gay interweaves a timeline of her struggles and successes with a frank discussion on the sociopolitical racism inherent in the United States. She speaks on the fact that children of color are often given an inflated sense of “ambition” at a young age, as they must work twice as hard with half as much to achieve opportunities that are more carelessly given to their white peers. And, despite the exceptional amounts of work people of color put in to move forward in life, their efforts are regularly regarded as less than—their presence in “white” circles is considered a fluke or consequence of required diversity. She refers to her ambition as a hunger that can never be satisfied in the current status quo of America.

Gay is most notable for her essay collection Bad Feminist , as well as her fiction novel An Untamed State .

Related: 8 Extraordinary Biographies About Strong Women

Want more memoirs? Sign up for the Early Bird Books newsletter and get the best daily ebook deals delivered straight to your inbox.

"My Dad Tried to Kill Me with an Alligator"

by Harrison Scott Key

• Photo Credit: Karl Bewick/Unsplash

Harrison Scott Key is the author of two memoirs: Congratulations, Who Are You Again? and The World’s Largest Man . Key details one humorous afternoon on Mississippi’s Pearl River, where he believes his brother’s “badass” antics and his father’s gruff and wild nature almost led to his death-by-alligator. Through a consideration of the differences between him and his father, he contemplates how his near-death experience might have shaped his adult life. Remembering his father fondly, Key reconsiders his own path of fatherhood.

Related: 10 Moving Biographies and Memoirs

"Explicit Violence"

by Lidia Yuknavitch

Known for her provocative novels Dora: A Headcase , The Small Backs of Children , and The Book of Joan , Lidia Yuknavitch wrote “Explicit Violence” about the terrible abuses she suffered throughout her lifetime. She talks not just of the physical acts, but the ways in which violence changed her state of mind. Yuknavitch is honest about the ways in which she was made to feel like she deserved the violence heaped upon her—and if how she didn’t deserve it, she should become the kind of person that might deserve it. With a sharp clarity, she condemns the ways in which those who suffer abuses, particularly women, are made to feel as though to talk about it is an inconvenience on those who could never understand.

For more from the life of Lidia Yuknavitch, she has also published the full-length memoir The Chronology of Water .

"Surviving Anxiety"

by Scott Stossel

In the essay “Surviving Anxiety,” journalist and author Scott Stossel opens up about his experience with mental illness. Suffering from anxiety since infancy, Stossel paints a startling and surprising picture of the measures he has to go through to appear unaffected and “normal” due to his internal (and often irrational) worries. In an honest detailing of therapeutic, medicinal, and self-medicinal attempts to get his high-functioning anxiety under control, he expresses the frustrations and constant battle those who suffer from mental illness experience. For a deeper look into Stossel’s experience and the history of anxiety, read his full-length memoir My Age of Anxiety .

"Darkness Visible"

by William Styron

• Photo Credit: Ian Espinosa/Unsplash

William Styron, acclaimed writer of Sophie’s Choice and The Confessions of Nat Turner , suffered deeply from bouts of depression. In his memoir essay, “Darkness Visible,” Styron is compelled to speak out about his struggle with mental illness after the suicide of Primo Levi. To combat the ignorance and taboo nature surrounding depression, Styron speaks about his own struggles with dark emotions, as well as the difficult path of healing. In the book of the same name, Styron expands upon this essay in a more complete memoir.

Related: William Styron: A Life in Books

"No Labels, No Drama, Right?"

by Jordana Narin

This enlightening and insightful essay comes from Jordana Narin, the winner of the New York Times 2015 Modern Love College Essay contest. Her memoir account exemplifies how new relationships have changed in the modern era, often careening toward an amorphous understanding between two people. She touches on an inclination to avoid not only labels, but vulnerability. Narin outlines how in a situation where the feelings are no less profound than something “real,” people are putting obstacles in their own paths by embracing an aversion to emotional honesty.

"I Was Pregnant, and Then I Wasn't"

by Laura Turner

• Photo Credit: freestocks.org/Unsplash

Laura Turner is a journalist who has written for such publications as the New York Times , The Atlantic , Glamour , and The Verge , with a book in-progress about the cultural history of anxiety. In this tear-jerking short memoir, Turner talks about her recent experience with a miscarriage. Her account encapsulates the worries of burgeoning motherhood put at sudden odds with grief and an overwhelming feeling of suddenly being alone. In an especially poignant and candid moment, Turner writes, “Your life doesn’t change, and that’s the strange part—because it was supposed to.”

Related: 7 Tragic Memoirs That Deserve Your Tears

"After Life"

by Joan Didion

Following the death of her husband in 2003, renowned essayist, journalist, and author Joan Didion penned “After Life.” In her essay, Didion describes the moments leading up to her husband’s sudden death, and continues on in aching detail about the moments following her realization that he was gone. She describes her “waves” of grief which were at the same time both strange and typical, and reaches for an explanation of how different grief can be when it’s unexpected.

More of Didion’s profound writings include Slouching Toward Bethlehem , The White Album , and After Henry .

Fiction & Memoirs From 6 Influential Writers

Featured photo: Sincerely Media / Unsplash ; Additional images courtesy of Chris Karidis/ Unsplash ; Karl Bewick/ Unsplash ; Ian Espinosa/ Unsplash ; freestocks.org/ Unsplash

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Site summary: Rewordify.com helps with reading comprehension and vocabulary development by simplifying English to a lower reading level. It lets you reword a sentence or reword a paragraph. It will simplify English by reducing text complexity. It's a dictionary alternative that will improve comprehension and teach vocabulary. It's an important part of reading instruction and vocabulary instruction for ESL students, people with reading disabilities, people with a learning disability, or anyone who wants to improve reading skill.

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Yes, when you accept all changes and delete all comments your document is ready to be handed in.

How to accept all changes:

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How to remove all comments:

When you’ve finished this, others will no longer be able to see the changes made by the editor.

• Read your last version one last time to make sure everything is the way you want it.
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Yes, in the order process you can indicate your preference for American, British, or Australian English .

If you don’t choose one, your editor will follow the style of English you currently use. If your editor has any questions about this, we will contact you.

Yes, you can upload your thesis in sections.

We try our best to ensure that the same editor checks all the different sections of your thesis. When you upload a new file, our system recognizes you as a returning customer, and we immediately contact the editor who helped you before.

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• You send us your text as soon as possible and
• You can be flexible about the deadline.

Please note that the shorter your deadline is, the bigger the risk that your previous editor is not available.

If your previous editor isn’t available, then we will inform you immediately and look for another qualified editor. Fear not! Every Scribbr editor follows the  Scribbr Improvement Model  and will deliver high-quality work.

However, every editor has a slightly different editing style, so you may notice small inconsistencies in editing choices. As with every proofreading order, be sure to carefully review your editor’s changes and suggestions as you finalize your text to ensure that everything is as you want it.

The fastest turnaround time is 12 hours.

You can upload your document at any time and choose between three deadlines:

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Our customer support team is here to find the solution that helps you the most, whether that’s a free new edit or a refund for the service.

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You might be familiar with a different set of editing terms. To help you understand what you can expect at Scribbr, we created this table:

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Scribbr not only specializes in proofreading and editing texts in English , but also in several other languages . This way, we help out students from all over the world.

As a global academic writing proofreading service, we work with professional editors  – all native speakers – who edit in the following languages :

This way, you can also have your academic writing proofread and edited in your second language!

Please note that we do not offer Finnish proofreading, but students can still upload English papers on scribbr.fi .

Yes, regardless of the deadline you choose, our editors can proofread your document during weekends and holidays.

Example: If you select the 12-hour service on Saturday, you will receive your edited document back within 12 hours on Sunday.

The footnotes are not automatically included in the word count.

If you want the language errors in your footnotes to be corrected by the editor, you can indicate this in step 3 of the upload process . The words in the footnotes are then automatically added to the total word count.

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To keep our prices competitive, we do not offer a free trial edit. However, if your document is longer than 30,000 words, we are happy to provide you with a sample edit of 2,000 words to ensure you are satisfied with the editor’s editing style.

Rest assured, our customers are very satisfied with our proofreading services. We’re proud that they have rated us with an excellent 4.7 on Trustpilot. In the unlikely event that you have a less positive experience, we’ll solve that with our 100% happiness guarantee !

After your thesis has been edited , you will receive an email with a link to download the edited document.

The editor has made changes to your document using ‘ Track Changes ’ in Word.  This means that you only have to accept or ignore the changes that are made in the text one by one.

It is also possible to accept all changes at once. However, we strongly advise you not to do so for the following reasons:

• You can learn much by looking at what mistakes you have made.
• The editors do not only change the text, they also place comments when sentences or sometimes even entire paragraphs are unclear. We therefore advise you to read through these comments and take into account your editor’s tips and suggestions.
• Because of the many changes, sometimes there may be double spaces, double periods, or other minor mistakes in a sentence. Checking the changes one by one, you can easily detect these minor errors.

We have written a manual in which we explain step by step how ‘Track Changes’ works.

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Our editors are very experienced and will do their utmost to correct all errors in your thesis .

However, with our current rates, an editor can only check your thesis once. This may cause an editor to overlook an error. We can therefore not guarantee that your thesis is 100% error free after you have had your thesis edited.

The editor uses ‘Track Changes’ in Word when editing your thesis.

Don’t know how this works? Then read the following guide  in which we explain step by step how ‘Track Changes’ works.

No, we do not provide you with a clean copy. You will always receive a file edited with tracked changes .

We do this for two main reasons:

• In most papers, there are sentences that the editor cannot edit without additional information from the author. In these cases, your editor will provide guidance but leave you to implement the feedback. If we were to simply accept the changes for you, then these issues would be left unaddressed.
• We believe students should be accountable for their work. Our editors can correct language errors and coach you to be a better writer. However, the end product belongs to you and should reflect your ideas and decisions.

All Scribbr editors are language experts with interests in different subject areas.

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Editors don’t have to be experts in the content of your paper, but they do know how to present it in the best way possible! Our goal is to improve your writing and give you feedback on the readability, structure, logic, and clarity of your text. We know from experience that the most effective editors are specialists in language and academic writing.

We’ve carefully selected and trained all of our editors to proofread theses and other academic documents. Once they’re qualified, we continue to carefully monitor their work to make sure we always deliver the highest quality .

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NPR defends its journalism after senior editor says it has lost the public's trust

David Folkenflik

NPR is defending its journalism and integrity after a senior editor wrote an essay accusing it of losing the public's trust. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

NPR is defending its journalism and integrity after a senior editor wrote an essay accusing it of losing the public's trust.

NPR's top news executive defended its journalism and its commitment to reflecting a diverse array of views on Tuesday after a senior NPR editor wrote a broad critique of how the network has covered some of the most important stories of the age.

"An open-minded spirit no longer exists within NPR, and now, predictably, we don't have an audience that reflects America," writes Uri Berliner.

A strategic emphasis on diversity and inclusion on the basis of race, ethnicity and sexual orientation, promoted by NPR's former CEO, John Lansing, has fed "the absence of viewpoint diversity," Berliner writes.

NPR's chief news executive, Edith Chapin, wrote in a memo to staff Tuesday afternoon that she and the news leadership team strongly reject Berliner's assessment.

"We're proud to stand behind the exceptional work that our desks and shows do to cover a wide range of challenging stories," she wrote. "We believe that inclusion — among our staff, with our sourcing, and in our overall coverage — is critical to telling the nuanced stories of this country and our world."

NPR names tech executive Katherine Maher to lead in turbulent era

She added, "None of our work is above scrutiny or critique. We must have vigorous discussions in the newsroom about how we serve the public as a whole."

A spokesperson for NPR said Chapin, who also serves as the network's chief content officer, would have no further comment.

Praised by NPR's critics

Berliner is a senior editor on NPR's Business Desk. (Disclosure: I, too, am part of the Business Desk, and Berliner has edited many of my past stories. He did not see any version of this article or participate in its preparation before it was posted publicly.)

Berliner's essay , titled "I've Been at NPR for 25 years. Here's How We Lost America's Trust," was published by The Free Press, a website that has welcomed journalists who have concluded that mainstream news outlets have become reflexively liberal.

Berliner writes that as a Subaru-driving, Sarah Lawrence College graduate who "was raised by a lesbian peace activist mother ," he fits the mold of a loyal NPR fan.

Yet Berliner says NPR's news coverage has fallen short on some of the most controversial stories of recent years, from the question of whether former President Donald Trump colluded with Russia in the 2016 election, to the origins of the virus that causes COVID-19, to the significance and provenance of emails leaked from a laptop owned by Hunter Biden weeks before the 2020 election. In addition, he blasted NPR's coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

On each of these stories, Berliner asserts, NPR has suffered from groupthink due to too little diversity of viewpoints in the newsroom.

The essay ricocheted Tuesday around conservative media , with some labeling Berliner a whistleblower . Others picked it up on social media, including Elon Musk, who has lambasted NPR for leaving his social media site, X. (Musk emailed another NPR reporter a link to Berliner's article with a gibe that the reporter was a "quisling" — a World War II reference to someone who collaborates with the enemy.)

When asked for further comment late Tuesday, Berliner declined, saying the essay spoke for itself.

The arguments he raises — and counters — have percolated across U.S. newsrooms in recent years. The #MeToo sexual harassment scandals of 2016 and 2017 forced newsrooms to listen to and heed more junior colleagues. The social justice movement prompted by the killing of George Floyd in 2020 inspired a reckoning in many places. Newsroom leaders often appeared to stand on shaky ground.

Leaders at many newsrooms, including top editors at The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times , lost their jobs. Legendary Washington Post Executive Editor Martin Baron wrote in his memoir that he feared his bonds with the staff were "frayed beyond repair," especially over the degree of self-expression his journalists expected to exert on social media, before he decided to step down in early 2021.

Since then, Baron and others — including leaders of some of these newsrooms — have suggested that the pendulum has swung too far.

Author Interviews

Legendary editor marty baron describes his 'collision of power' with trump and bezos.

New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger warned last year against journalists embracing a stance of what he calls "one-side-ism": "where journalists are demonstrating that they're on the side of the righteous."

"I really think that that can create blind spots and echo chambers," he said.

Internal arguments at The Times over the strength of its reporting on accusations that Hamas engaged in sexual assaults as part of a strategy for its Oct. 7 attack on Israel erupted publicly . The paper conducted an investigation to determine the source of a leak over a planned episode of the paper's podcast The Daily on the subject, which months later has not been released. The newsroom guild accused the paper of "targeted interrogation" of journalists of Middle Eastern descent.

Heated pushback in NPR's newsroom

Given Berliner's account of private conversations, several NPR journalists question whether they can now trust him with unguarded assessments about stories in real time. Others express frustration that he had not sought out comment in advance of publication. Berliner acknowledged to me that for this story, he did not seek NPR's approval to publish the piece, nor did he give the network advance notice.

Some of Berliner's NPR colleagues are responding heatedly. Fernando Alfonso, a senior supervising editor for digital news, wrote that he wholeheartedly rejected Berliner's critique of the coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict, for which NPR's journalists, like their peers, periodically put themselves at risk.

Alfonso also took issue with Berliner's concern over the focus on diversity at NPR.

"As a person of color who has often worked in newsrooms with little to no people who look like me, the efforts NPR has made to diversify its workforce and its sources are unique and appropriate given the news industry's long-standing lack of diversity," Alfonso says. "These efforts should be celebrated and not denigrated as Uri has done."

After this story was first published, Berliner contested Alfonso's characterization, saying his criticism of NPR is about the lack of diversity of viewpoints, not its diversity itself.

"I never criticized NPR's priority of achieving a more diverse workforce in terms of race, ethnicity and sexual orientation. I have not 'denigrated' NPR's newsroom diversity goals," Berliner said. "That's wrong."

Questions of diversity

Under former CEO John Lansing, NPR made increasing diversity, both of its staff and its audience, its "North Star" mission. Berliner says in the essay that NPR failed to consider broader diversity of viewpoint, noting, "In D.C., where NPR is headquartered and many of us live, I found 87 registered Democrats working in editorial positions and zero Republicans."

Berliner cited audience estimates that suggested a concurrent falloff in listening by Republicans. (The number of people listening to NPR broadcasts and terrestrial radio broadly has declined since the start of the pandemic.)

Former NPR vice president for news and ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin tweeted , "I know Uri. He's not wrong."

Others questioned Berliner's logic. "This probably gets causality somewhat backward," tweeted Semafor Washington editor Jordan Weissmann . "I'd guess that a lot of NPR listeners who voted for [Mitt] Romney have changed how they identify politically."

Similarly, Nieman Lab founder Joshua Benton suggested the rise of Trump alienated many NPR-appreciating Republicans from the GOP.

In recent years, NPR has greatly enhanced the percentage of people of color in its workforce and its executive ranks. Four out of 10 staffers are people of color; nearly half of NPR's leadership team identifies as Black, Asian or Latino.

"The philosophy is: Do you want to serve all of America and make sure it sounds like all of America, or not?" Lansing, who stepped down last month, says in response to Berliner's piece. "I'd welcome the argument against that."

"On radio, we were really lagging in our representation of an audience that makes us look like what America looks like today," Lansing says. The U.S. looks and sounds a lot different than it did in 1971, when NPR's first show was broadcast, Lansing says.

A network spokesperson says new NPR CEO Katherine Maher supports Chapin and her response to Berliner's critique.

The spokesperson says that Maher "believes that it's a healthy thing for a public service newsroom to engage in rigorous consideration of the needs of our audiences, including where we serve our mission well and where we can serve it better."

Disclosure: This story was reported and written by NPR Media Correspondent David Folkenflik and edited by Deputy Business Editor Emily Kopp and Managing Editor Gerry Holmes. Under NPR's protocol for reporting on itself, no NPR corporate official or news executive reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.

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NPR in Turmoil After It Is Accused of Liberal Bias

An essay from an editor at the broadcaster has generated a firestorm of criticism about the network on social media, especially among conservatives.

By Benjamin Mullin and Katie Robertson

NPR is facing both internal tumult and a fusillade of attacks by prominent conservatives this week after a senior editor publicly claimed the broadcaster had allowed liberal bias to affect its coverage, risking its trust with audiences.

Uri Berliner, a senior business editor who has worked at NPR for 25 years, wrote in an essay published Tuesday by The Free Press, a popular Substack publication, that “people at every level of NPR have comfortably coalesced around the progressive worldview.”

Mr. Berliner, a Peabody Award-winning journalist, castigated NPR for what he said was a litany of journalistic missteps around coverage of several major news events, including the origins of Covid-19 and the war in Gaza. He also said the internal culture at NPR had placed race and identity as “paramount in nearly every aspect of the workplace.”

Mr. Berliner’s essay has ignited a firestorm of criticism of NPR on social media, especially among conservatives who have long accused the network of political bias in its reporting. Former President Donald J. Trump took to his social media platform, Truth Social, to argue that NPR’s government funding should be rescinded, an argument he has made in the past.

NPR has forcefully pushed back on Mr. Berliner’s accusations and the criticism.

“We’re proud to stand behind the exceptional work that our desks and shows do to cover a wide range of challenging stories,” Edith Chapin, the organization’s editor in chief, said in an email to staff on Tuesday. “We believe that inclusion — among our staff, with our sourcing, and in our overall coverage — is critical to telling the nuanced stories of this country and our world.” Some other NPR journalists also criticized the essay publicly, including Eric Deggans, its TV critic, who faulted Mr. Berliner for not giving NPR an opportunity to comment on the piece.

In an interview on Thursday, Mr. Berliner expressed no regrets about publishing the essay, saying he loved NPR and hoped to make it better by airing criticisms that have gone unheeded by leaders for years. He called NPR a “national trust” that people rely on for fair reporting and superb storytelling.

“I decided to go out and publish it in hopes that something would change, and that we get a broader conversation going about how the news is covered,” Mr. Berliner said.

He said he had not been disciplined by managers, though he said he had received a note from his supervisor reminding him that NPR requires employees to clear speaking appearances and media requests with standards and media relations. He said he didn’t run his remarks to The New York Times by network spokespeople.

When the hosts of NPR’s biggest shows, including “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered,” convened on Wednesday afternoon for a long-scheduled meet-and-greet with the network’s new chief executive, Katherine Maher , conversation soon turned to Mr. Berliner’s essay, according to two people with knowledge of the meeting. During the lunch, Ms. Chapin told the hosts that she didn’t want Mr. Berliner to become a “martyr,” the people said.

Mr. Berliner’s essay also sent critical Slack messages whizzing through some of the same employee affinity groups focused on racial and sexual identity that he cited in his essay. In one group, several staff members disputed Mr. Berliner’s points about a lack of ideological diversity and said efforts to recruit more people of color would make NPR’s journalism better.

On Wednesday, staff members from “Morning Edition” convened to discuss the fallout from Mr. Berliner’s essay. During the meeting, an NPR producer took issue with Mr. Berliner’s argument for why NPR’s listenership has fallen off, describing a variety of factors that have contributed to the change.

Mr. Berliner’s remarks prompted vehement pushback from several news executives. Tony Cavin, NPR’s managing editor of standards and practices, said in an interview that he rejected all of Mr. Berliner’s claims of unfairness, adding that his remarks would probably make it harder for NPR journalists to do their jobs.

“The next time one of our people calls up a Republican congressman or something and tries to get an answer from them, they may well say, ‘Oh, I read these stories, you guys aren’t fair, so I’m not going to talk to you,’” Mr. Cavin said.

Some journalists have defended Mr. Berliner’s essay. Jeffrey A. Dvorkin, NPR’s former ombudsman, said Mr. Berliner was “not wrong” on social media. Chuck Holmes, a former managing editor at NPR, called Mr. Berliner’s essay “brave” on Facebook.

Mr. Berliner’s criticism was the latest salvo within NPR, which is no stranger to internal division. In October, Mr. Berliner took part in a lengthy debate over whether NPR should defer to language proposed by the Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association while covering the conflict in Gaza.

“We don’t need to rely on an advocacy group’s guidance,” Mr. Berliner wrote, according to a copy of the email exchange viewed by The Times. “Our job is to seek out the facts and report them.” The debate didn’t change NPR’s language guidance, which is made by editors who weren’t part of the discussion. And in a statement on Thursday, the Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association said it is a professional association for journalists, not a political advocacy group.

Mr. Berliner’s public criticism has highlighted broader concerns within NPR about the public broadcaster’s mission amid continued financial struggles. Last year, NPR cut 10 percent of its staff and canceled four podcasts, including the popular “Invisibilia,” as it tried to make up for a $30 million budget shortfall. Listeners have drifted away from traditional radio to podcasts, and the advertising market has been unsteady.

In his essay, Mr. Berliner laid some of the blame at the feet of NPR’s former chief executive, John Lansing, who said he was retiring at the end of last year after four years in the role. He was replaced by Ms. Maher, who started on March 25.

During a meeting with employees in her first week, Ms. Maher was asked what she thought about decisions to give a platform to political figures like Ronna McDaniel, the former Republican Party chair whose position as a political analyst at NBC News became untenable after an on-air revolt from hosts who criticized her efforts to undermine the 2020 election.

“I think that this conversation has been one that does not have an easy answer,” Ms. Maher responded.

Benjamin Mullin reports on the major companies behind news and entertainment. Contact Ben securely on Signal at +1 530-961-3223 or email at [email protected] . More about Benjamin Mullin

Katie Robertson covers the media industry for The Times. Email:  [email protected]   More about Katie Robertson

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Npr editor says network ‘turned a blind eye’ to hunter biden laptop story because ‘it could help trump’.

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A veteran National Public Radio journalist slammed the left-leaning broadcaster for ignoring the Hunter Biden laptop scandal because it could have helped Donald Trump get re-elected.

Uri Berliner, an award-winning business editor and reporter at NPR, penned a lengthy essay in Bari Weiss’ online news site The Free Press in which he called out his bosses for turning the public radio broadcaster into “an openly polemical news outlet serving a niche audience.”

“The laptop was newsworthy,” Berliner wrote. “But the timeless journalistic instinct of following a hot story lead was being squelched.”

Weeks before the 2020 presidential election, The Post was the first to reveal the existence of the laptop that Hunter Biden left at a Delaware computer shop.

The Post published the contents of emails taken from the laptop, which shed light on Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine and China while his father, Joe Biden, was vice president during the Obama administration.

Initially, national security experts and former intelligence officials declared the laptop a hoax and was the product of a Russian disinformation campaign.

Social media sites like Twitter even barred its users from sharing links to The Post’s reporting.

The authenticity of the emails were later confirmed by independent experts and federal law enforcement officials .

According to Berliner, NPR’s managing editor for news at the time said that the outlet had no interest in “[wast[ing] our time on stories that are not really stories, and we don’t want to waste the listeners’ and readers’ time on stories that are just pure distractions.”‘[wast[ing] our time on stories that are not really stories, and we don’t want to waste the listeners’ and readers’ time on stories that are just pure distractions.”

Berliner wrote in The Free Press that a well-respected colleague at NPR said they were glad the network wasn’t covering the story because it would help Trump win re-election. He did not name the journalist.

After the contents of the laptop proved to be authentic, NPR “could have fessed up to our misjudgment,” Berliner wrote.

“But, like Russia collusion [allegations against Trump that were debunked], we didn’t make the hard choice of transparency.”

NPR’s Edith Chapin, the acting Chief Content Officer, defended the organization in a memo to staff.

“I and my colleagues on the leadership team strongly disagree with Uri’s assessment of the quality of our journalism and the integrity of our newsroom processes,” she said.

“With all this said, none of our work is above scrutiny or critique.”

Berliner also took NPR to task for its coverage of the Russia collusion saga — which was fueled by allegations that the Trump campaign was in cahoots with the Kremlin during the 2016 presidential campaign.

He said that NPR “hitched our wagon to Trump’s most visible antagonist” — Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).

Charges against Hunter Biden

COUNT 1: False Statement in Purchase of a Firearm

Faces a maximum of 10 years’ imprisonment; a fine of $250,000; 3 years of supervised release; a special assessment of $100.

COUNT 2: False Statement Related to Information Required to be Kept by Federal Firearms Licensed Dealer

Faces a maximum of 5 years’ imprisonment; a fine of $250,000; 3 years of supervised release; a special assessment of $100.

COURT 3: Possession of a Firearm by a Person who is an Unlawful User of or Addicted to a Controlled Substance

“By my count, NRP hosts interviewed Schiff 25 times about Trump and Russia,” according to Berliner, who said he “eagerly voted against Trump twice but felt we were obliged to cover him fairly.”

When Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating the Trump-Russia collusion allegations, found no credible evidence to support the charge, “NPR’s coverage was notably sparse,” Berliner wrote.

“It is one thing to swing and miss on a major story,” Berliner wrote, adding: “What’s worse is to pretend it never happened, to move on with no mea culpas, no self-reflection.”

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Berliner also called out NPR for pushing other left-leaning causes, such as subjecting staffers to “unconscious bias training sessions” in the wake of the May 2020 death of George Floyd.

Employees were ordered to “start talking about race,” he said.

NPR journalists were also told to “keep up to date with current language and style guidance from journalism affinity groups” that were based on racial and ethnic identity, including “Marginalized Genders and Intersex People of Color” (MGIPOC); “NPR Noir” (black employees at NPR); and “Women, Gender-Expansive, and Transgender People in Technology Throughout Public Media.”

According to Berliner, if an NPR journalist’s language “differs from the diktats of those groups,” then a “DEI Accountability Committee” would settle the dispute.

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