How to Write X Posts That Read Well Aloud

Most of what people read on X is now also heard by someone: a screen reader user, a commuter with their phone reading aloud, a person with dyslexia who prefers to listen. Writing for the ear does not need a different voice. It mostly means noticing the shortcuts that work on a screen and fall apart in speech.

These suggestions come from listening to a lot of threads through speech engines and screen readers, and noting where they stumble.

Put the point first

Listeners cannot glance ahead. On screen, a reader can see the end of a long sentence and know where it is going. In audio, the sentence unfolds one word at a time, so a post that opens with background and saves the claim for the end makes the listener hold everything in their head while they wait.

Compare:

After three years of trying every note app, two paid courses, and a very expensive notebook, I finally found a system that works.

I finally found a note system that works. It took three years, two paid courses and a very expensive notebook.

The second version tells the listener what the post is about in the first seven words. The rest is detail they can take or leave.

The same applies to the whole thread. The first post should say what the thread is and why someone would keep listening, without "A thread 🧵👇" taking up the opening seconds.

Keep sentences short, but not all the same length

Speech engines pause at periods and, more briefly, at commas. Long sentences with several clauses lose their shape when spoken, because the voice cannot show the structure the way punctuation and line breaks do on a page. Aim for one idea per sentence most of the time.

Do not overdo it, though. A post made of five four-word sentences sounds choppy and robotic when read aloud. Mix a short sentence with a longer one, the way you would talk.

Write numbers and dates the way you would say them

Speech engines are good with plain numbers, but formats that are clear on screen can turn strange in speech.

• "10k" may be read as "ten k". "10,000" or "ten thousand" is safer.
• "3/4" might be read as "three slash four", "three quarters", or a date. Write "three quarters" or "March 4" depending on what you mean.
• "2-3 weeks" can come out as "two minus three weeks" with some voices. "Two to three weeks" is unambiguous.
• "$5M" is usually fine, but "5M" without a currency symbol may be read as "five m".
• Times like "9a" or "7p" are often spelled out. "9 a.m." or "9am" works better.

Dates written with numbers only, like 04/05, mean different days in different countries anyway. Spelling out the month avoids both problems.

Spell out the shortcuts

Abbreviations save characters but cost the listener. Some common ones and how they tend to come out:

• "w/" and "w/o" become "w slash" and "w slash o".
• "b/c" becomes "b slash c".
• "imo" and "tbh" are usually read as letters, which most listeners follow, but some voices try to pronounce them as words.
• "&" is read as "and", which is fine.
• "->" or "=>" may be read as "dash greater than" or skipped.

You do not need to avoid every abbreviation. Widely known ones like "US", "AI" or "CEO" are fine. The problem is shorthand that only works visually, especially slashes and arrows.

Think about how symbols and formatting sound

Line breaks, which many people use to give a post rhythm, are mostly silent. That is fine, but it means a list made of line breaks alone runs together in speech. If the items need to be heard as separate, end each with a period or start each with a word like "first" and "second".

Fake bold and italic letters made with Unicode generators are read badly or not at all, and emoji are read by name. The accessibility guide covers both in more detail, along with hashtags and alt text.

Quotation marks are not spoken by most voices, so a quoted phrase sounds like your own words. If it matters that you are quoting someone, say so: "She called it, quote, a rounding error."

Watch the openings of posts

The first few words of each post in a thread are where listeners decide whether to keep going. Thread numbering, @mentions and emoji all land there by habit. Each one pushes the real start of the sentence back.

If you number posts, keep the number short. If you are replying to several people, put the handles at the end, or reply to each one separately. Move any emoji to the end of the sentence.

Name your links

"Read more here: [link]" is one of the least useful sentences to hear. The listener does not know what the link is until they open it, and depending on their app the address may be read out in full. Say what the link is in words: "The full report is on the city's website" followed by the link. Then the post makes sense even if the link is never opened.

Listen before you post

The most reliable way to find these problems is to hear your own writing. Write the thread in a draft, then paste it into the reader on the home page and press play. Keep the speed at normal for the first pass, because that is how many listeners will hear it. Note every place where the voice stumbles, pauses oddly or says something you did not mean, and rewrite those spots.

Doing this a few times trains your ear. After a while you start to notice the slashes and the stacked hashtags while you are typing, and the drafts need less fixing. The listening guide has tips on voices and speed if you want to set up a comfortable way to review drafts.

A quick checklist

Before posting a thread, check that:

1. The first post says what the thread is about in plain words.
2. Every image has a description that covers what it is there to show.
3. Hashtags are in CamelCase and there are only one or two of them.
4. Numbers, dates and times are written the way you would say them.
5. Slash abbreviations and arrows are replaced with words.
6. Links are introduced in words, not "here".
7. You have listened to it at least once.

Questions