diff --git a/checkwork.sh b/checkwork.sh
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..4acda3a10
--- /dev/null
+++ b/checkwork.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+#! /bin/bash
+
+# run with no arguments
+# 1. deletes previous build output
+# 2. builds default language version of docs only (English)
+# 3. changes directory to html output
+# 4. runs http server for local review of docs
+#
+# Requires python 3 
+
+make clean
+make html
+cd source/_build/html
+python3 -m http.server