I have come across the following in a piece of fiction (「永遠のジャック＆ベティ」, by
清水{しみず}義範{よしのり}):

> 「今日は上着を着ているためには暑すぎます」
>
> **◯◯するには☓☓すぎる。** つまり、暑くて上着なんか着ていられない、という意味だった。

As you can see, the bolded sentence is presented as an example of a Japanese
sentence structure, with the ◯◯ and ☓☓ standing in for two arbitrary 動詞 (or
形容詞 or 形容動詞, I guess). It is part of the running prose (i.e. not dialogue), so
no character in the story actually speaks it.

How do you read this aloud, though? My first instinct is to read it as
「マルマルするにはバツバツすぎる」, but this seems kind of weird to me. I've seen マル used a lot
as a placeholder, but バツ seems to carry with it a meaning of "wrong" or
"incorrect" and doesn't seem like a neutral placeholder.

**EDIT** : My professor claims that it is incorrect to read both the ◯◯ and
the ☓☓ above identically (as なになに), because then you lose the fact that the ◯◯
and ☓☓ can (and perhaps should) be distinct lexical items. In light of this, I
have provisonally unaccepted @tdes's answer and am now hoping for answers with
some sort of authoritative citation.
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pronunciation
How do you pronounce "☓☓" as a placeholder?
Both the OO and XX are pronounced なになに。 （なになに）するには（なになに）すぎる。

Source: I just asked my partner who is from Japan.
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2013-09-23T08:00:54.890
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When I attended Japanese lessons in the シベリア·北海道 文化センター we pronounced
placeholders directly as まるまる or ばつばつ. Of course, なになに is also OK.
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2013-09-23T15:36:26.497
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Collating some of the information that's floating around in comments:

[@execjosh says](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/12907/how-do-
you-pronounce-%E2%98%93%E2%98%93-as-a-placeholder#comment27633_12907) that ☓☓
can be read チョメチョメ or ペケペケ. He also notes that these placeholders are called
伏字{ふせ.じ}.

[@istrasci writes](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/12907/how-do-
you-pronounce-%E2%98%93%E2%98%93-as-a-placeholder#comment27635_12908) that
なんとかなんとか can also be used to read placeholders.

[@ssb notes](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/12907/how-do-you-
pronounce-%E2%98%93%E2%98%93-as-a-placeholder#comment27637_12908) that the
choice of interrogative word can change depending on context (e.g. 〇〇さん would
be read ダレダレさん, not ナニナニさん).
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About your edit, I highly doubt that a professional linguist would describe
something "incorrect" or "wrong." Linguistics does not judge correctness or
define what is right. It's totally against the concept of descriptive grammar.

The professor you're talking about has absolutely zero authority in defining
what others should pronounce OO and XX, or any word for that matter. Even
dictionaries never dictate the actual usage, meaning, and pronunciation of a
word; they only try to describe the current state of the language.

To answer your question, these placeholds don't have "correct" readings. If
you're having a hard time swallowing this, ask yourself what the "correct"
readings of underlines and blank boxes in a fill-in-a-blank test in English. A
cloze test may have a question like

> He __ John.

where you have multiple choices: 1. is, 2., are, 3. am, 4. be. and so on. So,
what's the "reading" of this underline? The placeholder in the next question
could be a blank box. Would your professor claim that underlines and blank
boxes must be pronounced differently because they must be distinct lexical
items?

Placeholders are placeholders. Nothing special about them. "○○" and the like
are pronounced まるまる (most likely reading for this particular placeholder),
なになに (most generic of the bunch), だれだれ (when referring to a person), ほにゃらら (a
bit humorous), and many other ways. Your first instinct "マルマルするにはバツバツすぎる"
sounds perfectly natural to me, too. In fact, I think that's the most likely
reading native speakers would use.

If you want a real example that backs up your instinct, here's an official
document (application form for tender on construction contracts):

<http://www.pref.kyoto.jp/shimei/documents/h25tebiki_denshi_1.pdf>

On page 13 (or page 15 in PDF count), there is a sample instructing how to
fill out the form. There, you can find a bunch of placeholders including ○○,
××, and △△. And some of them have readings on top of them. For example, 日本○○設計
has kana "にほんまるまるせっけい" there. 代表者の氏名 (name of representative) is filled as "○○
××," which has まるまる ばつばつ as their readings.

You can also read the Wikipdeia article on 伏字 here:

<http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%BC%8F%E5%AD%97>

伏字 is a special use of placeholders such as censoring certain letters. It's a
bit different than your example. But you can learn how ○ and × can be read in
this case there.

Anyway, if someone reads a placeholder aloud in a specific way, if everyone
understands what he means, and if it sounds as good as any other, that's
perfectly fine. Your professor can insist that it's "incorrect" to pronounce
underlines and blank boxes the same way as much as he or she wants. But that's
not gonna fly in linguistics. His or her doctrine has nothing to do with how
we, as Japanese speakers, native or nonnative, should speak Japanese. It's
none of that person's business.
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Let me post a list of possible readings of "blanks".

**Generic readings:**

  * なになに
  * [ほにゃらら](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%81%BB%E3%81%AB%E3%82%83%E3%82%89%E3%82%89) (sounds like a veriety show)
  * なんとか
  * なんちゃら, なんたら (slangy)

**Context-specific readings:**

  * だれだれ: "someone"
  * どこどこ: "somewhere"
  * いついつ
  * ピー: *bleep*, *censored*

**Symbol-specific readings:**

  * まるまる: for `○○`
  * ばつばつ: for `××`
  * ぺけぺけ: for `××` (informal)
  * ちょめちょめ: for `××` (old-fashioned and [has a sexual connotation](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/62154/5010))

(There are no common symbol-specific readings for △△, □□, ☆☆, ※※, etc., all of
which are used as placeholders. Something like さんかくさんかく is too lengthy.)

* * *

These are all common. NHK's language learning programs prefer
なになに/どこどこ/だれだれ/いついつ because they can specify the role of a word in a sentence.
Symbol-specific readings such as まるまる and ばつばつ are also perfectly valid,
especially when you want to retain the distinction of the two blanks (but IMHO
this is not necessary in most cases. だれだれはだれだれを紹介した is not confusing at all).
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