My 11th secret to writing well would
be to read your writing out loud to yourself and another person. When I am
writing I tend to leave out words or even phrases occasionally when I am typing
my papers. It is possible to find these mistakes by just reading over your
paper but I fall victim to what it talks about in When Words Collide. I read
what I know what I want to say instead of what is actually typed on the paper.
When I read it out loud I catch more mistakes that I have made. I also get to
hear the tone and voice of my paper to see if it is how I want it to sound. I
can really edit my paper to how I want it to be while making sure it is
correct.
It is important to me to also read
it out loud to someone else because I like to get their opinion. I
usually do it with somebody that knows me well and somebody that doesn't.
People that know me tend to sugar coat things or don't want to tell me that I
need to change things. They do know my personality and let me know if it sounds
like me or if I made it too boring or too much of me. When I have someone that
doesn't know me go over my papers they can give me a non-bias opinion. I
appreciate hearing what someone has to say when they don't have the need to
spare my feelings.
I found an error at the gym on a
flyer for their Facebook page and also a memo I received at work. If I paid a
little more attention at work I am sure that I would stumble upon several
errors. I read at least a hundred different documents a day. It would be good
practice if I started to pay more attention to them.
Facebook is not capitalized.
Job is not capitalized in Job Corps
Little typos like that are everywhere. For me it's usually an even mix of maddening and entertaining. Not everyone has access to the materials and resources needed for advanced grammatical mastery like we do right now, but it's often puzzling. I find myself thinking, "Did nobody actually read this before printing it?" A hilarious example: during a graduation ceremony at the Browning Center I noticed a raffle ticket box, the sign on which said "Gradution raffle." This was an academic institution that created this. Funny, but sad.
ReplyDeleteThat is a great tip. I am embarrassed of letting people read my work. Sometimes it is hard for me to read it out loud. This is an awesome tip because you can catch mistakes. Reading something out loud does sound different than writing. Maybe you write a certain way but talk a different way. Those can be intertwined negatively or positively.
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