Archive for the 'Writing Hints' Category

Don’t you just hate it when you have slaved over a piece of writing for hours, printed it out – only to find an error embedded somewhere in the text? Perhaps it was a typo, spelling error or glaring grammatical boo-boo.

Here is a list of seven very effective hints on doing away with those errors – or at least minimizing them:

1. Give it away: As writers, we get too close to what we are writing. As we proofread we tend to read what we intended to write, rather than what we actually wrote. Get a trusted friend or family member to read through it. I often ask my wife; she can be meticulously severe on my writing. And that’s what you want – not someone who says, “Very nice,” but doesn’t want to offend you by pointing out the fifty three glaring errors you’ve overlooked.
2. Let it sleep for a while: If you do not have a pressing deadline to meet, let the piece of writing sleep for a while. Come back to after a few hours, days or weeks. Fresh eyes will see errors that were hidden when you first wrote the piece.
3. Have an audience of one: Read your writing aloud to yourself. Or to the dog, cat or canary – whoever. If you stumble over a phrase or sentence when reading aloud, so will your readers. If something doesn’t quite make sense to your ears, you will surely lose your readers at that point.
4. Writer – know thyself: Be aware of weaknesses in your writing style, spelling abilities and grasp of grammar. Focus particularly on those weaknesses until you master them or you will be their slave forever. I have to be particularly careful of the spelling of some words because they almost always trip me up. Get a good dictionary.
5. Turn down the volume: Sure – some writers can produce wonderful prose with the stereo blaring in the background, or the television on, or five screaming children running riot through the house. Some have no choice. I know I work best when there are few distractions and a minimum of noise. I know I can write in a busy, noisy environment – I was an elementary school teacher for thirty five years after all! My best writing, however, comes from a calm and quiet environment with few distractions.
6. Print and peruse: Proofreading on a computer monitor is a very difficult task. Print out a hard copy and proofread that; you’ll find it easier to seek out those errors. Get a red pen and go to work.
7. Play it again Sam: Well…maybe not. But it is important to read your work over and over and over again until you are sure it is free of errors.

Good writing.

PS: I’m hoping someone will proofread this for me; my favourite television programme is on in a few minutes. So much for those distractions!

UPDATE: I’ve just discovered another great article on proofreading called “The Impotence of Proofreading.” Read at your peril – there are deliberate errors embedded in the text.

Writing is all about effective communication.

I believe that effective writing is usually simple writing. If my writing is complex or sprinkled with long or infrequently used words or jargon, I will not be communicating effectively. By keeping my writing simple, clear and easy to understand, I make the best effort possible to communicate my ideas to my readers.

But what if you don’t know what words to use?

Over the last year or so a group of Chinese immigrants have moved into our district. Some of these people have not yet learned to speak or read English. A group of people who have giving them ESL* lessons asked if they could use our church building for their lessons. Because of our background in teaching children with learning difficulties, my wife and I have commenced helping those with the poorest grasp of English.

Just one problem: they know very little English, and we know NO Chinese.

How do we communicate?

We have learned very quickly that we need to keep things extremely simple. We use mime frequently, we smile a lot and laugh at each other’s mistakes. It has made us reassess the very basics of our language, the building blocks of English and how it all works to make communication possible.

I’m so glad our six students are so well behaved; they really do want to learn and that makes all the difference.

[*ESL means English as a Second Language]