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Proofread. Don’t Any Words Out!
Feb
I like that title. Time to have a bit of fun and see if you can add to the list.
My spell-checker is knot always write.
It caught the first error but not the second. My grammar checker didn’t notice either!
Take time to clarify you’re thoughts before righting.
Hopefully I’d catch that one.
Another thought, I need to, at least, think carefully, about where I put commas, in all my sentences.
My grammar checking noticed I should have had a comma after ‘Hopefully’ in the previous example, then told me to remove a couple of commas in the last sentence. My grammar checker has helped keep me out of the weeds many times.
Remember that its important to use the apostrophe correctly.
Too easy!!!
Hears one – absolutely always avoid alliterations.
I’ll try to do better next time.
To make my writing more interesting, I reduce my use of cliches like the plague.
OK. OK. Enough.
I try not to be too overconfident or afraid to let others provide feedback. I’d share ideas I had with my staff group. It took some practice to realize that I often presented half-baked ideas that were not thought through. I valued their thoughts early on in my thinking process. It was a scary ride for all of us. This early input kept me from developing ideas into a lot of detail, making it harder to backtrack.
Once I wanted to support folks online who were leaving addiction treatment. I thought it was a great concept, so I ran it by a few staff who I knew had the courage to tell me what they really thought. Some didn’t get the idea, while others liked it but thought it impractical at that time. Others were opposed. A good sampling as it covered a wide range of perceptions.
I carefully considered their input and eventually dropped the idea. The financial and human resources were not available and not likely to be for a long time. I was better off developing an in-house program that could be used for follow-up. That’s what I did, and referral sources in the community embraced it.
Please give this a bit of a think. What is something you’ve done that you wish you’d reached out for feedback on? What might you have done differently in hindsight? Looking ahead, what is something you’d like to get another set of eyes on before proceeding?
I’m curious about your thoughts. Please leave your comment.
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What a difference a letter can make. Bear with me if you’ve heard it before.
Interviewer: How do you explain the 4 year gap on your resume?
Me: That’s when I went to Yale.
Interviewer: That’s impressive; you’re hired.
Me: Thanks I really needed this yob.
It took me a second. Thanks for the laugh. I’ll remember that typo for the rest of my life!
I used to use grammar checker but for some reason I uninstalled it. Now, if I write anything at all, I hand it over to someone who is a grammar and spelling nerd.
I really had to give this one a bit of a think. There’s one situation that comes to mind and it just so happens to be about grammar!
I took a teaching English as a Second Language program at UofT 18 years ago. Pedagogical Grammar was one of the course requirements. It was also one of my least favorite subjects so I naturally left it for last.
I heard one thing about the professor who was going to teach the course. She earned the nickname “The grandmother of grammar!” I didn’t see that as a red flag. I took it as a positive.
Professor Holtz was from Holland and spoke with a very strong and stern Dutch accent. As we quickly found out, most of her tests were take-home. They “looked” easy enough but I didn’t answer the grammar point in the format “she” wanted it to be answered. Unfortunately I had to repeat her course. It was a frustrating lesson to be learned.
I looked at grammar much like a math problem. There are a number of ways to teach a problem, as there are to solve it. As long as you show your work and arrive at the correct answer, I figure that’s good enough. There’s no “one” way. Oh boy, not with the grandmother of grammar. Not in her books!
In retrospect. I wish I had asked other students who had taken her class, what I was walking into. One woman told me she was a harsh marker and she barely passed. In retrospect I wished that I had shared my answers with another student to be sure I was on the right track.
It helps to get feedback from others before we go ahead with something. An extra set of eyes, like you said, is always a good thing too, for many things we do.
Commas matter..
“A woman without her man is nothing.
A woman: without her, man is nothing.”
Good example. Life lesson for sure. Thanks.