Have you ever noticed mistakes in your blog posts or others here on Steemit? I am very much guilty for this as sometimes we are just trying to get through our posts quickly to get them completed, so we can move on.
We want to improve and have well written posts that can always be useful and appreciated for a long time. They are here on the block chain forever! The rushing habit and not paying complete attention is just that... a habit.
I have one great tip that can help fix this for anyone and it may be useful for many other productive tasks.
Reading
Before you skip ahead let me explain how reading can improve your writing in a way that is not so obvious and what you may think.
As a daily reader now in my life I have started to noticed a pattern I was doing. Just like writing blog posts quickly trying to get through it, I would do this with my reading. I would try to scheme through some words at points and when I have to re-read a paragraph because I didn't quite grasp it, I noticed I mistaken a word for another one. I was not paying complete attention to each word and would assume what word it may have been.
This is a habit of rushing through your work and not paying complete attention to detail. For someone who is all about the details I was ashamed!!
Try this tip
When reading, slow it down and make sure you clearly see what word you are reading. Sound it out, spell it out, just make sure you know consciously what words you are reading.
This makes a big difference in creating a solid pattern of not rushing through your work, your reading, and performing any task quickly, which in the end will not be your best job. It is very easy to not notice errors when you have created this rushing pattern of completing tasks for yourself. Now that I have started to do this, I notice more of my writing errors and fix them before someone else spots them.
Read a bit more and thoroughly analyze each word to make sure you are not creating the pattern of jumping through things quickly. It will definitely help your performance here on Steemit and in all tasks you need to complete well.
It's been shown that if you read aloud the the words you write down, you can catch errors well.
For example, not sure if you noticed but I put an extra "the" above. Most people won't even notice the second "the" because our mind skips it to make sense of the sentence. So yes, reading your work out loud and not just in your head is a full-proof way to find grammar errors.
BTW, I've been super occupied with school lately. Thus, no posts/comments of my own on anyone. Hope you had fun on your trip!
Great tip @cabernet! I want to start to incorporate reading aloud for this reason and also it helps with public speaking. I just read a book on Abraham Lincoln and this is what he always did as his preference but he became one of the best speakers.
My mind did skip the second "the" and I am trying to be vigilant! Lol! This was a fantastic post to add here.
Miss your posts and look forward to them soon @cabernet. Thanks so much as always. My trip was super adventurous and fun!
What are you taking in school? Wish you the very best on your studies...!
Haha phew, I was nervous I'd be the only one to have been fooled by that extra "the".
I'm in my last semester of graduate school and have a super busy final semester. So little time to be active on Steem with classes, work, and gym haha
Sounds like you are killing it though. Keep it up! Look forward to seeing you here more when your schedule clears up :)
Have a great day!
great tip! you got me with that extra "the"
Good one @cabernet, I missed the second "the" 😃
In fact, one of the best things you can do if you want to be better at anything in the arts is read. Werner Herzeg, my favorite documentarian, in his “Rogue Film school” says that reading is the most important thing to becoming a good filmmaker. If you interact with the best minds of history, the quality of your own work will be so much better. He recommends a little book on bird watching called “ The Peregrin” which is SO well written.
I think that reading stuff like this will really improve the quality of everything you do, blogging included!
More reasons for me to read everyday! I believe what you and Werner say.
I will have to add that book to my list... as it continues to grow!
Thanks for this insight @onejwells13!
Also another good tip. Don't mix drinking wine and reading together. I maybe reread the same chapter twice last night from how many times I had to go back and reread paragraphs lol.
Lol! Ya I can't do it. I need complete focus to fully understand what I am reading..haha
Proof reading is really important as it allows us to correct minor mistakes but sometimes it allows us to write whole new paragraphs in a whole new light :)
Ahhh great point @pisolutionsmru!! Proof reading does expand our writing and skills big time. That was some great insight, thank you!!
I'm worse at the end when I'm trying to finish up or I get rushed...when I get rushed , I have to stop cause it is inevitable that I will screw something up.
Yea it happens, we are human. But the more we pay attention the more it will improve. Thanks for sharing @jorlauski!
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Yay! Love that and love you!! Thanks so much @goldendawn! Happy Valentines Day!! Love is in the air!!!:D
Really nice post @bitdollar. Appreciate the effort that went in to this and hope I can improve my own writing with your tips :)
Glad you enjoyed it!! Thanks so much @oen!
I just hope someday i could be able to write good enough to connect. Not perfect or epic or anything. Just good enough to made my reader feel anything but boredom.
Yea we definitely want that and can be done! Practice makes perfect! Strive to be great and the best writer. You can do it no problem!
@bitdollar
I totally agree with you on that re-reading thing. Makes me feel guilty too! Sometimes we are just so in a rush to race with our thoughts. Anyway, we always learn from our mistakes and bit by bit we always try to improve. Thanks for the nice reminder!
Yea we do race with our thoughts unless we slow things down a bit. Mistakes make us better that is right! Thanks @scarletmelissa!!
You are most welcome @bitdollar :-)
I'm very conscious whenever writing and that's why correct my mistakes side by side while writing but sometimes mistakes can happen and I have to edit it. I agree with you on reading matter.
It makes such a difference to have this habit and awesome that you agree with the reading part. Thanks @kittynick!!
I've always struggled with writing, and you're right, because when i slow down to actually read the whole paragraph and not skim i begin to look up words to see what they mean in context and everything. This is very helpful!
Yea same with me. I really try to sound out words I am not familiar with and look into the meaning of them. It really helps us complete what we are doing properly.
Thanks @heaterville!
In other words, if you leave a trace be sure it's accurate)
Yes! You got it! :)
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i will try it the way you suggested it as i usually make mistakes in my posts that i have ''checked'' at least one time :P