Read it out loud

Just read my "letter to the editor" to Tina. Surprising how it sounds in your head, and how it sounds when you read it out loud. I've always known I'm not the best writter. I are an engineer - as the saying goes. I usually write very informal, and very fast. In speech, and sometimes in writting, I tend to be dyslexic. Typing to fast and spelling one thing when I meant another, switching words. I'm just in too much of a hurry. And even though I know that, I know everyone else knows it too - so I rarely take the type to reread and edit.

So I read my letter to the editor, a few times before sending it. Then I read it again when I saw it in the paper... Then I read it out loud to Tina. Turns out when you have to read it out loud, it slows you down... and you notice things. Like how many times you say "etc" or how you use "than" when you mean "that".

Hmm... lesson learned - maybe. Not that I send many letters to the editor (I believe it is one in almost 50 years). But still, when I'm sending stuff external, I should read it out loud - at least once. Just to catch those things I'd otherwise miss.