Anyone who has ever edited me will tell you I have a few…quirks. My worst habit is leaving unfinished sentences it the end of my
…paragraphs. Like that. I regularly do this without noticing, even after I re-read an article multiple times.
You could argue that I’m an idiot, and I do argue that to myself every night when I’m trying to fall asleep. But I’m not stupid—at least, not for this reason. Research suggests it’s harder to edit your own writing than the writing of other people.
If you’re reading someone else’s writing it’s presumably because you want to understand the ideas that are being conveyed. In that context a typo can trip you up—the mistakes come between you and understanding the ideas. This makes them stand out to you. Compare that to the experience of reading your own writing—you already know what you’re trying to say. Because of this your brain is more likely to skip over typos—you don’t need the context that precise language provides.
There’s a lot more psychology at work here, more than I could break down, but the basic problem is that it’s really hard to edit your own work. This is why I’m grateful for all the editors I have to work with at various publications, and for my wife Kathy who edits this newsletter (hi Kathy).
Even with that help, though, I occasionally try to catch my own typos. I’ve tried various grammar checkers over the years, and sometimes they help. But nothing has been as effective, for me, as listening to my writing. When I’m finished with a draft I get my computer to read it back to me. It’s much easier for me to notice a computer voice failing to finish a sentence than it is for me to notice the unfinished sentence while reading. The same goes for typos: hearing my computer say the wrong word, or be unable to pronounce a word, makes it immediately obvious that I need to change something.
I could go on. I always catch multiple things I want to change after listening to my articles, and it’s easier to do than you’d think. There are built-in tools for this on the Mac and in Microsoft Office, meaning you can start doing this right now with just a couple of clicks. Give it a try the next time you find yourself editing your own work.
Stuff I Wrote
- How to (Mostly) Get Rid of Liquid Glass WIRED Distracted by all the transparency, or just wish your device wasn’t running so slow? These tips can help.
- You should wash your clothes with cold water Popsci Modern detergent is chemically engineered to work with cold water, meaning you don’t have to waste energy heating up your laundry.
- You Can Now Read Instapaper Articles on Your Kobo Lifehacker Mozilla shut down Pocket, which sucks, but at least I can read articles on my e-reader again.
Stuff You Should Check Out
- A rich person with awful taste is more of an ‘average’ consumer than you now Mike Pearl/Mike The majority of spending in America is done by the top ten percent of earners, which is skewing the entire economy.
- America’s Dumbest Crop Climate Town/YouTube America uses more water growing useless grass than any other crop. Hilarious breakdown of a depressing situation (with a few potential solutions).
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