Freelance Apple

We have all been there. At one point in our lives, we have all tried to communicate well in some form of message, whether that be an article, email, or newsletter, and made an absolute mash of it. No doubt, this article will have errors. This is because we are all human, and humans make mistakes. This article, I believe, will prove more useful to those of you who are freelance writers in particular – but all of you can take away at least a few positive tips and advice on communications.

So how can we reduce mistakes and become excellent at “Writing Without ErrorRs”? [An intended error, like any other mistakes you find ;)]

1. Print it out

Reading from a computer screen may not be the best way for you to check for mistakes, as it may not be the most relaxing method of reading. Reading is primarily, or initially, an action only done with the printed/written word, not digital text – so it’s much more natural for you to be reading text “physically” in front of you, and not digital text on a screen. Compare looking up at your computer monitor with reading a book. Personally, I find that reading a book in a well lit room is far more easier than straining my eyes on a computer monitor.

Looking over a printout may prove useful in increasing your capability to stop errors made in your writing, rather than trying to do so on a computer screen. Use a pen/highlighter to mark mistakes and/or make corrections.

2. Read it to yourself

This can help you spot errors which you would not have noticed while reading silently (this does not necessarily mean that you read it out as if you are Martin Luther King delivering the “I am a dream” speech).

By reading out aloud, run-on sentences will become apparent. Sometimes words which do not fit in comfortably with the sentence can be heard better when read.

3. Cover up

Use a blank sheet of paper to cover up the part of the article that you’re not reading yet. This will force you to actually read it and not skim read ahead. By skim reading an article you may miss minor mistakes (and sometimes even major ones).  However, this may not apply every time you re-read an article, as sometimes, it may need to be read several times.

4. Computer search

Every time you re-read an article it doesn’t have to be on a printout, this can be done just once and any revisions after this can be on the computer monitor. Here you may want to use the option in Word to help you find obvious errors. Like “it’s” as opposed to “its”.

5. Computer spell check

Use a word processor’s spell check tool to aid you in finding obvious spelling errors, however, the software may not be able to identify when a word is used incorrectly, only if it is spelt correctly. For example, please note how the following sentence has not a single spelling error, yet only an ignoramus would say that it is correct.

Their she wandered weather the whether wood be in support off there team or knot.

6. Read after a break

Depending on what you have written, take a short break and re-read your work. If it is a book, re-read after a few days or weeks. If it is a two hundred word essay it may be a good idea to re-read it after a few hours. This way, you will approach revision of your written work refreshed, and possibility with an entirely new angle.

7. Re-read (again, and again, and again…)

You might think that to re-read a piece once is satisfactory, however, in many cases you may be wrong. Of course for a very short article, once or twice may be fine, on the other hand, a thesis may need several reads before submission.

8. Others

You may consider yourself infallible, making mistakes whilst writing (especially typing) is particularly easy. This may be because you have failed to write exactly what you have thought, missing out words, or structuring sentences incorrectly. You may think you’ve written down your thoughts exactly as you had thought them, but they may look very different on page. It is also possible for you to have misrepresented a point which makes entire sense to you but the reader may take a wholly different meaning from it. Even I get friends to read over some of my work, when it really matters.

There is no shame in asking a member of your family or a friend to read over your work. Although, having a friend read over your daily blog posts may become irritating for him. Again, something substantially more important and of greater length should be read by another individual apart from yourself in order to pick out all those nasty little errors.

So there you have it, follow these tips, and you’ll see big improvements in your written communications – which will benefit you both in your career as a freelancer, and life in general.

Have your say

Any tips on checking your work which you I have not mentioned? Comment below.

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