Reading Your Written Work
The axiom, “presentation is everything” applies to all aspects of your life. For example, everyone recalls a time when they have wanted to look their best to make a good impression on that first date or an important job interview. This same concept applies to your writing as well. Whether you are writing for an important class, a résumé for a prospective employer, or just writing for pleasure, it is important to follow accepted written protocols and to convey your ideas clearly and accurately. Mistakes in grammar, punctuation, spelling, and construction can distract your reader’s attention and cloud their understanding of your message. These things will negatively influence your reader’s opinion of the paper without their having read your work in its entirety and will, also, warp their impression of your authority, skill, and person. Remember, just as in dating and job interviews, you only get one chance to make a good first impression
Your first line of defense for proofreading, perfecting, and polishing your written work can be electronic. Most good word processing programs have spell and grammar-checkers, which can minimally check your compositions for accuracy and readability. These mechanical assistants, however, should not be relied on solely for they can not sufficiently catch every error that you are capable of in your writing. I learned this lesson myself the hard way. A few years ago, I wrote a paper for a professional group I was associated with. This paper discussed mistakes in comma usage made in the printing of my local, daily newspaper. Unfortunately, in writing this paper, I had misspelled the word, “comma” as “coma” throughout the whole paper. Because “coma” is an actual word which I had spelled correctly, the spell checker did not catch it . And, because of the fact that the error did not follow the parameters set in the preset language formulas, the grammar checker did not point this error out to me either. Obviously, there is a huge difference between a comma and a coma. To complicate this mistake even further, since I have graduate degrees in English, and since I was in a hurry, I, arrogantly, assumed that I did have to do a read through of the paper, and I, immediately, submitted it to be read in front of an academic audience. Needless to say, having this mistake pointed out to me in front of my colleagues was a major professional embarrassment that I vowed I would never repeat again.
So, your second and most important step in polishing your writing is to read your work, preferably aloud, but, if you are in public and do not want to be mistaken for a homeless person, then, you can read it to yourself. Doing this can help you catch repetitious words and phrases, which I call, “echoes”, awkwardly constructed phrases and clauses, fragments, and run-on sentences. When you speak the words aloud, your ears will help you hear how they sound when they are read. In other words, you will hear what your reader will be reading. This can and should be done, whenever possible, by an unbiased second party as well. Often, ideas that may be clear to you are not clearly articulated in your writing. At this time, another person is necessary to indicate to you what might need further clarification. Getting this feedback, hearing the spoken words flow as they are read aloud, or listening with your internal ear as you read the words to yourself will assist you in altering the flow of the sentences, if necessary, adding needed transitions between thoughts, altering your word selection when those you have chosen first do not accurately express the thoughts you are trying to communicate, or in reconstructing an clumsily strung together sentence or paragraph. So, the next time you have written work that needs to be done, do not, like I did, just pull the paper out of the printer when it is done printing and hand it directly to your instructor or supervisor without reading it first. The embarrassment you save will be your own
Lastly, your writing should never be a rushed attempt. It should always be considered a rough draft or a works-in-progress right up until the final draft is due. In other words, you should continue to write, read, and revise your material as many times as you can. After these first sets of revisions, set you paper aside for a day or two, and, then, you come back to it and read it and revise it again. When you give yourself some time away from your evolving work, your mind will then be able to catch your mistakes more readily, and you will be able to see your work more objectively each time, finding additional places you had not seen before to add more depth and coherence. Often, fresh ideas and new insights will occur to you when you have had time away from your work or have slept on it (“Slept on it” as it is used here does not mean the way I slept on my work in my high school geometry class.)
Once these steps have been followed and repeated as many times as you possibly can, you can be more assured that your written work will be nearly flawless in terms of its grammar, its spelling, its constructions, and, hopefully, in its clarity. The value of reading your works after you have written it cannot be underestimated, as it reflects the writer’s effort to perfect it. Do not just hurriedly pull it out of your printer and hand it in expecting everyone else to understand and correct your errors. You are ultimately responsible for the success or failure of your writing. After all, how you present your paper will affect other’s opinions, not just about your paper, but about you as well. So, therefore, take the time and make the effort to read your work to ensure that that opinion is a good one.
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