Monday, January 6, 2020

How I Learned to Avoid My Writing Mistakes (almost)



Image result for writing
Things I learned after reading these two articles “What’s up with that: Why It’s So Hard to Catch Your Own Typos” by Nick Stockton and “How to Say Nothing In Five Hundred Words” by Paul McHenry Roberts:

  1. When writing, our brain generalizes simple tasks and focuses on more complex ones; for turning letters into words is less complex than combining sentences into ideas. Whether we write “she” or “hse” is not as important as the idea behind the combination of sentences being conveyed. In order to avoid this, I should make my material as unfamiliar as possible. I could write it and forget about it for a while, or I could just change the background of my paper to trick my brain into thinking this is new to us.
  2. One must dare to be bold and take the unusual side of the argument. When confronted with a commonly talked topic, one should try to come up with new ideas that relate. Even though I always try to come up with my own arguments to prove where I stand, I often tend to state the obvious. I understand now that I should be bolder when choosing my position and I should always avoid being too abstract. I need to do more than just saying so, I have to show them why I say so; I need to paint a clear picture in order to make my stand more credible. 
  3. It is not about how many adjectives you use to describe an action; it is about how concise you are while doing so. As Roberts says, when calling a fool, you call him a fool. I need to stop thinking about whether the reader will accept it or not; in the end, it is my stand and I shouldn’t be censoring it.
  4.  Colorful words can paint a better picture sometimes; however, it is crucial for me to understand that not everyone likes fancy prose. Some people, especially in this era, prefer it plain and simple. Colored words can give my writing strength, but they can also divert the reader into concluding something different. And even though I normally don’t use colorless words, such as nice and cool, since I’m too extra when writing, I need to learn how to balance them with the colorful and colored words.
  5. Writing will never be less frustrating when it comes to editing. We all do the previously discussed mistakes and we will perhaps keep on doing them. 
  6. It would be good to take some time off my writing when I finish the first draft in order to have a fresh perspective when revising it. Ultimately, in order to solve the problem, one must be one harshest critique!

1 comment:

  1. Definitely, I see your topic is very important to get benefits from it.

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