Posted by John Mullen

In Reply to: Skipping words while reading and writing posted by kuanyin

Yep. To do a good job, most people have to read a document twenty or more
times.

It happens to most people, dyslexic or not. It is a good idea to have a
partner who is willing to read the later drafts. Someone who has not read
the earlier ones and is not familiar with the material. Ask the person to
read it and tell you what it says. That will not only find the missing
words, but also tell you how well you are communicating. (Resist the urge
to argue over meaning. The reader is simply stating what you wrote, not
what you meant. You need to argue in print so the audience will understand
you, too.)

Other strategies include computer aids, such as spelling checkers, grammar
checkers and text-to-speech readers. The grammar checkers often catch
missing words as well as sentence fragments, run-ons, etc. I find that when
I hear what I wrote I catch some big logic flaws.

Another strategy is to read for a single purpose. For example, read once to
be sure all your cross-references are right, once to check citations, etc.
I use a little checklist to keep track of what readings I have or have not
done. For large documents, I have a checklist for each section or chapter,
so I can check it out part by part. Trying to do everything at once is
much more tiring and you are more likely to miss something.

John Mullen

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