Proofreading

My sister Susan is an excellent writer - her career at corporate McDonald's helped her to hone her skills and she's sharp as can be when it comes to putting words to paper. My mom was an excellent "proofer" - she'd catch spelling mistakes in a nano-second but sadly she's not around any more to help me that way.

Susan once told me that the best way to proof anything you write is to start at the end and read backwards - one word at a time. That way your mind will "stop" at any mistakes. If you read your paragraph in the normal way your mind has a tendency to correct mistakes as it goes along, inserting words or letters that you "expect" to see there and therefore you can miss errors.

Hmmmmm……I guess I forgot her suggestion this morning.