When you read, many times you are expecting to see a certain word come next in the sentence. So your brain is already anticipating what will be there. Research has shown that if the first and last letters of the word are in the correct place, but some letters in the middle are mixed up, your brain can still recognize the word and you might not even catch the misspelling. (Have you seen emails about that?!)
Here's an example:
I decided to drive to Orlando, and it was quite a far disatnce to go.
In that sentence, the word "distance" was (intentionally) misspelled. However, I bet it didn't cause a problem for many of you because you had a feeling about what the generally sentence was discussing, and that word had just two letters in the middle that were mixed up.
Years ago, I heard of a great trick to help you check your spelling (without using a dictionary or online spell check program). If you read your sentence backward, you will have to read much slower than if you read the sentence forward. By reading it backward, you are spending more time looking at each word and paying more attention to it. This can help you catch misspellings a bit easier since you really can't anticipate what word's coming next.
Give this a try! Write one or two short sentences in response to this blog. Before you post your reply, read your sentences backward and see if you misspelled anything! Even if you didn't misspell anything, do you think that would help you catch something in the future?
8 comments:
That trick is really great I will try it some time.
mirlene
This lesson is to remind you to read properly.
I think the way of writing a sentence and reading it backwards could really help one's reading and comprehension of the particular topic.
Sheila W.
Reading backwards was amazing.It makes you read slowly and cautiously ,you cannot help but find spelling mistakes when you do this.
Read Backwards : makes you careful!
Michele T.
Reading backwards tells you that, you got read very slowly.
Dorothea M.
Since you are not used to reading backwards, it makes you caucious. Thanks for the trick.
Maria Rodriguez - Trelles
Sandra H
I'm going to try this when I'm writing on paper instead of on the computer. No automatic corrections.
Yes, I agree that this trick may help you study your writing a little better because it does take longer to read your sentance backwards. In fact, it help me add a missing s to leftovers in my first sentance.
1. My dog ate all of the leftovers from Thanksgiving Day.
2. I had a lot of great teachers in grade school but my favorite would have to be Mr. Howard.
SHENEA WALKER
Post a Comment