WEBVTT - Look with new eyes

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,

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<v Speaker 1>This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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<v Speaker 1>tip is to look with new eyes. Whenever you are

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<v Speaker 1>working on something important, try to give it a final

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<v Speaker 1>review in a slightly different format than you have reviewed

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<v Speaker 1>it before. You just might catch something your old eyes

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<v Speaker 1>didn't see. No matter how skilled and careful a proofreader

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<v Speaker 1>you are, you can miss things. Our brains have a

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<v Speaker 1>way of reading what was meant instead of what was written.

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<v Speaker 1>This comes in handy if you're trying to get the

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<v Speaker 1>gist of a text a friend dictated while driving, or

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<v Speaker 1>if you are reading the letter that your first grade

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<v Speaker 1>nephew wrote you all by himself. But this feature of

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<v Speaker 1>our brains is no, I'm not so helpful when we

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<v Speaker 1>are looking at something we created, specially if we've been

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<v Speaker 1>looking at it for a while. You've read that last

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<v Speaker 1>paragraph three times. You know what it says, but do you.

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<v Speaker 1>I can speak from personal experience with embarrassing typos that

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<v Speaker 1>know you do not necessarily know what it says. Our

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<v Speaker 1>eyes can glaze over after a while. So the trick

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<v Speaker 1>to catching errors is to look at whatever we have

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<v Speaker 1>created with new eyes. One easy way to do this

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<v Speaker 1>is to put a little space between your first review

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<v Speaker 1>and your final review. A day or more is good,

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<v Speaker 1>though I know that's not really reasonable for short things,

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<v Speaker 1>but an hour would be nice. Write that important email

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<v Speaker 1>before lunch, save it as a draft, and then review

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<v Speaker 1>it after lunch. Maybe you will see that you repeated

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<v Speaker 1>the word the Probably not a deal killer, but best

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<v Speaker 1>not to let it happen. Another trick is to print

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<v Speaker 1>out the document or switch the font or type size.

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<v Speaker 1>Your subsequent reading experience will be different enough from your

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<v Speaker 1>previous editing experience that you may catch something you missed

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<v Speaker 1>before In a different font or type size. That word

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<v Speaker 1>that was at the end of the line may no

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<v Speaker 1>longer be at the end of the line, which means

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<v Speaker 1>that you will see that your sentence doesn't make quite

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<v Speaker 1>as much sense as you thought it did. Finally, reading

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<v Speaker 1>what you wrote out loud, either from the screen or

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<v Speaker 1>from a hard copy, can be wise too. Even if

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<v Speaker 1>the piece is designed to be read silently, reading out

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<v Speaker 1>loud may draw your attention to any awkward phrasings and

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<v Speaker 1>the overall flow of the text. It will also slow

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<v Speaker 1>you down, which may let you catch any typos that

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<v Speaker 1>have slipped by thus far. I spend much of my

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<v Speaker 1>work time writing, and I'm pretty good at catching my mistakes.

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<v Speaker 1>But I never regret giving an important document a final

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<v Speaker 1>review with new eyes. It's not a waste of time. Indeed,

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<v Speaker 1>sometimes it saves time When the final document is more clear.

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<v Speaker 1>People know what you intend, so you spend less time explaining,

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<v Speaker 1>and that is a big win. In the meantime. This

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<v Speaker 1>is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making the

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<v Speaker 1>most of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.

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<v Speaker 1>If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach

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<v Speaker 1>me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast

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<v Speaker 1>is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,

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<v Speaker 1>please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

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<v Speaker 1>listen to your favorite shows.