Week 3, Derrek Ballard

11th Secret to Writing

My 11th secret to writing well is to proofread everything you write before posting it.  I proofread by first typing out my full thought (if I don't, I generally lose my train of thought - choo choo!), then going back through and read it aloud to make sure it flows well.  This helps me capture any run-on sentences, fragments, or comma splices.  I then read through it again to make sure I didn't misspell any words or accidentally leave any words out.  I do this over and over again until my writing is completed, whether it be a blog post, a poem, or a short story.  I then read it several more times in order to catch any last minute mistakes.  Sometimes, if I'm still not comfortable with the way a sentence is phrased or if I'm still unsure on my own proofreading, I ask my wife to read through it herself (she's a lot better at this kind of thing than I am and usually catches another half dozen mistakes).

The grammar mistake I found this week was discovered on my Facebook newsfeed.  It says "Jesus Cares for the Poor, so do We."  There are several mistakes here with capitalization and a comma splice.  It should read "Jesus cares for the poor; so do we."