Thursday's Links to Writing & Marketing Blog Posts

WHY IT’S SO HARD TO CATCH YOUR OWN TYPOS

By: Nick Stockton

You have finally finished writing your article. You’ve sweat over your choice of words and agonized about the best way to arrange them to effectively get your point across. You comb for errors, and by the time you publish you are absolutely certain that not a single typo survived. But, the first thing your readers notice isn’t your carefully crafted message, it’s the misspelled word in the fourth sentence.

Typos suck. They are saboteurs, undermining your intent, causing your resume to land in the “pass” pile, or providing sustenance for an army of pedantic critics. Frustratingly, they are usually words you know how to spell, but somehow skimmed over in your rounds of editing. If we are our own harshest critics, why do we miss those annoying little details?

The reason typos get through isn’t because we’re stupid or careless, it’s because what we’re doing is actually very smart, explains psychologist Tom Stafford, who studies typos of the University of Sheffield in the UK. “When you’re writing, you’re trying to convey meaning. It’s a very high level task,” he said.

As with all high level tasks, your brain generalizes simple, component parts (like turning letters into words and words into sentences) so it can focus on more complex tasks (like combining sentences into complex ideas). “We don’t catch every detail, we’re not like computers or NSA databases,” said Stafford. “Rather, we take in sensory information and combine it with what we expect, and we extract meaning.” When we’re reading other peoples’ work, this helps us arrive at meaning faster by using less brain power. When we’re proof reading our own work, we know the meaning we want to convey. Because we expect that meaning to be there, it’s easier for us to miss when parts (or all) of it are absent. The reason we don’t see our own typos is because what we see on the screen is competing with the version that exists in our heads.

. . .

But even if familiarization handicaps your ability to pick out mistakes in the long run, we’re actually pretty awesome at catching ourselves in the act. (According to Microsoft, backspace is the third-most used button on the keyboard.)

. . .

Read the full article HERE!

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If you missed my writing & marketing tweets and retweets yesterday, here they are again:

1. Resources for Writers: Some Quick, Basic Tips for Writing a Riveting Short Story http://ow.ly/Ahb6F
2. How to Attract More Clicks to Your Blog Posts: 11 Revealing Title Tests http://ow.ly/AhbwA
3. Karen Woodward: DIY: Turn Your Manuscript Into A Physical Book http://ow.ly/Ahd61
4. Author, Jody Hedlund: Why I'm Branching Into YA (Plus a Cover Reveal!) http://ow.ly/AhdFl
5. The Language Of Musicality In Poetry: Vocabulary For Poets - Writer's Relief, Inc. http://ow.ly/AhdOG
6. David Farland’s Kick in the Pants—Writing Emotions http://ow.ly/Ahe6I
7. Everything I Know in a Nutshell http://ow.ly/AhfNm @cjlyonswriter
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9. Taking Over The First Page of Google Search | Indies Unlimited http://ow.ly/Ahhfh
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14. Twibel—Something New for Indie Publishers to Worry About? - Social Media Just for Writers http://ow.ly/Ahp4b
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16. Reclusion vs. Seclusion http://ow.ly/AhIfq Daily Writing Tips
17. Search Engine Optimization Basics | Authority Publishing | Custom Publishing for Nonfiction Books | http://ow.ly/AiyKh
18. BookMarketingBuzzBlog: Book Marketing & Author Publicity Toolkit: 2014 http://ow.ly/AiyW4
19. Facebook Tips: 31 Ways to Promote Your Facebook Page | Book Marketing Bestsellers http://ow.ly/Aiz6O
20. Why It’s So Hard to Catch Your Own Typos | The Passive Voice | http://ow.ly/AizkP
21. Like Your Own Facebook Posts | Social Media Tips and Tricks | Mashed Up Website Development http://ow.ly/AiHm6

Happy writing and running, Kathy