Comments on: How blogging helps my professional career

By: Dave Farquhar

Dave Farquhar — Sun, 13 May 2012 00:02:27 +0000

I think I’d make a whole lot of people mad at me if I said typing was the best class I took, but it’s a skill I use literally all the time. I’d be in a world of hurt without it–my hand can’t keep up with my mind when writing with a pen, but with a good keyboard, my hands usually keep pace pretty well. Which is one reason I’m picky about keyboards.

By: jim`

jim` — Sat, 12 May 2012 04:28:04 +0000

>>If it seems more productive to keep going and come back later to fix, I put it off.<<

LOL, seems to me you only learn that after 3 decades!

I've heard a lot of people say that the best class they took in high school was the touch-typing course. Would you agree?

By: Dave Farquhar

Dave Farquhar — Sat, 12 May 2012 01:23:19 +0000

I think corrections is a good topic for a post. In my case, it’s a definite “it depends.” If I’m in a groove and writing a hundred words a minute, I won’t stop for an earthquake. If I’m writing at a slow, controlled, more normal pace, then sure, I may stop.

I’m a good enough typist that I don’t make a lot of typos, and when I do that or use the wrong homonym (think their/there/they’re), it doesn’t feel right. I’ll stop and fix stuff like that right away.

I’ve been writing more than 3 decades now (I started very young), so I’ve learned to trust myself after all those years. If I think it’s going to take less time to fix it right away, I fix it. If it seems more productive to keep going and come back later to fix, I put it off.

By: jim`

jim` — Thu, 10 May 2012 22:45:46 +0000

Excellent advice. I helped an online friend with his college entrance exams a few months ago and told him practice, practice, practice was the only way to get his writing up to acceptable univeristy levels. As it so happens, I got an email from him this morning in which he churned out 350 words or so and it sounded pretty darned good even though English is not his native tongue! Far cry from 9 months ago.

Out of curiosity, do you write everything out and then go back and correct, or do you tend to correct as you go along? Of course one does a run-through when finished, but do you correct every little mistake along the way, or save it for an editing pass?

By: DanB

DanB — Thu, 10 May 2012 16:47:47 +0000

Bravo!