Do you read with your mind or eyes?

Have you noticed that sometimes no matter how many times you’ve read through your written work, there’s just going to be a typographical error fished out when someone else does?

Sometimes when we go over what we wrote, we are oblivious to the typos despite reading the umpteenth time. But if we check painstakingly or someone else does, we notice them or begin to see that some words we actually read out weren’t even there at all, so how come we read them out in the first place?

There are some words registered in our minds already. When we write, we automatically think that we have written them. But we either skipped them or put a similar word that looks like them in spelling unknowingly. And because they have been registered in our minds, no matter how much we read through, we don’t notice they aren’t in context but we keep mentioning them over and over.

READ: 6 tips for catching your writing mistakes (and protecting your credibility)

This also happens when we are reading other people’s work. We either skip or replace words with those already registered in our minds.

Whenever  I come across a typo error in someone’s work,  I always ask ‘I bet you didn’t notice this yeah?’  they are surprised and attest to have read over and found no typo until I did. 

Click Here for Movies to Watch this Christmas

Do you read with your mind or eyes? Reading with our eyes especially in terms of proof-reading makes us conscious of typos better than our minds. Opening your eyes wide to read and slowly absolving word for word with your mind is the deal. You either shut your mind completely or leave it ajar if you must avoid typos.