a new post to report on my adventures this afternoon:

1) I not only cried at my therapist's office, I made my therapist cry too.

2) I had stuck a check in my wallet to pay my therapist, and then stopped at the bank to deposit a birthday check I'd gotten. Sure enough, when I got to therapy, there was the birthday check in my wallet, waving at me, yelling, "you fucking dumbass."

((((Nora)))). Not a dumbass. Had other things on your mind.

(((Nora))) You're definitely not dumb. That could happen to anyone.

{{{{{Nora}}}}} Not a dumbass at all.

Not dumbass at all.

As for editing. I try to read what I have written out loud. It makes such a difference in picking up errors. I try to encourage my kids to do this too. They hate it, but at least so far K-Bug has realized that it is a good way to self-proof.

Yep, reading out loud is one of the most important proofreading techniques that I teach my students. Seems to help a lot.

Suzi, my favorite high school English teacher taught us to read our papers outloud while editing. It's a great trick.

.useful be also can backwards Reading

PC The other thing might be the person writing that thought they needed to be more "formal" in their writing so used awkward phrasing because it seemed better. It's weird but I know that some people feel that writing has to be "proper" and that ends up with weird stilted language.

That makes my brain hurt, megan. It hurts enough without added backwardsness.

When either kid hands me one of their papers to show me their work, I will start reading it out loud until I hit the first error. About then it gets ripped out of my hands and I can hear them reading it to his or herself before I see it again. It can get humorous sometimes.

I also love how candid kids can be (note sarcasm font here). One of CJ's assignments was to write about what he would do if he won a million dollars. "I would pay off my parents bills cause they are a bit behind." Gee, thanks for sharing hon.