The shape of words
"I really enjoyed Karen Stollznow’s article on Typoglycemia. Having worked as a secondary English teacher for more than 50 years, often with learning support classes, I have frequently used awareness of the physical shape of words as a method of distinguishing between similar words. We would identify the first one or two letters of a word, work out possibilities and then consider the shape. Certainly, making a game of the process and including laughter at bloopers both reduced the tension associated with failure but also introduced the importance of context. For editing I would recommend several techniques, the first of which seldom occurs and not only with teenagers – being organised enough to allow yourself time to forget what you had been working on so that you don’t read what you expect to read. Failing that, spend some time between finishing writing, and starting to edit by doing something mind absorbing and different – sudoku puzzles or cryptic crosswords – and reading your writing aloud while you edit, in front of a mirror if you can. This way your focus isn’t on the written page/screen alone. You are hearing and perhaps observing someone saying your words, and the difference in presentation can be enough to highlight an error otherwise missed. It is nice to know that there actually is a method to what some of my peers referred to as my 'madness'."
Sue Burn 

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