The third lesson in yesterday’s post

Go read the post below, if you haven’t already.

The post mentions two errors to watch out for and avoid: Be careful to get your prepositions right, and use vivid words, not blah ones.

I hinted at a third lesson. (I said I had looked at a sentence after not seeing it for a couple days.)

PROOFREAD!!!

If I had set the original message aside and looked at it after a couple days (enough time to forget what I had written), I would have noticed the ambiguity and fixed it. Proofreading right after you write something is a good habit—it helps you fix the typos and obvious errors. But if you can put some time between your writing and your final check before you hit Send, you’ll notice and fix the subtle errors.

Your readers will thank you for it.