If you ever put pen to paper (perhaps I should be more general—words to paper or screen), you should make one resolution this year if it’s not already part of your lifestyle. It’s this:

PROOFREAD  EVERYTHING!

Resolve never to commit anything to writing without at least re-reading it. Look for two things.

First, look for obvious goofs, such as reversed lettres, the space before punctuation , and for heaven’s sake, words that your spelchecker notices. This sort of mistake makes you look careless.

The other thing to proofread for is harder to find. Look for wrong words, items your spellchecker misses: using mute when you mean moot, peak when you mean pique, and a million others. Think about words that could be better. I saw a sign today that referred to trees “more than 60 feet.”  How about “taller than 60 feet?” This is the hard part of writing, and a large percentage of this website is about these hard things. Consider becoming a regular reader!

I wrote an article that covers this subject in more detail. It’s free; check it out. http://ezinearticles.com/?Improve-Your-Writing-in-One-Step,-and-Four-Ways-to-Follow-the-Step&id=2808217.