The Search For A Stammering Cure

Anybody who has to live life with a stammer will know just how much of a hinderance it can make what fluent people see as simple tasks. Making a phone call, ordering a drink, going out with friends and attending a job interview can be very hard for people who stammer or stutter.

My name is Steve Hill and I am one of these people who have had to endure the affects of stammering. I am now very happy to report that I have been fluent for the last ten years and life has never been so good.

I was never willing to accept my stammer despite what many other so called stammering experts said. These people wanted me to stop fighting and to realise that I would live with the stammer for the rest of my life. In their eyes if I accepted this fact it would be a lot easier for me to cope. These experts are fluent people and it is easy for them to say.

Throughout my life I have tried to improve especially in the areas that I was not happy about. For me stammering was the ultimate problem in my life and I was certain that I would continue my search for a cure for the rest of my life. There was no way I was going to ever accept it. Whenever anybody says to me that a particular thing can not be achieved, I always think of this as a very negative approach. I have now decided to try and avoid these negative type people as they are the ones who are weak and I do want them to have any influence on my life, as they can easily if I am not careful bring me down to their level.

I found stammering to be a very frustrating problem. At times I could actually SPEAK quite well, for example after I had drank quite a lot of alcohol. I was able to talk well to one person but not to another. For many years I could not work out why this was. To find some answers I attended speech therapy at various points in my life. Unfortunately these people did not have the required information to help me. My search for a cure for stammering would have to continue in a different place.

My advice for anybody who has a stammer is to never give up or accept your stammer. This is in a way accepting second best which is exactly what I did when I had a stammer. I had to accept second best in my work, social and even love life as having a stammer made me believe that I could do no better.


How To Improve SPEAKing Skills In A New Language

To most people, SPEAKing is the most difficult part when learning a foreign language. Although everyone knows that the best way to SPEAK a language fluently is to practice SPEAKing as much as possible, not many people can do this. Language centers often create courses focusing on SPEAKing skills, but besides the help of these courses, you should make some effort to improve your skills on your own.

Learners often hesitate to SPEAK because they are afraid of pronouncing the words wrongly. In fact it is very difficult to correct a mistake in pronunciation later if you don't pay attention to it from the start. The advice is that you should try to pronounce the words right from the very first lessons. Be patient when pronouncing new words. If you make a constant mistake in pronunciation, you should record the right pronunciation of that word and listen over and over again so that you will be familiar with it.

You can find short stories in the language you are learning, in books or on the internet and READ them aloud at home. In this way you can roughly judge how good your pronunciation is and gain more confidence when SPEAKing to others later. You can also try to think in the language you are learning. It may sound crazy but SPEAKing to yourself in a foreign language is very effective for your learning.

Of course the best way to improve your SPEAKing skills is to talk with a native SPEAKer. That also means the best language class is the one which has a native SPEAKer as the teacher. The foreign teacher usually uses only the language being learnt in the class and refuses to SPEAK in any other. Therefore you can become more familiar with the language you are studying because you are forced to SPEAK in it.

Talking to a native SPEAKer in your country is good, however, talking to a native in his own country is far better. If you can afford to travel to the country where the language that you are learning is spoken and stay there for some time, it's the fastest way to improve your SPEAKing skills. When you are surrounded by a new language everyday and no one talks to you in your mother tongue, you have to try your best to SPEAK in that language to survive! Besides being able to learn how people really talk in their daily lives, you can also enlarge your vision with new views and enrich your knowledge about a different culture.



How to ProofREAD Like a Professional

Even as I wrote the title for this article, I got confused. Is "proofREAD" one word or two? I thought it was two, and my spell checker didn't have a problem with that, but when I double-checked myself with a popular on- line dictionary, I was able to catch my mistake. ProofREAD is in fact one word, "proof·READ v. tr. To READ (copy or proof) in order to find errors and mark corrections."

I'm not a grammarian or editor by any stretch of the definition, but I do get some practice through proofREADing my own writing as well as my clients. One of the value-added services I include in my business coaching packages is email support where I'll do a quick proofing of my clients' ad copy or important documents. So while I'm not a qualified copy editor/WRITEr, I have noticed some common mistakes that slip past the typical business owner's own proofREADing.

Here are a few things I've learned along the way:

1. People will skip over your copy if it's hard to READ. The human brain will avoid things that are perceived as difficult. It's that simple. So the most compelling reason to proofREAD with a fine-tooth comb is this: If you want people to READ your copy, you must make it easy.

2. Mistakes stand out more than the good copy that surrounds them. It's sort of like having a large food stain on your shirt. Most people will notice the stain, maybe even wonder what you had for lunch, and few will notice how lovely your shirt is otherwise.

3. Do it yourself, but also get a second opinion. Most small business owners are tight on cash, so hiring a professional editor (+$30/hour) isn't always feasible. Ask your coach, your partner, or a friend to READ over your materials, particularly if they're going off to a paper & ink printer where mistakes can be costly.

4. Take a break from writing before you proofREAD. When you're writing, all the content and ideas are alREADy in your head. If you go straight into proofREADing, there's a natural bias toward READing your intended meaning into the copy, instead of scanning it for errors.

5. Get it off the computer screen and print it out. This step is essential for printed materials so you can check the actual size & layout for READability. It's also helpful for when you're tired of the glaring screen. Try printing your copy with double spaces and using a colored marker for notations.

6. Spell checking with your computer isn't enough. Many words sound similar but have different meanings, and spell check won't catch it. This is especially true if English is your 2nd language. An accent or slang can be charming when spoken, but can look incompetent when written.

7. READ your copy out loud. This is a great way to double check your sentence structure. If it feels awkward to SPEAK, it's probably just as awkward to READ.

8. Choose fonts that are easy to READ. For paragraph text, use fonts of at least 10pts. Stick with basic fonts like Arial or Times New Roman that most computers or internet browsers can display properly. If you want to have fun with stylized fonts, save them for your headlines.

9. Keep your alignment tidy. Left alignment is always easy to READ. Center alignment looks best for short bits of text, but looks terrible with bulleted lists or long paragraphs. If you want text in the center of the page, but that still looks neat, try using left alignment but then increase the line indent.

10. Use a consistent capitalization style. There are 3 basic capitalization styles: ALL CAPS; no caps; and First Letter Caps. Switching styles within copy looks jumbled and confusing. It's ok to have a different style in the headers vs. the text, but all headers should be the same, just as all text should be the same.

11. Hyphens that result from line breaks should be avoided. Adjust your text box size, move a graphic, try justifying the alignment, do whatever it takes to get rid of any hyphens that cut words in half because it disrupts flow and makes your copy hard to READ.

12. Use bullets, lists, and blank rows for easier READing. Most people skim instead of actually READing every word. Break up your text into bite-size pieces for stronger impact. Another way to make READing easier is to limit your paragraph width to 65 characters/line (about the width of this article.)

13. Punctuation should support your ideas, not distract. Commas are a way to express your thoughts in sets, such as this idea, that idea, and that other idea. Without punctuation what you get is a run on and on and on some more sentence. (See what I mean?) Also, use exclamation points sparingly, if at all. Exclamation points can be tacky!!! Try italics instead.

Most people will forgive the occasional typo, especially with informal communications like email. But if you're trying to make a favorable impression as a way to build your business credibility, do whatever it takes to get your copy proofREAD first. Remember, it's not just what you say, but how you say it that counts, and that goes double for whatever you put into writing.

 

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