Don't Let Reading and Writing Defeat you
Image: Gert Altmann
Literacy is a strange thing: people are quite happy to say openly that they're 'not very good with numbers' or that they were 'hopeless at maths at school', but no one likes admitting they found it hard to read. Those prepared to talk at all tend to say they were dyslexic, and reading was a struggle.
I'm not so sure that dyslexia isn't just a smokescreen sometimes. We can't all be good at everything, and I honestly don't see why it's any more shameful to find reading hard than it is for me to say that I was hopeless at PE. (Which I was, and a good few other things besides.) However, if the strategies that help true dyslexia can also help poor readers read better, then I don't see what's wrong with that.
But now and again, people who were never much good at reading and writing at school find themselves forced to write an email or a newsletter for a wider audience. They just need to get something down and they might even be panicking. But if you're new to this sort of stuff, here are some useful guidelines.
I'll go on to look at specific skills later.
I'm not so sure that dyslexia isn't just a smokescreen sometimes. We can't all be good at everything, and I honestly don't see why it's any more shameful to find reading hard than it is for me to say that I was hopeless at PE. (Which I was, and a good few other things besides.) However, if the strategies that help true dyslexia can also help poor readers read better, then I don't see what's wrong with that.
But now and again, people who were never much good at reading and writing at school find themselves forced to write an email or a newsletter for a wider audience. They just need to get something down and they might even be panicking. But if you're new to this sort of stuff, here are some useful guidelines.
- Don't try to be smart or witty. If it's appropriate at all – and it usually isn't – you're unlikely to have the skill to do anything except look foolish.
- Keep your communications super-short. The typical 'reader concentration span' isn't much more than 10 seconds, so get your message across quickly.
- Get someone else to check your work, someone you trust to have good spelling, grammar and a feel for the English language.
I'll go on to look at specific skills later.
