“Better Communication for Smart People”, the slogan of this website, is not just about writing better.

It is also about reading better.

Readers are leaders, so it pays to be able to read better.

And this got me to wondering something: What are three recommendations that I would make to anyone who wants to improve his or her reading skills?

The answer? 1. Listen more! 2. Watch more! 3. Discuss more!

1. Listen more!

You can improve your reading skills by listening more.

I recommend that you try reading a book and then getting and listening to the audio-book version.

I recommend that you listen to podcasts about their work from book, magazine-article, and blog authors.

And I recommend that Amazon Kindle owners listen to an author’s words through the Kindle’s text-to-speech function.

2. Watch more!

You can improve your reading skills by watching more.

When a movie based on a book is released, watch it in the cinema or on DVD after you read the book.

When you know that a book author is going to be interviewed or covered in a biography on television, read at least one of his or her books prior to watching the TV program.

And search video-hosting websites for video clips made by other readers about a book that you have read.

3. Discuss more!

You can improve your reading skills by discussing more.

Book clubs represent one of the most popular ways for people to discuss books.

Online forums have become an online supplement to or replacement for book clubs.

And I recommend public events as a third way for you to discuss more of what you read.

No matter whether you write for your job, your business, or fun, you must be interested in improving your writing, or you would not be here at a website with the slogan “Better Communication for Smart People”.

And this made me wonder: What are three recommendations that I would make to anyone who wants to improve his or her writing skills?

The answer? 1. Look it up! 2. Read! 3. Write!

1. Look it up!

You have to be willing to “look it up”, if you want to improve your writing.

I go to Dictionary.com to look up word definitions and to check for proper hyphenation of words.

I go to Google to compare frequencies of competing phrases and expressions and to look beyond Dictionary.com for definitions.

And I go to Wikipedia for a rich source of information about words and the English language.

2. Read!

Better writers are more voracious readers.

What/where/how should you read?

Blogs let you read in snatches of time.

Books teach you about deep organization of a topic.

And news websites let you see how the same topic can be covered in several different styles.

3. Write!

I recommend that you “do it” by writing more email messages, blog posts, and articles.

Email messages let you test whether you are communicating well with your recipients.

Blog posts require you to present your thoughts in bite-size chunks.

And articles let you go into much more depth than you can with email and blog posts.

I heard this on television about a week ago.

Problem:
The statement implies that men make a negative salary.

Explanation:
The Bravo TV channel aired an episode five days ago from its “Make Me a Supermodel” reality-television series.

As the episode went into one of its commercial breaks, Bravo presented a snippet about what male and female supermodels earn.

The visuals indicated that male supermodels earn about 2,500 per day and that female supermodels earn about10,000 per day.

In referring to the disparity in earnings between male and female supermodels, the announcer said something to the effect that “Men make four times less than women.”

Argh!

Okay, so maybe I should not expect the Bravo folks to be good with mathematics, but give me a break!

Consider what Bravo showed on the TV screen: Female supermodels earn 10,000 per day.

Four times10,000 per day is 40,000 per day, right.

Negative30,000 per day is 40,000 per day less than10,000 per day.

In other words, negative 30,000 per day is four times less than10,000 per day.

So combining the claim that female supermodels earn 10,000 per day with the claim that “Men make four times less than women.” would mean that male supermodels earn a NEGATIVE30,000 per day.

But Bravo showed on the TV screen that male supermodels earn $2,500 per day, which is one fourth of what female supermodels earn. This gives us the solution.

Solution:
“Men make one fourth of what women make.”