Just wanted to share with you that the other day I had to proof-read tables of numbers (the top 100 companies of the world and their stats: profir/loss, assets, employers, etc.)-i.e. comparing page by page tables and looking for errors/misprints in numbers.
I've done the same thing last year and it took about an hour. This year, however, I finished the proof-reading in less than 10mins! I was shocked at the speed I did this, and I realised that I no longer tryied to compare the rows of numbers by reading them aloud one by one; instead, I just looked at the numbers as shapes, and misprints would just jump out of the page! That is, I was running down each column, looking at one list, seeing the number, then quickly glancing at the other list and, without subvocalizing, compared the numbers as if comparing two pictures. It would either feel right or not.
I didn't try to change my proof-reading strategy; it just came to me naturally, and I believe that the photoreading course must have helped.
I later had someone else check the tables the "standard way" and they took 2 hours and found only 1 mistake I missed (we both found over 30 mistakes).
[This message has been edited by harry_d7 (edited October 21, 2005).]
