Check Your Work – An Old, Wise Rule for a Somewhat Undisciplined Age

Sometimes, the old rules are pretty smart rules.

Like – check your work.

Here’s the news this morning. A sitting member of the U S Congress gave a speech to a David-Duke-connected White Supremacist group a few years back. And, in this internet go back through all the old files era, that fact has now come to light. His excuse (as of this moment): “he did not know that the group was such a group.”

We can expand this list in a hurry. Take the Sony e-mails. There are some that the writers would love to have back. They thought it, they wrote it, they sent it. They did not stop, and think, and “check their work,” asking “am I sure I really want to send this?” before they hit send.

I listen to student speeches. And I grade student tests. I tell every class “check your work. Re-read your answers before you turn your test in.” Some do – many don’t. And thus, they miss answering each part of each question, and they are marked down.

And, for their speeches, it is almost excruciating to listen to a Freshman level student give a speech in which he/she simply rambles on. “Undisciplined” is what I write on their evaluation. “Decide in advance what you will say.” Stick to that. Be disciplined.

It is an old and wise idea. Check your work. Find out about that group you are speaking to before you accept the invitation. Re-read your e-mails carefully before you hit send. Go over your speech notes very carefully – decide in advance what you will say.

Check your work.

Yes, I know, the demands on our time are just so crushing. But, if you don’t take the time to check your work, you are going to wish you had one of these days. And when that happens, it may not be pretty.

Check your work!