#moreфон2018 Day 25. Today’s post is going to be off topic. Normally, I describe my preparation for the TOEFL exam. But this time I want to bring up a controversial subject of correction of errors. If someone posts their notes here, on iTalki, it automatically means that native speakers are welcomed to correct mistakes. But let ask ourselves, whether it works or not?! I can see some issues with it. 1. CORRECTING someone’s mistake does NOT mean TEACHING him/her to speak or to write. 2. Instead of correcting, I would EXPLAIN why this/that is wrong and another variant is right. 3. It is amazing, when not the grammar mistakes are corrected but the style! Each learner has its personal style of writing, we cannot limit anyone’s self-expression and marginalize his or her style of writing. 4. When a learner is at intermediate or upper-intermediate level, the main issue that he/she faces is insecurity. Believe me, those people whose essays you are correcting struggle with fear of speaking and being corrected. So, what you consider as “help”, does NOT help. 5. I think, it is inappropriate when a non-native-speaker corrects other learners’ notes. Let the experts do their job! 6. Finally, if you cannot help yourself correcting others, do not forget at least to praise and motivate the student, say something pleasant, motivate them to keep moving! So, as you can see, I do not appreciate the corrections.