19 Jan Writing Matters: The Beginning
I’ve been a Writer since I was in the Third Grade — the year I earned an A+ for a short story that was my riff/take on the 1950s SciFi movie, the classic (and campy), Creature from the Black Lagoon.
Like most professionals, I wrote hundreds of papers and reports during my educational endeavors.
Given a career path that’s seen me expand from public relations into investor relations and then from advertising into marketing, it’s not surprising that I’ve now written — and edited — thousands of professional documents as well, from news releases to financial reports and from brochures to marketing plans.
On top of these efforts, I also self-syndicated a weekly column (Utah Tech Watch) for 10+ years, writing/editing 500+ columns from the early 1990s through the early 2000s. And I’m now nearing the completion of my first book, a work that will probably top out somewhere around 30,000 words. (More about this in a future Blog post.)
I mention these facts not because I’m trying to brag, but rather to provide some context for the following statement:
“I write well, but I’m a better editor.”
As an Editor, most of the time I can’t help myself. It’s like my eyeballs have a sixth sense all their own and they are drawn inextricably to poor writing, whether that’s to
- Misspelled words,
- Missing words/phrases,
- Punctuation errors,
- Incorrect sentence structure, or
- Simply bad grammar.
{And for the record, although I have won awards for my writing, I don’t claim to be an editing/writing genius. I’ve just done both an awful lot — for a living.}
So . . . this past Saturday, I came across another example of poor writing while I was driving home after running some errands. And this example made me cringe so badly, I knew I had to share it on this Blog. But later, I realized that perhaps such examples could be shared, both for educational purposes and perhaps for an occasional smile or chuckle.
That’s why I’ve decided to begin what I suspect will become a regular feature on this Blog, something I’ve decided to name Writing Matters. And the first example for Writing Matters will be shared on this Blog moments after I publish this post.
I hope you like it.
And if you come across similar examples of poor writing, I hope you’ll share them with me so I can share them with others.
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P.S. Naturally, if I make a mistake in my writing on DavidPolitis.com, I hope you’ll point out such errors to me as well so I can improve as well. Thx.
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