Does it Matter?

 A Question of a Degree

Which University?

Some years ago, I was on an online editorial course to improve my writing.

Though I was probably at the lower end of the scale, regarding qualifications, what surprised me was that I topped the course for the latter part of the programme, why?

Though the other people on the course had degrees, and writing contracts, they were unable to write in a conversational manner; to me, this is second nature.

I was asked by a person I used to know to edit his book, which had been edited for sale by a firm known for its lack of care. That is why I was asked to re-edit the book, what I saw was appalling, not only from what the firm had passed as fit for sale, but the writing of the story itself.

The grammar in the story was below 5th Grade standards, yet, he said he had a Degree in writing from a University. All I can presume is the university was a small one which needed a % of passes to maintain its university title.

What was wrong?

I can't vouch for the book (80 pages) as I was sent only one page, that was more than enough for me.

You think of any, or all, of the grammar errors, and they were here from incorrect initialisation of titles, to irregular spellings. None of the errors were consistent. 

Writers have what we call a "train of thought," this is what happens when we begin to write. We put down our thoughts with no regard for grammar, as it is only a stream of ideas. This is what the page I had before me was.

One block of writing with no spaces or paragraphs.

It soon became apparent, to achieve his wish, I would be required to re-write the book from the beginning.

He had no concept of the basics of writing. We are taught, when you change speaker, you change lines, and if there is a talk with more than two speakers, you need to inform the reader who is talking at the time to avoid confusion; this was NOT the case here. I had no idea who was talking at any time in the process.

I could list more errors, but you can see how hard my task would have been from this piece.