I don’t know of anybody who really enjoys another person enhancing (read correcting, criticizing etc.) his or her writing style. I don’t. Never have. Never will.

Now, in retirement it doesn’t matter. All during my learning and productive years, it seems somebody was always there to meddle with how I prepared school papers and business reports. Their “enhancements” were at times justified but, still, I didn’t like it. Neither did those whose writings I criticized.

During my employment as the manager of internal audit for a Fortune 500 manufacturer, I had the displeasure of reading reports prepared by others before allowing the reports to leave the department. Those reports were delivered to the highest-ranking officers in the company and, therefore, I had a strong interest in making sure they were reasonably well written. Not perfect for I never knew perfect sentence structure and probably never will. But close enough for preventing a departmental, and most of all a personal, embarrassment.

Speaking of embarrassments, which I just did, here is a sentence I still remember after more than twenty years:

The left front fender of the production manager is dented.

Well, neither production managers nor anyone else has a left front fender. The writer missed one word that made all the difference in the wonderful world of well-written audit reports. She made the correction and the report went on its way with the sentence reading:

The left front fender of the production manager’s automobile is dented.

I like putting my thoughts into words but I don’t care a whit if I end a sentence with a preposition - you know, a word like it. Shucks, I did it again. Neither do I care if I select the correct word among neither, nor, either and or. As a matter of fact, I’m not concerned if I do or do not use commas and semicolons properly. Same with paragraphs.

There are a few things I try to be strict about. One is the transition from paragraph to paragraph. I had that drilled into my brain way back in English 101. With the passing years since then, I don’t know now if I do a good job with transitions or anything else but people like you probably have an opinion. Don’t tell me though. At a month away from age 72 I’m set in my ways, I’m stubborn and have little interest in enhancing my writing.

Other than good mental and physical health, freedom and no accountability are the best of life’s qualities. Bring ‘em on.

I once told relative who is a PhD, I think the only purpose of written and verbal communication is to get a point from one person to another or to others. He agreed but I don’t know if he meant it. Regardless, I think it is unlikely he would tell the same to his peers. You know how those college professors are. (Grin)

Oh yeah, one more thing about writing as a hobby during retirement. Low grades don’t matter and bosses can’t deny me a pay raise even if my writing suggests the left front part of my brain is dented.