A Commentary on Comments Posted by Authors

The majority of the comments posted by published authors in literary websites are well written and informative. However, occasionally one will appear that is so poorly written and erroneous, it is difficult to believe it was composed by a self-proclaimed professional.

Discovering spelling, grammatical, punctuation or syntax errors in a two or three paragraph comment is not difficult and there is no excuse for propagating misinformation. Failure to recognize and correct most technical writing mistakes or verify the veracity of false or exaggerated claims may indicate that the author either does not care enough to do so or simply lacks the basic knowledge to even be aware of them. Either explanation calls into question the validity of the author's claim to the title of professional.

One does not have to possess an advanced academic degree to master established technical rules of a written language or avoid presenting fiction as fact. All that is required is the desire, time, research, and effort. The adage "Anything worth doing is worth doing well." is sound advice.