Messages and Commenting

Messages and Commenting

I apologize to people who send me messages that ask me to read their articles and I don’t.  It is because I don’t know how to find it. If it isn’t among their articles that I can find by tracking People, forget it. The 27 or more digits given as for reference are too long for me to key in, if that is what I’m supposed to do.

 I don’t really care for messages as kind of self-promotion. Once the article is published, what is wrong with letting it stand on its merits? I suppose that if it is a candidate in a contest, this might not be enough, and the author might seek more attention.

The problem is that I ‘never had a lesson in my life’, or I have forgotten what Mrs. Miller taught me in high school English class. Almost all of what I know about writing, or think I know, I learned from extensive reading, and I copy styles that I like.  I am not a good pick to criticize another person’s creation. When I comment on articles, it based entirely on the topic, and whether I like the article or not. I am especially bad commenting on a poem, and I don’t, unless I like it very much. Anything I might say about the quality of writing would be without value. I hesitate to do it because I don’t even know what I don’t know.

So, forgive me if stand at the back of the room with my hand not raised.