Stating the obvious

This gem, from a writer commissioned by one of the big UK awarding bodies:

‘Once again, websites will provide most information, but if there is access to a library that would contain books then a visit would be good.’

Most of the writers on this series have been excellent; they are practising professionals who somehow manage to combine a full-time teaching schedule with a pretty hardcore writing gig, and 90% of the work they produce is excellent: stimulating and well-written. I’ve had to do more proofreading than copy-editing, which is always a pleasant surprise when I’ve been commissioned to do the latter.

But for the 10% that is utter dross I do wonder (a) how it came to be commissioned in the first place (this is a BIG awarding body with a tonne of experienced commissioning editors), and (b) to what extent good writing is just common sense.

For example, you don’t write a textbook in the first person. I know this, you know this, experienced textbook authors certainly know this. And yet I’ve consistently had to edit out the word ‘I’ from a particular writer’s work on this job. On the one hand, it adds a friendly, personal touch to some rather dry subject matter, and I’m guessing this was the author’s aim; perhaps a nod to their dynamic teaching style. But it sticks out a mile in comparison with the detached third person style of all the other authors in the series, and indeed 99% of academic materials pitched at this level. Put simply, it just isn’t done. And now I have to go and undo it. All 300 pages of it.