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How do I tell my mom she's a lousy writer?

We all know someone whose writing is painful—my mom is one of those people. I'd like to help her communicate better, but I'm not sure how to go about doing that. I wouldn't want to hand her Strunk & White, but her errors call for an explanation of the rules of comma placement and the like. Is there anyway to encourage a middle-aged woman to re-learn how to write without making her feel belittled?


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

A wise man said, "To stop wrong actions, do the right ones."

You can help your mom correct and improve her writing by teaching her different ways to write.

Ask your mom if it is okay for you to be her proofreader. Tell her that you will be looking at her work from a grammatical point of view.

When you proofread her work, circle the areas that need to be improved. Instead of telling your mom that her writing is wrong, show her how her writing will be better if it was written in a different way.

"You know mom, if you rearrange your sentences to look like this, your thoughts would be expressed better."

"Mom, I noticed that you always construct your sentences this way, when you do that, you are actually violating a rule of grammar about comma placement. If you place your commas in this way (replace the words "in this way" with the rule of grammar in practical application), your writing would be better."