Adding a note here at the top for anyone that's a little confused by this - go here first, then come back and read this post. - JD

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Editor's Note: The following letter was submitted to Match Fit USA by a long time local writer and former semi-professional English teacher. The author has asked to remain anonymous, citing the "small world of soccer blogging we all have to live and work in around here". Like with most websites, if you would like to submit letters or advice to Match Fit USA, please include them in the comments section below. With that, here's his open letter to Match Fit USA founding writer Jason Davis.


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Dear Mister Davis,

I am one of those passionate readers that would love to see Match Fit USA return to the glory days of nearly winning the U.S. Soccer and Soccerlens best blog awards. But after reading the first half of a story from last week I saw on your website, my head tells me that déjà vu after a season of futile writing last year, will come from too much indirect characterization!

In the past, other soccer writers have been seen getting personally involved in editorial sessions by commenting along side the writers when they should be letting the writers write while he observes and corrects grammar from the side.

Here are ten pieces of advice for you:

1. As a writer you must be able to have a valid thesis for that day and accomplish it before the end of the post.

2. Please be advised that you should watch that your writers are sticking to that thesis rather than you trying to write that thesis yourself. (As per the previous mentioned article).

3. Your outlines should look like your finished articles. Small column-inched articles every hour will not help your writers describe the bigger story. That was a huge reason your blog contained subordinate clauses ninety nine percent of the time last season.

4. Please have your assistant editor frequently count how many indefinite pronouns and dangling participles your writers make in the introductory passages during your editing sessions, as that will be an indicator as to what will be happening in the concluding statements. I would estimate your writers misplaced past progressive tenses sixty-seven percent of time last season, which means they only spent thirty three percent of the time making future perfect progressive tenses.

5. Please teach Keith Hickey that his frequent change-the-point of view stories should not come to his own conclusions. His stories must be directed to the common point of view that lies at hand. Keith must be ready to exploit the space in his column below the photos and not that in front of his extremely large font signature every time.

6. When you decide to ask for a 800 word story, please let your writers like Robert Jonas understand that near the top of the article they need to get to the point. They must have their brevity hats on rather than continuously writing in superlatives and run-on sentences.

7. Please bring in someone in addition to Chris Ballard to help with the stories. If you insist on using Ballard, hope he knows how to teach the fundamentals of each article thesis from a British-English and American-English standpoint.

8. Senior writers might be thinking they have the rights to be on the masthead and so might the younger writers. Be more objective in your selection. Remember what happened to your blog when you finally decided to add those young writers to the line-up, your blog doubled its page views!

9. Please train your writers to take long range views in their stories. There were none last year. Remember Jason Kuenle's second article in your blog last season? Run through that story everyday before and after editing for your writers to see what you are expecting.

10. And finally, PLEASE have your writers take chances and exploit column space with more creative typefaces. Last season, it was dismal to watch the constant side-to-side and back-and-forth text that rarely deviated from Times New Roman while waiting for the all too rare perfect declarative sentence in cursive Vivaldi calligraphy.

We are rooting for you and the writing team to succeed but I would be a hypocrite if I criticized without contributing! I hope you can take some of this grammatical and stylistic advice, and return this blog to its tradition of glory. Vamos Match Fit USA!


Editor's Note: Sheesh. Everybody's a critic.