I Judged A New Writer — I Was Wrong
Sorry, your article is excellent
I just got taught a lesson by a new writer; it was not intentional, I am a fool, I was wrong, I “judged a book by its cover”, and all I can say is “I am sorry.”
When draft articles are submitted to my publication, I tend to run through a series of checks.
If I am honest, some articles that I read I disagree with, I will always comment on them and try to be objective with my opinions; at times, I will decline them but give feedback on why I rejected it.
Tonight I came across an article that caught my eye; the title intrigued me; this must be an experienced writer, with maybe three or four years of Medium writing.
I looked at the picture, for a few seconds, I felt the woman was looking right back at me; she was pretty, so no need to rush on with the reading of the article.
Once I read the first paragraph, I scrolled back to the top of the page to see who wrote it, then discovered it was a new writer to our publication. So I clicked on their profile and was amazed to see that this was their first article.
I was tamping; who is this person who thinks they can write a load of tosh and get away with fooling people with their dribble of crap content? So I got out of my chair and went to get a glass of water.
I am pretty laid back as a character, but I would not stand for this again; I already had to put one person in his place about lousy writing. We had another contender for this award….great!
Calm down, Robert, I thought to myself, as I had already started to think about my response and how I would handle this situation. Finally, after around five minutes, I decided to see what this new writer had to say.
I got a pen and paper and was ready to make notes on how I would tear this article apart. With the bit between my teeth, I started to read it.
Point one, “content is key” ok, I thought, well this is obvious, they got lucky and continued reading.
Next point was “the picture,” hmmm….. ok so that is ok, I agree with that one, after all it did catch my eye.
They went on “members reading time” and “trying to publish differently.” I started to get frustrated by my lack of notes and got angry when I realised that I had not made any notes.
When I ended with zero issues with the article, I had a head scratch moment. I must have read it wrong and read it over again. After that, I could be very picky if I wanted to, although I did not physically do it; I stood up and clapped in my head.
What a complete T**T I had been; I have just judged someone that I know nothing about and immediately decided that their article would be rubbish because it was their first one.
I judged myself; my first article was a complete mess and a right flop! No two ways about it; the article was shockingly bad, so I thought this new writer would be crap too.
Crap article alert, my first one is below:
So I am calling myself out for being a total n**b; this writer has put me in my place without even knowing it; shame on me, I want to tell you that I am very sorry.
I decided to respond to their article.

The writer is Scolastica Ndambuki. I have been educated by you; I hope you can accept my apology and hope your article gets thousands of reads because it deserves to.
I want all of my followers to read the content of this article because it is quality, and you may get an education just like me. Please click on the link below and enjoy reading it.
Written by Robert Ralph
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