I choose...

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01cite10Milky12cite10Who would you prefer to edit your writing: a non-native speaker of English who is a Professor of English at an Indian (or a Belgian) university, or a monolingual Brit or American who left school with no qualifications at the age of 15?12blockquote

11b01font00The fo

0A Professor of English is a more appropriate person to edit my writing than someone who left school at 15 with no qualifications,taking them both at face value. However some people who drop out of school go on to make a great success of themselves and may actually have excellent English. Hmmm...now I think about it, I think the current status and abilities of the native speaker should be compar

0 01blockquote

01cite10Milky12cite10Who would you prefer to edit your writing: a non-native speaker of English who is a Professor of English at an Indian (or a Belgian) university, or a monolingual Brit or American who left school with no qualifications at the age of 15?12blockquote

10I'm not sure we need to be quite as deferential

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01cite10MrPedantic12cite11blockquote

11cite20Milky22cite20Who would you prefer to edit your writing: a non-native speaker of English who is a Professor of English at an Indian (or a Belgian) university, or a monolingual Brit or American who left school with no qualifications at the age of 15?22b

0You seem to be fascinated with the skills of non-native speakers vs. native speakers of English, Milky. Well, because this is formal written English with fairly standardized rules of grammar, I would probably choose the Professor. But remember, schooling isn't everything...that 15 year old could have studied English grammar by himself out of books. And it depends on how proficient the profes

0 Let's not forget that the professor may teach Shakespearean English, or Chaucer, or the poetry of the Brownings... with little affinity for current business English, rendering her an unsuitable choice for my writing. 0-

1b01font00<The study of the language (native or foreign) is a necessity that a high-school drop-out just doesn't have.02font02b00>02br
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00Is a high-school drop out someone who didn't continue his/her studies after 15?0-

0<I think the current status and abilities of the native speaker should be compared to the current status and abilities of the Professor, rather than the achievement of a 15 year old with the achievement of an adult. That drop-out might now also be a Professor of English. We don't know.>02br
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00In my story, we do. He/she did not go on to higher education at all, fou

0<I'm not sure we need to be quite as deferential towards professors of English as the question suggests.> 02br
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00The key words are non-native Professor of English. 02br
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00<(Or quite as dismissive of monolingual 15-year-olds, for that matter.)>02br
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00The thing is, most people who have answered this question on

0<The fact that the native speaker is monolingual is not relevant though.>02br
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00Not relevant to...?0-