Deborah Wright was born in Herne Bay, Kent, and was educated in Canterbury at
Simon Langton Grammar School. From her earliest memories, her favourite class
was English grammar. Deborah went on to study shorthand at Pitman College,
London and, when she reached the speed of 150 words per minute, was offered a
position as instructor there. She then went on to study French at a finishing school in Castelnaudary, near
the walled city of Carcassonne. Every Thursday afternoon, the class visited
nearby interesting towns such as Lourdes. There was only one other English girl
in the class so Deborah learnt to speak French quite well during that time.
Her knowledge is now presented in a series of six booklets which are produced in a useful format for students and business people who may need a handy reference tool and are available in universities, independent bookstores, stationery outlets and libraries across Canada or by purchase through this website.
When the rest of the class left at the end of
the course and returned home to all areas of Europe via Paris, Deborah headed
for Geneva in Switzerland where she lived in a French-speaking environment for
several months. At this time, Deborah decided she would like to travel farther
and explore new opportunities.
Deborah's father loved travelling and
discovering new places and his daughter inherited this love which led her to
emigrate to Canada in 1965. In Vancouver, British Columbia, Deborah held two
positions. The day job was a legal secretary and the evening position was an
instructor in shorthand at Pitman College. After a move to Vancouver Island,
Deborah taught at Malaspina College in Nanaimo and Camosun College in Victoria.
In 1979 she opened a suite of secretarial six en-suite offices and had a client
base of over one hundred outside clients for word processing services. At the
same time, a placement agency was operated providing business and all levels of
government with secretarial staff.
It was at this time that Deborah was
contacted by some co-directors of the Victoria Chamber of Commerce, and it was
suggested to her that she should open a secretarial college to provide trained
staff. Thus, in 1981, Executive Secretarial College was opened and besides
writing the curriculum, schedules and interviewing, Deborah taught shorthand and
the marking of the transcripts and the daily typing tests gave her an 'eagle
eye' which was the background for the proofreading business she opened in 1994.
Precision Proofreading
was launched, Deborah has worked with clients all over the world via the
Internet.
Deborah is now a paid and published author. In 2002 Deborah was invited to write an article which appears in The Canadian Writer's Guide, 13th Edition entitled "Proofreading: A Necessary Evil!" published by Fitzhenry & Whiteside. ISBN 1-55041-740-1.
Deborah has considered her whole life as mostly fun and taking chances and the clown swinging from balloons is a replica of the one in her apartment which her daughter bought several years ago in a Mexican border town while they were on an Easter trip through California to Arizona and returned via the desert to Las Vegas. As may be understood, the discussion centred around English much to her daughter, Sharon's, chagrin at some times!
For the record, it should be noted that both Deborah and the publisher, James Hatch, now Deborah's husband, are loving the writing, publicizing and marketing of these booklets across the wonderful country of Canada.