In many places, the errors have more to do with punctuation than with wording. You will have to insert commas when two independent clauses are connected with a coordinating conjunction (but, or, yet, so, for, and, nor). In the places where commas need to be added, the area is in red. Other corrections have been made in blue.
In 1935 two men had a meeting in Akron, Ohio, that changed their lives and the lives of millions of people around the world. The men were not remarkable, but they shared a common problem. They were both alcoholics.
Bill Wilson was a creative and very successful stockbroker, but alcoholism had nearly destroyed his career and ended his life. He had made pledges and had been through numerous treatments and "cures." He struggled to avoid alcohol, but his efforts were usually futile.
His life changed while on a business trip to Akron. Walking through the hotel lobby, he noticed the bar. He was alone; he was away from his friends. No one he knew would discover if he drank. The lobby also contained a bulletin board that listed churches in the area. Instantly, Bill Wilson knew what he had to do. He had to talk with another alcoholic. He called a minister at random who gave him several names. One call led to another, and soon he was seated with Dr. Robert Smith.
Dr. Smith was accustomed to friends trying to help him. He had been a leading surgeon in Akron for years, but by 1935 his drinking had nearly ruined his practice. The doctor was surprised because his visitor had not come to offer him another cure. Bill Wilson arrived asking Smith for help.
The two men talked for hours and realized they had much in common. Both had experienced the depression, guilt, and frustration alcoholism creates, and both had tried a variety of methods of achieving sobriety. This conversation between two strangers had lasting impact. Both Wilson and Smith felt that something significant had occurred.
Bill Wilson returned to New York and began working with alcoholics in his home, and Dr. Smith started a group in Akron. Without lectures, without promises of cures, both men worked with alcoholics by talking to them as equals, as fellow drunks. There were many failures; one man committed suicide in Wilson's home. But soon both groups grew, and many men and women managed to stay sober.
In 19939 the groups decided on a name, and they published a book of case histories telling the story of Alcoholics Anonymous. Dr. Smith urged the group to keep its philosophy simple. There would be no officers, and members would not pay dues. Members had only one goal -- sobriety.
In the sixty years since the meeting of Bill Wilson and Dr. Smith, AA has become an international organization with over 15,000 chapters in the United States.
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