How much does grammar & formatting effect your enjoyment of a story

[Ysoi]

Hi there!

Imagine that you have just read a story that has wowed you. A story that has enveloped you in its world, made you feel for its characters and left you dying to read another one of its caliber. A story that you would give a five star rating to without hesitation if only... If only it wasn't filled with formatting and sentence construction such as :

She ran as fast as she could. So fast that her her lungs Burned!!

What score would you give it?
Remember that this is a story that you enjoyed, and that the errors within it are grammatical / formatting only.

Just interested.

Ysoi

 

[PennLady]

Hi there!

Imagine that you have just read a story that has wowed you. A story that has enveloped you in its world, made you feel for its characters and left you dying to read another one of its caliber. A story that you would give a five star rating to without hesitation if only... If only it wasn't filled with formatting and sentence construction such as :

The problem for me is that if a story was that full of grammar and formatting problems, I'd never finish it. There's almost no way it could be a 5-star story. The errors would be constantly pulling me out and after a while I'd probably be subconsciously looking for them, hence I'd never be "enveloped in its world."

I can let a few things slide, as we all make mistakes, but if a story is "filled" with errors, then I'm out of there.

 

[Dual_Triode]

I guess it would depend upon the frequency and severity of the errors. An occasional error (spelling, punctuation, etc.) is okay. If I really liked it, I would give it a 5 even with minor flaws. If there are so many errors that the story becomes unreadable, I would bail and not vote at all.

 

[Brandie69]

Honestly? I am usually tempted not to vote.

When I come across something that truly tickles me and is reasonably free of distractions I want to give those a 5.

If there were just enough distractions that I think they're more than I would have let slip by in my own writing, I will occasionally give those a 4.

I really don't like giving authors who have made plausible effort anything less, so I tend not to vote on other stories. And in my experience, they are being told in the comments in terms that I wouldn't use that they need to work on the editing, so I really don't even feel guilty about not giving feedback. It usually feels to me like anything that I could say would just be jumping on the grammar lady bandwagon.

In rare cases, such as when I'm specifically asked for feedback, or if there are no comments, I have sent private feedback. In fact, I remember once cutting and pasting an entire story into Word so I could mark it up using "track changes" and then emailing it to the author. IIRC, that author was from someplace like Britain or Australia where they don't speak real English, so I tempered my remarks even more.

(But my guilty pleasure is coming across the occasional "I pumped my monster cock in every direction and the girlz all did tha backstroke in my rivers of cumm" story and giving it a well-deserved #1, I'll admit.)

 

[SamScribble]

Unless the story has a reasonably high standard of grammar and formatting I'm probably not going to get much beyond the second paragraph. It's certainly not going to wow me.

 

[honeybeez]

Hi there!

Imagine that you have just read a story that has wowed you. A story that has enveloped you in its world, made you feel for its characters and left you dying to read another one of its caliber. A story that you would give a five star rating to without hesitation if only... If only it wasn't filled with formatting and sentence construction such as :

She ran as fast as she could. So fast that her her lungs Burned!!

What score would you give it?
Remember that this is a story that you enjoyed, and that the errors within it are grammatical / formatting only.

Just interested.

Ysoi

> 5

Personally, I can work around the formatting. It can be distracting but I feel that, to some extent, that is beyond the control of the author; however, repeated grammatical errors undermine my faith in the author and subsequently, the story. I might finish it, and even appreciate the idea, but I'm going to get hung up how much better it could have been in the hands of someone w.h.o Actually! knew hoW to write right!!!...!!;."

 

[Ysoi]

Classic!

IIRC, that author was from someplace like Britain or Australia where they don't speak real English, so I tempered my remarks even more.

Ysoi

 

[TxRad]

You get on a free site exactly what you pay for.

Anything I write for Lit these days is written when I am taking a break from editing stuff for sale. So do i do as good a job editing something for free as I do for something that isn't? Not hardly. If I later decide to put it in something for sale then I'll do a proper edit. Until then it is fun writing not work editing.

 

[sun_sea_sky]

If the story has me sucked in then the occasional error can be ignored. An error in the first paragraph doesn't give you much hope.

Sometimes it isn't grammar even, it could be you are confused about who is doing what to whom, because of sloppy wording. Or factual nonsense like "he shot a gallon of cum into her". No, he didn't. That's unbelievable. I even baulk a bit at "it felt like a gallon of cum" but I can probably let that one go a bit.

What score would you give it?
Remember that this is a story that you enjoyed, and that the errors within it are grammatical / formatting only.

I'm inclined to agree with the others here. They would have to be minor errors for the story to be enjoyed in the first place. But as an example, a recent story I wrote had in it "he grapsed her breast". Other than that, it was a good read, so I still gave it 5 stars. We all make the occasional error.

 

[PennLady]

I'm inclined to agree with the others here. They would have to be minor errors for the story to be enjoyed in the first place. But as an example, a recent story I wrote had in it "he grapsed her breast". Other than that, it was a good read, so I still gave it 5 stars. We all make the occasional error.

Yes. The occasional error is okay, no one's perfect. And an error such as you found would probably just make me laugh.

But if, as in the OP, it's "filled" with errors -- I'll likely never finish, let alone vote.

 

[glynndah]

I agree with PennLady. All those errors immediately pulls me out of the story and I start reading for errors, not for content.

 

[YDB95]

What PennLady said. If the grammar and formatting is that bad, there's no way I would otherwise enjoy the story as much as you suggest. Odds are I wouldn't even finish it, in which case I definitely wouldn't vote on it.

 

[Tx Tall Tales]

One or less error per page (or thereabouts) usually I'll let slide. It's not like I never make any mistakes, typos or otherwise.

A couple on every page, and it might lose a point.

Enough to really distract me - if I even vote, it'll lose a couple of points at least, and a comment about using a spell checker and some type of basic grammar checker like World.

 

[littlebirdstory]

If the way it is written aids itself to the voice of the story then it can be tolerable. Yet, if there are many errors that don't fall into the voice of the story then it will pull me out of the story.
It would be interesting to compair the responses to this question with which of us are primarily readers or writers.

 

[TxRad]

If the way it is written aids itself to the voice of the story then it can be tolerable. Yet, if there are many errors that don't fall into the voice of the story then it will pull me out of the story.
It would be interesting to compair the responses to this question with which of us are primarily readers or writers.

Readers for the most part are far less picky than writers. In my experience anyway.

 

[sethp]

Little things don't bother me ...big things do. I few punctuation errors are fine ..mixed in with a spelling error or two..no problem. But if it's really bad...I don't finish the story.

 

[littlebirdstory]

I would think so as well but I have found myself pleasantly surprised on several assumptions. This one might not seem exciting but more so interesting. Especially if it leans in the oposite favor.

 

[TinyBeth]

I remember slogging through one rather long story that had more than a couple of errors. I stuck with it because otherwise the story was damn good, but I admit I didn't vote because I wasn't sure HOW to vote. As much as I had enjoyed it (well enough to make it through 23 pages) I wasn't sure what score it deserved with the number of typos it had. Part of why I finished it was exactly that; they were obvious typos and not a sure sign the author didn't know what they were doing.
But that many typos couldn't be rewarded with a 5 or really even a 4 and the story didn't deserve as low as a 3.

 

[oggbashan]

If the author is a good or great storyteller I'll ignore almost any imperfections of grammar or typing.

If the author is a mediocre storyteller, then significant errors would make me backclick away from the story.

The message is more important than the technical skill.

One author I like but shouldn't is Arthur Upfield who wrote novels about the half-caste Australian detective Bony (or Boney - depends on the market). The Australian literary establishment at the time were horrified by Upfield's success with badly written novels.

What was wrong was not Upfield's success. He was a good story-teller. But the Australian Literary establishment of that time was out of touch with Australian readers and the market for books set in Australia. Their focus was still European and erudition. Their works were and are almost unreadable today but Upfield still sells.

 

[BuckyDuckman]

The problem for me is that if a story was that full of grammar and formatting problems, I'd never finish it. There's almost no way it could be a 5-star story. The errors would be constantly pulling me out and after a while I'd probably be subconsciously looking for them, hence I'd never be "enveloped in its world."

I can let a few things slide, as we all make mistakes, but if a story is "filled" with errors, then I'm out of there.

^ This!

 

[lovecraft68]

Grammar as in bad punctuation I can usually read through. Formatting I can get through as well. Not sure why, but if the story is interesting I can let it slide.

Now the two things that kill a story for me is bad spelling-and again if I see their instead of there I can deal- but if its just blatantly misspelled words and a lot of them that pisses me off.

The other thing that kills me is awful dialogue especially during sex, "oh baby, oh baby, oh baby, oh!" kills it for me.

 

[soflabbwlvr]

I don't expect grammar, spelling, or even "structure" to be perfect. Most stories are posted without the benefit of an editor, and those that are edited will generally receive the best efforts of an amateur, volunteer editor. But the rules of grammar are used to ease communication and standardize forms of expression. The failure to adhere to them impedes communication and defeats the purpose of expressing one's self through the written word. If a story is rife with errors, then I'm out of there before the end of the first page.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I agree with PennLady. All those errors immediately pulls me out of the story and I start reading for errors, not for content.

Yes. When I read to spot the errors the spell is gone.

 

[electric1]

A story that has enveloped you in its world, made you feel for its characters and left you dying to read another one of its caliber. A story that you would give a five star rating to without hesitation if only... If only it wasn't filled with formatting and sentence construction such as :

She ran as fast as she could. So fast that her her lungs Burned!!

Grammar problems and formatting issues distract and remind me that what I am reading is merely some bozo's fantasy - and therefore a story "filled" with such issues would not envelop me in its world and make me feel for the characters.

 

[lovecraft68]

Grammar problems and formatting issues distract and remind me that what I am reading is merely some bozo's fantasy - and therefore a story "filled" with such issues would not envelop me in its world and make me feel for the characters.

See, personally I refrain from "bozo" comments.

Maybe the story puts me off and people like yourself apparently think it means lack of effort, but sometimes I find myself thinking maybe this is the best the "bozo" could do.

Maybe said bozo worked hard on his story and is proud of it. Maybe he gets a kick out of seeing it here.

Having said that I would assume you don't consider yourself a bozo, but guess what? You and bozo are on equal footing here.