I have a story! Needs work. Edit me?
- Thread starter Explaura
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sacrificing too much to textbook grammar?
I'm sorry, but please accept this post as less than a flame but more than a friendly answer.
I realize that posts are not the same as submissions, but there is a spell checker available for posts. You'll see a dotted red line under a questionable word in your posts as you type.
If you ignore them, you are telling potential editors that your stories are likely to be filled with technical problems. Your emphasis on not being bound by "textbook grammar" is another red flag.
Writers can break grammar rules, but unless you're GB Shaw, editors are going to rein you in. Grammar rules are devices to make it easy for readers to concentrate on what you're saying rather than bumping over rough patches.
If you don't want editing, don't ask for an editor.
I'm sorry, but please accept this post as less than a flame but more than a friendly answer.
I realize that posts are not the same as submissions, but there is a spell checker available for posts. You'll see a dotted red line under a questionable word in your posts as you type.
If you ignore them, you are telling potential editors that your stories are likely to be filled with technical problems. Your emphasis on not being bound by "textbook grammar" is another red flag.
Writers can break grammar rules, but unless you're GB Shaw, editors are going to rein you in. Grammar rules are devices to make it easy for readers to concentrate on what you're saying rather than bumping over rough patches.
If you don't want editing, don't ask for an editor.
RogueLurker
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snooper said:
I think Firefox (browser) will spellcheck for you as you type.
BTW, I completely disagree with editing posts. To me, a post or IM is like a conversation. Most people don't observe the rules of grammar in conversation and I don't fret too much about little grammar or spelling errors in posts or IMs.
RogueLurker
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snooper said:
I think you have to download the extension - http://www.wikihow.com/Install-a-Spell-Checker-Into-Firefox
Somehow it does it automatically on my laptop (I have "in home tech support", so sometimes geeky tools and applications get loaded without me knowing)... I'm trying to remember if it does it when I use Firefox or the newest version of IE - I know it corrects my yahoo emails.
As for trusting an editor who can't spell - good thing I'm not editing anymore.
The rise of spellcheckers (ha! "spellcheckers" has a red line under it!) has made me a lazy speller when I type on my own. When I read (my stuff or other people's work), it's a different story - I see the errors and correct accordingly
CopyCarver
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Explaura said:
The old concept of "breaking the rules intelligently" worked extremely well for writers as diverse as Twain, Faulkner, Hemingway, Keroac, and Capote, among many others. It's much harder work that way, of course, and most efforts probably fail, but there is always the chance for a breakout. So long as you're aware of the risks, I'd say go for it.
Spell check aside
There is a spell check in Firefox. Right click while typing your response and click on the Spell Check option. It defaults to US English, though when it is in use you can pick other dictionaries to down load - even Welsh!
There is a spell check in Firefox. Right click while typing your response and click on the Spell Check option. It defaults to US English, though when it is in use you can pick other dictionaries to down load - even Welsh!
Last edited:
Spelling checker
My apologies. I do use Firefox, and I know there is -- or was -- a spell checker available for vBulletin. I assumed that it was the board software, not the browser, that was doing the checking work. Googling suggests that vBulletin has dropped the checker; some other board software still has it.
I agree that posts are conversational and that you can relax a bit, but it seems to me that if you're asking for editing help, you should be more careful than you might ordinarily be in a post. A raft of misspellings doesn't inspire confidence in potential editors about the amount of work involved in editing a story.
Spell checkers are only the first step in editing, of course. There are too many homonyms that a spell checker won't catch. But they are a good first cut, and would catch things in the OP like accross, kindof, apreciate, and expediancies.
My apologies. I do use Firefox, and I know there is -- or was -- a spell checker available for vBulletin. I assumed that it was the board software, not the browser, that was doing the checking work. Googling suggests that vBulletin has dropped the checker; some other board software still has it.
I agree that posts are conversational and that you can relax a bit, but it seems to me that if you're asking for editing help, you should be more careful than you might ordinarily be in a post. A raft of misspellings doesn't inspire confidence in potential editors about the amount of work involved in editing a story.
Spell checkers are only the first step in editing, of course. There are too many homonyms that a spell checker won't catch. But they are a good first cut, and would catch things in the OP like accross, kindof, apreciate, and expediancies.
yer story
I write professionally in movies, television and for radio, and on this site for recreation. I would be happy to at least give your story a read through. My stuff on this site breaks a lot of rules of grammar, but when I run it through Word, Grammar and Spell Checker, it gives readability scores similar to or better than Hemingway, with over 80 percent of readers able to read it, (which means a grade 4 reading level).
Spell checkers will catch many errors, but will miss completely things like the author not knowing the difference between:
to, too, two
and they're, their, there,
the use of apostrophe s to denote plural instead of the correct s ending.
Use wingdings, not wingding's,
wingding's means "belonging to wingding"
All this stuff slides right through the spell checker, because it does not know who owns what, all it sees are words that exist in it's list of correctly spelled words..
So proof reading is more about finding inappropriate words than poor grammar.
As a matter of good writing, if you want to create believable dialog, you need to use contemporary grammar when you speak through the mouths of your characters. That is - use grammar suited to the character's social position, age, intelligence, and education.
'nuff said.
For me, spelling is optional, depending on weather you are writing computer code, or teen code.
I write professionally in movies, television and for radio, and on this site for recreation. I would be happy to at least give your story a read through. My stuff on this site breaks a lot of rules of grammar, but when I run it through Word, Grammar and Spell Checker, it gives readability scores similar to or better than Hemingway, with over 80 percent of readers able to read it, (which means a grade 4 reading level).
Spell checkers will catch many errors, but will miss completely things like the author not knowing the difference between:
to, too, two
and they're, their, there,
the use of apostrophe s to denote plural instead of the correct s ending.
Use wingdings, not wingding's,
wingding's means "belonging to wingding"
All this stuff slides right through the spell checker, because it does not know who owns what, all it sees are words that exist in it's list of correctly spelled words..
So proof reading is more about finding inappropriate words than poor grammar.
As a matter of good writing, if you want to create believable dialog, you need to use contemporary grammar when you speak through the mouths of your characters. That is - use grammar suited to the character's social position, age, intelligence, and education.
'nuff said.
For me, spelling is optional, depending on weather you are writing computer code, or teen code.
I surrender
I'm with you, snooper, on your comments and many other problems with the pro editor's post, like "yer story."
Life's a bitch when you try to enforce the rules. I'd assumed that Mark2 was trying to provoke an outraged reaction from the grammar, punctuation and word usage cops by his post. I didn't rise to the bait.
Maybe it's just not worth the struggle.
I'm with you, snooper, on your comments and many other problems with the pro editor's post, like "yer story."
Life's a bitch when you try to enforce the rules. I'd assumed that Mark2 was trying to provoke an outraged reaction from the grammar, punctuation and word usage cops by his post. I didn't rise to the bait.
Maybe it's just not worth the struggle.
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