Is there any point in quibbling over grammar?

[BlackShanglan]

Yes. Cooling off, cooling off. Accomplished. Moving forward with the polite, practical, and solution-focused inquiry.

Is there any point in quibbling with the editors on the topic of grammar?

My most recently posted story has had three silent amendations made. One, admittedly, makes grammatical sense, although I do not agree with it for other reasons.

More pointedly, there were two grammatical changes made that are not correct. Proper usage was changed to improper. Has anyone had positive experiences with getting these sorts of issues resolved, or do I just resign myself to people thinking that elements are my own? I don't want to come off as a snotty prima donna, but I have enough awkward constructions of my own without outside assistance. Any advice on the right path to take?

Shanglan

(And the offending story would be here: http://www.literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?id=156413. Feel free to tell me that the topics of my consternation are invisible and that I lack all sense of proportion.)

 

[Huckleman2000]

I'll wade in, though I might regret it

I think you have a point - the rhythm of the words drives the tone of your piece. Let me see if I can guess the edits:

1. Second paragraph, "...trap you had laid." Probably was "...trap you laid." originally.

2. Third paragraph, "...came down from off my horse..." Probably was "...came down from my horse..." ("...dismounted my horse..." would have the same meter, fwiw)

3. Tenth paragraph, "...my words from off this parchment:" Probably was "...my words from this parchment:"

I would be less sure of the third if it weren't the same as the second.

If I were to speak the piece aloud, those are the words I would trip over.

 

[SugarHigh]

Yes - only as a matter of principal.

But really, No - because it's more grief than it's worth.

Understandably, there's pride (and ego) involved with our own works, but hey, this place gives many a chance to be "published". So, a couple of edits ain't that big a deal.

Dude, you are now officially stressing...

I can practically see your eyes glazing over in a litany of curses, fist shaking at the heavens above, calling out "Why? Oh god, WHY???!!!"

OK now... breathe... inhale... ahhhhh... feel better now?

 

[SugarHigh]

Oh yeah, and I'm not gonna be doing any critique of grammar beacause:

1) I'm no English major, and I can't tell my verbs from my adjectives

2) It's bloody 5.30am and I can't see straight anyway

But other than that, your stories make for excellent bedtime reading...

 

[BlackShanglan]

OK now... breathe... inhale... ahhhhh... feel better now?

*laugh* Yes, thanks. Soothing meditative exercises much appreciated

And look, I even deleted the rant I was going to write It was right here ... here and about twelve more lines ...

Every day, and in every way I am getting calmer and calmer.

Shanglan


(Thanks Sugarhigh, btw, for the comment on the quality of bedtime reading.)

 

[vargas111]

Hyh?

Does someone edit stories that an author submittes before they are posted?

I hav not noticed that, but then I donot tend to read stories that I post.

And id so, why do I find so many stories in which "Lie" and "Lay" are misused?

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Hyh?

Does someone edit stories that an author submittes before they are posted?

I hav not noticed that, but then I donot tend to read stories that I post.

And id so, why do I find so many stories in which "Lie" and "Lay" are misused?

As far as I know, no one edits the stories before they're posted, so I think BS must be talking about a volunteer editor's work.

You're under no obligation to accept an editor's suggestion, so I don't know what all the hair-pulling and gnashing of teeth is about. If you feel strongly about keeping things the way you've written them, then just override the editor.

It's different if the piece is going to be published for $$$, but there too you can argue about any change you feel is unjustified. You may not win, but you can still argue.

---dr.M.

 

[BlackShanglan]

I'm looking at my copy, and the changes are definitely there. It didn't go through a ve, just straight through regular submission.

It is a puzzlement.

Perhaps I am losing my mind? Always a wise possibility to consider.

Or perhaps I have been roaming my house like an unquiet spirit, making revisions in my sleep. If that's the case, I hope that next time I do the washing up as well.



Shanglan

 

[PAUL C]

Word

MS Word has an amend grammer feature. Did you have this switched on? Some versions do it automatically if you have.

 

[Rainbow Skin]

Given all the illiterate rubbish that does appear here, and the vast amount of time it must take to even skim through them all checking for acceptability violations, I can't believe the editors would do any real editing, as they would if they were selective.

This said, I had one or more or mine changed. The errors they introduced were probably caused by running it automatically through a word-processor: e.g. 'modelling' became 'modeling', 'Mrs' became 'Mrs.', that sort of thing; I can't recall any specifically grammatical change. I blew up, withdrew the story, insisted it be replaced with my correct original version, and stopped using that account. My submissions since then are all accompanied by a note saying it must not be run through any kind of checking program that might change the text in any way, and is not to be published if they can't guarantee this.

Hm. If they are running it through a word-processor, and they have got a grammar setting on, they're probably just hitting YES to every suggested change, so 'from off' and 'off of' would always get converted to 'off'; but the changes would only be small ones like that.

 

[English Lady]

Shanglan- I am glad you've found some peace and inner calm over this issue. I've never noticed changes (but then i rarely read my work after its submitted*L*) but I am sure I'd be a bit peeved if I did. An editor on a review site I'm on edited all my soul out of one particular review. I was NOT happy about it *L* I'm English and I ramble...thats my style and I don't like it being fiddled with

 

[BlackShanglan]

Hmmm Paul and Rainbow might have the right of it. Interesting possibility.

But I will let it go. No more grammar obsessing. I am far too busy now ferreting into Huckleman's fascinating suggestions for revision *grin* At least there is one other person on the earth as deeply interested in the ramifications of a single word's omission as I am Hurrah!

English Lady, hang in there and fight the good fight. I love a pleasantly discursive prose style. Where would we be without Woolf's delightful wanderings in the course of "Orlando"? They are the heart of the novel. Send a copy to the next editor who presumes to attempt to prune you

Shanglan

 

[English Lady]

Thank you For the support Shanglan _ I am hoping to not be pruned anytime in the future-it sounds all too painful.

I will ramble on as I always have and growl at anyone who doesn't like it.

 

[ferociouskittycat]

Having just had the honour of editing my first piece of work, not my own...

I can't understand how an editor could be that ruthless.

The first piece I ever had published on here is still ranked HOT, and that's thanks to Chat_Wizardress who got it approved after it was originally rejected.

The piece I edited needed few grammatical changes, yet many spelling corrections. As the author explained, he typed, I cleaned up the mess.

I'm proud of how his work turned out. He did it, I merely polished an already masterful piece of writing.

That's what an editor should do, in my opinion; OR, offer suggestions and let the author decide whether or not he/she likes or agrees with the changes. More importantly, whether or not the changes work with the story.

I've read some really great stories on here that only need a good edit to be fantastic. It's sad to see stories receive negative feedback due to poor grammar, where a quick edit could save them the heartbreak of reading such negativity.

 

[eric shawn listo]

I've wondered about this. Just received feedback that I had spelled -Foreign-Foriegn-went to my original and it was correct (foreign). Went to story on site and it was incorrect (foriegn). Don't know but left an apology PC anyway.

esl

 

[AlexExley]

edits

Yes, I've definitely had my stories edited by some less-than-competent lit. staffers. One of my stories is framed by the narrator talking to the audience ("Private Dick"). I submitted it in all regurlar typeface, but when I read it the last paragraph had been italicized and separated by a row of astericks. It made it look like a postscript by me, the author, instead of a continuation of the story by my narrator.

I was infuriated. The last sentence obviously tied that paragraph to the story; what bumbling fool would assume otherwise? I paced my room composing vitriolic letters in my head excoriating the editors for their incompetence. Then I sat down and meekly wrote a polite letter asking if they could please change it back to the way I submitted it. I haven't heard back yet.

While it is annoying to see your work tampered with, I think you have to consider the forum you're dealing with. There are thousands of stories to be read and anyone with serious editorial aspirations/capabilities isn't going to spend their time combing through the muck that comprises the majority of Literotica submissions. It would be nice, however, if they just posted your story as is, allowing readers to judge it strictly as your own. (I should say that most of my stories haven't been touched.)

 

[Rainbow Skin]

Now, drat it, that reminds me of my story that I mentioned: it wasn't just fed through a spelling-checker, they did actually make changes by hand. At points where the action changed in time, scene breaks so to speak, they inserted an extra blank line. Which, if I had wanted, I could have done myself. As I hadn't done it myself, I didn't want them. And this was another thing I demanded be fixed, and is now on my obligatory warning of things they're not allowed to do to it.

 

[MLyons]

Due to my own problems with this, I think I will have to add a note of that type to my future submissions as well.

 

[BlackShanglan]

What struck me as peculiar (in the intial post on this thread) was that, given the huge number of stories they receive, anyone would bother to make these sorts of changes at all. After all, I have seen plenty of stories up that still have a fair few spelling and grammatical errors. One would think that with those to keep them occupied, they'd be a little too busy to be inserting grammatical errors and infelicitous formatting in unoffending texts.

Shanglan

 

[Huckleman2000]

Hmmm, it sounds like there might be a rogue editor at work amongst the people who review and post the submitted stories. Don't, nay, Do Not get me started on those sort.

While this sort of writing is a new and developing hobby for me, my former occupation involved a lot of written communication and syndicated report writing. Most of it had to do with corporate strategies or investments, so I took a lot of time to vet it myself, and run it by peers. Then, it would go to the editing staff. Why they called it a staff, I have no idea, since the one in charge insisted on putting her imprint on everything. All under the guise of maintaining a "corporate style", of course, with the imprimitur of the head of Marketing, of all people. Once they made the head of Marketing also the head of Research, resistance became futile.

If there is a Hell below, I have to believe that a special circle exists for editors who abuse final publishing review.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Personally, I try to avoid any misspellings and egregious grammatical errors. Sometimes I am reading a story and run into dumb errors and it is lilke hitting a speed bump on a highway. If I hit very many of them, I get off the highway, or stop reading the story. If I vote at all, it is never any better than a four, and probably less. I find such errors to be very distracting.

Having said that, sometimes I deliberately include grammatical errors if it reads better. Such as: "I began licking her nearest nipple." The correct adj. is "nearer", the comparative, rather than "nearest", the superlative, but I ignore that. I use spellcheck and grammarcheck but the latter is usually wrong. Under no circumstances would I ever set it to automatically change what is says is an error. Nothing replaces proofreading by eyeball.