Negative comments.

[Thomas Drablézien]

I sometimes have these strange masochistic tendencies. One of them is starting threads in this forum. The other is going back and reviewing the comments on my past story submissions. This evening I have done both!

My stories usually don't attract many comments, is that a good or bad thing? I don't know. Two in particular stuck out though when I read through them this evening. Both of these comments where made upon my use of spelling and grammar.

No, no. I am not about to launch into another diatribe about the differences of the English language on opposing sides of the Atlantic Ocean. I have said quite enough already on that subject.

The first of there comments was made on my very first submission here which I did self edit. I admit that my linguistic abilities are not of the highest calibre, so some mistakes where bound to have slipped through. I must say at this point though, that I have read quite a few stories that have been absolutely riddled with errors of spelling, usage grammar etc that did not have comments pointing out the writer's errors. - So why me?

Did the author of this particular comment feel so driven to say something negative but unable to find anything to about the story to trash he latched onto my few spelling mistakes? At least this commentator was not one of the serried ranks of 'Anonymous.' Yet when I contacted him asking for elaboration so I might be able to correct my mistakes I received no reply.

My later submissions have been written with much more care than their predecessors. These days I check, double check and triple check not only for content and structure but silly mistakes as well. Then pass them on to an editor before final submission. Still, one of these attracted a 'bad spelling / grammar' comment! HELP!

OK, just a bit of a rant. Now that I have got that off my chest I shall go away again.

Thanks for reading this.

Tom

 

[JackLuis]

Grammar Nazi's suck.

 

[Boxlicker101]

I sometimes have these strange masochistic tendencies. One of them is starting threads in this forum. The other is going back and reviewing the comments on my past story submissions. This evening I have done both!

My stories usually don't attract many comments, is that a good or bad thing? I don't know. Two in particular stuck out though when I read through them this evening. Both of these comments where made upon my use of spelling and grammar.

No, no. I am not about to launch into another diatribe about the differences of the English language on opposing sides of the Atlantic Ocean. I have said quite enough already on that subject.

The first of there comments was made on my very first submission here which I did self edit. I admit that my linguistic abilities are not of the highest calibre, so some mistakes where bound to have slipped through. I must say at this point though, that I have read quite a few stories that have been absolutely riddled with errors of spelling, usage grammar etc that did not have comments pointing out the writer's errors. - So why me?

Did the author of this particular comment feel so driven to say something negative but unable to find anything to about the story to trash he latched onto my few spelling mistakes? At least this commentator was not one of the serried ranks of 'Anonymous.' Yet when I contacted him asking for elaboration so I might be able to correct my mistakes I received no reply.

My later submissions have been written with much more care than their predecessors. These days I check, double check and triple check not only for content and structure but silly mistakes as well. Then pass them on to an editor before final submission. Still, one of these attracted a 'bad spelling / grammar' comment! HELP!

OK, just a bit of a rant. Now that I have got that off my chest I shall go away again.

Thanks for reading this.

Tom

Hi, Tom. I don't consider myself to be a grammar nazi, or a spelling nazi, for that matter. However, sometimes I read a story that has a lot of errors and I leave a comment to the effect that a story should have been edited better. I think of frequent errors as being akin to speed bumps on a highway, annoying and, after a while, enough to induce me to stop reading the story or stop driving on the highway.

Generally speaking, even if we concern ourselves with such errors in a story, we don't say anything about them in a post on this forum but, did you know, you have three spelling errors in your OP? I have bolded them. None of them would have been caught by Spellcheck.

I believe my stories tend to get fewer comments than most. I like to think this is because the readers climax before reaching the end, and don't bother to vote or leave a comment.

 

[Thomas Drablézien]

Ok Boxlicker I take your point. Spell checkers are both a curse and a blessing.

Where / were / ware / wear
There / their

And many others are the curse of the English language, and often overlooked when looking for more obvious errors.

I speak a little French as well, handy as I live there LOL In French changing the gender of some words completely changes their meaning too. Now that is really confusing

Just by way of a post script. I have just re-read the latest of my stories to fall foul of the 'Grammar Nazis' I spotted THE mistake in about the 3rd or 4th paragraph - 'felling' where I should have written 'feeling' A stupid transposition error! And that one slipped past my editor too!

Oh well, that's life.

Tom