Typo's

[NightShade260]

You know, when i first started writing poetry i had this crazy idea that it was supposed to be from inside and about how your feeling, not mindless blather or i dunno HOW MANY TYPOS YOU MADE . i mean maybe im wrong and you were never supposed to express anything in writing, but i think im write and i personally think its stupid not to look at the over all message and just to look at the damn typos. but then again this is just one persons opinion, and hell what does that matter!

 

[Liar]

...but then again this is just one persons opinion, and hell what does that matter!

Everyones opinion matters. Your, mine, those reader's... You know, I looked at the comments to your poems (didn't have time to read all that day). Those were just opinions too. Two people's points of view, just as valid as your own opinions.

Well of course it's the message that is most important. That goes without saying. But are you not concerned that the message the reader reads is the one that you intended? A poem has two participants: The writer and the reader. If the writer manages to get the right message and emotion through to the reader, then the poem has succeeded. But from what I've read (and written), spelling and grammar mistakes are easy ways to confuse the reader into misunderstanding the poem. So it's generally better to proofread before showing it to an audience.

You write good poems. To care about the spelling and grammar would make them accessible to more people.

That is all.

#L

 

[WickedEve]

Definitely what Liar said.
Typos can change a poem. You may end up with a word that was not intended due to leaving out or adding a letter that changes the entire meaning of a word. Punctuation can greatly help a reader understand what you're saying. You may have meant for one line to be part of the sentence above and not the sentence below. It's just little things like this that can give a reader the wrong idea about what you felt was so important to express. I'm sure you don't want that.

Okay, I just looked at your poem and realized that I commented on it. As a reader, I don't want to have to decipher a poem. Example: "They see me weakness and me flaw's" That's a line from your poem. It's not an enjoyable read because of the typos, but it's easy to fix. If you take the time to write and submit a poem, take the time to also proofread it before submitting. I'd be glad to proofread for you, and so would many people here.

 

[champagne1982]

You know, when i first started writing poetry i had this crazy idea that it was supposed to be from inside and about how your feeling, not mindless blather or i dunno HOW MANY TYPOS YOU MADE . i mean maybe im wrong and you were never supposed to express anything in writing, but i think im write and i personally think its stupid not to look at the over all message and just to look at the damn typos. but then again this is just one persons opinion, and hell what does that matter!

I have explained elsewhere on this forum that I do not seek errors out when I read someone's work. I try to ignore them, honestly, but they leap off the page at me and ruin the fun experience of reading that I normally enjoy. I don't comment on errors any more because there are people out there, just like you seem to be, who can't see the value in what I'm trying to say. Thumper's dad always says, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all." I modify that to say, "Unless asked for critique."

p.s. Read through your post and spot the errors. Apart from failing to capitalize the word 'I' several times there are at least 6 other glaring ones that are just carelessness and not typos.

 

[Angeline]

I'm with the others here. When I read a poem, I *do* see the whole poem and I tend to value it on its overall merit as a piece of writing, but typos and grammatical errors drag a poem down. I can't help but notice them. Of course you are the one who needs to be satisfied with the poem, and if you are that's really all that matters, but you have to realize that if you create art and offer it up for public opinion and you have errors in it, people will notice and some will comment on it.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

I have to agree with what other have said. Yes, the content should be what is important, but while I don't mind having to work to understand the message, I prefer to at least know what words are being used.

Poetry isn't about being 'from the inside and about how you are feeling'; poetry is communication. It only works if you and the reader are using the same code - otherwise I'd be posting a lot of poems in Portuguese...

One or two incidental typos don't harm a poem that much, but when they become evident and distract from the message, they are a show of some degree of carelessness and disrespect for the language, for the readers, and for poetry. And if even the author doesn't respect his or her own poetry, why should I, the reader, care about it at all?

One word of advice, by the way: don't EVER whine and rant when people complain about typos in your writing. All else is subjective, but that is the one thing you can't argue. You know you're wrong.

 

[OT]

I treasure the knitted orange wool tie
from great gramma jean (on my father's side)

and from my six year old
a clay ashtray in the shape of his hand
(though no, I've never smoked)

and then there was the year that
Santa brought me the fireman and my brother the spaceman
wow, what a mix up

it's the thought that counts
it's the thought that counts
it's the thought that counts
sometimes

Santa learned to be more careful, my six year old grew up and now knows better,
and gramma, if she were still around would probably still be knitting hideous off-color ties.

We all have to start somewhere.
Unless you are older than gramma,
your readers will expect you to grow and learn.

 

[thenry]

Poetry isn't about being 'from the inside and about how you are feeling'; poetry is communication. [/B]

And if it was, would anyone pay attention to comments and criticism, excepting the search for commiseration?

 

[Angeline]

And if it was, would anyone pay attention to comments and criticism, excepting the search for commiseration?

No, but that's because it's about both: taking what's inside, what you feel and--if you're successful--communicating it effectively so that your reader feels it inside, too. Poetry is not about informing, like a lot of prose. It's about sharing your vision and making your reader feel something, experience something.

I think a lot of the wanting commiseration comes from writers not recognizing that what *they* understand is not, in fact, communicating to readers because it isn't clear, precise, interesting, whatever. This is why, imho, the need for clarity and error-free writing. If one is serious about writing (and by *serious* I mean wanting to communicate), he or she needs to think--am I being clear? Am I being interesting? Did I do the best job I could?

 

[Zanzibar]

If you intend the words to be mispelled, or the grammar to be incorrect, then it's your "style" and not a typo.

Some authors are known for the way they write their prose and the affectations that they have.

But if you want to get your message across, those are things that you have to be aware of as a writer. Readers can't hear your inflection, or tone, or the pitch of your voice like they could if you were performing live, or making an audio recording.

All you have is that brief instance when their eye sees the page and their mind absorbs what you left there for them to find.




(on the other hand, I got involved in one hell of a rollicking good roleplay when I typed "secretart" instead of "secretary" as a response to a question.)

 

[thenry]

Poetry is not about informing, like a lot of prose. It's about sharing your vision and making your reader feel something, experience something.

Which is why I feel a search for commiseration is a valid and also overused device.

Though I may just be going through a phase in reading where it seems to me poets are conveying experiences that are easy to feel, which in a way is a shortcut. By which I mean I rarely feel, cynically, that anything new is being introduced into my perspective, or that the old touchstones of death, loneliness, and the wonder of a child are being treated with placeholders.

The easy example Lit authors swim within is the erotic poem. I say with relative certainty that everyone participating in the poetry forum knows what sex feels like, and so poems built around descriptions of that feeling only call up what the reader already understands. But such poems are difficult to criticize in their creation without belittling the very real feelings of the author.

It's like watching Congress applaud the President of the United States as he praises the nation's stalwart defences of freedom during the State of the Union address. It may make me feel good, but it's still a very cheap shot and I'd rather have some specific examples, plans, and programs than vague platitudes.

The search for commiseration and the conveyance of understanding are real, but it's much easier to search for the emotions and understandings you already know you are going to find.

 

[Angeline]

Which is why I feel a search for commiseration is a valid and also overused device.

Commiseration is fine, even good--I stay here because I need to feel a sense of community with other poets. It inspires me, gives me new ideas for poems, keeps me writing. This board, which I find something of an oasis compared to some other forums here, is unique in the way it welcomes new writers and brings them into the fold. I think we just have a really good mix of personalities here.

I don't like whinging though--I'm more sympathetic than many, I think, but I feel pretty strongly that if you make something you write public, be prepared to take some lumps with the gravy. There is not a poet here who hasn't had a poem trashed and seems to me the only way to deal with that is to learn from it, if you can. (Obviously "You're a dick and your poetry is crap" ain't much of a learning opportunity, lol, but I expect few of us get those comments--they seem more prevalent in the story pc's.)

And, yes, there's nothing new under the sun in poetry like anything else. The erotic poem is the mainstay of Lit. I accept that many folks are here to write erotica, not necessarily poetry, though the erotica may be presented in that form. Tell you though, there is much much less uh prosaic erotic poetry now than there was when I first arrived here a few years back. A lot of the erotic poems that appear these days are quite good, imho. But I absolutely agree with you that there are a few verrry overdone nonerotic topics here (and I'm as guilty as the next guy of writing on them). I dunno--maybe these are the topics that affect our lives the most, and we just need to think about fresh approaches.

 

[thenry]

Tell you though, there is much much less uh prosaic erotic poetry now than there was when I first arrived here a few years back.

Too bad there's no easy way to search for erotic poetry by date. Those sure must have been the days.

And regardless of what it says of me, this is the online online community in which I participate, and I have no complaints. Though the reputations of other communities are always interesting.