Some constructive criticism
walte...@aol.com
offer some constructive criticism to Grey Archive writers irrespective
of the subject matter of their stories.
In my view, nothing detracts from a story more than lousy writing, poor
spelling, and bad grammar. Most of us have spellcheckers, I would think,
but it doesn't appear that many of us use them. Many of the mistakes I
see are obviously simple typos, the result of an author racing to put
his or her thoughts down and missing a keystroke here and there. Simple
editing and a spellchecker would catch many of these.
What a spellchecker won't catch is bad grammar, such as using "your"
instead of "you're," or "there" instead of "their."
Incorrect subject-verb agreement is another common error that a spell
checker won't catch. What is subject-verb agreement, you ask? Simply
stated, a singular subject of a sentence requires a singular verb. A
plural subject requires a plural verb. "Xena was walking through the
woods." Singular subject, singular verb. "Xena and Gabrielle were
walking through the woods." Plural subject, plural verb.
Here are some examples of common subject-verb mistakes, taken from a
recent Grey Archive story:
"Cyborg missions was fairly easy." A plural subject requires a plural
verb. The sentence should read: "Cyborg missions were fairly easy."
"Lactating breasts was a result from generations of gene experimenting
in her colony." Subject-verb agreement is only one problem with this
rather awkward sentence. As written the subject, "Lactating breasts" is
plural, requiring the plural "were." Still, the sentence is poorly
constructed. A better construct might be: "One result of generations of
gene experimentation on her colony was lactating breasts." Actually, if
I were editing the story I'd have the entire subject paragraph
rewritten.
"Her face and chest was covered....." Should be "...were covered..." you
get the idea.
Another common mistake is incorrect possession. "Xena carried her
sword." "Her" is the possessive that modifies the subject "Xena." "The
pirates carried their swords." "Their" is the plural possessive that
modifies the plural subject "pirates."
If all of this sounds pedantic, well… it is. This is basic stuff and has
nothing to do with a writer's style or choice of subject. Either most
writers don't review and edit their material before sending it in, or
they just don't know the basic rules of English grammar. If you don't
believe me, go through the stories on the Grey Archive. You'll find
many of these basic errors. These errors have the unfortunate effect
(not "affect". That's a verb and another common error) of detracting
from what are otherwise good stories.
Just some observations. If I don't get flamed too badly, I might offer a
few more. Happy writing!
WalterS
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
Jashin
Still, it has been mentioned that some of the writers who contribute to
the archive don't speak english as their first language. Obviously, this
can be remedied somewhat by spellcheckers and the like, but not everyone
uses them. I don't. I like wordpad 'cause it's really simple, no bells
and whistles. I try to find and fix every error I make, but sometimes I
miss a few.
I have an idea, for anyone who's willing: perhaps a proper editor, to
fix these errors. After all, isn't that what editors do?
As an additional note to this, personally I don't give much of a crap,
after all, we're just amateur writers here. This is just one possible
solution, and if nothing comes of it or people just think it's stupid, I
don't care. But if it works...
Jashin
anub...@my-deja.com
Man, I hate when somebody takes the words right out of my mouth!
Anubis17
PS: So, Part2 is up... Very good!
Pyros
than my ramblings at a too late time.
As I see it proper grammar doesn't really
need to have a place here at the archive,
I mean its all fan fiction some by people
who's only knowledge of English is comics
Once the new site is up my wife is going
to start editing all stories with the author's
permission.
Personally I like to read stories that are
made by real people not someone with an exacting
knowledge of English.
Some of these stories are wonderfully written
amazing others are amatuer to the extreme.
But who is to say what is right or wrong.
And i'll definetly not ever remove a story
or leave it on file because of spelling if
I feel it will add something to the archive
(I don't spellcheck my work because I'm talking
to you people with the real me, not something that
has been sanitized and corrected)
But on the other hand :P I do try to keep spelling
errors to a minimum.
Jason
I may be english hold a Bsc in compuyer science
but I used computers from the age of 12 and so my
writing ability is lacking.
*yawn* this is me talking when i've spent all day
trying to fix my pc and it is still dead with all
my html, mail and story files. on my wifes pc atm.
Hope I fix it tomorrow otherwise going to be a couple
of days without an update.
Typical
I planned to upgrade my pc next january couldn't it
just wait 4 damn weeks:P till after christmas spending.
*grumble* Pft hiss rage tear rend destroy.
Jason with a power supply unit smelling of
burnt rubber.
ty...@my-deja.com
<829fbm$qt5$1...@nnrp1.deja.c
om>,
greya...@cwcom.net
wrote:
seriously though you did
have a good and valid
point, but as stated some
are not English speaking
natives, and while I am
I've been out of school 24
years and my grammer is
probably very rusty. and
while web tv does now have
a spellchecker it is very
limited. after a story or
chapter gets so long the
spellchecker on a web tv
won't even function.All we
can do is try Walter and I
certainly don't see any
wrong with your comments.
supe...@my-deja.com
much. I will agree with you there are some stories that contain
absolutely *perfect* english and free of even the slightes grammatical
error...and others that are rife with all sorts of mistakes/errors.
However, I totally agree with Pyros in that it doesn't really seem to
be a big factor to me. I would far rather read an extremely explicit
and nasty sex story that contains many grammatical errors than a
completely uninteresting and boring "sex story" that is perfectly
written and mistake-free. I would like to see everyone who can write
hardcore stuff do so and NOT be intimidated by grammar. If Pyros
followed your advice then the Storyteller's ultra-hot Sindeea series
would never have gotten posted here (because it couldn't pass your
level of grammatical scrutiny). I definitely am glad Pyros chose to
run Storyteller's stories because the fantasy section badly needed to
get a jump-start in regards to hot sex (or lack thereof).
I hope everyone will just write and not worry so much about the
grammatical mistakes and things. There's not going to be a test on
this, after all, and Pyros is not grading us.
anub...@my-deja.com
greya...@cwcom.net wrote:
>
> As I see it proper grammar doesn't really
> need to have a place here at the archive,
> I mean its all fan fiction some by people
> who's only knowledge of English is comics
> Once the new site is up my wife is going
> to start editing all stories with the author's
> permission.
>
> Personally I like to read stories that are
> made by real people not someone with an exacting
> knowledge of English.
>
> Some of these stories are wonderfully written
> amazing others are amatuer to the extreme.
> But who is to say what is right or wrong.
>
> And i'll definetly not ever remove a story
> or leave it on file because of spelling if
> I feel it will add something to the archive
>
> (I don't spellcheck my work because I'm talking
> to you people with the real me, not something that
> has been sanitized and corrected)
>
> But on the other hand :P I do try to keep spelling
> errors to a minimum.
>
> Jason
>
>
this.
Although I do agree with you when stating that it is more important to
get some fun out of reading the stories posted in the Archive than it
is to be chasing after grammar errors, I must subscribe to WalterS'
claim for a correct spelling and grammar.
Not only because there are writers that do not speak english as their
first language and would improve their english a lot better from
reading corrected stories, but also because there are indeed grammar
rules that must be observed in any language.
Moreover, it can become really anoying to be constantly startled by
funny-sounding sentences when reading a story. It distracts you from
your reading and creates a disturbing mental 'white-noise'.
I mean, I don't believe that a correct grammar will in any way harm the
expression of your personality (even if the grammar correction is made
by someone else).
And I do not think that anybody should feel ashamed for not writing a
correct english; they just should face that as another challenge and
try to improve. You just can't think: 'OK, I write badly, but I don't
give a damn!'.
There is a brazilian writer worlwide known both for his bad books and
for his grammar and ortography errors: Paulo Coelho. In a interview
that he gave on a portuguese magazine he used just that excuse, ie,
that he didn't allow anyone to copyedit his texts (it's the copyeditor
who correct grammar, not editors, by the way)because people must accept
him as he is (errors included).
I can never subscribe to such a point of view. It is the best way for
someone to bacome a sloppy writer.
But I do fully agree with Pyros when he says that bad writing must not
ever turn into a criteria for posting texts in the Archive.
Although I believe that it is possible (it has to be possible!)to say
what is and is not good writing, it is also possible for someone who
can't write good english to do a very good story.
As a matter of a fact, it is known that many top-writers make lots of
grammar mistakes. That's what copyeditors are for!
Well, I will try to improve my english everyday. That's one of the
reasons why I always try to write long and (I hope) substantial posts.
Thank you for reading them and please forgive me for eventual errors
either in my grammar or my ortography.
Anubis17