The Backward OX

Blethering ignoramus. Oops, apologies to the thought police - "You are acting like a blethering ignoramus". Why do people jump in and react like this all over these forums? I never inferred that anyone would comment on your writing particularly. I implied that people might comment on pieces generally, pieces written in a similar fashion.

bah

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Originally Posted by Wildcard
I view with distaste the excretions polluting this site, suffering when I read another by-product of the boredom of one with access to a computer and the internet. As I read I feel I am being defecated on, and cling to an idea that one day I may find solace in the words of one who takes pride in their work.

The Backward OX

haha

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Originally Posted by Wildcard
I view with distaste the excretions polluting this site, suffering when I read another by-product of the boredom of one with access to a computer and the internet. As I read I feel I am being defecated on, and cling to an idea that one day I may find solace in the words of one who takes pride in their work.

ash somers

lol

i'll share an interesting observation
i've made over the years about forums
and is largely a sweeping, generalisation

those who already earn a living from writing
have no problem with incorrect spelling & grammar
those who strive to earn a living from writing are nazis

perhaps that's why you're such a pedantic old coote ox > ?

ash somers

full marks for attempted smoke screen, infact
it's all smoke & mirrors, keep clutching those straws
you might even get a hold of one, one of these daze rofl

The Backward OX

(glad you mentioned the sweeping thingy)

No, in fact I was born that way. There are those who suggest I may have Asperger's Syndrome.

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Originally Posted by Wildcard
I view with distaste the excretions polluting this site, suffering when I read another by-product of the boredom of one with access to a computer and the internet. As I read I feel I am being defecated on, and cling to an idea that one day I may find solace in the words of one who takes pride in their work.

Mike C

I could counter that with "Why are you so stupid?"

This site is full of people claiming to be writers. Words, spelling and grammar, are the tools of our profession. They are remarkably precise tools, much like a surgeon's scalpels.

When did you last hear a surgeon say "Sorry dude, your momma's dead. Hey, we're surgeons, we fuck up!"

Poor use of the tools of the trade isn't just "one of those things", its simple incompetence.

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Necromortis

Being tone deaf could potentially pose a problem, but I'm tone deaf and I compose (well, I hear the notes right in my head, they just sound different from the actual notes and...it's a long story). Reading music isn't necessarily essential either, but it helps

And there I go again, being all literalist.

~Christian

lin

But he didn't. He's just saying he could if he wanted to.

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RomanticRose

I earn a living from writing and have severe problems with spelling and grammar. But, this whole controversy is one of the reasons I don't do a lot of reviewing here.

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ash somers

sure, i can understand entirely, i rarely do reviews
which illustrates the point i'm not making very well :/
as i to write for a living, rigorously applying the rules of
grammatically correct language, spelling, syntax & diction
gosh, i wouldn't last five minutes if i used this writing style
my boss/editor would probably keel over to see all this drivel
ha, and now i digress, so i'll get back to what i originally meant
as it hasn't changed from the first time i said it, albeit confusingly
i'll expand upon my garbled inter alia jabberwocky for clarity's sake

personally, i find the forum spelling and grammar nazi to be tedious
and i'm not sorry if that gets up anybodies nose, it's just an opinion

RomanticRose

I'm not a s/g nazi on just forum posts, replying to a thread, but pieces I review -- I am an Uber-Nazi-Diva-B***h. (The people in my 3-D writing groups like that about me.) So, I don't review much here, because it just irks me when people have the idea that they are above the rules on pieces that they request critique. Like you, just an opinion.

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Sam Winchester

Fuckin' hilarious, NS! Absolutely busted myself laughing. Valeca is right - best post of 2008.

Sam.

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DavidGil

The thing is, commenting on content is rather subjective. Some will like what you write, some won't. You have that in popular books. Grammar though is pretty easy to comment on in my book.

That said, I only look for content views when I post work nowadays, which is rare. But it hardly means I get mad when someone does flag any grammar with my work. On the critiquing side, I tend to only critique grammar. At the end of the day, I'm not here to read other people's stories but rather, to return the favors to those who comment on mine. Plus, I feel grammar is easiest to correct and besides that, you can learn a lot by examining pieces.

There are rare occasions though where I will speak up on content, where I think what I have to say is quite important.


So bottom line, I feel critiquing grammar is the best route to take, in my mind. I feel it can help even the experienced people as well, as it might save them some time in scanning a piece for editing or they may have even missed something that I flag.

But I have learned one or two things with regards to giving out grammar critiques. It's probably best not to flag everything you see or rather, go overboard, especially when dealing with someone who isn't too good with sentence structure etc. But there is a problem with this and something I don't know how to rectify. How do we handle people who aren't good at writing at all and their work is very, very grammatically flawed? Do we just say it's great the content? Say there's mistakes but not point them out? Show some of them but not all? Or give a damned thorough one? I've made the mistake of giving damned thorough ones before, though my intent was always to try and help.

And yeah, don't know why but I'm like a previous a poster mentioned. I tend to want to point everything I see out, so it's a struggle to decide what I should point out and what I shouldn't.

Edit: By the way, it is normally run on sentences and missed punctuation that really irks me. I can live with minor spelling mistakes and such. I also notice quite a few people have problems with speech punctuation. It's something I see a lot of in the fiction forum. Also, agreed with NS that it's perfectly fine to break rules. But it isn't when it seems the person doesn't know what they're doing.

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ash somers

*nod* yes of course and that's fair enough
i'm all for correcting grammar and spelling
finely on a piece of werk up for critique

and it's quite clear to me your 'Uber-Nazi-Diva-B***h
is not the same thing as my forum spelling/grammar nazi

ash somers

^ - ^