Thread: dumb question

basically I'm about to ask a question that is a bit touchy eith me. in fact I ask it not to start a fight but to provoke thought. it's nor that I'm being advasarial but. I ask because for the life of me it just honestly gets on my nerves. mainly because It completley stops all good advice from getting in to me. for writing. the question is... drum role please.


why do people confuse the ability to write a novel woth the abilities of good grammer and spelling. I know they aren't abilities you can do with out butttt if you can do decetley then spell check and a friend can help you with the rest.

another point is. my best friend is a reallybgood speller but he can't write his way out of a paper bag to save his life. I know a book auther how has a decently selling book. people tell him thry pick his book up and thry it to the end without stoping because it's juat that good. the book is running legal blues and the you wont f8nd a single gramtical error or even a cingle spelling mistake in the hole book. he's not such a goid speller. how do I know this. the ather is my father.\\\

p.s. I'm not saying you shouldn't spell check or learn better spelling and gramer. I'm just blowing off some steam from realy anoying people that don't look at content but tjere ocd shure works. by the way you guys on this forum are the best. especially for advice on writing.

really I let my flaws hang out there on purpose.

Basically, if you really love your story, and think it's great, it is natural that you also write it down with care. There is no point to a story that cannot be read, and the same can be said about those that haven't been written at all.

Same can be said about films, art, music, video-games, engineering... there is little worth to a good idea without a great execution.

well I agree with you. I do go over each chapter about ten times. not only correcting spelling errers but adding new stuff. so I do handle with care. it's those dang errers I miss everytime that gets me. so I've got some back up to help. truthfully if you don't have complete mastery of of somethis it's always good. to have spmene who does. so it's nice to have three writers in the family. two published and well omission only one of them I know what they published.

Originally Posted by kunox

well I agree with you. I do go over each chapter about ten times. not only correcting spelling errers but adding new stuff. so I do handle with care. it's those dang errers I miss everytime that gets me. so I've got some back up to help. truthfully if you don't have complete mastery of of somethis it's always good. to have spmene who does. so it's nice to have three writers in the family. two published and well omission only one of them I know what they published.

English being my second language, I can relate with you in the sense that I felt a lot of frustration early on. Best thing you can do is try to improve your writing by always writing with care and making sure it's correct. If you're unsure how a word is spelled, then look it up on google or keep an actual dictionary with you. If you don't know how to write something properly, then look up how to do so. Make some research in punctuation and capitalization and keep trying until people start commenting on how good your writing is. That's what I did, and it worked.

thank you ellite. youre very kind. Ireally used to begood at spelling but somhow I lost the skill. ironically I think it's from not using it for so long. again thank you. this is why I love this forum.

There are no dumb questions, only dumb answers - People ask questions because they don't know the answers; unless of course they are bright children, in which case they do it just to piss you off...

I am in awe of the facility with English shown by everybody but the English - Elite writes English better than about 50% of the population of the UK. Here is the University of Ottowa Hypergrammar site which will tell you all you need to know about the subject. It is typical of the UK, the home of English, that our universities have no such service!

http://www.uottawa.ca/academic/arts/writcent/hypergrammar/

Originally Posted by Bloggsworth

There are no dumb questions, only dumb answers - People ask questions because they don't know the answers; unless of course they are bright children, in which case they do it just to piss you off...

I am in awe of the facility with English shown by everybody but the English - Elite writes English better than about 50% of the population of the UK. Here is the University of Ottowa Hypergrammar site which will tell you all you need to know about the subject. It is typical of the UK, the home of English, that our universities have no such service!

http://www.uottawa.ca/academic/arts/writcent/hypergrammar/

Oh, shoots! I'm still just a tad above average, then!

Still, thanks for the compliment

thank blogsworth. by dumb I meant simple though. and aparetly you haven't seen that guy with the glasses yet. nerdgasom. but anyways as mutch as I hate the keyborad I'm usin it has it's use as a proactive spell check. well at least my version is. badicaly I've triped over my physical key board and have to use an on screen one. it's very anoying and very bad if you get over emontional like me. btw notice my spelling improved. well I have calmedcdown.

Bloggsworth - I beg to differ. Oxford offers an almost endless list of grammar references starting with basic learner's grammar and continuing up as far as you want to go. The work you cite is good, but no better than what Oxford has.

collllegeee weeeeebbbbb bbbbaaaattttlllleeeeee

kunox. Grammar has never been my strongest suit and I agree that you don't have to be an English Scholar to be a good writer, but in order to convey your message to another there must be order to your words. You have to remember that the story teller must captivate their audience and though that audience may not have taken English 101, they still are dependent on a delivery they can identify with.

Call me a traditionalist or a dinosaur, but if you ignore the basics you will lose the reader.

thank you mj preston

Originally Posted by garza

Bloggsworth - I beg to differ. Oxford offers an almost endless list of grammar references starting with basic learner's grammar and continuing up as far as you want to go. The work you cite is good, but no better than what Oxford has.

Give us the link.

Link for which level? Primary? Standard? College? University? Graduate? ESL? Oxford has it all. Google for Oxford grammar and see the selections available for everyone from infant one through post-graduate.

Oxford sets the standard. Ottawa's Hypergrammar is a basic course for undergraduates or high school. Here is something similar, though arranged differently, from Oxford. You will note that there are three levels here - basic, intermediate, and advanced. Most of what I see in Ottawa is basic first form grammar. A person who intends writing to pay the bills needs more than that.

Edit - And I saw nothing in Ottawa that compares with Fowler's Modern English Usage, which goes beyond grammar and explores how words are used. I have both the first and third editions and have ordered the fourth.