Seeking authors and readers opinion. Please Help

[lovecraft68]

As you can see opinions here vary and I think a lot of it has to do with author's own grammar.

There are people here who cross all the T's and dot the I's, very technically sound writers so obviously to them its going to matter more in a story they read.

For me? My grammar is passable at best and that's after close o five years of writing on here. My first few stories? doesn't even cover it.

So for me I'm not a grammar nazi when I read. I can overlook a lot of things as long as its not so bad I have to stop and reread sentences to figure out what just happened.

Spelling errors tend to annoy me more than punctuation especially if its consistent a typo is one thing, but if there's too many I start to think the person just can't spell and there is spell check to help.

My big peeve is details, something like screwing up a character name or Mandy was wearing a blue skirt that somehow becomes red two paragraphs later, that stuff gets me more than grammar.

All you have to do to gauge readers opinions is look at your comments. People will call out bad grammar, I get "you could use a proof reader" a lot.

Then you will inevitable see comments that follow saying "What's wrong with these people? Who cares about spelling errors?"

Its a mixed bag.

But just because some people are okay with it doesn't mean a writer shouldn't try his best to learn and get better and turn out better quality as they evolve, but its not life or death for me.

I also default to...."and how much do I pay to read here?" and take that into consideration. This site could make a lot of money if they charged even a small fee to read here, but they don't so I don't get carried away with screaming about poor grammar or unfinished stories or stories that just "suck"

Want professional flawless writing? GO to Barnes and Noble and pay for it.

 

[robertreams]

You think LMFAQ is a way to express emotions? YIkes! More like a shortcut to avoid emotions. How powrfully can one express LMFAO. How about: I laughed so hard my grape Nehi jetted out of my nose.

The rules of grammar and punctuation exist in any language, not as restraints, but as aids to communication. In certain instances, one may disregard some or all the rules, but first one must master them. Words are the oils with which we paint our canvases, would you have artists not learn color, or form or perspective before surpassing it?

 

[KaseE]

Yet to hear from our "uneducated" readers??

***

However it would be great if the "educated" ones can give constructive critique I think.

Thank you

I assume the above was in response to my observation:

A lack of proper punctuation, capitalization, grammar, and spelling is the quickest and easiest way to make sure most educated people will disregard what you write.

First, mine was a constructive critique. It warned of the effect of ignoring writing conventions.

All the same, if you want further constructive critique, please define the areas in which you seek such critique.

Thank you.

 

[jgdunn]

I'll read a story with some errors, but if someone doesn't use capitalization or paragraphs then I probably won't read. Big, messy paragraphs can make it hard to understand who's talking to who, and trying to figure that out distracts from just enjoying the story. I get lost in novels from Stephen King and Stanisław Lem because I can keep drifting along without ever thinking about anything but the words in front of me.

Demeaning comments don't do much to help people improve or encourage them to edit if they don't care in the first place. Writing is a two-way street, though. If you want people to give you their time, it's polite to think at least a little about how you're coming across.

 

[49greg]

Having made more than my share of boo-boos in my stories, I am surprisingly intolerant of bad spelling. Not so much the ones that look like the occasional typo, but things like your or you're used wrongly, waste and waist mixed up, things that in English where the words might sound similar or even the same but are spelled differently and mean different things.

All through grade school and high school teachers drilled that stuff into us.

 

[KaseE]

Is it just me, or does it seem to anyone else that the host of this poll did not get the response for which he was looking, and so just went quiet, rather than engaging in the discussion he had claimed he sought?

 

[lovecraft68]

Is it just me, or does it seem to anyone else that the host of this poll did not get the response for which he was looking, and so just went quiet, rather than engaging in the discussion he had claimed he sought?

Happens all the time.

But that's okay, we enjoy talking among ourselves.

 

[tanyachrs]

Grammar and punctuation are like road signs. They explain to readers how to read what you've written so they aren't wandering around lost and confused.

Beyond that, for me personally, but not for everyone, how something is written is as important as, or more important than, the actual content. Good writing is like music. It flows.

I edit my own stuff and it's not riddled with errors. You can edit your own stuff to probably 95 percent accuracy (because we're human). You just have to a) learn and b) care. Doing a lot of reading would probably help. Read stuff that's professionally edited. Read stuff that isn't. Can you tell the difference? I bet you can. Most people instinctively follow the "road signs" even if they don't understand the concepts well enough to articulate them.

 

[sr71plt]

Is it just me, or does it seem to anyone else that the host of this poll did not get the response for which he was looking, and so just went quiet, rather than engaging in the discussion he had claimed he sought?

Putting together a few posts across the forum, the impression is that this arises by having a story turned back because the editor considered the punctuation and grammar just too primitive to deal with--and just maybe got told that punctuation and grammar didn't matter. Followed up then by an attempt to get support voiced for that position.

 

[KaseE]

Happens all the time.

Do you mean by this guy, or pollsters generally?

 

[lovecraft68]

Do you mean by this guy, or pollsters generally?

A lot of threads get started and the person who started it-especially if they are fairly new-tend to vanish.

I'm starting to get a complex...

Okay, not really.

 

[SamScribble]

When the narrator of one of my stories ‘tells a story’, it is important (to me) that the reader ‘hears’ the voice. And the only way that I know of achieving this – maybe not all of the time; but at least some of the time – is by using words that the reader will recognise, and by the careful use of punctuation. So, does spelling and punctuation matter? I certainly think that it does.