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I am sorry if this offends anyone, I do not intend to.
My preferences are:
From child to adult, M to F, most real life style, some types of magical or si-fi transition, some mild femdom.
If the story has Hard force Humiliation or, Human force body changes then I leave it.
I prefer story postings of 2,000 words or above,unless it is a serial.
It is my belief all stories need to go through a spelling program.
The author or proof reader then needs to listen to the story to catch the wrong words and the omission of words. Items as these a spell checker is not going to help.
Common wrong words are:
you for your.
though for through.
me for my & my for me.
he for she.
here for her.
Every time I hear some thing wrong it interrupts the flow of the story.
If you would like me to check your story I would be glad to for NO CHARGE.
Usually I can do it within a day. If so you can PM me.
Comments
Wrong Words
You forgot your for you're or vice versa which I see all the time
How About
Waste for waist
heals for heels
there for their
CLM
As a T-woman, I do have a Y chromosome... it's just in cursive, pink script.
Confusion
One of the most important tools a writer can own is a manual of style and a real dictionary.
You can't trust computer "spelling checkers," not ever. They're a useful first cut, but are not a substitute for proofreading and ready access to a real dictionary. "Thicker" dictionaries are *usually* better, but even older dictionaries are perfectly adequate for most authors, so if cost is an issue, a hefty, but pre-owned, older dictionary may be more useful than a spanking new skinny one.
It doesn't matter what style guide one uses, as long as it's something.
It doesn't matter what dictionary one uses, as long as it's appropriate for the language and style one typically uses. It may be advisable to supplement one's dictionary with a dictionary of slang, or keep a bookmark to the Urban Dictionary or other online reference.
Note that American usage/spelling and that of the rest of the world may often differ** so pick a style guide and dictionary that corresponds to one's locale.
The Elements of Style (Strunk & White)
The Complete Plain Words**
Many are available online, but may require a subscription:
The Chicago Manual of Style
The Associated Press Stylebook
The Oxford Guide to Style**
The Times Style and Usage Guide**
Fowler's Modern English Usage**
Practical English Usage by Michael Swan**
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/
In general, small numbers should be spelled out, "...just 2 minutes" is bad, "...just two minutes" is good.
Look up vocative case on the Web. Improper use, or non-use of it is always an error, but may not look like an error to many of us.
Accede/exceed
Accept/except
Adverse/averse
Advise/advice**
Affect/effect
Affect/effect.
Aggravate/annoy
Aggravate/annoy
All ready/already
All right/alright**
All together/altogether
Allude/refer
Anxious/eager
Anyone/any one
Anyway/any way
Assent/ascent
Awhile/a while
Breath/breathe
Capital/capitol
Chafe/chaff
Cloth/clothe/cloths/clothes
Compliment/complement
Conscience/conscious
Conscious/conscience
Council/counsel/console
Councilor/counselor/consoler
Deserts/desserts
Discomfort/discomfit
Discrete/discreet
Draft/draught**
Effective/effectual
Elicit/illicit
Everyone/every one
Fawn/faun
Faze/phase
Flaunt/flout
Grisly/grizzly
Horde/hoard
Idea/ideal
Imply/infer
Incredulous/incredible
Ingenious/ingenuous
Its/it's
Lead/led
Lie (untruth)/lie (recline)/lie (position)/lay (set down) (and their intertwining tenses and conjugations)
Loath/loathe
Local/locale
Lose/loose
Maybe/may be
Mucous/mucus
none/no one (NEVER noone unless it's Peter Noone)
Palate/pallet/palette
Passable/passible
Past/passed
Perquisite/prerequisite
Practicable/practical
Prescribe/proscribe
Principal/principle
Principals/principles
Psyche/psych
Read/red
Setup/set up
Sheer/shear
Sight/site/cite
Stanch/staunch
Stared/starred
Stationary/stationery
Supposed to/suppose
Than/then
Their/there/they're
To/too/two
Used to/use ("I use to" is a regional pronounciation, *not* spelling. "I used to" is how it's spelled everywhere)
Venal/venial
We're/where/were
Who/whom (becoming old-fashioned, but not archaic)
Your/you're/you
There are many verb phrases turned into nouns through being collapsed into one word, "shoot out" versus "shootout," for example. Keep the two distinct. One of the common errors one sees are single words improperly split apart into two words, and vice versa. British usage tends to retain hyphens, where Americans discard them with relative freedom.
When in doubt, look it up.
When confident, make sure.
Cheers,
Liobhan
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Cheers,
Liobhan
Word usage
Hey Liobhan,
You missed some.
Implicit/explicit (especially when the author means COMPLETELY; as in "I trusted her IMPLICITLY."
BTW I usually use no-one because 'no one' should only be used as in; "No one factor is singularly responsible for poor word usage."
with love,
Hope
with love,
Hope
Once in a while I bare my soul, more often my soles bear me.
I missed lots
Here's a nice list with many more, and he misses many too:
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/
The number of potential errors in any language is limited only by the imagination, and the number of potential mistakes is always much larger than the number of available correct spellings and uses.
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Cheers,
Liobhan
Not trying to be offensive...
Hi Liobhan,
That was just one example that I have seen often that wasn't on your list.
with love,
Hope
with love,
Hope
Once in a while I bare my soul, more often my soles bear me.
Nor was I offended...
I just thought I'd add a few more to your helpful addition...
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Cheers,
Liobhan
No-one
No-one tends to be more common in UK usage, as we all of us desperately *yearn* for a compact word like "anyone" but some have gone further than others. In the USA, it will be blue-pencilled by editors, and have notes in red made by teachers.
We'll get there, eventually...
Language evolves.
We're all of us learning, all the time, and will until we manage to stop being curious, quarrellsome and cantankerous through being beyond all that.
Cheers,
Liobhan
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Cheers,
Liobhan
Vocative,
Look up vocative case on the Web. Improper use, or non-use of it is always an error, but may not look like an error to many of us.
It's over 55 years since I was first hopeless at Latin but I remember that (1st declension?) mensa (table) declines so that nominative and vocative cases are identical (mensa, mensa, mensam - nominative, vocative, accusative etc) so I can't see it's really affecting the sense of a sentence too much, so what does it matter? In any case (no pun intended) who on earth would want to address a table? "O table, why are you standing there bearing that vase of flowers?" seems a little bizarre to say the least :) Not sure how the vocative case translates to English.
One huge advantage of English over other languages partly based on Latin is that it doesn't see the need to ascribe gender to inanimate objects. Why we should worry about the gender of doors or windows is beyond me. Moreover I believe it makes life difficult for transgender individuals if common nouns have to be adjusted to suit the gender of the speaker. I believe a French female impersonating thief was exposed by Lord Peter Wimsey in a Dorothy L Sayers short story because of a slip up like that.
Geoff
Vocative
The marker for vocative case in written English is to set off the nominal noun with commas, Geoff. :) This is not done in a lot of stories here on BC and can produce some confusing prose.
"What is it you think we should tell him about Fred?" is different from "What is it you think we should tell him about, Fred?"
"Mister pigs don't fly," looks like nonsense. "Mister, pigs don't fly," is more understandable.
That's vocative case. Spoken English uses tiny pauses and vocal tones to indicate the difference, represented in print by commas.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Thank you, madam.
Perhaps I should have taken more notice of Mr Newitt my brutal Latin master. I regularly got kept behind after school, which made me miss my train until I revolted and refused. He once pulled a handful of hair from my head when I physically resisted being hauled out of my chair. Hmmm that may be why I didn't learn his subject, thus destroying forever my opportunity to go to Oxford :) However I can still conjugate amo LOL
So that's the vocative case in English. If that's it, then it's not too difficult to get right. Many thanks O Site-Mistress. I am forever in your debt ... for even more than heretofore.
Geoff
dyslexic fingers and beta readers
I happen to believe my fingers are dyslexic. I know what I am spelling in my mind but when I look at the printed word on paper I wonder where my fingers were while I was supposed to be typing.
One can use spell checker and grammar check but the best one can do is beta check. have some one else read your work. I have a friend you reads what others write backwards. our brains are so deceivng that when we read a sentence although we perceice it tobe correct there may be some backword words. When we read if the first and last letter of a word are in place our brain reads the correct word such as suscces.
We can see the letters are out of sequence but we read it as success.
Sew all eye can due is hope fro teh bset and get a beta reedar.
Jill Micayla
May you have a wonderful today and a better tomorrow
Jill Micayla
Be kinder than necessary,Because everyone you meet
Is fighting some kind of battle.
And one other thing
A better spell checker. That gave me a headache.
They know they can survive
Ummm...
I think it was a joke...
Jsut my oipnoin, of cuorse.
Puddin'
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Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
No, duh!
Really? I never would have guessed.
Sheesh! ;-)
They know they can survive
Sign writing ...
... is particularly susceptible to spelling errors because a sign writer isn't actually writing, s/he's drawing the letters individually. Our old radio and TV business ran a van for a year with the word 'televison' painted on the side (actually on both sides) before a customer (a customer!!) pointed it out. I'm supposed to be good at spelling but I blamed my father who was hopeless :)
I am slightly anal about spelling and grammar but not excessively so. I like spotting missing gerunds just for fun and confusing 'less' and 'few' tends to irritate but not terminally. 'Affect' and effect' are often confused but it doesn't always spoil the flow of the story. If a story is absolutely full of poor spelling and grammar, and there are some, then I stop reading. Not to make at least some effort, either by checking very carefully yourself (oneself?) or, better, getting someone else to do it for you, is discourteous to the reader, I feel.
Geoff
Given a Choice
I guess if I were give a choice between winning a spelling bee and having the ability to pen a decent piece of fiction, without hesitation I'd pick the latter hands down. Since I am a victim of an American public education, I don't have a choice. So I'll simply take my beatings as they are served up by my betters, enjoying all their marvelous stories and stumble along the best I can.
At least when it comes to spelling, I'm in good company.
I never trust a man who only knows one way to spell a word.
Andrew Jackson
I don't give a damn for man that can spell a word only one way.
Mark Twain
Nancy Cole
"You may be what you resolve to be."
T.J. Jackson
Unfortunately ...
... not many of us get to choose. If we did, I'd choose the same as you but I'm afraid I'm better at the mechanics than the creativity and have to put up with it.
It's interesting that you claim to be a 'victim' of an American public education. I think many Brits would make a similar claim about the British education system (though Scots usually fiercely defend theirs - before Gabi jumps on me). Iread a lot as a child and I think that stood me in good stead despite the education system. I think I learned more grammar through learning French than I did learning English.
Geoff
Latin is a Language, as Dead as It Can be . . .
It wasn't until I took Latin in high school that I finally began to learn grammar. That, and German taught to me by an instructor with a Jersey City accent helped make up for a poor start.
Nancy Cole
"You may be what you resolve to be."
T.J. Jackson
Final Touch Proof Reader
I understand what this blog writer is saying 100% (one-hundred percent) :)
The one thing we have to consider is that people are not getting paid here for what they are doing and this being the world-wide-web. We have to understand that this site is also open to authors who are just learning how the whole process of writing for others publically is, and this is a whole new bag for them.
Many are learning and yes it does effect the flow for a reader when some thing is spelled out in error or the grammer is not well structured. I am in agreement with you on that.
Maybe we should have a proof reader send the story back if the proof reader thinks the story needs to be refined. Maybe this is already being done to a level we are not aware of.
Think of how many stories have in the past already been rejected because of the writers poor skill level as it is highly likely that this being a site open to the world. Has the potential to bring in thousands of stories that are just out right un-readable.
Even the original poster has an error in it that hinders the readers flow; "Every time I hear some thing wrong it interrupts the flow of the story."
I had to stop my flow of reading the post to understand that the poster meant "read" not "hear".
its just a simple mistake, I didn't even capitalize the "I" on the beginning of this paragraph and now just realized I did that and may as well leave it there to prove a point. I have no idea what point it has, could be a point that a proof reader takes up with me and rejects this post. lol.
I am sure I made a few errors in this post. I am not a professional writer, yet I know reporters and professional writers who do make mistakes even on the elite level of their profession they make mistakes and have proof readers and editors correct the errors and some very well known writers would be considered crap if they did not have the well paid professional proof readers and editors behind them.
"read" not "hear". final touch proof reader
No offence taken and I hope not to offend.
It was without error when I said hear instead of read. I lissten to the stories.I also read along with the speach. I use a text to speach program.
When I check a story I do not change the structure or punctuation of a sentence.
This was inside of a paragraph. 2 (example below:)
he gather her items and put then in her purse. The story line was talking about a GG.
The (S) was omitted at the front of the sentence.
She got out of the chair and started to walk around the was large that. (office) was omitted,(that) was out or order.
These two examples are the types of errors that I was offering to help with.
maybe this idea would help.
Maybe what we could do on these forums is actually copy paste the paragraph where it is in error and type out the correction so the author can copy & paste it back into what ever they used to type their story out with and edit their works with some friendly help of the forum members.
Perhaps in combination to editing we could place a special Icon or bracket the paragraph needing the correction.
As an example:
*Editing suggested*
Possible edit correction needed for story XYZ origninal paragraph found on page 13 paragraph pasted here;
[She got out of the chair and started to walk around the was large that.]
Edit suggestion;
[She got out of the chair and started to walk around the large desk.]
Hearing text
There's a rather famous description by a monk, back in the Middle Ages, in one of those orders that produced books by hand. The custom in those days was for the monks to speak the words they were copying aloud, to help them keep the letters straight as they carefully inscribed them onto the page, and one monk complained in a letter to a friend that the other brothers were reciting their own texts so loudly that he was quite unable to read.
The written word is designed to be read aloud, and commas, full stops, question marks, ellipses, parentheses, dashes, and all the rest of the decorations we add to the raw letters are meant to be cues to the way each sentence is spoken, because that's the way our minds work. By not speaking in our heads, we can speed up the processing of text, but inevitably lose meaning right along with this gain in "efficiency."
Many good writers don't count a sentence finished until they've read it aloud, to hear how it *really* sounds, and it's always a good idea. I use Infovox iVox as my own screen reader, because the quality is better than the default reader supplied with most systems, even the Mac (and it's actually fairly good) and I use it regularly for proof reading, but there are many others used for specialised purposes, and knowing the limitations of these programs is an important part of being able to communicate properly on the Web.
I happen to be a domain expert on accessibility on the Web, and am perfectly willing to share if anyone is interested, or you might visit http://w3.org/WAI/ the website of the Web Accessibility Initiative, and read for yourself.
There are around a million legally blind people in the USA, a little less than 400,000 registered blind in the UK, and as one ages the likelihood of any one of us winding up with severe vision impairment rises. As a matter of courtesy, not to mention social justice and rational self-interest, it behoves us to take these issues seriously.
Cheers,
Puddin'
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Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Very good points
Some years ago I knew a guy who worked at the University, he had been totally blind since birth. It always surprised people to find he worked as an electronics repair tech, but even VLSI circuits were not too challenging for him. From time to time he'd pop up with a spec sheet and a small cassette recorder, "Hey somebody got time to read this for me?" Nowdays, he is well-equipped with the latest in scanner tech, some of which he designed and made himself. He emails people all the time, and says as long as people do a semi-reasonable job of writing he can get his stuff to read it. I hate to say it, but some of the stuff here wouldn't be readable.
They know they can survive