By and large, I agree with everything said here. It is the one thing I harp on about. It doesn't gain me many friends when I go through the pieces I might add nor do they return the favor. One of the easily noticed mistakes is to do with dialog which I see a lot. Like these for example: Robert looked up and said "He isn't going anywhere" Another example: "He isn't going anywhere." He said. Last example: "Is he going out?", Asked Jake. (you could swap the capital A for a lower case one and still have it as a valid example of what I see I think.) Now I know some people don't know the rules of dialog though and other grammar rules that don't pertain to it but in my mind, a run through in spellcheck would flag the above examples as wrong correct? So they know there's something that needs considering. I know it's petty as well with the examples given above, but if someone knows the rules yet they have anything I showed above in their work, it reflects on them. It's normally commonplace throughout the work also. To be honest though, work with poor grammar is what I feel most able to critique. When I come across someone that is perfectly sound technical wise and is also a really good writer, I have no idea how to go about the critique. Particularly troublesome when returning the favor to someone. It's really bothersome because I'm not a word person and my vocabulary does need strengthening. I don't mind helping the people either as I've been there before and with not doing so well at school and basically never having lessons, I can relate. What does annoy me though is when I suggest double spacing and they don't do it. It also annoys me when it appears the errors are due to a lack of care rather than not just being very good. The cardinal sin is when it feels like the large amount of time you spend going through grammatically flawed works is completely wasted. PS: What someone said about their first drafts being better than what they see, stands true for me as well. Each time I write a sentence, I look at it for missing letters etc. before moving on, so my first drafts normally are quite readable in my view. (but I am english) What hurts most is I see grammatically flawed works get responses and ones that aren't go unnoticed or rather, they don't get comments. I sometimes wonder whether the people who comment are just being kind or not. They at least don't flag any grammar mistakes within and I wonder why, when the work gets praised.
I have been in America for 2 years and have only spoken English for 2 years. I really try hard to catch my grammar mistakes. But sometimes its really hard. I know a lot of people who put the dialog in the same paragraph as the action. It can get very confusing trying to proof read any story like that.
Perhaps for Reviewing we could try the P.E.N system my school's language department uses? P= Praise E= Error (normally grammar). N= Next time include. Or something along those lines?
I completely agree. I think proper grammar is a very important aspect, especially if you are serious about writing.
Unfortunately, they have come to people who will at least give these people a chance. Truth is, however, most people just take one quick look and move on to a new post--because it truly isn't worth reading at all.
