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The final polish on any manuscript isn’t complete without a comprehensive look at the writing mechanics utilized within the work. We’ve all read some fan fics online that are fantastic plot-wise but are nightmares when it comes down to the way they are presented to the reader: full of grammatical errors and tons of spelling mistakes. Most readers on the internet have an attention span of a few seconds, so a story must not only catch their eye subject-wise, but also must maintain a certain readability in regards to the language used if the writer plans to keep that person viewing their website for more than just a moment. Language is a shared entity, and therefore in order for people to understand one another clearly, there must be some type of rules and structure to their communication. By following those rules, the writer can ensure that the reader will clearly understand the ideas poured onto the page. (So sayeth every English teacher I’ve ever had). In reality, a story riddled with glaring errors will certainly turn off readers who expect a cleanly-edited story. Why are these elements so essential to your work? First and foremost, anyone who is trying to be a serious writer is going to be held accountable for standard rules of writing by the editor or anyone else who considers the work for publication. Grammar rules are not impossible to learn, and editors will expect the writer to have a strong grasp on the concepts, visible in the completed work. The old saying “You have to know the rules in order to break them” also applies to this situation. Many advanced writers have played with the rules and stretched them to accommodate their work, which is perfectly allowable. However, for the other 99% of the writing population, this doesn’t always work out for the best, and twisting around grammar rules often results in a mess. Grammar’s Greatest HitsGrammar and punctuation rules for the English language can fill up a 700-page book (and if you don’t believe me, you should see some of the grammar handbooks I used in college). Now, nobody expects you to sit down and read the entire book just for kicks, but a good resource book will always come in handy when it comes down to writing mechanics. (See the links at the end of the article for a list of grammar handbook titles). If you’re not sure where a semicolon is supposed to go in a sentence—or what it’s used for in the first place—all it takes is the turn of a few pages and you have an answer. Though I don’t intend this article to be an all-inclusive list of every grammar and punctuation rule, I would like to point out the biggies that are essential to a well-composed story:
Nothing brings a reader to an abrupt halt more than a plethora of half-baked sentences strung together into something that looks like a paragraph but really isn’t. A sentence should work as a stand-alone statement—the reader should not have to go searching elsewhere to find the missing subject of the sentence. The wrong way
would be something like this: I brought home the groceries. And put them
in the cabinet. “And put them in the cabinet” is not a complete sentence. If you saw those words by themselves on a piece of paper, you wouldn’t know who or what had put something in the cabinet. In most cases, the easiest way to eliminate fragments is to put them together into one sentence, like this: I brought home the groceries and put them in the cabinet. However, this is not always the case—time to check out that grammar handbook if you’re not sure you’re doing the right thing!
Verb tense needs to remain consistent throughout the story. If you start out by writing in the past tense, then you need to use past tense through the end of your work, plain and simple. Jumping back and forth between “she said” and “she says” is going to confuse the reader and disrupt their reading experience.
There are a number of rules for using commas appropriately, but as a general rule of thumb, commas should not be underused or overused. If you read your work aloud, there should be a comma placed wherever a brief pause occurs. If you’re not pausing, then a comma shouldn’t be there! For instance,
commas are overused in a sentence like this: Everyone, who was in my
biology class, finished their lab work early, and hurried out to their cars
before the storm hit. When
that sentence is read aloud, you’ll hear three unnecessary pauses—those
commas weren’t needed. The corrected sentence should look like this: Everyone
who was in my biology class finished their lab work early and hurried out to
their cars before the storm hit.
This one is a personal pet peeve of mine—I see apostrophe errors almost every day in professionally-done pieces of writing like newspapers, magazines, memos from my supervisors, and even on shop signs! The big one is the its/it’s mistake. An apostrophe takes the place of a missing letter; in this case, “it’s” is short for “it is.” So…when people write something like “The cat got it’s claw stuck on the ball of yarn,” I want to cringe. That sentence is saying “The cat got it is claw stuck…” which obviously is not what the writer intended to say. Other apostrophe errors that I’m seeing more and more come up when people are writing plural nouns, such as this: She wrote down the number’s she saw on the license plate. An apostrophe before an S signifies that something belongs to that object, like “Catherine’s crayons” or “the cat’s food dish.” It can also signify a shortening of the word “is” again, such as in the cases of “The radiator’s broken” or “Her flight’s arriving at nine o’clock.” An apostrophe after an S signifies the same thing if the word itself ends in an S, like “The parents’ calendars” or “Cass’ shoes.” Apostrophes can be tricky, but those general rules will solve 99% of the problems.
This is another
area where a number of novice writers tend to make mistakes. In general,
anything that a character is saying (including the appropriate punctuation
marks) needs to go inside the quotation marks, such as in this example: “The
train arrives at seven o’clock,” she said. “Robert will catch a cab at
the station and meet us at the party.” A couple things to notice…a comma instead of a period ends the first sentence, and that comma is placed before the quotation mark. Any time a quotation is followed by she said or he shouted, the sentence ends with a comma. Also, the second sentence ends with a period and is completely enclosed within the quotation marks. There’s really no room for error when it comes to formatting quotes—everything should be inside those two quotation marks. How to Proofread Your WorkI think I’ve said this about ten thousand times over the years: no piece of writing is going to be in perfect form after only a first draft. Even the best writers in the world go back and re-read what they’ve written, not only for content but also for any mechanical errors they may have made while composing their work. It’s one of the most important parts of composing a story, but I know there are people out there who dismiss any thoughts of rehashing their work. Even if the story is only going onto your personal website and no further, it’s still going to look a lot more well-written and will be more appreciated if it’s given a little editing before it’s put into the public domain. Computers are fantastic for writing—trust me, it beats the Dark Ages of using typewriters—but sometimes it’s difficult to re-read a work for grammar and spelling on a computer screen. I highly suggest printing out your first draft and going over it on paper to search for errors; you will almost always catch things that you won’t see on the computer. Remember, you’re only seeing part of the page on the display as you scroll through your document, so you’re missing out on the wide perspective of the entire written page. And another thing about word processing programs: Spell Check and Grammar Check do not catch each and every error you make! They’ll catch the general errors (an omitted period, a missed capitalization, certain misspelled words, etc.), but they are not all-inclusive in checking your document. For example, you might have typed “brain” instead of “Brian,” and the computer will not pick up on that as a mistake, since “brain” was spelled correctly, even though that’s not the word you intended to write. Reading for grammar is different from reading for content—proofreading is much more labor-intensive and takes some serious concentration. The trick is to look at each word in the story, checking for spelling or other mistakes. If you’re just beginning to self-check your work, one thing that may help when going over a hard copy of your story is to use a “blocker” while you’re reading—a blank sheet of paper or a ruler, something that allows you to block off the rest of the text so you can concentrate on one line at a time. It’s hard to make your eyes focus in on each individual word and punctuation mark as you go through the story, so a blocker might provide assistance. Reading the story aloud also greatly helps; again, it forces your eyes and your mind to focus in on one word at a time, and you’ll catch comma errors and run-on sentences as you read each line aloud. The most important thing to keep in mind when self-editing is to give yourself time. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither was a perfect story. Once you finish the first draft of your work, let it sit for a few days before you take a look at it for editing; you’ll be seeing it with fresh eyes at that point. Also, as I mentioned, re-reading for grammar errors is like going through the story with a fine-toothed comb. You might be able to read a page a minute when reading for content, but you’re more likely to get through maybe three or four lines per minute when looking at grammar and spelling. If you’re not a native speaker of the language you are writing in, the time you spend self-editing may be multiplied exponentially. Don’t get discouraged, though! It’s an arduous task at times, especially if you’re looking over something of epic proportions. However, the more practice you have at self-editing, the easier it will get. You’ll get to know your writing better and you will know what to focus on as you read through each draft for errors. And even the best writers in the world can and will miss out on mistakes. This is from personal experience—it took me weeks to get my book in final form before I sent it to the publisher. I read through one chapter at a time, and it usually took me one or two nights per chapter to check for errors. And even after two more people read through my final draft, there are still a few slight errors that made it into the finished book! If you’re still having a difficult time self-editing your own work, pass it on to a beta reader. He or she should have a solid grasp on grammar and spelling, of course (you wouldn’t want to turn your story over to your seven-year-old cousin to edit, would you?), and also have the time and resources available to give your story the attention it deserves. Your beta reader can even mark up your manuscript with “red ink” by tracking changes they make with their word processing software so you know exactly what to fix when they send it back to you. And another rule of thumb: do not expect an editor to make grammar changes for you! Editors are there to look at content and whether the story in its final form is suitable for publishing—they are not copy editors or proofreaders! Most importantly, make sure you’re still having fun with writing fan fic! Most of us write it as a hobby and don’t want to get bogged down with the editing portion of the task regardless of how essential it is. As I mentioned, hand the work over to a beta reader if you find yourself really struggling with the editing. However, don’t deny yourself the opportunity to brush up on grammar rules—you’ll see that the effects are far-reaching, carrying over from your hobby into all aspects of your life that call for well-written compositions. *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* Related Websites: Proofreading Skills: http://www.ucc.vt.edu/stdysk/proofing.html Editing and Proofreading Strategies: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/general/gl_edit.html Do’s and Don’ts of Proofreading: Guide to Grammar and Writing http://cctc.commnet.edu/grammar/ Grammar Handbooks: Hodges’ Harbrace Handbook, Harcourt Brace & Company. The Elements of Style, William Strunk, Jr.. (Also available in a complete online version at http://www.bartleby.com/141/ )
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Tina Kukla has been writing since she was 8
years old. Besides filling up a filing cabinet with short stories and
historical novels over the years, she is also the author of the Beatles fan
fic novel "Live at 12 Cold Creek Street" and its sequel "Days in the
Life," which is featured on her website, Beatlegirl's
World. |
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