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Their, They're, & There
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Hi Maria,You are so right about using the correct form of a word. I edit all the time and find some funny mistakes that I fix for my authors.
As a reader I hate seeing the wrong form of a word or a comma where a semi-colon belongs. A good writer will seek an editor to help with these issues before publication to keep their readers happy and coming back for the next story.
More Later ~ Jody
Mod
Some people can't afford editors. Like myself. That doesn't necessarily make me not a good writer. IMO.
*pet hate*....as in the thing that annoys me the most.Sorry - I neglected to include the second * haha
Lorna wrote: "*pet hate*....as in the thing that annoys me the most.Sorry - I neglected to include the second * haha"
Pet peeve?
Marisa wrote: "Jody,Some people can't afford editors. Like myself. That doesn't necessarily make me not a good writer. IMO."
You can always find volunteer editors for free through sites like Goodreads. I edit on occasion, I'm working towards my masters in English now and I think I do a pretty good job of it. :) I know there's others out there who offer their services for free just to help indie authors and because it's always nice to be one of the first to read a new novel. ;)
Some platforms will remove a book if they receive enough complaints about too many typos, and I've seen one- or two-star reviews that never mentioned plot or character development, but zeroed in on typos and wonky verbs. If hiring a professional editor is out of the question, I suggest trading services with other indie writers: you find my typos, I find yours, and we send our babies out into the world looking their best.
Mod
Some people can't afford editors. Like myself. That doesn't necessarily make me not a good writer. IMO."
You can always find volunteer editors for free through sites like Good..."
Meeks,
That is very nice of you! I'm sure many authors really appreciate your help. I'd love to send you my books once they're finished. Another author and I are revamping them right now. Let me know if you have time. We're only on Chapter 6 of the first book now. We're really putting it through a heavy edit.
Marisa
Mod
Julia,
That's actually exactly what I'm doing. Also a good tool is to have Word read your document to you. While it won't catch errors like the one I brought up here, it will help you catch missing words and things like that. It's a great FREE editing tool.
Marisa
They're, Their and There, thankfully I'm quite good with these! Some grammar admittedly does catch me out, but that's why I have an editor!Though I admit, even my editor will miss one or two errors such as I have a character called "Anya" but had been writing so fast as I was enjoying a juicy portion of my book and had spelled it "Ana" even she'd missed this, though my mother picked up on it when reading the paperback proof, thankfully!
Mod
Yes! I love discussing grammar!I'm so glad that I learned the difference way back when. It bothers me to see mistakes like that, and I've found quite a few of them in published books by authors who have copy editors. I even saw a blog post a few weeks ago about proof reading your posts before publishing, but the blog writer misused "there" for "their" and "two" for "too."
My mom and friends always joked around and said that I should have been an editor, but I decided to be an English teacher. Who knows, what will happen. I am working on a novel right now, so maybe I'll just edit it myself.
Erin wrote: "Yes! I love discussing grammar!..."
I'v actually considered ordering a custom printed T-Shirt
On the front it will say
"Grammarian's Unite!"
and on the back it will say
"They're their there"
You'd be surprised by the number of people that can't catch both errors.
There is also a Language and Grammar group on GoodReads https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
Also, check out my shelves. If you write the kind of thing that you think I'd enjoy reading, I'd probably be eager to help with the copy-editing.
This is from a mail that I recently sent to a GoodReads author who had already released his book and asked me for a review. I reviewed the book (and didn't mention the numerous typos because this is far from the worst I've seen)
loc 403 act of loosing a tooth s/b losing
loc 925 should be pock-marked not pot-marked, no?
loc 1266 s/b as effectively, no?
loc 1697 ?? because no one failed ask ?? unclear
loc 1828 worst should be worse, no?
loc 2123 such and idiot s/b such an idiot, no?
loc 2126 loose something s/b lose something, no?
loc 2177 if he new s/b if he knew, no?
And "I could care less". Really? So you COULD care less? So it's not that big of a deal??"Definitely" - definately is constantly used. I had a teacher who told me to remember 'finite', so I've always remembered how to spell this one.
"Worst comes to worst". No, it should be 'worse comes to worst'. Because what seems to be even worse now could always become the worst thing ever later!
And on and on and on....
Julia wrote: "Some platforms will remove a book if they receive enough complaints about too many typos, and I've seen one- or two-star reviews that never mentioned plot or character development, but zeroed in on..."I love that idea. "Send our babies out into the world looking their best." A great mentality to have!
As a proofreader, I just hate seeing a perfectly good story ruined by poor grammar and spelling. Sentence structure is another area where a lot of indie authors and authors from a non-English background have trouble. All the errors and mixed up words or phrases mentioned in this post... are just the tip of the iceberg! I love Ashley's comment: "Send our babies out into the world looking their best." - so true... an author has just sent how time?? on writing their novel, gone through the processes to get it ready to publish, and choose to scrimp and save money by NOT getting it proofread - they shoot themselves in the foot.
Too many new authors and new books get feeble or bad reviews due to lack of proofing prior to publishing. MS Word can help but is a poor substitute for human eye.
Marisa wrote: "Jody,Some people can't afford editors. Like myself. That doesn't necessarily make me not a good writer. IMO."
*Like*
Jody wrote: "Hi Maria,You are so right about using the correct form of a word. I edit all the time and find some funny mistakes that I fix for my authors.
As a reader I hate seeing the wrong form of a word or..."
I despise semi-colons and I'll never ever use 'em. :)
Stephen wrote: "Erin wrote: "Yes! I love discussing grammar!..."
I'v actually considered ordering a custom printed T-Shirt
On the front it will say
"Grammarian's Unite!"
and on the back it will say
"They're..."
Thanks for the link. I just joined the group!
Posted by CreateSpaceBlogger on Aug 6, 2013 5:42:03 AM
Today, I'd like to address another common grammar mix-up. Fancy parts of speech aside, here is the difference between "there," "they're" and "their."
There refers to a LOCATION:
He is over there, next to the girl in the yellow dress.
You're going to Spain? I went there last year and loved it.
Are you from California? She is from there too.
They're means THEY ARE:
I think they're wonderful singers, don't you?
She told me they're on the road this week.
They're still on vacation, but I think they're coming home soon.
Their means BELONGING TO THEM:
This is their house, so please respect their rules.
She is their daughter, so they're clearly very proud of her.
It is their mistake if they get their/they're/there wrong after reading this post.
Authors should focus on getting grammar fundamentals like these right, not only in their books, but also in the marketing materials used to promote them (e.g. book descriptions, Facebook pages, author bios, etc.). These errors jump off the page at the reader and distract from the story or material, which is a real shame.
If grammar just isn't your thing and never will be, a professional copyeditor can help catch mistakes like these before your book goes to print.
-Maria