Where is th eline between editing and rewriting?

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  1. Ilonagarden profile image91
    Ilonagardenposted 8 years ago

    I took a look at my top hub which went into the Hubpro Basic. I am appalled that the personal style of writing is gone. Even from the personal recounting of my own experience, due to rewriting of the text.

    I was under the impression that an editor would improve grammar and usage, perhaps suggest some different wording in awkwardly written prose. What I see now is a very generic "article" that could be found in the type of boring women's magazines that I no longer waste my time reading.

    I am unhappy.

    1. Ilonagarden profile image91
      Ilonagardenposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      yes, you can fix my headline typo...

    2. profile image0
      calculus-geometryposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Are you certain it was HubPro Basic and not HubPro Premium? The latter is where editors may rewrite articles.  In any case, you can revert the changes you don't like. Check your email for the before and after document that lets you see exactly what was done. Go through it line by line, at least they color code the changes for us.

      hmm

    3. Kylyssa profile image92
      Kylyssaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      They do seem to be trying to impose a generic voice on all high traffic hubs.

  2. Jodah profile image90
    Jodahposted 8 years ago

    I have seen the same complain before from a hubber whose hub was edited with HubPro Premium. I would be upset too, but have never had any of my hubs selected for editing so don't know personally. As calculus-geometry advised you can change the hub back to the original.

  3. Marisa Wright profile image86
    Marisa Wrightposted 8 years ago

    It does sound as though that has gone beyond editing.  I think you need to email the team @ Hubpages to complain and find out what has happened - they need to be aware if one of their editors is being over-zealous.

  4. Robin profile image86
    Robinposted 8 years ago

    @Ilonagarden- I am sorry that you aren't happy with your edits.  I took a look at your Hub and very, very few changes were made to this Hub—basic grammar and spelling changes were made and a few products were removed.  You wrote the Hub over 4 years ago.  We have had other instances where Hubbers were upset with our edits, but they didn't realize that the Hub was written so long ago that it was actually their writing that made them upset.  I know in four years that my voice has changed a lot!  smile  The Hub will be turned back over to you in the next day, and you can look at the highlighting to see how little was actually changed.  Maybe you'll want to update your Hub at that point to fit your current style.  It's a great Hub!  Thanks for sharing it.  smile

    1. relache profile image72
      relacheposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      If ilonagarden's author account is just sixteen months old, how does she have a four-year-old Hub in it?

      With all the changes that have happened on HubPages in the last nine years, inventing subdomains and back again, nothing has ever changed the day my account got created or the age of the Hubs inside it.

      1. NateB11 profile image88
        NateB11posted 8 years agoin reply to this

        I bet it's a Squidoo transfer. I think those Hubs/Lenses retain their original publication date.

        1. Robin profile image86
          Robinposted 8 years agoin reply to this

          Yep.  She's from Squidoo.  The Hub/Lens was written in 2011.  smile

        2. Ilonagarden profile image91
          Ilonagardenposted 8 years agoin reply to this

          Yes, this was a Squidoo transfer. I was so mad about this sort of editing that I rewrote, added, added back in photos, and generally put hours more time into the hub.

    2. Ilonagarden profile image91
      Ilonagardenposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      It is funny how wording can change tone, as well as the idiosyncratic style of "grammar" that I have used over the years online. I have lots of  "no-no" ellipses and dashes because I write the way I talk.

      I know that my hubs need improving and with all my writing I constantly edit ( exception is recently on hubpages when everything goes unfeatured as soon as I touch it... then requires huge amount of working-reworking to get it to feature again).

      My present activity is removing numerous articles to my own sites when they don't respond after lots of work here. As I learn what style is desirable here, I am planning on writing more articles that will then be acceptable to the powers that be.
      Always considered this type of writing a learning experience.
      What I hate is the way a small change can turn the tense or the feeling into a blah form rather quickly. At least to my ears/eyes. See that fragment sentence? It is not correct, but how I communicate online- which vastly changed from my more formal writing, which can get rather didactic .

      1. Lionrhod profile image79
        Lionrhodposted 8 years agoin reply to this

        Heh! I write with elipses, dashes and a heck of a lot of parenthetical statements. It's the way I think, the way I talk, and has been the way I write for 4 decades. Do I attempt to limit these devices so that when I do use them they are more powerful? Absolutely.

        The moment I learned about this editing nonsense, I opted out. While I have no problem with someone making SUGGESTIONS about changes to my writing, I will in no way allow someone to make actual edits to my writing that stand until I reverse them.

        Personal voice is very important. There's a difference between Sue Grafton and Lawrence Block and Andrew Vacchs that is unique both to the character and the writer. Voice is also important in non-fiction.

        If HP wants to go to some generic voice, then I'm all the more happy that I'm moving some of my hubs off HP.

    3. Ilonagarden profile image91
      Ilonagardenposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      you know, Robin, I think you are right, but in a different way than you express here.
      I thought about it and the changes that were forced through time had very much changed the sense and the flow of the article. I started to think that this is something I need to be MUCH more aware of when adopting all the changes that hit so fast in so many articles. I tended to just delete until I made the Mturk or the robots happy. Not touching something that i normally would update further exacerbated the results.

      I am starting to rethink this method of response to the site's needs.

 
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