My Englishness is being erased :(

Jump to Last Post 1-11 of 11 discussions (53 posts)
  1. Susan Hambidge profile image96
    Susan Hambidgeposted 7 years ago

    Bit by bit the 'editing' is changing my words .... I know it is 'for the good of the whole' but I am starting to feel a bit put off by it all.
    Some of my English grammar is going too, or my English-isms and I find that sad.
    I have now had my bio put like this 'Susan enjoys travel, art, writing, and natural products'
    Now it's only a little tiny thing, but we Brits don't put a comma before the 'and'. We would lose marks for doing it and we are taught this from primary school. Now I have what I consider a typo in by bio. sad

    Have to have a think about what I want from writing here. It seems it is not an multi-cultural as I thought, although I get many hits from Google.co.uk .

    1. profile image0
      promisemposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      U.S. journalism style doesn't put a comma before "and" either.

      https://www.grammarly.com/blog/what-is- … -about-it/

    2. Will Apse profile image89
      Will Apseposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      I think you will find that your Englishness is ineradicable. For better or worse, lol.

      1. Susan Hambidge profile image96
        Susan Hambidgeposted 7 years agoin reply to this

        That is true! I shall remember that smile

    3. qeyler profile image71
      qeylerposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      I write English myself.  I've been attacked..."what is with you and all those 'U's?
      Labour?  Colour?   Favour?"

      1. psycheskinner profile image77
        psycheskinnerposted 7 years agoin reply to this

        Attacked by who, some rando commenter or crazy hubber?  That hardly matters. Hubpages allows any conventional dialect of English.

        1. Will Apse profile image89
          Will Apseposted 7 years agoin reply to this

          I'm not sure wildly divergent spellings/syntax in a single website is that good an idea, certainly not on the niche sites. You need a house style or agreed set of conventions to weld pages together.

          1. psycheskinner profile image77
            psycheskinnerposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            Hubpages does not seem to consider it a problem.  As long as the site is in English and correct for its national style.

  2. mike102771 profile image69
    mike102771posted 7 years ago

    As an American I was also taught that you don't put a comma before the word and. Such as one, two, three and four. could this be a glitch in the system? Have you tried to fix your Bio?

  3. theraggededge profile image89
    theraggededgeposted 7 years ago

    There's another discussion about the Oxford comma here:

    http://hubpages.com/community/forum/141 … ommaor-not

    You're right about it not being a British English custom, however, in certain cases it's useful and avoids confusion.

    Edit: By the way, you can always undo an edit if you don't agree with it.

  4. Titia profile image91
    Titiaposted 7 years ago

    We Dutchies don't use that 'Oxford' comma either and in my eyes it doesn't belong there, it looks silly.

  5. Marisa Wright profile image85
    Marisa Wrightposted 7 years ago

    Bear in mind that the editors are all individuals and they don't all agree with each other.  You've had one editor add that comma - if you remove it, no one will complain

    In fact, there is nothing to stop you changing things back if you don't like them.  The editors are American so naturally, they're looking at your "English-isms" and thinking you've made a mistake - but if you know better, just change it back. 

    The only time you might have a problem is if you reinstate a link or a product that has been removed.  Rejecting grammar or spelling changes, or the rewording of sentences, is fine.

    After all, that's why they give you a link so you can see the changes they've made - so you have the opportunity to change them back if you prefer.

    1. Susan Hambidge profile image96
      Susan Hambidgeposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you Marisa, I will change it back, I didn't think that different editors would have different styles and I didn't realise the Oxford Comma was a discussion point.

  6. Jesse Drzal profile image87
    Jesse Drzalposted 7 years ago

    There is without a doubt different styles within the editing team.

  7. Susan Hambidge profile image96
    Susan Hambidgeposted 7 years ago

    Thank you for all your replies. With the time difference, I went to bed feeling a bit low. I'm not sure why it unsettled me so much really, but all your comments have lifted me. I did not realise it wasn't an American thing particularly. I feel confident to change it now. I haven't really changed back any of edits thinking 'they know best' but maybe I will consider it more now.

    I have to admit, I have seen a lot more traffic/income recently so this contributed to my thought of 'they know best'. But maybe comma placement wouldn't make any difference and so I can have it how I like it.

    Thanks again everyone!

    1. profile image0
      Christy Kirwanposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      While the editing team uses the Oxford comma, we understand that the sentence is still correct without, and it will not be an issue if you prefer to remove instances of it that have been added. smile

      1. theraggededge profile image89
        theraggededgeposted 7 years agoin reply to this

        But they shouldn't really add it in the first place, Christy. It's an unnecessary correction which just causes more work for the writer to change it back if that is their preference. Personally, I couldn't be bothered but some obviously are. Perhaps the editing team should be told not to 'correct' it?

  8. Don Bobbitt profile image76
    Don Bobbittposted 7 years ago

    Interesting discussion.
    From the perspective of a writer who often used "Southern Slang" in my stories that I used to put on HP, they would butcher my stories, trying to make the sentences "proper American English", which, of course butchered the soul of the story.
    I never did get an satisfaction from HP on this until I removed most of my creative writing and placed them on my other sites.
    So, good Luck, trying to "do it your own way",
    DON

    1. Marisa Wright profile image85
      Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      I'm surprised to hear they edited Creative Writing, that would be hard to do, 

      One thing I notice is that people complain about these changes as if they are set in stone. 

      There is NOTHING to prevent you changing things back if you don't like what the editors have done.  It's true that HubPages make threats that if you change anything, your Hub may not get moved to the niche site - but the secret is to wait until it has been moved, then put it back the way you want it.  Provided you don't add or remove any links, it's unlikely they'll take any action.

      1. Jesse Drzal profile image87
        Jesse Drzalposted 7 years agoin reply to this

        Not true. They regularly go over Hubs now Marisa and notify you by email. I received two just today alone on my niche articles.

      2. Jean Bakula profile image88
        Jean Bakulaposted 7 years agoin reply to this

        Marisa is correct, I often change things once the hub is on the niche. I don't agree with a lot of the grammar rules. When I had English in school, we were told to underline titles of books. HP wants them in italics. I have a piece moved to Spinditty, and made a chart of a person's songs. Then I had to put them in quotes. I did it to get the piece moved, but it looks idiotic. I asked my son what he learned in HS English, and he agreed with me. Unless you make a major change, they don't check.

        I also think the turn around time is ridiculous and did complain this time, I've had to resubmit pieces over a comma and wait over a week to see it moved. The last one moved the next day.

        1. Jesse Drzal profile image87
          Jesse Drzalposted 7 years agoin reply to this

          Yes, they do check. Even for minor changes.

        2. Will Apse profile image89
          Will Apseposted 7 years agoin reply to this

          I can't get worked up about commas anymore, though I remember a time when I did.

          These days, if I am tired, I struggle to work out whether I should be using 'which' or 'what' in a sentence. That is pretty bad, lol.

          Overall, I am grateful for the contribution from the eds and don't mind their pickiness.

          Except for in-text ads, of course, which are the work of the devil.

          1. Jesse Drzal profile image87
            Jesse Drzalposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            I think the editors do a great job as well.

        3. Jesse Drzal profile image87
          Jesse Drzalposted 7 years agoin reply to this

          And no Marisa is not correct. They randomly review Hubs absolutely and do minor tweaks. I get emails when they do. Most of them the email just states that it was reviewed with no changes.

          1. Marisa Wright profile image85
            Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            No they do not edit Hubs randomly.  In recent months, they have been doing a review of the niche sites that were affected by Fred.   Those are the ones we're getting emails about.  Other than that, I've never had an email saying they're reviewing a Hub that's already been moved.

            I have had a couple of emails telling me they've snipped a link.  Links are always monitored.

            1. theraggededge profile image89
              theraggededgeposted 7 years agoin reply to this

              I have. There was one on Bellatory that was reviewed during Fred.

              1. Marisa Wright profile image85
                Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                That's what I said.  The only ones that are reviewed are on the niche sites affected by Fred.

                1. theraggededge profile image89
                  theraggededgeposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                  Sorry, misread smile

                  1. Jesse Drzal profile image87
                    Jesse Drzalposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                    I don't think it has anything to do with Fred. My site was not affected by'' Fred''

                2. Jesse Drzal profile image87
                  Jesse Drzalposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                  Marisa, you really ought to get active on the site again if you want to give forum advice. Not trying to be mean about it, but you're out of touch on things sometimes.

                  1. theraggededge profile image89
                    theraggededgeposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                    What? Maybe you are misunderstanding? We are talking about editors reviewing hubs on niche sites. When Fred hit, HP decided to review hubs on niche sites like Healdove. 'Review' doesn't necessarily mean 'edit'.

                    Marisa is right in what she said, I misunderstood what she wrote. I think she knows far more than most of us how things work around here big_smile

                  2. Marisa Wright profile image85
                    Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                    Jesse, if you have a forum post from a HubPages staff member that contradicts what I said, then please do quote it here.

                    I repeat, this is my understanding:

                    Yes, you are getting emails from the staff about your Hubs.  Sometimes they are because they have snipped a link, or made a change before moving your Hub to a niche site. Those kinds of emails happen all the time.

                    Recently, we've been getting emails telling us a Hub on a niche site is being reviewed, and inviting us to take a look at the Hub ourselves.   After some time, we usually get an email saying there were no problems.  Those are the emails you are talking about, yes?  We never got those kinds of emails before Fred.  They are being issued now, because the moderators are going through and reviewing Hubs on sites which were affected by Fred.  You might like to go back and look for some of Paul Edmondson's forum posts about it.

            2. Jesse Drzal profile image87
              Jesse Drzalposted 7 years agoin reply to this

              Marisa, they review Hubs on Niche sites, with no changes made. I have the emails. I received two yesterday. I don't know how else to tell you this. Perhaps because you don't write for the site anymore you don't get them? I don't Know.

              1. Kylyssa profile image90
                Kylyssaposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                I have experienced this as well. My hub a major educational publisher picked up for international print publication earlier this year was just yesterday declared good enough by an anonymous editor on Soapboxie. No changes were made to it.

          2. Jean Bakula profile image88
            Jean Bakulaposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            I'll pay attention, so far that has not happened to me.

  9. Kathryn L Hill profile image80
    Kathryn L Hillposted 7 years ago

    If you are writing for an American site, you might as well get the hang of American ways.

    1. Will Apse profile image89
      Will Apseposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Covfefe that!

    2. theraggededge profile image89
      theraggededgeposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Kathryn, not all readers of HP live in the US. That is a singularly insular attitude, to say the least. If the site required it, that's a different thing, but HubPages doesn't.

      1. Kathryn L Hill profile image80
        Kathryn L Hillposted 7 years agoin reply to this

        So, If I buy a book edited and published in Britain it will be grammatically different from an American book?

        1. theraggededge profile image89
          theraggededgeposted 7 years agoin reply to this

          In minor ways, yes. Mostly spelling, word usage and Oxford commas. See what I did there?

    3. Marisa Wright profile image85
      Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Although HubPages is based in America, it gets readers from all over the English-speaking world.

    4. Susan Hambidge profile image96
      Susan Hambidgeposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Hubpages never says it's an American site. If that was made clear I probably would not have signed up for it because all my experiences and poiint of views come from my British point perspective and I have enough knowledge to know that they differ a lot and would only appeal to a few American readers. But, a high percentage of my views come from Google.co.uk, (and strangely from Russia though I'm not sure why? ) That will be because they are goggling a subject that they want to know about and the SEO wording, phrasing and spelling will be British. A good example it my article on cleaning High Gloss tiles. The reason I wrote that is because it is a huge trend right now in the UK to have these super shiny tiles fitted in the kitchen, but they are a real pain to keep clean! I don't know for sure but I don't think that trend is so huge in any other country. I get a lot of views every day for that article.

      Anyway, It seems it is ok for me to change back any wording and phrases that get Americanised so if I think an article of mine that is really written for the UK market, I will keep my phrasing and grammar, and any that are more universal I will leave as edited. Seems sensible.

  10. poppyr profile image89
    poppyrposted 7 years ago

    The Oxford comma is a beautiful thing, Susan (I'm British too). Embrace it. smile

  11. psycheskinner profile image77
    psycheskinnerposted 7 years ago

    Hubpages has a style guide that is US based.  i have written to style guides in Australia, the UK, the US and Canada that all include differences in what is nationally considered "correct' usage. 

    It seems sensible that editors would use a guide and that it would be a US guide.  Trying to derive an idiosyncratic guide from the hubber's own usage would be time consuming.  So it falls to us to revert the style differences.

    1. Kathryn L Hill profile image80
      Kathryn L Hillposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      +1!!!

    2. Susan Hambidge profile image96
      Susan Hambidgeposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      It is true that editors can't try and get the style guide correct for each writer's individual background, but when I first joined, and first wrote a lot of these articles, they didn't get edited in such a way. They were left as written, genuine typos and all. This kind of editing is new, at least to me.

      There have been a lot of great improvements, and more traffic as I said before. But more and more now I feel like I am writing for someone else who changes, edits and sanitises my writing to suit their style and plans. How do I feel about that? I'm not sure.

      1. theraggededge profile image89
        theraggededgeposted 7 years agoin reply to this

        What you have to understand is that we're not writing for ourselves. We're basically writing for Google and his little friends. HubPages has made enormous efforts to stay afloat while other sites have sunk. Their determination to turn the whole site into a quality family of sites has paid off.

        I used to take edits personally, now I don't. I let them get on with it. When I write for HP, I feel as though I am handing the article over to them to do with what they will. I also know that if I want to remove it and publish elsewhere, I can.

        I'm writing for HP because I enjoy the money it makes me - and the editing staff know better than me what works. Should I wish to write something personal, I'll put it on my own site.

        1. Susan Hambidge profile image96
          Susan Hambidgeposted 7 years agoin reply to this

          I have understood this to be true, and like you, enjoy the extra money. But, question do they really know best of they are all American focussed when the views are worldwide? I can give you another example. I have a popular article on 'Jock Itch'. In the title i deliberately used Jock Itch AND Sweat Rash, because British people would never search Jock Itch. Using both words means (and I just checked) that the view are almost equally from USA and UK. I think i'd get far fewer hits if I hadn't have brought my unique UKisms in to play.

          So although I should get a thicker skin and not take edits personally as you say, sometimes I think I actually do bring something to the site that shouldn't be erased. I think I have learned it's a balancing act and after each edit, try and look at it calmly and rationally from all sides.

          1. Will Apse profile image89
            Will Apseposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            I reckon if American's suddenly starting speaking German, I would lose 80 per cent (UK spelling for your benefit) of my income.

            We have good access here to a massive market, and learning to tolerate 'gray' for 'grey' and 'color' for 'colour' is not that hard.

            As for 'Jock Itch', I really don't want to know what that is. lol.

          2. NateB11 profile image85
            NateB11posted 7 years agoin reply to this

            Supposedly the search engine can interpret keywords/text and understand synonyms. It's supposed to be able to interpret jock itch to also mean sweat rash and put the article with either keyword in the SERPs for jock itch and vice versa.

 
working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)