sick of being corrected!
You misspelled grammar, sorry I couldn't let it go.
In all seriousnessness, don't worry about it and try your best.
LOL, but you missed the fact there should also have been an apostrophe in the word 'arent', i.e. it should have been 'aren't'
PS, What is 'seriousnessness'
Try to appreciate positive criticism. When readers comment on your hub negatively take it as a suggestion to improve your hub.
Sorry bzirkone - I thought you had bumped the thread. I didn't see a spambot post before this.
See - bumping old threads can bring innocent bystanders like yourself into an old thread and cause a lot of confusion.
If you're not interested in being corrected then move on pass it after someone says something. That's all I can say about it.
- Nelle Hoxieposted 13 years ago
0Well I have about fifty hub topics up my sleeve - I just keep finding new ones!
By the time I'm done them I might start to see some decent "badly spelt" keywords in analytics that I can start to use.I welcome constructive criticism. I found that it better my writing skills and broaden my knowledge. This is what happens when many good writers clash, it's amazing what can be produced.
Devil's Advocate (sort of): Not so much on here but on Helium, I've had well intended people pick up on something that was either a real error or one they thought was an error but wasn't. Often, it has been someone who said they're a teacher.
There have been times I've actually been appreciative, and times I haven't (but have pretended to be, just because I knew the person meant well). There was one time when I had actually used the commas correctly; but the person seemed to have it in her mind that I meant something different from what my commas clearly indicated, and she sent me tips on comma use that would have been correct had I meant to say what she presumed I meant to say.
On Helium , the "We-re-all-here-to-learn" thinking got to be too much for me. This isn't at all intended to seem hostile, or lacking in appreciation that some people mean well when they send e.mails about grammar or typing errors; but I wasn't there (and I'm not here) "to learn".
I don't know everything (not even everything about grammar). Like everyone else, I make typing and grammar mistakes (or if they're not mistakes they're something I've chosen to do because I have some reason). Still, as I'm guessing many Hubbers may have been, I'm one of those people who always got - like - 98th percentile in standardized English tests, and "A's" in English. Having been strong in English all my life doesn't mean "being perfect" in it, and it doesn't mean there's nothing to learn. In the "scheme of life", doing well in English isn't a very impressive claim to be able to make.
As many Hubbers are, though, I'm over 50 years old, and I've been out of school, and using my imperfect-but-strong English skills for a long time now. I know this is going to come across as obnoxious, but I can't help how I feel. It's been a very long time since I've out of school and looking for any English tips from a teacher.
Maybe that thinking is obnoxious and wrong and closed-minded, but when people get to be over 40, 50, 60, etc., they've lived enough life that they can't always take something like their grammar mistakes on Hubs all that seriously. Life has a way of coloring our priorities, and time has a way of making our English grades pretty insignificant "in the scheme of things".
My thing (and I'm guessing I'm not alone) is that I always put in a really good effort on here (whether that's related to my use of English or something else I do on here). I'm 100% certain, though, that I have never put in a 100%-perfect effort on here. I'm here in my spare time. Sometimes I'm more concerned with what it is I want to share than with sharing it in absolutely perfect grammar.
I'm mildly horrified when I spot one of my own typos,and I fix it. Still, though, typos show up in newspapers and books. They aren't great, but when I run into someone else's I just think, "Oh... typo," and move on. I don't underestimate the ideal of aiming for perfect, and if Hubs were going into medical or science journals perfection would be far less optional. Let's face it, though: Hubs are Hubs, and in the "scheme of Hubs" achieving decent enough, even if imperfect, quality isn't so bad.
I would love for anyone that read my hubs to correct me ASAP, because when I read them later and find a glaring error I'm ashamed that I missed. I know that I'm not perfect, and I don't mind being corrected. So please, anyone if I make any mistakes, email me and let me know.
Let me just add, I find it very difficult to read anything that's not well written in any sense of the word, spelling, grammar, etc.if there are an readers out there who dont get a pleasent experience from my hubs, then there are plenty of other pages to thumb through...just a reminer
Bronson, Ah, but your clever-ness and humor are perfect., and so is your ability to see that "guilt" of one kind or another can be found on both sides of this particular coin.
You have my admiration.
I have to say that, in most cases, if someone points out an error to me, it's more a matter of: "Hey, look. Do you actually have the brain-time to be spending, thinking about my typing errors AND e.mailing me about them?!! Isn't there world hunger, wars, injustices that deadline, the laundry, the grocery list, the car at the mechanic's, and the cat vomit to be concerned with? " For the purpose of hoping to kind of make up for a couple of obnoxious comments I made above, I'd just like to clarify that I don't take my own writing all that seriously (even though I do care about it, up to a point, I suppose), and really can't imagine taking other people's writing that seriously (as far as errors go).
To be honest (and maybe I have some need to be this candid, after struggling with my "secret thoughts" for a long time), I look at most of my Hubs and think they're all crap. None of them are worth spinning my wheels over, so they aren't worth someone else's spinning his wheels over either. For me (as it is for a lot of people), it's spare-time writing that I do instead of doing something like crosswords puzzles or watching TV. I can only take any of it so seriously, which is why I've just spent a few hours fooling around on the forums, here, and avoiding "serious" projects that I should have been working on.
I can't be running in high-gear worry/seriousness mode in "real life" and in "work life" and then in my spare-time life too. I'm here for my own enjoyment, and I take it (and the site and its purpose) seriously up to a point. Then, though, I can't help but think, "Hey, it's the Internet. It's not the New England Journal of Medicine, and it's my own or my family's health, and it's not the water that's leaking in from the snowy roof and leaving marks on my bathroom wall.
What Is Wrong With Total Honesty?
Why don't you tell us honesty what you did with that now not-so-pink umbrella?Tony,
Karanda,
Jane,
I agree with everything you've all said, but (and this is something I kind of struggle with) I still can only take my Internet writing "so seriously". I mean... I care about aiming to produce something of reasonably decent quality. No doubt about that. I can only care "so much", though. Get the therapist's couch ready (or something), but I struggle with the fact that I'm not at all proud of just about most of my writing on here. I suppose that's why I think, "Hey, it's junk anyway. What's an occasional typing error?" The stuff I have on here (or on the Internet in general) isn't my best writing, because I won't put my best writing on the Internet. I don't see writing online as a risk, because I don't take it all that personally. I don't care who reads what I write, and I don't care who criticizes it (as long as they do it in the comments box
). I do deeply appreciate positive comments that are genuine. There's no doubt about that.
Those, though, are kind of the only thing I take extremely seriously. Those, and any effort I make when I try to write something that might help someone who's going through a bad time.
Offline, I'm actually going through some kind of thing that's either exhaustion or else, maybe, mild depression. I've been living under a weird legal situation for so long it's been taking a toll in recent months. This is the thing, though: When someone sends someone an e.mail about something like a typo, that recipient of that e.mail may just have a lot bigger fish to fry than some typo in a Hub he wrote eight months ago.
I take the aims/purpose of HubPages seriously. I take the English language seriously. I take my earnings seriously (I'm not just here fooling around and killing time). I take my integrity seriously. I even take writing, in general, very seriously. I just can't take my own or other people's minor errors seriously. It's not as if my writing is loaded with tons and tons of typing errors and horrible grammar to the point where they're going to detract all that much from the overall quality on HubPages. Detract from an individual Hub? Sure. In the scheme of all the things that detract from this site, though, I don't think my relatively few typos-per-Hub (when there are any at all); or even some "grammar thing" I keep doing wrong, all through my writing; are the kind of thing that substantially detract from the overall quality aims of the site. In other words, I think HubPages has bigger fish to fry than my errors too.
The one thing I take pride in is this: I live under such difficult circumstances (that legal situation and some really bizarre things), I'm often so stressed out I have trouble concentrating on reading microwave instructions on packages. I muddle through with information on the Google account by barely reading whatever I absolutely have to read, and only when I'm not so stressed I can't read at all.
I don't want to come across as if I'm "some martyr or something"; but with some of the tolls stress has taken on my energy levels and concentration, I continue to do what I need to do (and some extras) in life, socialize, still be strong for my family, and still have the energy to write as much as I write - rather than do what a lot of people would do, which might be head off to get tranquilizers (or something), drink, or at least stop doing anything.
So, for me, I take that sense of personal pride in the fact that I've written as much as I have, earned as much as I have, and cared to whatever degree I have, in spite of being as "exhausted" or "depressed" or whatever it is, as I am.
Then, too, I'll come to these forums and see one or another person who is going through so much in "real" life (more than any one person should ever, ever, have to go through) that it really drives home the point that something like Internet writing just doesn't matter all that much in life.
It's hard to describe how you can care, or care-up-to-a-point; and yet only be able to care "so much". I see people on here who seem so enthusiastic and gung-ho, and the thing I've been struggling with for ages now, is that (while I don't want to come across as having a rotten attitude on a site I enjoy, respect, and appreciate; which means not wanting to just be honest about not caring as much as others do) I can't be as enthusiastic as so many others can be.
My thing with people sending e.mails about things like typos has nothing to do with my taking it personally, because I don't take too much of anything all that seriously on here, or in life (unless it has something to do with my family's health and safety). My thing with people sending e.mails is that they don't know what the recipient of those e.mails has going on in life; and they don't know how, at best, the other person will see the e.mail as "small-minded"; or how, at worst, the person may just see it as one more stupid little aggravation in a life that's full of so many bigger problems and worries.
(Get out the therapist's couch again.) With the exception of a very few of my Hubs, I'm embarrassed by most of mine. I write what I feel like writing at the time, and then I never want to see them again because they tend to make cringe. I move on to the next one, hoping it will be less cringe-producing than the ones before it (and it never is, because I'm running on 2 of my 6 or 8 cylinders). I leave them up unless having them up gets so unbearable I have to delete them. I hate that they show up under my profile, and I don't want them coming back to haunt me in the form of e.mails from people who mean well by letting me know they spotted a typo.
The thing is, I have a strong suspicion that I'm far from the only one on here who "cares, but only cares so much". It's not a reflection on HubPages or Hubbers, and it certainly doesn't reflect the fact that I'm generally a perfectionist-type in "the rest of life". I don't know... I guess I just thought it was time to bring out in the open the way some Hubbers can be conscientious, even perfectionist-type, people who generally care about their stuff on HubPages - but who can "only care so much".
This whole post is, I suppose, the result of a particularly sobering week or so, with more than the usual pieces of one kind of news or another, coming from one place or another; and making caring about some insignificant things just that much more difficult. I'll probably regret my own candor once the mood passes. The point is, I don't expect the rest of the world, or the rest of HubPages, to adjust whether or not someone sends out emails about errors,just because x percent of Hubbers may be having a bad day or a bad year. Most people having a bad day or bad year know that the rest of the world is fine and is going to do its thing accordingly.
My main reason for posting all this is mostly to point out that when some people say they "don't care" or "can only care so much", sometimes they have good reasons for it. (By the way, this isn't to say I'm wallowing in misery all the time. For the most part, all is often completely cheerful and energetic - just not as "cheerful and energetic" as things would be if some matters were ironed out and resolved. )- Sophia Angeliqueposted 13 years ago0
Very well stated! Very nice analogy. I think ideas are a little bit more expensive in the US, though. Here we say ideas are "a dime a dozen"! LOL Of course, I'm not checking the current conversion rate, so I could have it completely backwards.
I am surprised this thread is still going.
- Neville Walkposted 13 years ago0
very clever!
this is great!!
I suspect here that OP did not expect quite such a strong reaction from 'the masses' and has reverted to 'The best form of defence is attack' strategy. Like many people, criticism is not always welcomed, and it is easier to argue back than admit others may have a good point. What I really struggled to understand was OP's stance that:
"if i spellcheck like crazy, i end up changing my content, and later wish that i didnt."
Surely by spelling correctly the meaning does not change, it merely appears that the statement is more valid as it came from an educated person!
It is a shame that a potentially very good writer could find their work lost in the 'fog' due to being too stubborn to listen to people who do know what they are talking about, and who are giving excellent advice.
I'm amused by the number of people when told they have an error always say "I meant to do that"
Related Discussions
- 55
Do hubs with spelling errors make you think less of a hub?
Do hubs with spelling errors make you think less of a hub?Is anyone else distracted by a hub that has decent content but several spelling errors or grammatical errors?
- 53
Automated Grammar and Spelling Checker
I read in today's blog about the Automated Grammar and Spelling Checker coming in September.I like the idea of correcting errors in comments. Many times I had to delete comments that were written with terrible misspellings and very bad grammar so as not to lose search engine ranking, But I'm...
- 48
Is it rude to point out grammar/spelling mistakes on hubs via comments?
Is it rude to point out grammar/spelling mistakes on hubs via comments?I've come across numerous hubs that have grammar and spelling errors, some minor and some littered with mistakes. Otherwise, these hubs would be interesting and will written in my opinion. Is it rude to point out these mistakes...
- 367
Meet Editbot, Launching Today
Happy Thursday, everyone! In August we pre-announced a new tool that fixes common spelling and grammatical errors across the site. Today, Editbot, the first iteration of the tool, is live on a small percentage of Hubs and their comments. It will be gradually rolled out to all Hubs over the next...
- 13
Are hubs monitored for proper use of the English language?
Are hubs monitored for proper use of the English language?I have been reading some very awkwardly worded hubs lately. Syntax is weird and grammar is horrible. I know we have some hubbers whose first language is not English. I accept that and admire them for writing on HubPages. The hubs I...
- 41
Misspelling, Bad Punctuation, and Poor Grammar on HubPages
I think HubPages is just a terrific opportunity for writers to write and make connections within the HubPages community. However, I am concerned about the quality of some of the hubs I see. Even if the writing is fresh and lively, if the spelling, punctuation, or grammar are poor, then...