Grammar, punctuation and things that make reviews better.

The biggest mistake I consistently make (that I notice anyway) is mixing American words with UK words. For example ass/arse. The problem is, I have a very good friend who is from the UK, and her dialect is contagious for me both in speech and writing. That's why I'm thrilled that Alan & I write together, because he catches and corrects those things... usually (lol).

Commas. My first language was English, but because I am multilingual and was recently living overseas and working in a non-English-speaking environment I often throw in extra commas. I had to restrain myself from putting in two unnecessary commas in that last sentence!

For some reason, I may not know the grammar rules, but I seem to just know a lot of it naturally.

I totally agree that this takes away from a review. I will never give a review an extremely useful rating if it is full of grammar mistakes. One or tow or even three is fine, but it takes away from your professionalism when you fail to use capitalization or commas.

good topic Laurel!

I can't say I have too many problems. My biggest problem though would probably be getting distracted in the middle of a review and typing the word that was distracting me. Dealing with my sister's television habit and my boyfriend's constant chatter tends to distract me.

Commas! Also sometimes really simple things like pronoun agreement. I don't know, I think it honestly depends on my mood. Some days I'm just sharper and more attentive than others.

I have a tendency to, at times, misspell words. And the funny thing about that is the fact that I know how to spell the words, but whenever I write them out, it all goes to hell pretty fast.

Other than that, I don't really have any other major flaw or "Achilles heel" as Laurel would say. I do well when it comes to writing. I always double check my reviews for mistakes five times over before I submit them, too.

My problem? I like commas like others. I spell things.. pretentiously but I also agree with Sex, Lies and Pre-law that slang can be absolutely fine as long as it's pretty universal. I'd also never think "Whoa, what on Earth does 'arse' mean?" Things like that actually add a bit of personality, sometimes.

My biggest problem is not proofreading well enough, honestly. My mistakes are just that (not out of ignorance).

I personally lurve the semicolon.. Yeah, I think a lot of the errors in reviews are not out of ignorance - they're just little things people missed because they were caught up in the writing and didn't catch a simple contextual error or missing punctuation. It happens. Hell, I see typos in all the "big blogs" and many of the online news outlets. Human error

When I am typing fast I will type 'jsut' pretty often because of the back and forth rhythm of typing. That one is no big deal because spell check catches it, BUT, I do the same thing with 'from' a lot, typing 'form'. Spell check does not catch that one.

I do the same stuff, gary
Worst of all I will type some things completely backwards, or have all the letters, but in the wrong order entirely.
I am slightly dyslexic, and I've mostly grown out of it but it catches up with me sometimes. Besides those things.. I don't know, I'm not a stickler for grammar. I usually read through and catch a few typos though, then go fix them of course.

I for one am far from the best at this. I love the fact that EF is willing to help and give pointers on what you can do to better your review, but I tend to leave things out. Now my 4y/o is a very active and hyper little thing that loves to bug the crap out of the person that is busy and most of the times she is very loud. I have the hardest time proof reading when she is up to make sure the grammar is right. I usually end up doing it late at night by then I am so freaking tired I miss a lot of things and just look like an idiot.

Thanks to my husband proof reading the reviews a few times before I submit has saved me some what. Everyone makes mistakes and sometimes the mistakes are the little things that are missed the most.

LOVE this post here Enjoy!

I'm fairly conscientious about my spelling but grammar will often bite me in the ass. I do my best, though, to write reviews that are easily understood. Commas and semicolons trip my ass up, dude. I probably get their placement wrong all the bloody time. lol Oh, and I dangle the fuck out of my participles. lol As long as what I'm saying is understood I try not to worry too much.

I never knew I had an its it's problem until I read this post! lol! I have started noticing myself type it's when it should be its. I am sorry for all those apostrophes you've had to erase!

As a new user, this is all very helpful! I was a very good writer in school, but fear that I have since lost some of my style and grammatical grace.

Yep I agree with Gary. I get some of my letters flipped sometimes when I start typing quickly. I always try to go back and read what I am writing to make sure that all of the mistakes have been caught. Sometimes even my own eyes miss them, though.

But I do agree that poor grammar and spelling can really take away from a good read.

If the person is a new reviewer, I will not make their rating less useful for grammatical/spelling errors. I will tell them about their errors, then when they have written more, start to vote down on it. Generally, typos are something that are just that - typos. They happen. I'm the type of person where it just makes the person seem more real when they make typos, because it shows "Hey, their review is wonderful, and yes, they're a real person." So no, I do not take off for typos here and there, but if they are throughout the entire review, I will.

As for me, I never mix up these, and I notice it as I'm typing. The only time that I don't notice it is when I change the sentence that I was going to write. In one of my summaries, I wrote "it's" instead of "its" because I changed my thought process but forgot to change the form of the word/contraction. It happens. When I noticed it, I immediately went and edited it to make it correct.

I do not have an exact flaw in my writing, in terms of grammar errors that I do not know of. My grammar is fairly perfect and correct, because I am a writer in addition to this. I learned with time and doing. I studied, too. I make typos though, yes, like I said earlier. Everyone does, it happens. I think that the thing that I most make a typo of is omitting words. I'll write a sentence and say, "The flogger beautiful, strong, durable, and exciting." Notice the omission of "is."