Writing top tips 1
I keep apologising for not being around and that will not stop until I'm back on track. Trev's mum seemed cheerful yesterday when @danielles and I went to visit. She had the last few staples removed from the Op wound and she said she almost dropped off to sleep as they were taking them out - hardcore!
I've decided to continue with the writing tips posts and though I may end up regurgitating some of them, believe me, some of the lessons are worth repeating.
Today's lesson - He, She, I, me, etc.
I've noticed that some of Steemit's bloggers get she/he and sir/madam mixed up.
She and Madam are both female, while He and Sir are male - that refers not to the importance of the person, but to the gender. If the person is a woman, then she is female and therefore Madam. If he is a man, then he is male and Sir.
Although Madam and Sir are the polite and exceptionally formal way of addressing people, its not usually necessary for such formality on a blogging site - but, if you're comfortable in using those terms to address someone, have at it!
Now to an entirely different matter. Is it 'you and me' or 'you and I', 'him/her and me' or him/her and I'?
The rule of thumb for that conundrum is this:
Remove the other person and say the sentence (either out loud or in your head) and if it doesn't sound right, then it's the other one.
For example:
Trev and I went to see his mum in hospital.
or
Trev and me went to see his mum in hospital.
If I remove 'Trev' from the sentence, I'm left with:
I went to see his mum in hospital.
or
Me went to see his mum in hospital.
'Me went to see his mum in hospital' doesn't sound right (unless I'm a three-year-old) so discard that one.
The correct way of writing the sentence is therefore,
Trev and I went to see his mum in hospital.
The other side of that particular coin is this:
Sheila left the group, leaving Trev and I to decide.
or
Sheila left the group, leaving Trev and me to decide.
Take out 'Trev' again and see how it works.
Sheila left the group, leaving I to decide.
or
Sheila left the group, leaving me to decide.
'Leaving I to decide' or 'Leaving me to decide?
There you have it. The correct answer is this:
Sheila left the group, leaving Trev and me to decide.
This rule works in most circumstances and it really is that easy. Give it a go and have fun with your writing.
This is a wonderful little trick; one I used to use as a high school English teacher. My poor ESL students had a difficult time with grammar, but this tip proved priceless! Thank you for sharing it here.
I am a member of several groups (@newbieresteemday, @asapers, @helpie, and @greetersguild) who welcome, support and educate new and not-so-new folks here. If you don't mind, I'd love to put your post in the 'education' channels for reference, and let people know it's an ongoing series of yours.
I happened to stumble upon one of your *Mentorship Group" posts and am curious if anyone can participate?
Thanks again; I'm so pleased to meet you:)
Pleased to meet you too!
Please feel free to join in with the Mentorship Group posts, use the story-mentor tag and give advice as and when appropriate. You're more than welcome.
I appear to have lost a few 'students' over the last few weeks, so there's a little space.
I didn't actually realise it would be so popular :)
Thank you so much for the invite; I appreciate that!
I've been seeing several posts about people "disappearing" because of the drop in the price of steem; not sure if that has anything to do with your students though. In the end however, if someone is here based solely on the idea of profit, it might not be a true loss if they do disappear;)
I'm happy for you that it has become very popular! It's funny right? You never know what's going to take off, but I think your "Writing Tips" posts are so practical and useful for so many people; so that alone leads to it's popularity. Also, I think many people who like to write are often more apt to do so if they're given a topic and a time constraint to work with, but perhaps more importantly is the idea of writing together as a group, learning together...the idea of being a part of a community that is so rewarding.
Thanks again and enjoy your Sunday ;)
@lynncoyle! My good friend from @newbieresteemday! How the heck are ya? Somehow I figured you were a teacher! This is a great bunch of folks here. I was fortunate to find them too....great content up in here!
Don't feel bad about not being around. Real life always comes first. Also, I'm in no position to throw stones. I have had lots going on and I've also haven't been able to get into the mindset to write. Nothing wants to come out. So I comment on people's articles and hope that something will get sparked. :)
I had trouble with the second example a fair amount when I was younger, but I was taught the same trick. It has helped immensely. I think more people should use the trick, but they aren't taught it, and I sure as heck don't want to learn it from some random guy in the gardening section at Home Depot. ;)
I hear many people get she/her he/him confused. Sometimes I feel like people spin a wheel in their head to determine which of the words they'll use. "'Her' and I are going to do ____." What?! It's frustrating, but I've mostly given up on trying to correct people.
I do have to say there are plenty of more fulfilling and satisfying volunteer projects to engage in than being the grammar police. :)
It is sad how people just throw out pronouns willy nilly, and it's just one of many indicators, I believe, of an ongoing decay in language, in this case English. However, I'm much more concerned about things that are written than I am about the spoken word, as long as you can get the gist. There aren't a whole lot of us who speak properly, anyway. If you can get your point across with your own personality and way of saying things, great.
The written word, however, when it's going to be inscribed for eternity on a blockchain, requires a little more attention to detail. We're talking posterity here, people! The fate of the human race! Life as we know it!
Okay, I'm stepping away from the keyboard now...
Ha ha, you always do have a way with words, @glenalbrethsen. Such an eloquent way of expressing yourself. I like getting to read your opinions.
Well, I'm glad about that, since I tend to make them around you. Or where you've been. :)
It's actually an ongoing pet peeve of mine that since we no longer need to chisel out pictographs on a stone slab or wall, or even rely on ink and paper—both of which are eternally inscribed with any errors that weren't caught during editing—that we can't at least get it right when we have the power to edit every line and every word.
I'm sure all of that comes from the trauma I would experience any time an error was discovered in any part of the newspapers I used to publish. Job hazard. Came with the territory.
Even so, I'm not perfect at checking my work, so that's also part of it. My stuff always looks better to me than it will if another set of eyes gets on it. :)
See @glenalbrethsen! @themanwithnoname loves your comments also ;)
I would have suffered serious trauma as well if I discovered an error in a newspaper that I published...full on panic attack actually ;)
I find, for whatever reason, that I don't notice errors in this part where you actually type, when when I read the "Preview", they are glaringly obvious. I wonder why?
Well, I'm sure part of it has to with the change in font size, and the space you have to view it in. I know that's what happens to me, which is why I try to read it in both the window and preview before I push post. Things can look okay in the type window, but then not turn out the way you want in the preview.
Our editor was really good at copy editing, so misspelled words and grammar weren't so much an issue, thankfully. A lot of our mistakes came from misunderstanding subject matter, or not quite getting quotes right, or failing to get the other side, or finding out what we just published involved month old information that had changed in the mean time.
Those kinds of errors were the ones that really bothered me. It meant we were guaranteed to take up space next issue with some kind of retraction or explanation, and I was the one who would have to investigate it and write it. It also meant that reporters weren't as thorough as they needed to be. The editor just didn't have enough time to catch those things and follow up. Sometimes I would find it and we would hold the article, but it would have to be something fairly big because not running the article might mean leaving a hole that would somehow need to be filled.
A lot revolved around failing to get two sides of a story, even though we didn't know there were two sides and didn't know where to go find the other one. And in those cases, you have proportion to be concerned about. If five people agree on something and one does not, then the five should appear proportionally greater. Unfortunately, that's not the easiest thing to do, so the one naysayer ends up disproportionately represented, if that makes any sense.
Wow! It does make perfect sense. Thanks for the journalism lesson! I always had a general idea how things went, but not to this detail ;)
There's a lot to it. More than meets the eye, especially the way journalism is done now. Unfortunately, the larger media outlets—for sure the national ones—don't seem to care about any rules, or how they represent things or who they might be ruining in the process. Because they're largely insulated to it. They don't have to have face-to-face contact with anyone that feels they were wronged by what was written. And when people see that happening with the so called professionals, then they think the same thing is happening on the local level, too.
We didn't have the luxury of 'unnamed sources,' or basically filling an article with pure speculation. We were weekly, so we really didn't have the chance to write an article a day about the incremental progression of things, giving out information in small doses, and I think it was better that way.
I've found some pretty cool people on here, and you're a quality person, so if you're getting connected to good people because of me, then I'm glad!
I'm glad we don't have to use the old chisel anymore, but I did like writing. One advantage of the keyboard is that it's so much faster than writing. I tested myself the other day and I'm 60+ words per minute with 100% accuracy. Maybe that was just a fluke, but I thought it was decent.
I don't know that I would actually be a good editor. I like things to be write (heh) and I don't like seeing mistakes. Especially not after publishing, or shipping, or delivery to the customer. It happens though. There are mistakes, and we just have to move on. That's how life goes. We don't need to be perfect, but strive for excellence.
That's exactly what I told him last evening!! I look forward to his opinions and comments ;)
...as I do with yours!
Thanks, @lynncoyle1! You and @glenalbrethsen will be happy to know that I am closing in on finishing the next chapter of The Man With No Name. I was hoping to have it published tonight, but it's not going to happen. It still has to go through the editing process. It doesn't answer a bunch of questions, but it keeps things moving along. Look for that to be released either tomorrow or Monday. Thanks for the encouragement to get writing, Glen!
Hooray! You're back at it ;)
I'm looking forward to reading it...
Hi @michelle.gent
Excellent advice. This is what many users lack when writing comments and messages. Perhaps I myself make such mistakes.
"forewarned is forearmed"
Now when users read about possible errors, they will be predicted about how it looks. There may be less errors. May be:)
Thank you
Great explanation, loved it. I have seen this type of mistakes many time, even when i read my article after writing it.
You made it clear that, what and how is to be done. Resteemed
Wow this is very helpful.
What we were taught in this part of the world is that "I" is a subject pronoun meaning it appears in the subject position of a sentence.
Example
Michelle and I have been busy lately.
Not
Michelle and me Have been busy lately.
While "me" is an object pronoun thus should be found only in the object position of a sentence.
Example
Sarah offended John and me.
Not
Sarah offended John and I.
I like your explanation better...
It's easier to remember and practice if we remove the other person first to see if the sentence will still sound correct.
The exact same thing I want to say. It took me a while to even know the difference between the object and subject of a sentence.
@penauthor
I have often found that 'proper' teaching doesn't actually sink in well with everyone, whereas plain speaking and simple instructions do.
Stephen King, in his excellent book On Writing says that if you've left school without learning grammar, don't stress too much about trying to learn, because it's too late in most cases and you probably already know the how to write, even if you don't know all the rules and terminology.
What I try to do is break down the fundamentals of writing and give it out in bite-sized chunks so it neither overwhelms nor becomes boring.
Excellently delivered.
great idea letting people know...I see people's comments being tagged as spam just because they don't know the correct pronouns for gender.
At least they know a 2nd language, I am only English bound but try a little at Spanish sometimes.
resteeming because a lot of my followers might like this.
BTW: I finished part 8 and used the character per your assignment. Let me know what you think. off to work now...
These are excellent tips, Michelle. I think a lot of mixups come when English is not the native language being written in. I know I need to be careful if I am wriiting in a second or third language. The tendency when learning a new language is to literally translate it from one language to the other in your head. This is difficult as literal translations don't always work well. That is why, when I am writing in another language, I look for a native speaker to proof read for me.
Two words, Google Translator!!!
Big smile!
Thank you Madam for this information.
Nice tips there - especially the 'you and me' or 'you and I'. I needed a refresher on that.
Methinks I like this!I thinks
melikes this!I do like this!
:)
I will learn a lot from you, I think I'll stick with this group!
Welcome aboard! :)
Mam you are writing the good tips. One can learn writing and can improve the skill.its a good lesson for the steemians. Thanks a lot for sharing the valuable blog.