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[lanoste]

I received 5 rejections today. Although the reasons included, erroneous commas and word choice errors, I'm still unsure what to correct. I know there are slight differences with UK and US grammar. Could that be one of the reasons? (I'm a UK writer). When you say 'word choice' errors, do you mean using synonyms? I admit I have done that in all the rejected articles. I think I'm trying to include keywords relevant to the article. Also. Is there a facility here for proofreading rejected work? Oh before I forget, what is procedure for re-submitting work? Sorry for the questions!

[Ed]

This has nothing to do with British English vs. American English. Your articles contain many errors - words that may be considered synonyms according to a thesaurus are not always the best words for the job. When you mean "perspective," don't say "eye." In addition, some words are used incorrectly, or the sentence isn't clear because of punctuation, sentence construction, or just plain awkward/incorrect phrasing.

For example, the title "The Three Stages of a Writer" is not logical. "The Three Stages to Becoming a Writer" makes more sense.

This sentence is extremely problematic: "It is not true to say that if you did not stem from a background of academics, you cannot become a writer. "
This could be rewritten, "Even if you're not an academic, you can become a writer." Or, "It isn't necessarily true that your background has to be an academic one if you want to become a writer."

Please use commas where necessary, but do not include them where they do not belong. This page is very useful: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/ ... comma.html

Please have someone else look over your articles. We do have a "constructive criticism" thread which may help you out. The writers here are friendly and full of useful suggestions. In addition, please note that articles must be thoroughly revised before they should be resubmitted. We do have a policy about rejections - if submissions are not adequately improved, a writer's account can be suspended.

Thanks,
Ed

[lanoste]

Thank you for your feedback. Much appreciated.

[SteveB]

Lanoste, I'm a newly registered UK writer too and had two out of my first three articles rejected. When I looked at the reasons closely, they made sense. It wasn't so much the differences in style between English speaking countries, more to do with differences between online writing and other forms. What reads fine in longer pieces produced as a hard copy (like me, that might be what you are used to), doesn't necessarily work so well in short online articles. It is a different style, and one that seems to incline towards shorter sentences.

The other lesson that I've had to learn - and I should have known this - is to edit/proof read on a hard copy, even though its for online purposes. I had two pairs of eyes repeatedly editing my articles prior to submission, but on the screen. I'm not sure why, but as soon as a hard copy was printed off (after the rejection), the reasons for rejection were crystal clear. I could have kicked myself.
Hope this helps,
SteveB.

[lanoste]

Steve,
I fully understand where you are coming from. Thank you for the tip re: hard copy. For a minute, I was feeling rather sorry for myself, but I have since shaken that off. Hey, It's all part of publishing!
Thanks again for your advice.