Help with Rejection "What Happens While You are Asleep"

[caradhye]

My article was rejected, however I don`t know what was wrong

[nichewriter]

Ed includes a reason for rejecting an article in the email notice so you might want to refer to that email. It would look something like this:

You have a new message at Constant-Content

We could not accept your content, "What Happens While You are Asleep"

==== Rejection Information for Your Article: ====

REASON GOES HERE

==== End Rejection Information for Your Article ====

....

[caradhye]

'grammar errors, punctuation errors, problems with clarity, or other errors'

This states a lot many problems, am I to understand that it had all of these problems?

I need to know as I wish to improve the article's quality.

Thank you

[nichewriter]

Yes, I would assume the article had all those errors and revise thoroughly. For grammar errors, check your subject-verb agreement, tenses, and structure. For punctuation errors, check your comma usage, as well as colon, semi-colon, quotation marks, hyphens, etc. For clarity, look over each sentence and paragraph carefully for awkward wording and/or phrasing, and rewrite those sentences or paragraphs that aren't clear. Sometimes, it helps to re-structure or rearrange sections of the article so it flows more logically, or to add subheadings.

I would wait a day or two to resubmit the revised article, making sure you've addressed the errors Ed specified. Otherwise, it might get rejected again if Ed doesn't see that it has been adequately revised. It can also help if you read your article out loud, print it out and edit it again, or even have another pair of fresh eyes to go over it once you've revised it before submitting.

[caradhye]

Thanks - nichewriter

Well it might have been too late for me this time, one last request - can you tell me any software where I can proofread my article before submission? Or would I have to ask you or someone else to do me a big favor? How do greenhorns usually do it?

Thank you so much.

[nichewriter]

I'm afraid I can't refer you to any software for proofreading -- even the grammar checkers in MS Word or OpenOffice Writer (or any other word processing program) won't be able to catch errors (e.g., its vs it's, they're vs. their, your vs. yours, etc.) For proofreading, you will need to proofread it yourself or another person.

If you like, you can send me the revised article and I can go over it and look for any more possible errors. On the "Authors" page on CC, search for "nichewriter" and then click on the "Contact this Author" link on my profile page. Paste your article in the message body and send. I will go over your article and send it back to you within 24 hours. It's almost 10PM in California so the soonest I can get to your article is in the morning. I don't do so well editing and proofreading in the evenings, as my last couple of rejections were articles that I submitted late at night and past midnight - for errors I would have been able to catch if I had been awake enough

[caradhye]

There is absolutely no hurry, I just want to see for once an article that I have written - being correct

Your offering help is gracious enough

Will send you the email.

Thank a ton!