MR Ed Editor your wrong

[sabrianc63]

First thing I submitted 2 more article ERROR FREE you rejected them and suspended my account for 3 rejections , this article was double checked many time etc. this is the worst place to write for ever in my life. you lie . Next my photography that was excepted better not be sold on your site period or risk getting sued.

For any newbies do not bother with this site the editor is a jerk and a liar.

The article i submitted was error free and checked by an editor first before submitting to see if mr ed just reject stuff for no reason and ha we were correct
S.Crone

[eek]

Dear Sabrian,

You might want to spend more time editing your forum posts before you complain about being rejected for error free content.

Writers who want to be taken seriously should act professionally, which means maintaining courtesy at all times, even when they feel wronged.
Did you use the Article Rejections forum to get some feedback on your initial rejections? I don't know if it will help now, but what would help you in the future is to not attack the hand that feeds you.
Best of luck.

[sabrianc63]

Dear eek, I know of the errors in my posting , I was highly upset and no I never let anyone else on here see my first 2 rejected articles , They have been published somewhere else now . I wrote 2 more articles one in which an editor, personal friend of my checked herself and then I submitted this to see if it would be rejected just for what ever reason? and yes it was rejected for errors , structure and such , which is a bunch of bull. There was nothing wrong with the article other than maybe they have too many article on gardening and poof that's it. My question is does this editor really know what he is doing ? He is really not an editor, Only a proof reader an editor actually edits the article and fixes the typos and such. I have found errors in CC own web content, and not to mention an error in someones actual article that is posted for sale ,the error is in the wording it is spelled in correctly.

I am not stupid either biting the hand that feeds me , the hand has never feed me anything so to speak from this site. I am not a Blank and if you feel this is unprofessional sorry , I feel the way this site handles the rejection of submitted article in the way they do is a bit unprofessional But this is not my web sight. I have degrees in Marketing-managed the customer service department for several year until I was tired of dealing with people face to face, along with experience in the building of websites , knowledge of html , graphic , sales , and writing , I have been doing these things for the last 10 years. So it is the site loss not mine. I can see they seem to play favorite here which is so silly and some what in mature, being they have a writer for example that did hone there writing talent here on CC because really did not know the English language very well, certainly this person received special treatment, It states this on her profile. Any way I am done venting now.
Sincerely
Shirley

[Celeste Stewart]

Trying to be constructive here, so please don't take offense. I've noticed a tendency in your forum posts to include extra spacing between punctuation marks and to split compound words into their smaller parts. For example: in correct (should be "incorrect"), proof read (should be "proofread"), and any way (should be "anyway"). Commas should not have spaces before them.

Of course, forum posts are less formal than articles and I haven't seen your final polished work, so I can't offer any feedback on the error-free articles that were rejected other than I'm guessing they weren't as error-free as you thought. It's hard to take a complaint about the unfairness of article rejections seriously when the complaint itself is loaded with glaring writing errors.

If you're serious about writing for a living, consider taking a class at the local community college to brush up on those English comp skills. Such a class might be the perfect opportunity to get objective feedback and instruction. Also consider the possibility that your personal editor missed a few mistakes. We all do. Few articles are 100% perfect as all writing can be improved.

Don't worry about your photos being sold. It's my understanding that if an account is suspended, the account is closed and any previously accepted (not excepted) content is no longer available to the general public for purchase. You can always contact support to make sure.

*edited to be more constructive*

[HayleyWriter]

Shirley,

The CC community has reached out to you with suggestions and helpful advice, even though the multiple errors in your forum posts were not encouraging. I strongly suggested that you get some help and work on your writing skills before resubmitting, so that you would not get locked out of the site and even offered personal help, an offer you ignored. I pointed you to the forum threads where Ed kindly links websites for ALL authors here to improve. Those who really want to succeed here will take the advice given. I would have thought you would take several weeks to improve your writing before submitting your last article, knowing this was your last chance. Once you started looking on those links, you would have found exercises and practical hints that would take a while to learn properly. Writing is not always easy and even the best authors here make mistakes. However, consistent and multiple errors are not accepted.

I am disappointed in the lack of professionalism you have displayed in these forum threads and loading personal abuse onto Ed is not only incredibly rude, but, as other authors have pointed out to you, stupid. Grow up and learn to live in the real world, where if you make a mistake you learn from it and improve for the future. Any business you want to work for will have standards and if you cannot meet those standards, you should not be working for that business. Writing is a business too, and CC's high standards are what sets CC apart from the others.

Ed - If this forum post is typical of the sort of rubbish you have to wade through every day, you have my sincere sympathy. I am sure you are grateful for the 3 strikes and you're out rule, so you can limit the amount of articles you receive for review from authors who just will not even try to improve at all. I have known you to be extremely fair and encouraging to authors who do make an effort to improve.

Hayley

[Celeste Stewart]

I sometimes wonder if disgruntled writers honestly don't see their own (or is it "there"?) grammar/punctuation/spelling/word choice/you-name-it mistakes. . . No nun with a ruler snapping at their fingers for the slightest grammar mistake? No endless hours reading through Strunk & White for pleasure? No sentence diagramming? Writing isn't easy! Spotting flaws in our own writing is even harder - especially if we don't have the background, discipline, or humility to recognize these flaws.

[HayleyWriter]

You're right, Celeste (or do I mean Your right? he he!). I do know that I drive all the non-writers around me crazy by picking up on spelling and grammatical errors - like in the report my boss just did and is really proud of! He is a clever, well-educated man, but often sends me emails I cringe over, especially when I am copied in on an email he just sent to a client. I'm sure that 99 per cent of the clients do not see the errors or notice the mistakes as much as I do. I see the errors in other people's work easily, but it is much harder seeing the errors in my own. I know all writers have that problem too.

What a lovely mental image you create with the nun snapping rulers at people's fingers for making spelling mistakes. (At least, I am hoping it is a mental image and not the voice of experience!) I'm glad I didn't have to learn that way! The trouble is that people think that writing is easy and anyone can do it, but the truth is writing is a craft that takes a lifetime to master.

Hayley

[nichewriter]

Oh my, I feel for Ed. If this person has any sense, she'd take to heart the advice eek, Hayley and Celeste had given her. I've seen a lot of Shirleys -- they blame others (in this case, Ed and C-C) when they get rejected and they start acting like jerks, refusing to acknowledge their writing needs fixing.

Funny thing is, a lot of people think it so easy to write. Just the other day I was in an IM forum and one of the threads was about how many articles members of the forum are able to churn out in a day. The numbers varied (from 5 a day to *gasp* 60 a day), but I noticed one thing: most of the posters there seemed to me like they had very little respect for the art and craft of writing -- the mechanics, proper structure, syntax, etc. One of them even said writing a short piece shouldn't take days, only a matter of minutes -- 15 at the most! No wonder the Web is littered with crappy content -- they're being churned out by those who think typing your thoughts out and then calling it an article (no editing, no proofreading, no letting it sit) is writing and makes them a writer.

...Which is why C-C is a great place to be if you're a writer. Any self-respecting writer should realize the value of good writing and honing one's craft. Ed is more than fair in dishing out rejections. Hey, one of my articles got rejected the other day. (This time I managed to get 49 articles approved before the next rejection.) The reason Ed rejected it? I hadn't adequately proofread it and he's right! It was the last article I submitted when I hadn't slept for almost 30 hours straight, and I should have known better than to submit an article that time.

I say get off your high horse and get down to the business of improving your craft...if you truly want to succeed in the writing business.

~nw

[Celeste Stewart]

Hayley, I had it worse than a nun with a ruler: I had a live-in grandmother who was a stickler for grammar!

"Me and Cindy want ice cream," I said.

"No. Cindy and I want ice cream," Gramma said.

The good news is that Cindy and I did get the ice cream! (Or is that Cindy and me got the ice cream?)

Aside from the pretend nun in my musing above, I did indeed do tons of sentence diagramming (and loved it in my geeky way) and I regularly re-read Strunk & White for pleasure (and business as writing is my business).

Nichewriter is right: the Web is littered with crappy content. Anyone can be "published" on certain sites and it's funny how that seems to validate some writers. Nevermind that my cat could walk across my keyboard and get published too. But of course my cat, Priscilla, is perfect - not to mention published - so CC would never dare to reject her articles. Plus, she has a personal editor: me!

Anyhow. . . I really hope that the writers that aren't yet ready for CC eventually find what they're looking for. And if writing is indeed their passion, they take positive steps toward improving their skills and realizing their dreams. I'd start with enrolling in an English composition class and I'd run out and buy Strunk & White's Elements of Style. Good advice right there for all aspiring writers if I do say so myself.

[topdycke]

I completely agree with everything all ready said. My only addition to the thread is that I believe blogs have made anyone and everyone believe that they are writers, which they are, but they are not professional writers. Therein lies the difference. Shirley fails to see the difference between writing for fun or as a way to make a few extra bucks and writing as a career or business. Call it continuing education; professional writers study composition, grammar, and all the skills needed to keep moving forward in a positive direction. Rejection and critiquing (I looked the word up to make sure I spelled it correctly) is a big part of a writer's life. It takes a tough exterior, a hard heart with a soft center, and willingness to put your soul on the line, but to get a foot in the door it takes knowledge of how to convey message through the written word.

One more thing...Ed you're doing it right and yeah, I get miffed when I get a rejection, but I go over that article with a fine tooth comb and find my mistakes or scrap the article and look forward to the next one. Shirley, hone your skills and move forward.

BTW...I actually put my posts on word document so I can check for errors. There ain't nothin' worse than lookin' bad in front of other writers.

[Lor]

Maybe new members should be juried. Has this suggestion ever been posed? We have one reviewer after all and his time is important to all of us. Just a thought.

Lor

[evie]

Hi Lor

How do you mean? Like new members submit their first few articles to a group to review/judge?

Thanks!
evie

[Lor]

Something like that, yes. Could be a jury of our peers or even a few articles with application for screening by Ed. Just a thought.

Lor

[evie]

I think it's an interesting idea, but I think it would be difficult to control. At the moment, I think we all value Ed's consistency, and with more than one person looking at each article, would there not be conflicting opinions? It's frustrating to learn that Ed has to put up with submissions like the one from the above poster, but I believe he's said before that if there are mistakes even in the first line, he doesn't waste time reading on... so perhaps it's a relatively quick process to weed out these poor quality submissions? Obviously that all depends on volume of submissions though!

[Lor]

No,no. I don't mean every single article juried. Just the two or three sent with application. Otherwise there would be chaos. And one reviewer would probably be enough just to nip it in the bud.

Lor