Contradictions in Quality of Articles

[AuctionPro]

Over the years, I have written several articles that were published in magazines. I never had a serious problem with any of the content. It went rather smoothly since I have a degree in English. This pasts week I submitted three articles. One still has not been looked at by anyone but the other two were rejected because they needed "revisions". I made the necessary revisions. I have received a second email on one of them telling me that the revisions were not adequate.

One claim was that my opening sentence did not explain itself properly. Had the editor read the following sentence he or she would have seen the explanation. I changed it but now, according to the editor, it still does not explain itself properly. Also I was referred to a site that explained about topic sentences and paragraphs. Yes, I am already familiar with those. However, as everyone on the Internet will tell you, you should only write short paragraphs. This is supposed to better hold the reader's interest. That being said, how do you write really short paragraphs and stick to topic sentences and standard paragraph structure? I feel like I'm reading Catch-22 all over again.

I have deleted my remaining 2 articles. I had to revise one of the other two because I was told that I did not provide the answers to three questions I asked near the beginning of the article. The three questions were rhetorical questions and the reasons for asking them were explained right beneath the questions.

In the past two months I have purchased $3000.00 worth of articles (full rights) from CC. I could not do all the writing for my new website/forum fast enough so I needed some help. That's why I came here. Although I bought the articles I had to revise over 80% of them because they contained blatant punctuation errors, missing words, or sentences that were repeated in different paragraphs. In one article, the exact same sentence appeared twice in the same paragraph. I had no problem with this because making the necessary corrections was much easier than writing the articles myself from scratch.

However I am now quite confused by the severe scrutiny my articles have received compared to the content that I purchased and had to clean up. How did they get through such a stringent screening process? Either CC has editors that seriously disagree with each other as to what the standards should be or they do not have enough editors and they have to rush through the content.

With a degree in English, I understand the importance of sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, etc. I also know that if person writes something and obeys all of the rules of English to a fault, I would not want to read it. From a "conversational" standpoint it would be terrible. It would not flow properly for the reader. There would be no such thing as a written joke. The punchline would be ruined by the rules of grammar. Most people want to enjoy what they are reading -- they are not watching for a semi-colon that should be a comma.

Now that I know that I have been buying content from CC that never should have made it through the submission process, I won't buy anymore. Now that my site is live and full of quality articles, most of which I wrote myself, I have the time to write many more. Guess I will sell them on my own site. Since your editorial standards are anything but uniformed, trying to sell them here is like playing Russian roulette.

[jadedragon]

Wow I am surprised to hear these concerns. There is only one editor at CC, so I doubt it a consistency problem between editors I know it takes a bit of learning curve to get articles accepted here, even for a professional writer. I also know that Ed has found all my errors and sent things back for revision. If you buy my accepted work it is 100% error free.

I wonder if you bought some work that was older content, maybe subject to lower standards? Maybe one of the longer term members could comment on that.

Although you have not bought from me yet, I really appreciate all the business you've brought to the site.

[Lysis]

> Most people want to enjoy what they are reading -- they are not watching for a semi-colon that should be a comma.

This is an odd comment from an English major. From someone like me, not so odd.

With all the years of schooling I've had, something I've learned in my 30s that I didn't realize in my 20s was that the more educated I become, the more I realize how much I don't know. I've also realized that when I'm corrected by someone with more experience than I have, it's normally my ego propelling my resent, and it impedes my understanding.

[nichewriter]

That's what I was thinking also, JadeDragon - that this customer bought older content. I've been with CC since 2006, but I took a couple of years off and didn't start submitting again until May 2008. And I'm pretty sure there is just one Ed going through submissions. He has caught my errors, even as simple as a missing "of" in the middle of a very long article.

[Celeste Stewart]

Ed doesn't catch all errors and I definitely won't claim that my accepted articles are 100% error free. Readable, yes, but there's certainly a typo or two in my collection and perhaps a "then" when there should have been a "than." Plus, some grammar rules and style guides are subject to interpretation, even amongst equally qualified editors. Then throw in the differences between UK and US English and there are bound to be squabbles here and there.

Since this is a unique situation with a customer turned article submitter, I hesitate to give the same advice that I'd give other writers. Normally, I say to focus on your own writing and Ed's specific advice and don't worry about what the other writers have gotten away with. I'm not sure if that applies in this situation. I believe most customers understand the occasional minor error and don't expect absolute perfection. In fact, the original poster didn't object to them either and continued happily buying content.

Now, the trick is to get those articles approved. CC is a great spot for writers as well as customers and it does take a few tries to get to know what Ed expects, not just of the other writers on the site, but of your specific articles. Clarity is a big issue with Ed and often one that those with academic backgrounds struggle with. Sure, they know where to put a semicolon, but they also may tend to write long, complex sentences that never quite get to the point or that are difficult to follow. Not saying this is the case with the original poster's article, just a general observation.

Anyhow, this whole thread makes me sad because not only have we potentially lost a customer, but perhaps a fellow writer as well.

[jadedragon]

I think I'm going to retract the statement that my articles are 100% error free. It just feels that way after going through them with a fine tooth comb looking for errors so that Ed does not find any error. I sure can't say my forum posts are error free. I see a couple errors in my last post.

Pure speculation here - but Ed might be tougher on first time submitters, then ease up a little once you prove yourself.

I suggest not taking the rejection personally and seeing it as a learning experience. I've had to step up my game to get accepted regularly here. One of the problems of doing a lot of web writing (like the OP just did) without editing rigor is that you can fall into bad habits easily. Clearly the OP has the skills and abilities. Just needs to find a comfort level with the editing process here.

[AuctionPro]

I wasn't going to post again but I wanted to thank those of you who responded to my original post. You were all very respectful in your comments and I really appreciate that. I want to say that, having spent 27 years at a publishing compnay, I have a great deal of respect for editors. It is a difficult job to say the least. Ed is no exception and I am in awe of what he has to do, especially if he has to do it alone.

All the articles I have purchased here were purchased within the last couple of months. However, I do understand that the content itself may have been up on CC for quite sometime before I bought it. From my perspective, I would have liked to have seen dates assigned to the articles listed for sale. I understand that if the content has been there for sometime that could be detrimental to making a sale -- people might wonder why it has been there so long. On the other hand, there are some articles that do have time sensitive subject matter and, if the articles have been sitting there too long, they could be out of date when customers buys them.

That being said, the person who stated that perhaps the articles I purchased were not subject to the present editorial guidelines, could be correct. I don't know. I do know that the articles I wrote were of the same quality as some of the better ones I purchased. I also will not disagree with the person who said criticism is difficult. I can take criticism. I'm 61 years old so I have gotten pretty good at it.

In answer to the person who thinks it is strange that an English major would not be concerned with a semi-colon versus a comma -- again, I'm 61 years old. I learned a long time ago that everything has to be tempered with common sense. Punctuation being perfect to a fault is not as important as telling a story or providing information that flows properly. There can be a conflict between the two. Similar to acadamia versus real life. Two completely different worlds.

What prompted my initial post was the second rejection on the same article. I clearly made the required correction. To have to rework it again would remove the hint of sarcasm and the humor that was intended. Staying on the "straight and narrow" all the time can not only be boring but suffocating. Perhaps newbies are treated more harshly until they have proven themselves. I can understand that fully. I can only speak to my particular experience. What happened to me was absurdly picky and actually quite silly.

So once again, thank you all for being so gracious to me. To Celeste, the site has lost a customer. Now that I have the time, I thought I would fill the gap by writing articles about my particular niche. At the time, I bought every single article CC had on my topics and I would have bought more of them had more been available. My site has a lot of competition so I know there is a market for articles on these subjects. I planned on putting one of the CC "widgets" on my site to send people to CC to see my articles as well as all the others.

You are all hard working and very talented and I wish you nothing but great success in the future. Ed, I wish you only the very best. No hard feelings on my part.