Grammatical Errors and Whatnot

[buckeyes09]

Before I resubmit anything else, I want to make sure of my submissions as I don't want to appear to be spamming this site and get cut off.

I submitted by three articles - my first articles - and they all came back that I had grammatical errors and needed "to be thoroughly proofread". I find that a little hard as I did proofread them, especially since I was only given a nebulous explanation.

In any case, I resubmitted one article and it came with: We do not accept content with grammar errors or articles that have not been adequately proofread. How do I know how to improve my grammar if I don't know what is wrong? How am I - a newbie - unable to resubmit from largely good faith errors? I do normally write using longer sentences, so that leads me to wonder if it's a stylization issue and not a strict grammatical one, per se (although I could still have grammar mistakes).

Could someone please give me a hand and tell me what I specifically need to sort so I will have approved articles? I really like what this site has to offer, and I do not want denied articles and access.

TIA.

[CRDonovan]

You are wise to wait before resubmitting until you find your feet. Read the forums to get your bearings. Read articles submitted, particularly those of best selling writers. Think about looking online for some basic grammar instruction, or invest in a basic grammar handbook. Have a dictionary at hand. Use sentence structure that you are most comfortable with - if you are good at writing short sentences, then stick with short sentences. And finally, proofread carefully. The editors here will not correct your mistakes, that is your job. Take your time before submitting another article. It is worth your while to hone your skills before submitting again. Good Luck!

[buckeyes09]

You are wise to wait before resubmitting until you find your feet. Read the forums to get your bearings. Read articles submitted, particularly those of best selling writers. Think about looking online for some basic grammar instruction, or invest in a basic grammar handbook. Have a dictionary at hand. Use sentence structure that you are most comfortable with - if you are good at writing short sentences, then stick with short sentences. And finally, proofread carefully. The editors here will not correct your mistakes, that is your job. Take your time before submitting another article. It is worth your while to hone your skills before submitting again. Good Luck!

Thanks for the advice. Perhaps I was too gung ho about submitting, but I believe they were good articles (or at least articles that don't merit such strong editorial notes, especially for a new person).

I suppose it may be stylistic? I do tend to write longer sentences, which itself isn't wrong, but that leads to more opportunities for errors.

I wasn't an English major (poli sci and history), but I do have an extensive background of writing. History professors love to correct incorrect grammar and spelling.

In any event, if someone could at least, possibly, read over an article and tell me upon what I could improve, I would appreciate that. Thanks, Christian.

[Antonia]

Hi Christian,

Don't feel too disheartened about your articles being sent back. CC has quite stringent regulations and it can take a few rounds to get the hang of submissions. A couple of initial rejections does NOT mean you're not a good writer!

I can proofread one of your articles. Just go to the site, click on Find Author and search for me - Antonia Anderson - then click on my name, click Contact this Author, and paste the body of your article into the email form. I'll do my best to spot anything that might have triggered a rejection.

[jadedragon]

As a new writer don't expect any breaks here. Most of us had early rejections and it can take a little effort to get into the guidelines. You will be a better writer for it though. Good luck.

[editterry]

Hi, I'm one of the editors, Terry, and wanted to clarify some of the things we look for in reviewing articles. If an article has a lot of long, wordy, passive and/or awkward sentences, then we do consider that a problem, and will reject on that basis. We do, however, try to provide examples if the problem seems to crop up throughout the article. Or if it's not as chronic, we'll cite the specific errant passages. In my day job, I'm a newspaper editor, so I'm pretty good at spotting issues that will cause problems for the reader. I'll try to make a point to stop in here occasionally; it does humanize the process. (We editors get so used to hanging out on the back end of the website that we lose track of the fact that it has a front. [-;

[CRDonovan]

Those of us who've been on this forum a while really miss the input of Ed, the intrepid single-handed editor. Nice to see some input from the editing team again. Thanks, Terry.

[editterry]

I'm a pretty busy guy with my day job, but will try to drop by occasionally. I'm just afraid that if I get to know you folks, I'll start regretting all my snarky critiques.

[buckeyes09]

Hi, I'm one of the editors, Terry, and wanted to clarify some of the things we look for in reviewing articles. If an article has a lot of long, wordy, passive and/or awkward sentences, then we do consider that a problem, and will reject on that basis. We do, however, try to provide examples if the problem seems to crop up throughout the article. Or if it's not as chronic, we'll cite the specific errant passages. In my day job, I'm a newspaper editor, so I'm pretty good at spotting issues that will cause problems for the reader. I'll try to make a point to stop in here occasionally; it does humanize the process. (We editors get so used to hanging out on the back end of the website that we lose track of the fact that it has a front. [-;

Thanks for the info, Terry.

When an editor says, "This has a few problems including," does that mean they are the only problems, or just a few the person found? I don't want to bombard you guys with resubmissions from only correcting the examples if that's only a sampling. For what it's worth, I think my writing has become much (I don't think substantially) better since joining this site.

Thanks!

Christian