Or

Do they try to read and catch grammar errors at the same time?

I try my best, though I am sure there will be grammar errors in my work. I used to be good at catching such things. Maybe I can be again, it has been many years since I purposely practiced catching grammar errors. I have to admit; I have been known to catch errors in other author’s works. I never know if it is the author's or the publisher's error.

If my errors are mostly grammar, I do not catch, will the editor still read it and work with me for the opportunity to get it published, or just toss it into the slush pile?

However, after I sent the first two chapters to be critiqued by someone, I realized I had changed tenses some in those two chapters. First chapter should be present, second past, then rest of the book in present.

Some of these errors I will catch when I re-read it, grammar check won't catch them. There are others that have been discussed on here recently that I am sure I have made, and might not catch myself.

Read "The First Five Pages", by Noah Lukeman,and buy a copy of "The Elements of Style", by Strunk and White, if you do not already own it.

mikemunsil

A story came in that had two typos in the first paragraph. That tells me that the author didn't reread his/her own work and further, didn't have anyone else read it. As much as I'd like to say that they will work with you it has to be an exceptional story.

Here are some interesting links at Nightshade books, which is frequented by editors from some of the top SF magazines.

This is why I don't take writers who can't write seriously. Problems with story can be worked with, fixed, and shaped up. Problems with language can be fixed, but not by me. If your grammar is poor, you need to take step 1: learn how to write. What you write is meaningless if you don't know how. Ideas are a dimee a dozen.

[small side note: if you misspell a single word on page ten, the editor, if they notice, and if they like the story, will simply allow the fix. I tell you this so you don't get so scared that you never send your work out, but alternately I can't tell you how many errors are "acceptable." Find every one you can. If you don't know if its right or not -- find out.]

I really do need the feedback. My concern, I guess is that the editor will toss it back and say no good, not giving me a reason why. It reads well, I am just not sure about some of the more obscure rules of today.

Of course, there are few people around where I live who would read it and not think it great. I live in one of the three states where the literacy rate is lower than the illiteracy rate. So to most people here, even college graduates, just getting sentences with a subject and a verb is a amazing in itself.

What else dose not help me are my less abilities. I will not think of myself as disabled. Some things are just more difficult for me. I am not one who can hear "it isn't good enough” then am able to go back and figure out why by myself. I would need a concrete example. What I am trying to learn is if book publishers will give useful feedback, or just a flat out no without any constructive feedback. I don’t want to be pitied. I just want a chance.

Here's how I make my decisions:

First, I read the first page (that famous first 13 lines that we talk about so fondly here at Hatrack). I can tell a lot from that first 13.

Next, I ask myself a few quick questions about it, like: Is it interesting me enough that I want to find out what happens next? Is it written clearly so I understand what's going on? This second question includes spelling and grammar and such things that I really shouldn't have to be noticing by the time the author submits it.

Third, IF it passes these first two tests, I continue reading until I don't want to read anymore. If that doesn't happen and I reach the end of the story, that's a good sign. If it's not, that means I will recommend to my senior editor that the story be rejected. Period.

While I'm reading, I'm conscious of all those elements of good story-telling and writing that we discuss here at length. Sometimes I blue-pencil. Sometimes I don't. Sometimes I don't have to. And THOSE are the stories that will get a, "This is a great story! Buy it!" from me.

The rules of grammar have not changed in the last 20 years. If you write the way you learned to write 20 year ago, you will be fine. What has happened, that you might be confusing as a change, is that we have become more lax in fiction writing. From time to time, we are allowed an incomplete sentence, for example. This is technically grammatically incorrect but the emphasis can work when well-placed. We start sentences with ands and buts now, though that is technically wrong.

When I read silently what I've typed, I see only what I meant. And when I read aloud works not written by me, I end up reading it how my mind processed it, adding a word here, dropping one there. It never fails...

If it's a little thing, like a semicolon gone bad, then I can ignore it if the story is good.

And if there are loads of typos and other basic errors, I'll actually comment about that in my rejection letter, usually suggesting to have story read by fresh eyes or critiqued at a workshop, etc. (We try to be helpful.)

And absolutely there does have to be something on the first page to grab me. We've seen plenty of stories with good grammar, precise punctuation, and the only trouble is that it didn't hook us, or work for us.

Since then, a Hatrack group member sent me instructions on how to REALLY use MS Word's tracking feature and other features in critiquing Word document manuscripts.

I have put a link to those instructions in the Ways to Critique section. And you can get there from here using

http://www.hatrack.com/forums/writers/forum/Forum21/HTML/000007.html

I was going to say, "Please."
I was going to say: "Please."
I was going to say "Please."

To me, these are all OK. (Or ok, for that matter.) So are sentence fragments, like the previous clause, and this one.

I tend to be absolutist about grammar, and if I encounter non-standard grammar when reading a story, I tend to stop reading, verify that the sentence is non-standard, wonder if the author doesn't understand grammar or if it was a deliberate style choice, and if I decide it was most likely deliberate, I wonder if it was an effective choice. (Note: Dialog often uses non-standard grammar to express the way people speak, and I'm comfortable with that.) I'd rather be inside the story than outside of it, pondering the author's grammatical choices.

Nevertheless, one or two grammatical oddities isn't going to kill a story for me. And if there are numerous grammatical problems, there are certain to be numerous other problems as well.

FYI, I just rejected a story because the author used "alright." I stopped reading immediately.

You didn't have to wonder with her, and as frustrating as it may have been at times, it could be useful information.

I submit that most, if not all, editors are every bit as idiosyncratic (and arbitrary) in some cases, but they aren't as blatant about it as MZB was.

In fact, the word "ain't" also appears in the dictionary, but unless you throw it in the dialogue of some uneducated character, you won't find an editor liking it either.

"All together now!" the instructor said.

"We have twenty-two dollars, fifty cents, two buttons, one paper clip, and one... whatever this is altogether."

But with "alright", there is only one usage that is even distinguishable from literally meaning "all right", when it is used as less than total assent to a proposition introduced under exterior pressure. But since "fine" and "okay" are both used in this same sense, and both are more usually regarded as synonymous with "all right" than not, I'd say that usage isn't sufficiently different, particularly since you can use "all right" in such a case without any breakdown of meaning.