Like biting nails and picking noses, there are habits that must be broken in order not to lose the respect of potential readers. And then he got off of his ass and said, “Your a bunch of losers.”
If you can see nothing wrong with that sentence, you’d better read on. It illustrates three errors I see too often.
The story is great, but the grammar is shit.
And then: Starting a sentence with: And, is no longer a grammatical no-no. It is the word ‘then’ that is the culprit. Then he went to London. No he didn’t. He went to London. I think the problem is caused by the writer being too eager to move the story on. Developing writers should stop and think whenever they type the four characters. They can pick their nose while they think, if they must, but not wipe their finger on the page.
Off of: I can’t think of a situation arising where “Off’ should ever be followed by ‘of’. Just get off your ass for fuck’s sake.
Your: He means you’re? Of course he does. This problem seems to be a recent development. I don’t remember it being prevalent in the past. It can’t even be blamed on Americanisms. Whichever side of the Atlantic you hail from, you’re, is the abbreviation of you are.
Don’t worry. I fart in public too. But thanks to my poor hearing, they’re always silent ones. Making mistakes doesn’t mean you’re a bad writer. Avoiding these three will make you appear to be a better one though.
If you can see nothing wrong with that sentence, you’d better read on. It illustrates three errors I see too often.
The story is great, but the grammar is shit.
And then: Starting a sentence with: And, is no longer a grammatical no-no. It is the word ‘then’ that is the culprit. Then he went to London. No he didn’t. He went to London. I think the problem is caused by the writer being too eager to move the story on. Developing writers should stop and think whenever they type the four characters. They can pick their nose while they think, if they must, but not wipe their finger on the page.
Off of: I can’t think of a situation arising where “Off’ should ever be followed by ‘of’. Just get off your ass for fuck’s sake.
Your: He means you’re? Of course he does. This problem seems to be a recent development. I don’t remember it being prevalent in the past. It can’t even be blamed on Americanisms. Whichever side of the Atlantic you hail from, you’re, is the abbreviation of you are.
Don’t worry. I fart in public too. But thanks to my poor hearing, they’re always silent ones. Making mistakes doesn’t mean you’re a bad writer. Avoiding these three will make you appear to be a better one though.