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Grammar


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Grammar  

3 members have voted

  1. 1. Do you enjoy writing?

    • yes
      44
    • yes, but only fiction
      16
    • yes, but only to express myself
      6
    • (indifferent)
      10
    • I avoid it
      5
    • not at all
      2
  2. 2. How do you feel about editing?

    • I enjoy it
      33
    • I enjoy it, as long as I'm not editing my own work
      15
    • it's satisfying
      40
    • it's relaxing
      14
    • (indifferent)
      10
    • punctuation/grammar mistakes are distracting
      21
    • it's a necessary evil
      20
    • I can't stand it
      3
    • I don't want anything to do with English (writing, editing)
      4

This poll is closed to new votes


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Looking through the AVENues volunteer thread, I noticed almost everyone offered to help edit articles, even if they did not want to write a piece themselves.

So it got me thinking--writing and editing are related, but people don't necessarily like/dislike both. Personally, I don't care to write--I'll put it off until the deadline looms/inspiration strikes (often the former causes the latter), but once I get started writing, I find it's not so bad. Editing, on the other hand, I enjoy. While my own writing can get a little jumbled, I have no problems helping others solve their grammar woes.

Thoughts? Opinions on writing in general?

(*This poll has been brought to you by LunaticLauren in a bout of essay procrastination. Thank you.*)

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I'm so obsessed with editing that it's painfully hard not to wander around the Internet being a "Grammar Nazi". I like expressing myself like writing in a diary or online but I can't handle writing fiction because since I have such a vivid imagination. It's like trying to write down the movements and speech of the characters of a film I'm watching. Writing fiction is also difficult because you have to carry on a story, even when you can't come up with anything more than one simple scenario. I can also become obsessed over a scenario (but eventually get bored of it in about a week).

A lot of time I also get stuck on which words fit the images I'm thinking of. This can happen in real life and it's awfully frustrating. My teachers say I don't try writing in class because I'm lazy, but when I'm thinking of an idea I get fixed on that idea and I literally can't think of anything else and can't concentrate. It's sort of ruining my schooling but my teachers have no idea what to do so I just keep trying and keep failing. It's better than literally doing nothing but difficult thinking of one thing and writing about another.

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Pen Given Ink

I am so horrible at grammar... but I love to write, and I struggle with it. I'm better at it than I was back in High School, but I still struggle horribly bad. :/

So sometimes I find it rather difficult to share what writing I do. I think if I understood it better, I'd probably enjoy doing it, but I don't.

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Writing good is very difficult, but I gotta say I like writing a /lot/ more than editing. It's difficult to get started though, to sit down and not drift of into doing other things online. Which means that when I'm not writing for fun I rarely have a progress of more than 500 words a day (although if I'm writing my own fiction, 2500 a day is more normal, I rarely have time for that though). Which gets me closer and closer to deadlines, and after haphazardly throwing 1600 words together in a day. Writing 17 hours without breaks leave me too close to deadline to get through with any proper editing. Laziness in editing is one of my bigger weaknesses, but I make up for a lot of it by planning well in advance how I will structure the text and laying out my main points. I'm also good at improvising decent structure just cause I've gained some experience after writing a lot for a while. The most satisfying writing for me though, as it's the most gratifying for least amount of effort time-wise is writing poems. Although in that field as well, I haven't been able to produce as much as I want in the last two months.

Speaking of grammar, what I'm currently working on is an academic essay about grammar. About if the new Norwegian word class-system actually has any consistency to it, and if yes - to what degree. I promise I'll get properly started tomorrow. 4 days till deadline. I have to.

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I like writing ( or more accurately typing) but in all fairness I can overlook grammar. Mainly because my thought process is faster than my ability to type or write, so revisiting my work and correcting errors is a necessary evil

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Perfectly Pointless

I find editing tedious, especially if it's my own work. It makes me feel bad about myself - like my writing is a representation of myself and I'm picking out all these flaws and 'correcting' them. I really don't like editing. I prefer someone else to do it, and I seldom offer to edit for someone else.

I much prefer writing. My grammar is generally very good so to avoid the editing issue I just make sure to proof read every sentence after I type it and if I'm unsure about a word or the correct version, I look it up really quickly. I generally don't need to do this, though. I'm just paranoid that I'm leaving a trail of mistakes in my writing.

I find it very easy to write, to the point where I don't understand how anyone can't write. I've tried to teach people how to write better, but all I can say is "Just take your idea, and put pen to paper!" I only recently realised that this is not how it works for most people. I can write without even thinking about it. I still don't understand how people can't write without having to spend hours planning and thinking of ideas.

That being said, I have been told by my English teacher that I have an exceptional natural talent for writing, particularly fiction. So I've always been good at it, whether I wrote or not. I still have a lot of room for improvement, though, and I always accept constructive criticism on my works, and advice to improve my works further.

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Sleepy Skeleton

I think I can write well enough, but I feel like a bit of a perfectionist and it takes me forever to finish writing something. That's why I haven't volunteered to write for the wiki or anything else.

But I LOVE editing. Grammar is my passion. It's actually fun for me... I get to turn a mess into something nice.

(obviously grammar for essays and grammar for internet forums are two different things!)

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WaywardHeroine

I like writing fictional stories, though I don't often have the time these days. And I really love editing other peoples' work. I love to help people improve at things and there's also something satisfying about cleaning up all of the little mistakes. :D

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I like to write... I just lack the motivation. I also find myself editing things at work like formal emails with glaring errors. I feel the need to correct important/public documents. Even on things no one will read and will eventually be thrown out, I'll scribble corrections when I find mistakes. (Not to say my own grammar is perfect!)

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I love writing. I love editing. It's satisfying, and grammar mistakes are indeed distracting. I'd say I'm a soft grammar nazi.

Example sentence borrowed from the Big Bang Theory:

Correct sentence: "You're the guy from whom we're trying to get away."

But:

"You're the guy we're trying to get away from." --> That's okay.

"Your the guy were trying to get away from." --> Get out.

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I'm not even a native speaker, but I always try to use grammar correctly.

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I would say I only really enjoy writing fiction, but I've nothing against writing other things. I liken editing to polishing and consider it satisfying, although I fear I'm not terribly good at it.

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I teach English, so editing is something that is really easy for me. I do enjoy writing as well, though, but I never feel like I know what to write about.

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  • 1 year later...

This poll is being locked and moved to the read only Census archive for it's respective year. As part of ongoing Census organization, and in an attempt to keep the demographics of the polls current with the active user base at the time, the polls will last for one year from now on. However, members are allowed and even encouraged to re-start new polls similar to the archived ones if they like them.

 

AshenPhoenix, Census Forum Moderator

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