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One Word or Two?
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Yep - definitely. Lots of people have got too lazy linguistically to know or care about the differences. Lots of us do still care, knowing that the nuances of a language are what enrich it.
This is one of those things that when. your editing on your word and the spell check tries to tell you the word is one or two when you know you mean the other but its not smart enough to know..smh gahh I hate that!
Take each instance the word appears and make the decision as to what the sentence requires. So there might be times it is used as one word and other times as two words. Olden English always had these words as two words but as time went on it morphed into one word.
Yes! Yes! Yes! There are different times to properly use one or the other of the one-word/two-word alternatives. It is one of those thing that catches me when I read other works--but only, of course, when it's wrong! Funny that, huh? I mean, funny how you only notice when it's wrong--? (Is it my legal training, I wonder? LOL.)
Chicago Manual of Style (or equivalent) should answer most of these questions. Any serious author should invest in one.@Patricia- to quote my dad, "If you see a sparkling clean room with a small pile of dust on the side, you will immediately focus on the dust." Our brains are wired to point out anomalies. It's an evolutionary thing.
Oh awesome, it's not just me! :-) @ Justin - I know what you mean. I argue with my word program a lot because it always want's to tell me to do things that I am shaking my head at going: No, I know better than that!@Patricia - I notice the same thing, lol! I edit for my friend and because I so often point out when she has the wrong punctuation or whatnot, I purposely made myself go back and point out a few times when she's got it right too, lol! But I think that Masha is right, we do tend to notice anomalies more than when things are in order :-)
Masha wrote: "Chicago Manual of Style (or equivalent) should answer most of these questions. Any serious author should invest in one.@Patricia- to quote my dad, "If you see a sparkling clean room with a small ..."
Yes! I am reading one right now that is making the same grammatical error over and over (and over and over) again. (using WHICH for THAT). I'm not sure I'll ever get over this one. . . Now I stop even when the correct word is used!
When I was in college, my English Comp teacher offered bonus points to anyone who'd find grammatical errors in any published work, including newspapers. Of course, that was before the decline in editing standards that I'm seeing even in traditionally published books...
Patricia wrote: "Masha wrote: "Chicago Manual of Style (or equivalent) should answer most of these questions. Any serious author should invest in one.@Patricia- to quote my dad, "If you see a sparkling clean room..."
I've stopped reading several books because I just can't abide bad grammer and punctuation. An occasional mistake isn't such a big deal, but when the text is littered with things that need to be corrected, I can't see past them to the story. My brain insists upon trying to fix each one. I've decided to save my editing energy for my own work, where it will actually do some good, and only read books that I will enjoy.
I will admit that seeing my own mistakes is a whole lot more difficult than seeing other people's, but I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one with that problem, either. And then there are those times when I KNOW something isn't quite correct, but I want to do it anyway...
What I don't understand is... with the abundance of free beta readers on the Internet, how are authors not aware they have these problems? And if they are aware, why are they letting their books into the world in such condition?
Masha wrote: "What I don't understand is... with the abundance of free beta readers on the Internet, how are authors not aware they have these problems? And if they are aware, why are they letting their books in..."Some think they are fine without help. Probably most, actually. But even if they get beta readers, they may not be getting much help. Some of the books I've tried were (supposedly, at least)professionally edited, and still they were overflowing with errors, and I was just messaging an author the other day who had an editing service but had taken her book off the market because they had missed so many errors. I'm thinking that finding an excellent beta reader is like finding 'mister right'.
Also, I think a lot of authors don't particularly care to go to the work of re-writing and editing. They just want to present their first or second draft and have people appreciate their story for what it could be. And suddenly be millionares. Which is even less likely than working the McDonald's drive through and handing the bag to Prince William, and then having him drop his current life to propose marriage. And live happily ever after, of course.
Attitudes like that are the reason a lot of readers still won't touch self-pub books, and it's a crying shame because that's where the creativity is.
Masha wrote: "Attitudes like that are the reason a lot of readers still won't touch self-pub books, and it's a crying shame because that's where the creativity is."I agree with you, and am a little ashamed to admit that I have stepped back a bit from self-published for that very reason. Not saying I won't ever try another book, just that I tend to be skeptical.
One thing that gets me about this is that while there are instances to use one word or two words not everyone is aware or is unsure as of when to do so. It's because of this that some people will judge you and say oh well I noticed you used a lot of one words when they should have been two or vice versa. While not everyone is like this there are some and even if you come across such a person say too bad or oh well. Not all of us are verse with the knowledge of when its proper to use one word or proper to make it two. I'll gladly admit right now that I am unsure sometimes myself!Some words we know just that when we use them in a sentence that we mean one over the other and it just looks better as we put it whereas others aren't so easy. However I think this really isn't a big deal and anyone who makes a fuss over it is way too picky at grammar and spelling. Whether it's one word or two the just of it is that you know what the person is saying and as long as that point is clear then I really don't think it matters.
Justin wrote: "One thing that gets me about this is that while there are instances to use one word or two words not everyone is aware or is unsure as of when to do so. It's because of this that some people will j..."Plenty of readers don't care-believe me, I know! Authors are entitled to use words however they like, and they will get the audiences who like they way they write. That said, I am also entitled to prefer a degree of professionalism and to read only books that I will enjoy. To each their own, as they say. There's room for all of us!
Masha wrote: "Attitudes like that are the reason a lot of readers still won't touch self-pub books, and it's a crying shame because that's where the creativity is."I agree too! I do spend a LOT of time and effort trying to make sure that my books are grammatically correct, but rereading my older stuff, I always find something I missed. Which means that I am not perfect, but I do try, lol!
I get so frustrated when I try to find readers for my books, and the most common response I get is that they don't want to read self published. However, I love self pub because I don't have to follow the "rules." Which means that I can have a main character who loves more than one person in a romance and not have to make her choose. I think there are a lot of readers out there who would like to read alternative - not mainstream - fiction. :-)
Justin wrote: "One thing that gets me about this is that while there are instances to use one word or two words not everyone is aware or is unsure as of when to do so. It's because of this that some people will j..."I know what you mean, one of my favorite things to do that actually is grammatically incorrect is whenever I have a character mutter the phrase "never mind" I put the words together, because it's how it's being said. The character isn't saying each word separately, she's muttering it as if it's one word, so it comes out: "Nevermind!" I'm sure that I have some readers get frustrated that I am using it wrong, but at least I put thought and reasoning into it. :-)
Sandra wrote: "Roxanne wrote: "Masha wrote: "Attitudes like that are the reason a lot of readers still won't touch self-pub books, and it's a crying shame because that's where the creativity is."I agree too! I ..."
I dislike that attitude. People that don't or aren't willing to do the work to put out a book which is properly edited need to be pointed out, otherwise, we're just condoning that behavior, and that behavior is what drives the opinion that self-published works are sub-par and generally not worth paying for.
As an example, I was recently pointed to a horrible work. The book description alone was done in all capitol letters, has a gross lack of punctuation and grammar and several blatant misspellings.Out of curiosity, I looked up the author's bio and this is what it said.
"I don't use any programs other than spell check lets face it I still type with two fingers. I don't let anyone edit my stories because I believe it is important to not let some program create a style or input any content. when you read my stories you can be certain they came from my heart not some program or editor .so the mistakes are mine and I may not write in a predesigned format but you will be able to appreciate the story you read is my story."
If we want self-publishing to be taken seriously, this is exactly the kind of attitude which needs to be quashed in my opinion.
Shaun wrote: "If we want self-publishing to be taken seriously, this is exactly the kind of attitude which needs to be quashed in my opinion."..."
I can agree with that too. I know that I am often surprised by how helpful it is to have a second set of eyes look over my work. Things that I don't notice - such as loose ends and details I left out - get pointed out when someone else reads it. I think it helps round out a book. It's sort of like when reading HP book 4 and the Weasly twins are trying to cheat their way into entering the tournament by making themselves 16 - which they're not yet, but in the beginning of book 5, they had already turned 17 during the break between school years, less than a year later. I bet if someone else had pointed that out before she published the book, she would have changed that detail. :-)
alot(a lot), nevermind(never mind), maybe(may be)- these three words are the ones my spell check always says im wrong about and honestly I dont know whose right, me or the spell check lol
While editing one of my manuscripts, my friend told me that I should use one word rather than two, but I tried to tell her that in this instance, two words were more appropriate that one. I explained it to her like this:
"some time (2 words) = the passage of time.
Sometime (1 word) = a point in time is undetermined. It's hard to put a fine point on the nuance, but basically, it's the difference between after some time had passed, and after sometime had passed."
Anyway, now I have thought long and hard about it and have run across other words that have that same ambiguity. Such as anytime. It could be: No problem, I'll help anytime! OR it could be: I will not do that at ANY time.
Or everyday and every day. I personally can find a subtle difference to distinguish between using it as one word or as two, BUT I am willing to admit that it might just all be in my head, lol!
SO, my question is: Is there a difference between using these words as one and separating them into two? OR am I wrong and they ALWAYS need to be one word?