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Spectorium_1
Oct '22
2

Welp, if anyone wants a basic guide for grammar edits, from a editor who's just starting out, then here it is.

There are a ton of small rules and best practices around grammar. So, as a little practice, I've been reviewing a good number of writings in the community, and here are some things I've noticed are missed the most.

This is in no way an official guide or a complete one. However, it's a quick one, and it might be helpful to make your work look better without an editor.

If anyone else has anything to add, just reply down below.

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Iris-Grimoire
Oct '22

Thank you for the guide!

I feel like 8 needs a bit more explanation as to why they have to match, imo. Is it just a literary thing rather than grammar?

Spectorium_1
Oct '22
2

Ha ha :sweat_02: yeah. I'm still trying to find a better explanation for that. From what I know, it's essentially a grammatical thing called "parallel structure/parallelism" which is used in literary sense as well. Though, as one of my teachers said, it all comes down to "English" which is "consistency in context".

Essentially, English is a language that is based off of context, and parallel structure helps make it clearer, cause a list like:

"He had some milk, juice, and a throw in his bag."

doesn't really work since your list is made to be about nouns/subjects in this context, not verbs.

I'm just not sure how to explain it in quick terms, so I'll probably add this in if you felt like there needs to be a reasoning behind it.

Thanks for the feedback!

rajillustration
Oct '22

But isn't a throw a noun? Like it's a type of jacket. So you can have a milk, juice, and a throw in a bag.

Spectorium_1
Oct '22
2

You bring up a good point, but it wouldn't typically be used in this context. Though it can always be used anyways. (English is weird like that.)

There are always exceptions, especially in dialogue and in humor. However, in a general sense, you want to be using parallelism to give a sort of "Theme" to your list, since the relation makes it clearer. (Remember, if you're not sure what is generally accepted, English is consistency in context.)

In this case, "Groceries" is arguably the theme. However, there is always the chance that you can get a "throw" in a grocery store, but just mentioning "throw" without context would throw :wink: off the theme of the list.

Therefore, you'll want to describe "Throw" as "a throw-on jacket", in this case. (Throw-on is defining what kind of jacket it is, and jacket clarifies that throw is being used as a noun or defining characteristic.) If you want to use "Throw" on its own, as a subject, since it is considered slang/ a shortened reference, you'll want to have slang be a common and explained concept in your story, or just define it somewhere else. (Maybe in a conversation where a character is also confused at what "throw" references, or have a character mention that they need to get a throw at the store today.)

I won't go into the specifics on all the exceptions, but keep in mind, like I said above, this only goes over grammar in the general sense in order to help the overall improvement of writing. Once people have a good grasp on that, they can do whatever really. Just make it clear enough to the audience.

rajillustration
Oct '22

yeah, I'd probably just use a different word than throw, since I thought of it like a camping bag or a picnic bag, where you'd absolutely toss a cozy throw in there. Like for me as a native english speaker I didn't see the problem initially with the sentence because I do use the word throw quite often. Like maybe a "run" Instead? "Run" isn't really a noun you can put in a bag.

Spectorium_1
Oct '22

If you're talking about putting it in a list, then no, not really. If you want to put verbs in the same list, the most common "theme" would be simultaneous or successive actions.

For example: "The crowd waved, jumped, and cheered as the ball went into the goal."

I guess you could say that run/ran is possibly a name, but if it still doesn't fit the theme, so I'd say it wouldn't be possible to include ran unless it's a brand. Even then, you'd have to fit the theme by talking about different brands, since the words in the list before are more general terms.

It could be possible if it was a straight grocery list though, and the character knows what Ran/run is while the reader is still confused at the reference until it is clarified later on.

rajillustration
Oct '22

nah nah, I mean as in your example it was to show what doesn't work--but throw can work. So to replace it with something that doesn't work, like run. I know that run can't work in that sentence.

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