(no subject)

[shadowkat]

When writing I've noticed that I struggle with the following bits:

1. Comma placement. A lot of times it makes no logical sense to me. If something doesn't track logically, I don't remember it. I can't remember things that do not make sense to me logically.
It can't just be an arbitrary rule that someone came up with while sitting on the potty.

2. Affect/Effect. For some reason my mind flip them. I've no clue why.

3. It's and its. Also flips them.

4. Then and than -- screw this up all the time.

There's others I'm certain. My mind often is moving faster than my fingers can type, so my fingers often type the wrong things. Or there is a disconnect between my mind and my fingers. It's worse with oral communication -- I'll often say a word that is the opposite of what I'm thinking or not what I'm intending to state at all, and worse, not realize it. It's a sort of ephasia that I have no control over. Very irritating.

Example? I was talking to my mother about Sherlock. And said that the whole bit with Watson and the bus driver should have been told in real time. My mother said -- "you mean the bus rider, it wasn't the bus driver." Me - "Oh, I thought I said bus rider."

I worry about the details, because more often than not they trip me up. I can't count the number of times I've been blasted on the internet for screwing up on a detail. Or forgetting to fact-check a point.

It can make it difficult to write at times.

Comments

[cactuswatcher]

Comma placement: I have trouble with it for sure. I'm writing along and it seems like a natural spot for a comma. I go back minutes later and have to ask myself why in the world did I put a comma there.

It's and its: I know the difference perfectly well. But when I'm writing they are all the same, and who knows which will come out. The same for 'to and too' (but not two). The same for 'there, their and they're,' the last of which I don't even pronounce the same as the others.

[shadowkat]

Yes, I have issues with to and too, and their, there, and they're as well. I know the difference between them, but for some reason my fingers will type the one I don't want to use. Same thing with its and it's.

Also do that with commas. I'll go back and re-read a post or something I've written and discover that I've placed a comma in an odd place.

[rebcake]

Affect/Effect always gets me, too!

Comma placement isn't really that arbitrary. It's a way of separating out phrases/ideas within a sentence. You did it fine up above. *\o/*

[shadowkat]

The comma rule that confuses me the most, oddly, is items in a series. It's because there are different views on it. Marketing and advertising people insist that the rule is: I love books, magazines and newspapers. You do not separate the last two items in the series with a comma.

Business, engineers, and lawyers insist that you do separate the last two items with a comma.

English grammar teachers appear to agree with the business professionals.

I tend to write intuitively, so it is whatever sounds or feels right. Or rather is clear. But often I'll go back over it and think, wait, why did I put a comma there or why did I do that as a phrase? Since a lot of my creative writing is "conversational" or informal, I deliberately break the rules here and there. While at work, when I am writing more formally, I pay close attention to grammar.

[rogin]

I know the feeling. I have the then/than issue too, though curiously enough, the whole thing is much worse in German for me. I heave out parts of words or even sentences and when I reread it shortly after, I autofill everything in, so it looks correct to me. I need to trick my brain, by turning around the page to make it harder to read fast.

It was a pain in highschool, because I really thought that I was stupid for not being able to write properly.

[shadowkat]

Interesting that it gives you more problems in German. Not sure how close the two languages are in sentence and word structure?

[rogin]

I think it's simply because it is my mother tongue. German is more automatic to me and in that part of the brain the rewiring errors occur.

I have to think more writing English, so it does not happen so easily, though the better I get, the worse it gets. In French, where I can barely string a sentence together, it does not happen at all.

[shadowkat]

I envy the fact that you can speak two languages fluently and write well in both. I can't tell that English is your second language. (I'm guessing that you learned English as a child? My co-worker who is from Cyprus, told me that she took English when she was 3 years of age, and was speaking both Greek and English fluently by the time she was six. The problem in the US, is, for the most part, we can't take a second language until the 7th grade or when we are 12 or 13. It's harder to learn at that stage. I took French in the 7th Grade and struggled with it. Took it up through high school and into college, but never quite mastered it. )

In French, where I can barely string a sentence together, it does not happen at all.

My French is similar. I can read it better than I can speak or write it.

[rogin]

I started to learn English when I was seven. And then at ten we had proper English lessons in school. French started when I was fourteen (aparently too late) and Italian when I was 16 (I can barely ask for directions).

I always envy the Scandinavians. My friend Anna from Finland speaks Finnish, Swedish, English and German, all of them on a level to write scientific papers. It's amazing what their educational system does.

[shadowkat]

I envy the Europeans. Here, the only people who get second languages early are either wealthy or immigrants. Ironic that. The public schools don't offer it until middle school. My niece, who has an affinity for languages, is learning Spainish and Latin in the 7th Grade.

My French may be worse than your Italian.

But, I was discussing this with my co-workers today, I've grown used to figuring out what people are saying through body language and context. Mainly, because I have lived in NYC for about 20 years now, and half the time, people aren't speaking English or speaking it poorly with a thick accent.

[rogin]

Damn, your style is sooo cute! Love the comment section!

[shadowkat]

Thanks. It is simple, but elegant. Can't remember what it was called. I went through about 60 some styles. There are a lot of horrible ones. And I really did not like my previous style.

I think I prefer this style to the one on LJ at the moment.

[promethia_tenk]

(It makes me so happy whenever I have a reason to use this icon.)

Comma placement: The rules themselves are arbitrary, it's true. Though once I'd taken a proper descriptive grammar course and really understood sentence structure (which isn't arbitrary), it became a heck of a lot easier to know how to apply the rules.

Affect and effect: I have to fully stop what I'm doing and think this one through every time.

My own foible that makes me most wonder at myself is that, when typing, I flip two of the letters in my own name almost every single time. My own name!

[shadowkat]

I flip two of the letters in my first and last name every once and a while too.

I think I also took a descriptive grammar course once. And Strunk and White helped.