let's discuss!

[drasticbarbie.livejournal.com]

this if for those of you who read fanfic, which is hopefully most of you.

what are your fanfic pet peeves? is there a pairing or genre you won't read? do you hate mistakes in canon?

for me it's more about grammar. i get irritated with bad spelling (use spellcheck!), poor use of punctuation (besides commas because there are about 40 rules. you should know the basics), and capitalization. in posts i don't bother with caps. but when i publish i try to make it as correct as possible.

other things are the use of certain words. there/their/they're, we're/ were/where, bare/bear, lie/lay/laid etc., i/me, overuse of italics and bold. to me italics are good for emphasizing certain words that should be stressed, either in dialog or narration, sounds coming off the television/phone or written words read by the narrator or out loud in dialog, musical lyrics. it just makes it easier to understand that it isn't normal sounds. i only use bold in my author's note, disclaimer, and warnings.

also, i won't even read a fic that has all the text bunched up because someone didn't press enter. or something with only about 200 words.

also, when you address someone it should be like,   Person, blah blah. with the comma there. that just bugs me.

for specifically CM i won't read Morgan with anyone but Garcia. i don't know, i just think they belong together and i love that Garcia is one of very few average sized women on television. in spite of what hollywood wants us to think, most women are more Garcia's size than JJ's.

Comments

[alyssa22.livejournal.com]

The "would of" thing is so annoying. I think it's people hearing "would've" and not realising that it's a contraction of the words would and have, and assuming it's an "of" instead.

But that all comes down to education. Or lack of.

[paksenarrion2.livejournal.com]

*twitch*

I cringe whenever I see would of or could of instead of would have or could have.

In fact, I tend to correct people in post on the internet it bothers me so much.

*twitch*

[alyssa22.livejournal.com]

I know the feeling. It drives me nuts.

Sadly, the average person isn't that good with grammar. I've even seen someone on this post complaining about "grammer". And this is someone who THINKS they know how it should be done.

Frightful.

The education standard these days is appalling. I think that people who learn English as a second language have a much better grasp of spelling and grammar than most native English speakers. At least they generally know the difference between their/there/they're and were/we're/where.

[paksenarrion2.livejournal.com]

Agreed. I admit that sometimes when I am in a hurry, I don't proof read what I post in response and can misuse things like to/too/two (although generally it is between to and too-mainly I use to instead of too-more of a typo really) even though I know the difference. But at work? Very different. I make sure I proof read my emails before they get sent (Since spell check doesn't catch things like to/too/two, etc). I also have spell check set as well. Too bad this isn't a requirement for all business communication as well as fan fiction.

[reseda-3067.livejournal.com]

That sounds right. Still annoys me, though.

The terrible thing is, that I´ve not only seen it in fics, but in people´s posts too.

English is not my native tongue, but I´m the same with Swedish. I at least TRY to get it right.

[alyssa22.livejournal.com]

People who have English as a second language generally have more idea of grammar.

[reseda-3067.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you´re probably right.

May I ask if that is your cat in your user icon? SO lovely! I love cats myself.

[alyssa22.livejournal.com]

It is! That's Cookie. He was a baby in that photo. He's now a big, fat, four year old boy,and just about the most divine cat ever!

We recently adopted him a little sister, Maisie. She's a cute little tabby. It was rough at first, but within a week they were playing together!

[reseda-3067.livejournal.com]

My best friend had a dog named Cookie too!

How nice of you to adopt his little sister too. I´m sure they appriciated it.

I have 7 cats and I love them all to pieces. They are my babies. Cats are the best.

[alyssa22.livejournal.com]

Seven! Wow. We have seven when I was a kid.

Maisie's cute. She belonged to a friend of a friend who needed to find a home for her. I figured Cookie could use a friend, and the rest is history!

For a while I wondered whether I'd done the right thing -- it was tough at first, but now they're good buddies!

[reseda-3067.livejournal.com]

Yes, cats can be quite a handful for sure, but they are such lovely creatures. Such wonderful personalities.

I grew up around cats and dogs so I don´t think I could ever live without cats, at least.

Two of our cats weren´t ours from the start. One belonged to a relative, but the cat prefered to stay with us, so we got to take her. She´s amazing. She wouldn´t even hurt a fly! Never scratches or bites, but she´s not too fond of the others, though. The other cat is a little foundling, as I like to call him. He just turned up on our balcony one day in december 2008. A tiny little kitten with no collar- and SO hungry. So he decided to stay with us. Now, he´s a BIG cat of about 1½ years old.