My Niece's Paper and My Itching Fingers
By Siduri
@msiduri (5687)
United States
July 18, 2016 12:31pm CST
A twenty-four-year-old niece of mine, a recent college graduate, linked a paper she wrote to Facebook. It was about communication and the ability to listen. The title was something to the effect of “6 Tenants to Better Listening Skills.”
Okay, I thought, a typo in the title. God knows I’ve managed a typo or two in my day. The first sentences of her introductory paragraph had several minor typos, e.g. period outside quotations marks, misused capitalization, a space before comma—things like that. It didn’t take me long to realize “tenant” wasn’t a typo. She continued to use that instead of “tenet” throughout the piece. And the language was full of preachy academic speak. “You’ve just interjected… Think about why you did that…”
To me, the paper was just this side of unreadable. Half an hour of minor editing would have gone a long way to improving it (though changing my niece’s voice is a different matter. And I couldn’t do that in all good conscience anyway.) Yet her friends gushed over it. Several asked for copies of it and shared it.
…and I said not a word to her. It was so hard not to ask her to let me run it through the metaphorical typewriter once for her—I’m her aunt, after all! I don’t want her making a fool of herself with a poorly edited paper! But she’s a big girl. Regardless of what she says, she has to learn how to say it and take her lumps. She has the degree I couldn’t complete. So… I’ll just keep as quiet as I can. Dang it.
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8 people like this
11 responses
@crazyhorseladycx (39509)
• United States
18 Jul 16
oh, i cringe't the thought :( i hope that future employers don't find such 'n hold't 'gainst her down the road. shame that young'uns can go through 'n get those degrees, yet can't write a paper...'n many cannot e'en tell time'n a real clock :(
4 people like this
@crazyhorseladycx (39509)
• United States
18 Jul 16
@msiduri lol, don't they all??
2 people like this
@msiduri (5687)
• United States
18 Jul 16
@crazyhorseladycx I remember being twenty-four. God knows it was a long time ago. 
2 people like this
@Genipher (5405)
• United States
18 Jul 16
Ah, the Red Pen(cil) of Power!
In another life, I would have loved to have been an editor! Though my grammar needs a bit more work...I tend to overuse commas, among other issues...
That's kind of ironic. She wrote a paper about listening and communicating and yet, I get the impression, she wouldn't be up to taking your loving corrections on her grammar?
I had a cousin who self-published a book. She sent me a link to read it free, online. I think she wanted me to review it on amazon or something. Well, I could hardly get through it. The story line was interesting but there were misspelled words, grammar issues, and sections of story that were jumbled into confusion.
It was a good rough draft but NOT a good final, publishable piece.
I never gave a review. And since she never asked what I thought I never said anything about it.
That's kind of ironic. She wrote a paper about listening and communicating and yet, I get the impression, she wouldn't be up to taking your loving corrections on her grammar?
I had a cousin who self-published a book. She sent me a link to read it free, online. I think she wanted me to review it on amazon or something. Well, I could hardly get through it. The story line was interesting but there were misspelled words, grammar issues, and sections of story that were jumbled into confusion.
It was a good rough draft but NOT a good final, publishable piece.
I never gave a review. And since she never asked what I thought I never said anything about it.2 people like this
@Genipher (5405)
• United States
19 Jul 16
@msiduri
It's been a few years since she self-published her book. If she'd asked, I would have given an honest review. But she never said anything so I didn't, either.
There was a home schooling teen that wrote a book a few years back. He emailed me a copy and asked me to critique it. I got through the first chapter and then had to stop. Again, he had a good story idea, but his thoughts were jumbled and I was getting confused as to who was who (or is it whom? )
I actually emailed him and told him he had a lot to work on. I gave him some ideas on how to "show" rather than "tell" in his story.
He never emailed me back.
Buuut...I talked to him a few months later and asked if I offended him. He laughed and said no. Apparently he'd got busy with other home schooling "stuff" and had laid the story aside.
So sometimes giving advice works out okay. In the case of my cousin, I'm afraid I'd offend her.
)
I actually emailed him and told him he had a lot to work on. I gave him some ideas on how to "show" rather than "tell" in his story.
He never emailed me back.
Buuut...I talked to him a few months later and asked if I offended him. He laughed and said no. Apparently he'd got busy with other home schooling "stuff" and had laid the story aside.
So sometimes giving advice works out okay. In the case of my cousin, I'm afraid I'd offend her.3 people like this
@msiduri (5687)
• United States
20 Jul 16
@Marcyaz You know, I used to think that the places I went to school were fair to middling, but when I read some of the stuff that people—mostly younger people—post online, I have to wonder. That's not saying these people are stupid. A lot of times they just haven't been exposed to some things. My husband tells a story of a woman at his work who had never worked fractions in school. He had to explain the workings to her. She got it in in about 15 minute, but really, handing someone a diploma w/o teaching them so basic..?
@ElicBxn (63594)
• United States
19 Jul 16
@msiduri When I took typing in high school, they tried me on a manual typewriter, since all beginning typists in the class started on the manuals. One letter in five ended up on the page. They moved me to one of the few electric typewriters and it was one in three, because you still had to get the keys down far enough to engage the electricity. I could've done it on our home portable typewriter, you didn't have to get the keys as far down on it. I ended up learning on one of the two brand new Selectric typewriters they had gotten. Why? Because my fingers are so short!
1 person likes this
@msiduri (5687)
• United States
19 Jul 16
Her major was French and linguistics—I forget exactly which. She changed a couple of times. But you'd think especially someone with an interest in language... never mind. My major was journalism, back in the dinosaur days when we used things called electric typewriters and our spellcheckers were things called dictionaries. We also had style guides and usage guide and so on.
1 person likes this
@ModernDayWriter (3318)
• New Delhi, India
18 Jul 16
What is the meaning of typo?
1 person likes this
@ModernDayWriter (3318)
• New Delhi, India
19 Jul 16
@msiduri sorry, typographical error? 
1 person likes this
@msiduri (5687)
• United States
19 Jul 16
@ModernDayWriter I wasn't being very helpful, was I? An error made in typing. For example, typing "unlch" when you meant to type "lunch" or something like that.
I wasn't being very helpful, was I? An error made in typing. For example, typing "unlch" when you meant to type "lunch" or something like that.
@crossbones27 (49432)
• Mojave, California
20 Jul 16
All I know is writing is hard if you want to do it professionally. I would need and editor 24.7. I think I even broke that website Grammerly. lol
1 person likes this
@teamfreak16 (43418)
• Denver, Colorado
18 Jul 16
I've noticed that when you try to help people with that, they don't want to hear it.
1 person likes this
