All Comments on 'Dictionary Smarts Can Up Ratings'

What it all boils down to is get an editor if you do not have the time or inclination to do these things yourself. There are plenty of them on Lit that are more than willing to help out.

Hat off to all of you for writing stories the rest of us can enjoy but what a difference it makes if you take the time to polish the story before submitting it.

And a great bugbear of mine. Get the grammar right. I fully realise that the majority of schools have English teachers that could do with a grammar refresher course and that most people leave their educational years with a muddled up perception of grammar but that is no excuse for being sloppy yourself when writing a story or indeed in your daily language.

Grammar is one of the most constant facets of any language. The day to day language may change but the grammar pretty much stays the same and it is the tipping point between a good and a great story.

For myself I also never fail to include a Thesaurus.

Thanks for this useful summary.

We all have preferences and pet hates. I don't like to split a verb if I can help- it - and I hate to split an infinitive. On the other hand I love the extra emphasis you get from occasionally starting a sentence with But...(or And...) And it can be pedantic to refuse to end a sentence with a preposition.

I think that more words are hyphenated in UK English than in America English, so I do not necessarily worry if the grammar checker on word redlines a word in my text. Too much attention to formal grammar is a constraint.

As an avid reader and a nurse, I have seen so many spelling errors not to mention anatomical errors. I have seen "shacked" in place of "shook" as in shook his hand. I have seen "I entered her womb" which is highly impossible unless the guy is in the delivery room and crawls up between his lover's legs just seconds after the baby and afterbirth were delivered as the cervical opening starts to return to normal size rapidly. Unless the guy is a doctor and can get ahold of the cervical dilation drugs then he is out of luck "entering thee womb." Also I have seen the vagina referred to as the womb. The womb is the in fact the uterus where implantation and gestation takes place.