carolinamtne

Or my brain?

Whilst tis true that ofttimes, writers of bygone eras broadly partook of the pleasantries and convivial enjoyment which most assuredly accompanied the writing of highly ornamental prose, tis also true that such nostalgic musings about the implications of aforesaid leanings regarding the acumen and perspicacity of the common man as applied to language comprehension are more likely grounded in wistful and sentimental contemplations than in judicious and discriminative reflections on the true state of affairs which would have been observed by personages who enjoyed the prodigiously good fortune to have encountered and lived through such times. Sorry, I only made it through the first three lines before I decided that I really didn't need to read the rest. And I have a Masters' Degree! (Not in 17th century English!) I do wonder, however, how much dumbing down is happening with cell phones and acronyms.

Check the format. It only takes .png, .gif, .jpg, or .jpeg. I've tried a couple of times with .pdfs and they don't work.

Did I really type that??????????

Part of the problem (and I say this as a retired teacher) is that students don't always learn what they are taught, and of those who do, some don't remember! However, and this is not to minimize the grammar problems that we see written in the news media and in books, etc., but the purpose of language is to communicate. When I was in Bolivia, I became friends with a man who spoke reasonable English, but he never really learned Spanish. Spanish conjugates verbs (like in English, we have "I am," "you are," "he is") but Spanish does it with all verbs and all forms. He didn't seem to understand that, but he always used the subject pronouns so that he could be understood. His adjectives rarely matched their nouns (in singular and plural forms). He was not unintelligent. He was in charge of the electrical system for a whole town. I heard him talk computers (the deep stuff in the mother boards, etc.) in a computer store. He ran a Christian youth program in his town. And he communicated everything he wanted. His grammar was atrocious, and I think he just didn't care, as long as people understood him. They did. This is not to justify "it's" when it should be "its" or "5,000 pages" to start a sentence. We writers should know better and should do better. So we keep sending our manuscripts to editors. (Or we check out my website.) And, Lynn, I agree with you 100%!

No nothing about websites. Still learning about blogs.

Prayers all around, both coasts! (And I'm sure a few people in between)

Excellent idea. What would be your sources? Most of the Bible versions are copyrighted, but I think you're allowed to use a certain amount. If you do an internet search for encouraging quotes, check the copyright on them. I would imagine you can come up with some of your own, so they would not be a problem.

One of the joys of writing is that, to create accurate environments, one really must read!

I apologize for suggesting such. Obviously, not all people who do fiction do appropriate research.

At least he spelled it out. Or maybe he didn't but the people who shared it in written form did. If he actually wrote it on the back of an envelope (which I think I remember learning), he may have tried to save space by using the numbers.

Neat idea! Personalized music.

And when those paper pages are worn out, there's always thesaurus.com on your computer.

Head for Amazon and look for fiction on WWII. That will give you a more personal look than doing research on WWII. I wasn't very old at the time, so I really don't remember.

And spelling out 7, 489,642 gets a little complicated. It's easier to reword the sentence so the number doesn't come first! Instead of "Seven million ... years ago," try something like "Over the last 7,... years," ...