• Home
  • My Love is Vengeance
  • The Dictator’s Wife
  • The Cavaliers Series
    • Oxford Dining Societies
    • The English Civil War
    • Character Guide
    • Glossary
    • About Oxford
  • The Blog
  • The Author
  • Contact Georgiana / Mailing List

The Posh, the Privileged and the Paranormal

The Posh, the Privileged and the Paranormal

Tag Archives: grammar

Who gives a **** about an Oxford Comma (Or a semi-colon or a weak clause)

17 Monday Sep 2012

Posted by georgianaderwent in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

grammar, Oxford Blood, proofreading, Writing

So today I’ve been doing probably the second least fun part* of creating a novel – the final, hardcore grammar and style proofcheck.

Now I like to think of myself as someone who’s good at English and fairly knowledgeable about grammar. I also liked to think that my novel was already pretty much fine in terms of its grammar. Every book and website about self-publishing seems to suggest you should hire a professional proofreader. I was certainly happy to pay for a professional cover designer (thanks Scarlett!) as I have no artistic skills at all, but editing sounded like something I could do myself.

Roughly eighteen hours later, I think I was right. I’m confident that the book is 99% grammatically correct, but my goodness it was a painful process.

When it comes to something simple like the difference between “there” and “their,” or putting apostrophes in the right place or treating speech in the right way, I’m all over it, and the manuscript didn’t contain any errors of this sort. Then however, I started hitting a comma wall. I’ve never really thought consciously about where commas should go. On the whole, they’re something I use naturally. As I went through the book however, (all 300 pages of it), I found myself pouring over grammar guides and becoming quite paranoid.

The Grammar Book list no fewer than 21 rules of comma use – if you want to give yourself a headache, check out  http://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/commas.asp.

It starts off simply enough, with things like:

“Use a comma to separate two adjectives when the word and can be inserted between them.”

But as it goes on, it all get more and more confusing:

 “A comma splice is an error caused by joining two strong clauses with only a comma instead of separating the clauses with a conjunction, a semicolon, or a period. A run-on sentence, which is incorrect, is created by joining two strong clauses without any punctuation.”

 “When starting a sentence with a weak clause, use a comma after it. Conversely, do not use a comma when the sentence starts with a strong clause followed by a weak clause.”

It turns out I was breaking some of those rules!  All the time that I’ve been sneering inside at people who use apostrophes incorrectly, I’ve secretly been making grammatical errors myself. The horror.

Nobody notices this sort of thing, I thought angrily, and I took a break for a bit to read someone else’s book. It was bizarre – I couldn’t focus on the story at all. All I could see was semi-colons and weak clauses.

Anyway, it’s all sorted now and as an added bonus I feel I learnt more than in thirteen years of English classes. I’m not looking forward to doing this again with books two and three though.

*In case you’re wondering, the worst part is removing or heavily cutting down scenes I love, either in response to constructive criticism or because I realise they don’t quite work. Oh pre-Oxford party at Adelaide’s house, how I miss you.

PS  – I was terribly self-conscious whilst writing this post. I’m looking forward to someone pointing out all the errors in it!

PPS – For those who don’t know, the title of this post comes from the Vampire Weekend song Oxford Comma. If you haven’t already, I strongly suggest you have a listen. They are one of my favourite bands and in my head, their albums are basically the soundtrack to The Cavaliers series. Few bands sing about being young, rich and preppy quite so well.

Blogroll

  • Buy Oxford Blood at Amazon (US)
  • Buy The Cavaliers at Amazon (UK)
  • Buy The Cavaliers at Smashwords
  • Oxford's website
  • The secret behind my beautiful cover
Oxford Blood (The Cavaliers, #1)

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

RSS Feed RSS - Posts

Previously on the Posh, the Privileged and the Paranormal…

  • March 2018
  • January 2018
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • November 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • January 2015
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012

Looking for something?

Recent news

  • My Love is Vengeance published
  • Sacrifice Night – An Extract from My Love is Vengeance
  • My Love is Vengeance – Kindle Scout
  • Dictator’s Wife Spinoff Story 3 – Julien
  • Dictator’s Wife Spin-off story Number Two: The Two Facts Everyone Knows About Me

Top Posts & Pages

  • Home

Twitter Updates

Error: Twitter did not respond. Please wait a few minutes and refresh this page.

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy