Parked Vans and Participles

By H. Linn Murphy

I go running or walking on those mornings that I have to drive kids to Seminary. There's a nice park right next to the stake center which is a mile around. Basically I know that park well enough that I can read while I walk, which I do.

At certain intervals there are speed bumps. If I am not careful, I trip on those speed bumps, especially if I'm running and trying to read at the same time, or looking up to avoid low-hanging bows or watching birds. I'm running along enjoying the flight of a Cooper's hawk and BANG! I go down like a ton of hippopotamus. Once I was reading and ran right into a parked van. The dent from the rear view mirror hurt for hours.

The same thing happens when I'm reading a book and I come to phrases like this: I like him to. He's just to nice to be doing things like that. Three books in a roe, now, have had such a problem. Their just to annoying too mention.

People who don't take the time too learn their craft annoy the hick out of me. Tripping over misused words takes me right out of the story just like hitting a van can take a person out of conscientousness. Some of the worst offenders are their, they're, and there; your and you're; to, too, and two; by and buy; its and it's. Its time to learn the difrense.

Also their are the colostomy words people toss into the mix that they don't really know and are the wrong word and have a differential meaning than the one they warranted. When I want to use a word I'm not exponentially insurred of, I either use the humunculous bug-killer dictionary next to my elbow, or I foreclose the word. Misusing it makes a writer look moronical.

Speling words incorectly also trips the reeder. Not all words are cot by the spellchecker. Some are actully words so they don't tripe the sencor.

Awhile ago I red a book who clammed to have been editted. I could find no evidense of editting at all. I could only get threw the first chapter, and thats because I had traded books with a freind. After that I put the book avast foerever.

A writer generally spends at least some money getting there book published, whether it be in actual momentary units, or in time spent both writing, editing, querying, hunting down a publisher/agent, possibly getting an illustrater, and marketing. Why waist everyone's time producing a book with obvious flaws which using a good editor/Beta reader could have illuminated?

Take some pride in your work. Hone it by constant study.

The reason I say 'constant' is this: My father was a German/English teacher. The way he taught me to write isn't necessarily the way we write currently. If I were going to write this sentence in Dad's English, I'd use the word 'were'. Today it's if I was going to write. There are a plethora of other ways in which our language has morphed over time, so old English books may not help very much.

Just as a jewler learns how to correctly cut jems so as to procure the best gem possibly, so to a rider needs to learn how to enginere a ritten work so that readers will wnat to by the book and reed it.

Lern you're craft.