Cami Sabin - tip for writing

Secret #11: Walk Away

Take a break from the emotional labor of writing before starting the revision process. When you are caught up in the moment, especially when you are heavily invested in the subject or the process of your writing, it is easy to miss errors both big and small. By walking away for a short time, you can return with fresh eyes and a clearer perspective, and potentially catch more of your mistakes.

I found several grammatical errors this week. The first is from the article "10 Quick Tips for Perfect Selfie," on Designbolts.com. I suspect this article was originally written in another language and then translated to English by either a poor translator or sub-par software. Tip #4 states, “Your hands should not shiver while taking selfies, stop shaking your hand for a best selfie result, your hand has to be still for a perfect and flawless shot.”

The author or translator combined three independent clauses with commas, which is known as a comma splice as described in Mistake #9, Misusing Commas. Each clause in the example is independent. In addition, the wording is awkward, incorrect and redundant. I would revise the sentence as follows: Hold your camera very still for a flawless shot.

The second error I found was the result of the same article, although not in the article itself. Another tip says, “Forget the world around you and start making a pout in your perfect selfie shots. Act like a celebrity and be a poser.” I laughed at the use of “poser” in this tip, because I suspect this is one of those words that was poorly translated. Just for fun, I looked up “poser” on UrbanDictionary.com. Here is a screen shot:

This is an example of Mistake #7, Confusing Possessives and Contractions. “Whose” is a possessive, but the contraction “who’s” that would make more sense – even though the phrase still seems to be incomplete. Someone who’s not what?

And finally, this example comes from the Ogden Standard-Examiner. In an article about the aftermath of the recent fire in Uintah, the paper reported:

The turn of events prompted concerns of a larger disaster. Roads were closed, many in the Uintah Highlands had to evacuate when things were at their worst, and firefighters resorted to tapping at least one swimming pool for water to fight the blaze given limited resources.

Placing the phrase “given limited resources” in its present position makes it sound as if the blaze was given limited resources. I believe this is an example of Mistake #8, Dangling and Misplacing Modifiers. It was the firefighters, not the fire, who had the limited resources.