Re-writing Other People's Work
What not to do when reviewing15 total reviews
Comment from Gert sherwood
Hello Alvin,
with you being an expert on haiku I can understand your feelings.
I just wonder if these people know you should be respected and you have so much knowledge about writing haiku.
I know you have helped me a lot and I appreciate your help
Gert
reply by the author on 31-Dec-2008
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Hello Alvin,
with you being an expert on haiku I can understand your feelings.
I just wonder if these people know you should be respected and you have so much knowledge about writing haiku.
I know you have helped me a lot and I appreciate your help
Gert
Comment Written 31-Dec-2008
reply by the author on 31-Dec-2008
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Thank you for understanding what I was trying to say.
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Alvin you are welcome
I made a good attempt to write a hakiu -
" cruel winter."
take a look if you get a chance
Thank you.
Gert
Comment from Judian James
I agree with you completely but some do not understand how offensive that can be or how inappropriate. Constructive criticism is so helpful, but to actually restructure someone's work adding the reviewers own words makes it the reviewer's piece and the writer has been disrespected.
reply by the author on 31-Dec-2008
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I agree with you completely but some do not understand how offensive that can be or how inappropriate. Constructive criticism is so helpful, but to actually restructure someone's work adding the reviewers own words makes it the reviewer's piece and the writer has been disrespected.
Comment Written 31-Dec-2008
reply by the author on 31-Dec-2008
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That is exactly my point. Thank you for understanding that so well.
Comment from laurelp
I am not sure how to rate this. You are giving your opinion of yourself. Plus an opinion of those who try and correct your work. It is obvious you think very highly of yourself and you may have won enough awards to be correct. I will only say that whoever this is direct towards, you do show a certain amount of contempt for them. Again, I don't know if this is right or wrong. But, to say the least, it is interesting.
reply by the author on 31-Dec-2008
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I am not sure how to rate this. You are giving your opinion of yourself. Plus an opinion of those who try and correct your work. It is obvious you think very highly of yourself and you may have won enough awards to be correct. I will only say that whoever this is direct towards, you do show a certain amount of contempt for them. Again, I don't know if this is right or wrong. But, to say the least, it is interesting.
Comment Written 31-Dec-2008
reply by the author on 31-Dec-2008
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When a reviewer rewrites another's work, the work becomes the reviewer's, not the author's. I have worked very hard to be where I am today. Yes, I do not like when other people think more highly of themselves, especially if they don't have the credentials to do so, than they do of me.
Comment from CALLAHANMR
Hi Alvin:)
I would never attempt to rewrite to rewrite something by a professional like yourself, but I do believe Fanstory is a learning website. That being the case I think it behooves a professional writer like myself to suggest possible changes in one's area of expertise.
I Do not believe my statement applies to poetry. That is so much a matter of feeling in poetic expression. Only the creative force behind a thought knows when a change is appropriate.
I too, get offended when other writers, even professionals, attempt to interpret or redirect the meaning of my work. Still I welcome suggestions concerning tense, misspellings (Even spell check accepts words that are clearly wrong, although the word that appears may be correctly spelled. The Fanstory spell check sometimes makes outrageous suggestions.) and perhaps a speach tag for clarification.
I have been highly paid for editing scientific and technical articles and books.
I might add that I have found no person on Fanstory who uses more correct English grammar or punctuation than my wife Marilyn. She always looks at any major changes I might suggest to make certain I am correct. We work as a team on all our writing, as we have for forty-eight years.
I think your little essay is very instructive. We both appreciate your outstanding reviews and poetry. Thank you for generously sharing your expertise.
Roger
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reply by the author on 31-Dec-2008
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Hi Alvin:)
I would never attempt to rewrite to rewrite something by a professional like yourself, but I do believe Fanstory is a learning website. That being the case I think it behooves a professional writer like myself to suggest possible changes in one's area of expertise.
I Do not believe my statement applies to poetry. That is so much a matter of feeling in poetic expression. Only the creative force behind a thought knows when a change is appropriate.
I too, get offended when other writers, even professionals, attempt to interpret or redirect the meaning of my work. Still I welcome suggestions concerning tense, misspellings (Even spell check accepts words that are clearly wrong, although the word that appears may be correctly spelled. The Fanstory spell check sometimes makes outrageous suggestions.) and perhaps a speach tag for clarification.
I have been highly paid for editing scientific and technical articles and books.
I might add that I have found no person on Fanstory who uses more correct English grammar or punctuation than my wife Marilyn. She always looks at any major changes I might suggest to make certain I am correct. We work as a team on all our writing, as we have for forty-eight years.
I think your little essay is very instructive. We both appreciate your outstanding reviews and poetry. Thank you for generously sharing your expertise.
Roger
This rating does not count towards story rating or author rank.
The highest and the lowest rating are not included in calculations.
Comment Written 31-Dec-2008
reply by the author on 31-Dec-2008
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I think correcting misspellings, grammar, and punctuation is appropriate. I do not think totally re-writing another's work is--that makes it the reviewer's work and not the author's.
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I couldn't agree more.
Roger
Comment from rama devi
Gosh, I hope I wasn't one of the culprits!If so, forgive me and know that no offense was intended. I had no idea you felt so strongly about this. I do not really agree with it being megalomanic to show in a review how you would edit a work. It is a technique I sometimes use, to illustrate a point....that I would prune or tweak a line so that the author can compare and decide which way they prefer it to be.
Alvin, on other sites where most of the writers are professional, everyone critiques freely and unhesitatingly....rewriting certain lines and offering them as an alternative to consider. I do not find that offensive, but on the contrary, Very helpful.
Remember Claire Costello? She is by no means a megalomaniac, but she often rewrites some lines (suggestively, not insistently)...so do many valued writers on those professional sites.
So, I do not mean to challenge you, but to voice an opinion that while it is certainly unprofessional and undesirable to review in an imposing manner....a well intended and humbly offered suggestion with rewritten lines is not necessarily offensive.
Sometimes it is a kind service to illustrate your critique by offering an example written out.
For example,I have sometimes come across poems that are all in once block of thirty lines with no line breaks..desnely packed and difficult to read. So to help to author see how the same poem would look with more breathing spaces, I will copy and paste the entire poem into the review and insert line breaks as I would have put them. Just to illustrate the idea. Would you consider that unprofessional or offensive? I am sincerely curios.
All that aside, it is a well written editorial.
No nits.
All the Best
Warm regards,
rama devi
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reply by the author on 31-Dec-2008
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Gosh, I hope I wasn't one of the culprits!If so, forgive me and know that no offense was intended. I had no idea you felt so strongly about this. I do not really agree with it being megalomanic to show in a review how you would edit a work. It is a technique I sometimes use, to illustrate a point....that I would prune or tweak a line so that the author can compare and decide which way they prefer it to be.
Alvin, on other sites where most of the writers are professional, everyone critiques freely and unhesitatingly....rewriting certain lines and offering them as an alternative to consider. I do not find that offensive, but on the contrary, Very helpful.
Remember Claire Costello? She is by no means a megalomaniac, but she often rewrites some lines (suggestively, not insistently)...so do many valued writers on those professional sites.
So, I do not mean to challenge you, but to voice an opinion that while it is certainly unprofessional and undesirable to review in an imposing manner....a well intended and humbly offered suggestion with rewritten lines is not necessarily offensive.
Sometimes it is a kind service to illustrate your critique by offering an example written out.
For example,I have sometimes come across poems that are all in once block of thirty lines with no line breaks..desnely packed and difficult to read. So to help to author see how the same poem would look with more breathing spaces, I will copy and paste the entire poem into the review and insert line breaks as I would have put them. Just to illustrate the idea. Would you consider that unprofessional or offensive? I am sincerely curios.
All that aside, it is a well written editorial.
No nits.
All the Best
Warm regards,
rama devi
This rating does not count towards story rating or author rank.
The highest and the lowest rating are not included in calculations.
Comment Written 31-Dec-2008
reply by the author on 31-Dec-2008
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No, of course you weren't. Your suggestions have always been helpful and I don't ever remember a time you tried to re-write my work. No, punctuation corrections and line break corrections are acceptable in professional reviewing. Changing the wording is not. A professional reviewer (and I was taught to review by publishing houses) will make suggestions where the vocabulary or syntax can be changed, but will not re-write the work--that makes it the reviewer's work and not the author's. I would not feel so strongly about this if I did not have the credentials in writing haiku and Japanese forms of poetry that I do.
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Yes, that sheds light on it for me. it is ture that it becomes the reviewers work if we rewrite lines.I will take this into conisderation when reviewing. i often rewrite lines and the author uses them. In do not mind sharing ideas, but then they may not grow in writing if they do not have to conjure the edits themselves.
I totaly see what you mean!
I am so glad and relieved to hear that I am not one of the ones who did this.
Probably i would never need to do this when reviewing your work because it is a higher caliber, professional standard.
I find that for new poets or mediocre ones, illustrating the idea with an example is a good teaching tool. I will have to figure this out.
Warm regards,
rama devi
