Murfle.

[sincere]

I feel kinda bad about non_plot smackdowns, but... Learn grammar, or stop complaining, bitch. That's our new community policy. If you don't want to improve, get used to people trying to help you, and excuse us for caring. You chose to be here, and that's what we do here.

Comments

Hey there, don't feel bad

[zyanet.livejournal.com]

Hi Kay, I wasn't aware of everything that happened afterwards, and I wasn't even trying to get everyone upset or attack anyone. But let me explain what happened. Michel had told me to clear up rules about contraction use. I thought he was talking about a whole page full of them, I had no idea it was just two contractions. I hadn't even read what the person had written and much less did I know it was gata, someone I do know to have good grammar.

I am aware that what I said was taken out of perspective because I only said to avoid contractions or never use them, but I never said you can't use them. I am familiar with the rules because I am an English teacher and my main study is in classical literature. Most of us say to avoid contractions because I find many times that students don't grasp how to use them properly. But yes, I have seen many respectable writers of the modern period use them, but they know how to and which ones to avoid .I have used them myself. Some of them are absolute no no's simply because they are confusing such as who's versus whose.

But like I said before, I thought it was a page full of them. As for Michel...don't let him get to you. I am sorry to say I know the guy and he is quite...well I wish I had nicer words, an ass. Really, whatever Michel comments just don't put to much energy in arguing with him because he will continue until he makes a point.

He knows what he says, only I think at times he just doesn't word them properly. However, in the end, Michel is just a character within one. I don't know if you understand what I mean, but don't break your head trying to figure it out.

Again sweetie I am really sorry I had no knowledge of what had happened or that it caused much of an uproar and that there were a bunch of comments afterwards, I sincerely didn't read them.

I am sorry it had to be on one of gata's post too and the reason I say this is because she is one of my students and so I think now you may understand the confusion on my behalf.

I hope to post in the future on non_plot, I know I haven't been active, but I have been too busy with my students. I always try to keep up when I can. It has been really hard to do so though.

I hope I did not occupy too much space. I was sort of wondering if there was a way this message could only be viewed by you and no one else because this is kind of personal.

Re: Hey there, don't feel bad

[kay-willow.livejournal.com]

Thank you for contacting me~. I understand that it wasn't your fault, and I don't hold you to blame -- I'm actually not surprised that you weren't fully aware of the circumstances. I was reasonably confident that it would be difficult to find people who really sincerely believed, as Michelangelus advocated, that Gata-san's work was innately flawed because of the "obvious" grammar mistake that she used two whole commas in her narration.

I think a lot of the confusion stemmed from that misunderstanding: Pie-chan and I were arguing against Michel's point, which you seemed to be supporting, so even though you never said that contractions were taboo, we acted as if you had. That's because he told Gata-san that contractions were simply not ALLOWED in third-person narration, which is of course not true, as anyone who reads a good deal can attest. So when you seemed to be supporting him... ^^;

I would like to apologize on behalf of the moderators for the whole mess. In the future I think I might simply delete comments where people argue with dissenting opinions -- it's extremely impolite, and anyone who's not willing to allow other people to have a different opinion (and all the opposing comments made regarding his initial statement were very careful to make it clear that it's really all the author's stylistic choice whether or not to use contractions) isn't going to let the matter drop.

I think Michel's a bit touchy about the subject because we comment on his grammar a lot: usually we'll overlook minor grammar errors instead of dissecting a piece for them, because we all know the content is more important, but his pieces tend to have very awkward statements and some that outright don't mean what he thinks they mean. We will edit for reading comprehension and ease of reading, so... We really don't do it in a hostile way, and we really do want to help, but I get the distinct feeling the grammar commentary aggravates him.

At any rate, we won't hold any grudges against Michelangelus when he comes back, and we certainly don't hold any against you. There are certain of us moderators who would like to be English teachers ourselves. ^_^ I hope to see some of your own writing in the future when there's time, especially since you're close to Gata-san! (Ha... I've been making a habit out of annoying her friends recently. *flee!*) She's really talented and writes beautifully and I've heard nothing but glowing things about you from her~.

And don't worry; I can screen the comments so that no one can see it besides you and me.