Wattpad 101: Your guide to the world of Wattpad

The Ten Grammar Mistakes That Anger Your Readers The Most

The reason I'm talking about avoiding those errors is that those errors infuriate certain people. Get good with your tenses, and if you aren't good, check, check, and triple check. Decide on a tense and get good writing in it, because nothing pulls people out of a writing quicker than frequent tense changes.

I could write another section for Point of View changes, from flipping between first and third to the "head hopping" phenomenon of third person limited, but I'll leave that as an aside here.

Never Write Alot

I use Microsoft word, so even the sentence above was instantly repaired the second I hit the spacebar. However, presuming your Microsoft Word doesn't like you (maybe you used express installation, what do you take him for, quick and easy?) or you use some weird word processor for the 90s, alot... see, had to change the word again... that word is not actually a word. And if you turn the word to allot because your word processor doesn't see that as incorrect, you're even more wrong.

Allot is like allotting someone time. It means providing or making available. That isn't the word you're trying to use when you use the word alot. Rather, you're trying to say two words, 'a lot'.

Personally, I think it should be a word. I see absolutely no reason we can't conjugate it. BUT... English hasn't done that yet and they probably have some linguistic rule shoved up their butt that makes it a word they refuse to tolerate. Either way, the point is there. You can have a lot of things. There is nothing called alot.

If your processor isn't making the correction every time you write this mistake, then make sure to make the correction yourself. It should show up as wrong on any spelling and grammar site. And if you take it the next step and make it allot... well, don't... just don't...

Ain'ts not a word either, but that gets slammed so much as a spoken word I don't think it needs to be addressed as a written word. You can actually use ain't in someone's dialogue all you want. It will certainly make their voice stand out.

Avoid Text Speak

I'll be surprised if I'm the first person you hear this from, but few people "like" textspeak among my generation. Few readers who like to, you know, read, happen to like textspeak. In fact, the only time I ever hear textspeak is when someone is mocking textspeak. I know textspeak more for being hated than for being something people actually use.

So, you know, don't use it. It isn't a way people talk. It isn't grammatically correct either. You can argue it's a more efficient means of conveying the same information, but not everyone understands textspeak in entirety. Replacing random "yous" with u's is just weird, and if you go much farther than that, you're going to be speaking a language that is bound to cut out some of your audience.

That said, as I've mentioned in other chapters, if you are trying to write textspeak to specifically target a textspeak audience, I won't stop you. If you actually are showing texts being sent between two characters who happen to use text speak, I also don't mind. However, I think incorporating textspeak into your writing because "it feels more natural" or some other excuse is only going to enrage that certain group of readers.

Be Homophonic

It should come as no surprise that 90% of my advice on how not to annoy the grammar Nazis of your story are pulled straight from my 'editing 201' chapter, as the most common editing mistakes tend to coincide with reader's pet peeves. In this case, homophones are things that sound alike. Here's one I make a lot, Sight and Site. Another obvious one would be To, and Too. Technically, this includes there, their etc.... but I gave them their own criteria for good reason.

Naturally, to the grammatically sensitive, confusing affect and effect are unforgivable. Like murder where they are the victims and your words are a knife stabbing them repeatedly in the ear. Avoid the big ones and you can at least keep back quite a few of the angriest comments.