User blog comment:Resdraon/Stop/@comment-5101683-20170114080049/@comment-4849011-20170115143634

I had a bad flashback because of something that happened a few weeks ago. Those who know me know that when I read a story, I'll usually do grammar and spelling clean-up (such as adding or removing commas and semicolons as need be). In fact, I've been asked to proofread stories in addition to reviewing them. I did grammar clean-up on one of my friend's stories, and then someone undid all my edits and criticized me for making them! They claimed that their revision of my edits was correct and that I was wrong, but didn't offer explanations for the most part. Instead of justification here was this whole attitude of "I'm right, and you should be ashamed of yourself!" When they did offer a reason, it was incorrect. For instance, they claimed my addition or removal (I forget which) of a comma would change the meaning of that passage. I thought, "Well, yes, that's the point! The comma was used incorrectly!" They also criticized my use of "semi-colons" (Yes, they put a dash in it) even though I had used them correctly and when appropriate. I; didn't; use; them; like; this;;;.

My mother is a retired Language Arts teacher who taught grammar and the like for over thirty years, so I approached her and sure enough, my edits were correct. She told me why the changes had been needed and even told me how to edit a couple of them more effectively. I came back and gave the person explanations for why I made the edits I did (This semicolon fixes a run-on sentence, this comma separates clauses, this comma isn't needed because it creates an unnecessary pause, etc.). I got no apology, and the person only corrected some of the errors they'd made. I went back and corrected the others, and what happened? This person changed one comma, even though I had explained why I had removed it. At that point Jay intervened and said enough's enough. The incident was frustrating because it's like making minor electrical repairs in a beautiful house so all the light switches and outlets work properly, having someone tear out the wires & fuses you put in while criticizing you making the repairs, you explaining why the repairs were justified, them replacing some of the wires & fuses they tore out, leaving you to do the other repairs again, and then them criticizing you for replacing a light bulb. ~sighs~

Long story short, I'm not stopping grammar and spelling clean-up because someone criticized me doing proper editing.