Why do editors make so many mistakes?

[Claudia Angelucci]

Hi Claudia, Matt, Gerry, and everyone! I used Grammerly for my reviews but my latest review got 4 errors. 1 is a dash/em-dash issue. I guess grammar checkers have holes after all. -.-

Hi!
I also use Grammarly, but less often. Now, I use an app called Rewrite that someone here suggested, and I have to say it works great.

[Gerry Steen]

Wow, Gerry, thank you very much! This was the editor's comment after my recheck request: 'Like I said, you did well to provide a detailed summary of the book. However, readers are more interested in hearing your thoughts on the book rather than just the summary. Here's the only positive point you made in the review: "The writing maintains a crisp flow, with dialogue that feels authentic. Moreover, the book exhibits professional editing, devoid of any objective mistakes." For an official review (or any review, for that matter), you could have done more, in my opinion. However, you can ask an admin to weigh in on this. Thanks.'

Well, it's a shame I cannot respond to the editor a second time; otherwise, I would have sent them your message. Thank you very much; I really appreciate it. I am going to ask the administrator, as I am at my last recheck and feel a bit torn. Thank you again; I'll let you know the outcome!

Claudia, the more I think about it, and the more I go over the guidelines, I see that some of the guidelines are NEBULOUS to most people including the poor editors. For clarity, NEBULOUS means unclear, vague, or ill-defined. This leaves the guidelines open to wide interpretation and creates confusion. I cringe to hear how many people will get nabbed by the newest guidelines:

- Do not specify the author's gender or use gendered pronouns unless you are certain of the author's gender. When in doubt, use gender neutral terms (e.g. "The author does a great job at..." instead of "She did a great job at...).

- Please consider the above two guidelines as specific examples of this more important and much broader overall rule: Do not write objectively false statements in your review. Do not present information as objectively accurate and absolutely true if you are not certain that it is objectively true and accurate.

In my humble opinion, we can never be certain of the author's gender in today's world. Therefore, we should never be given the option of deciding that we are certain of their gender. It should be written like this: Do not specify the author's gender or use gendered pronouns. Use gender neutral terms (e.g. "The author does a great job at..." instead of "She did a great job at...).

It would have been nice if it was stipulated that we can use "their" instead of "his" or "her". Also, "they" instead of "he" or "she".

Isn't that clearer? There is less room for error and interpretation. The only way we can truly know how an author identifies their gender is if they stipulate it in the Reviewer page book summary and details that we recieve when we select a book.

And, what about this rule? "Do not write objectively false statements in your review. Do not present information as objectively accurate and absolutely true if you are not certain that it is objectively true and accurate." This was written as an addition to the new guideline about avoiding mentioning a book's page count due to differing formats. This rule sounds very philosophical to me. There is a lot of room for interpretation in philosophy. No examples are given to show exactly what is meant by this rule in terms of writing reviews. Other than page counts, what else could they mean? Is this up to the editors to decide on their own? This is not fair to them or us. OBJECTIVELY means not influenced by personal feelings or opinions. Aren't reviews subjective? Different reviewers will assess and rate a book differently. Are the editors being asked to be the judge?

What do you think?

Also, one more thing. In my very first review, I was penalized for not double-spacing between paragraphs. I was told that it looked sloppy and that I had not followed the guidelines. I agree with the editor that it that it did look sloppy, but I could never find anything about double-spacing paragraphs in the guidelines. Are you able to find it?

I completely agree with you.
Yes, the guidelines are indeed a bit unclear! I use the author's gender pronoun after double-checking online or in the book bio. If I am completely unsure, I use the neutral they/them.

Regarding writing factual information in reviews, I understand its importance, but I'm not sure how it fits into the guidelines. I think most reviewers understand this anyway. Besides, who is going to check? Editors don't necessarily read the books being reviewed.
I've noticed many published reviews that are completely AI-generated and the reviewer never read the book. I know this because I've read the book; otherwise, I wouldn't be able to tell.

And no, I've never read anything about spacing in the guidelines. Frankly, I see reviews without any spacing, and I don't mind. Everyone has their own style, and editors shouldn't judge based on that.

Thank you, Claudia.

[Alissa Nesson]

I learned that there a lot of things we’re expected to know that we have to find out the hard way. I’ve often wanted to make a list of things that I’ve learned for the website for newbies to look at. When I joined, summarizing the book wasn’t written in the guidelines, but we sure did have to do it or it was a guidelines violation.

Not writing objectively false information is a good rule. We just have to do our best to make sure our information is correct. This one makes sense to me. If an editor hasn’t read the book, as they often haven’t, they will look up the book on Amazon to get as much information about the book as possible. They don’t have access to information that you don’t.

I agree that different editors may interpret the guidelines differently, or one editor may have a different idea of what it means to “state your opinion strongly enough,” etc. it can be frustrating. Editors are often arguing amongst themselves about what’s wrong and what’s right on a scorecard.

[Gerry Steen]

I learned that there a lot of things we’re expected to know that we have to find out the hard way. I’ve often wanted to make a list of things that I’ve learned for the website for newbies to look at. When I joined, summarizing the book wasn’t written in the guidelines, but we sure did have to do it or it was a guidelines violation.

Not writing objectively false information is a good rule. We just have to do our best to make sure our information is correct. This one makes sense to me. If an editor hasn’t read the book, as they often haven’t, they will look up the book on Amazon to get as much information about the book as possible. They don’t have access to information that you don’t.

I agree that different editors may interpret the guidelines differently, or one editor may have a different idea of what it means to “state your opinion strongly enough,” etc. it can be frustrating. Editors are often arguing amongst themselves about what’s wrong and what’s right on a scorecard.

Hi, Alissa. I agree with the need for guidelines. It would be absurd not to have any. On the other hand, I feel that losing 30% on our rating for a questionable guideline infraction is "crushing" to the person who has spent 12+ hours crafting and rechecking their review and another 12+ hours checking, making notes, and checking grammar rules in regards to errors, counted and uncounted, made by the author. I think that losing 10% for each guideline infraction would be more fair and representative of the quality of the written review. What are your thoughts on this?

[Alissa Nesson]

I learned that there a lot of things we’re expected to know that we have to find out the hard way. I’ve often wanted to make a list of things that I’ve learned for the website for newbies to look at. When I joined, summarizing the book wasn’t written in the guidelines, but we sure did have to do it or it was a guidelines violation.

Not writing objectively false information is a good rule. We just have to do our best to make sure our information is correct. This one makes sense to me. If an editor hasn’t read the book, as they often haven’t, they will look up the book on Amazon to get as much information about the book as possible. They don’t have access to information that you don’t.

I agree that different editors may interpret the guidelines differently, or one editor may have a different idea of what it means to “state your opinion strongly enough,” etc. it can be frustrating. Editors are often arguing amongst themselves about what’s wrong and what’s right on a scorecard.

Hi, Alissa. I agree with the need for guidelines. It would be absurd not to have any. On the other hand, I feel that losing 30% on our rating for a questionable guideline infraction is "crushing" to the person who has spent 12+ hours crafting and rechecking their review and another 12+ hours checking, making notes, and checking grammar rules in regards to errors, counted and uncounted, made by the author. I think that losing 10% for each guideline infraction would be more fair and representative of the quality of the written review. What are your thoughts on this?

Oh yes, I’ve often thought that minor infractions are overly penalized. I know that most of us work really hard on our reviews. I know I agonize over every word and comma. And it is crushing. That’s why I said I’ve learned a lot of things here the hard way, when I don’t think it needs to be that way. I don’t feel like newbies are given enough information.

[Chi Chiu Michael Mak]

Hi Claudia, Matt, Gerry, and everyone! I used Grammerly for my reviews but my latest review got 4 errors. 1 is a dash/em-dash issue. I guess grammar checkers have holes after all. -.-

Hi!
I also use Grammarly, but less often. Now, I use an app called Rewrite that someone here suggested, and I have to say it works great.

I searched "rewrite app" on Bing and my first result is quillbot.com. Is this the one you're using?

[Claudia Angelucci]

Hi Claudia, Matt, Gerry, and everyone! I used Grammerly for my reviews but my latest review got 4 errors. 1 is a dash/em-dash issue. I guess grammar checkers have holes after all. -.-

Hi!
I also use Grammarly, but less often. Now, I use an app called Rewrite that someone here suggested, and I have to say it works great.

I searched "rewrite app" on Bing and my first result is quillbot.com. Is this the one you're using?

https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... ps.rewrite
It is this one. You can get it for free in the Play Store. All the best!

[Chi Chiu Michael Mak]

Hi!
I also use Grammarly, but less often. Now, I use an app called Rewrite that someone here suggested, and I have to say it works great.

I searched "rewrite app" on Bing and my first result is quillbot.com. Is this the one you're using?

https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... ps.rewrite
It is this one. You can get it for free in the Play Store. All the best!

Thanks for the link Claudia! I'll give it a test run and see how it goes.

[Diana Lowery]

The old guidelines had a requirement for double spacing between paragraphs. Editors are allowed to suggest that the paragraphs have double spaces between them, but they should not be deducting points for that issue.

[Gerry Steen]

The old guidelines had a requirement for double spacing between paragraphs. Editors are allowed to suggest that the paragraphs have double spaces between them, but they should not be deducting points for that issue.

Hi, Diana. Thank you for informing us about this. Good to know! Have a nice day.

[Gerry Steen]

I searched "rewrite app" on Bing and my first result is quillbot.com. Is this the one you're using?

https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... ps.rewrite
It is this one. You can get it for free in the Play Store. All the best!

Thanks for the link Claudia! I'll give it a test run and see how it goes.

Yes, Claudia and Chi Chiu, thank you for completing this information. I will definitely check it out.

[Claudia Angelucci]

The old guidelines had a requirement for double spacing between paragraphs. Editors are allowed to suggest that the paragraphs have double spaces between them, but they should not be deducting points for that issue.

Thank you for the clarification, Diana!

[Chi Chiu Michael Mak]

https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... ps.rewrite
It is this one. You can get it for free in the Play Store. All the best!

Thanks for the link Claudia! I'll give it a test run and see how it goes.

Yes, Claudia and Chi Chiu, thank you for completing this information. I will definitely check it out.

I tested the Rewrite app on a review I submitted yesterday. I can confirm it works pretty well. The editor didn't deduct any "grammar error" marks from it. Thanks a lot Claudia for the recommendation!

[Shirley Ann Riddern Labzentis]

Who has come across a book where the typesetting is way off, and if so, did you mention it? I have read a lot of books where all of a sudden the sentences are double spaced. Then after a couple of pages, it goes back to single space. Also the paragraphs are not specified. Some are indented, some start with a double space and some continue right after the previous sentence. I always mentioned this in my reviews and took off a point in the rating. Well, the last editor giged me for it and took off some points saying that it is not the authors fault and I should not have taken points off the rating of the book. No one has ever mentioned this before. Now I am reading another book with the same problem, but I don't know if I should ignore it or mention it.

[Diana Lowery]

Interesting. I have never had an editor deduct points for my rating. Did you ask for an admin recheck?
If I had been dinged for mentioning it in the past, I think I would avoid it in the future.