Sunday, October 24, 2010

Is everything alright...er...all right?

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My trip to New York was fantastic and I really enjoyed meeting my agent and editor.
Both very talented, kind, welcoming people. Also a little on the shy side, hence the reason I don't have photos to post. It just didn't seem like the thing to do.


Anyway, I came home to copy edits on With A Name Like Love

and I learned a lot


mostly, I suck rocks at commas


but also the difference between alright and all right


for example.
.. in my novel, I have one character saying "Let's go" and the other says "Alright"


but that's apparently all wrong.


Alright
is fine for everyday stuff like emails, blogs, letters etc
but all right is what most editors will require in our manuscripts.

See, I thought all right would only be used when talking about a number...like he got the answers all right


I was wrong.

Isn't that interesting stuff?

So, tell me, which do you use?
Alright or all right?

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19 comments:

Michelle D. Argyle said...

Yay for your trip! That's awesome! I've always used all right. The other way just seemed wrong to me...like a shortcut or something.

Tess said...

smarty pants ;)

Ann Best said...

As an English major and grammar teacher, I knew it was "all right."

Congratulations on your upcoming publication of With a Name Like Love. I was 17 in 1957. That's my era. I will be so eager to read your book!!

I'm thinking a lot lately about writing some books based on that decade that I remember SO well.
Ann

Sharon K. Mayhew said...

Hmm... I always say okay...

I'm glad your trip turned out all right. (LOL)

Cindy R. Wilson said...

Yay for meeting your agent and editor! What an amazing trip. I don't like the looks of alright, so I usually use all right, but I didn't know which way was the right way.

superpaige said...

I didn't even know that Alright was an acceptable word.

Tess said...

Ann: you should write that story!

Sharon: haha

Cindy: it was amazing, thanks.

Paige: oh, you teacher girl you. Am I the only one who uses alright?

Kristen Torres-Toro said...

"All right"... I had an English teacher drill that into me. :0)

And I'm comma happy too!

Scott said...

I Google every time I start to use "alright" or "everyone" or some other words that can be one word or two words. Arrrgghhhh! Life is too complicated some times.

S

Robyn Campbell said...

*she raises her hand* GUILTY! And, I so love using commas. Aren't they all purty and everything all dressed up and stuffed into our sentences? There's another one that ALWAYS gets me. In or into. YIKES.

She rushes back to her story and types alright in find and replace. :)

^and Scott is right. Tooooooooo complicated SOMETIMES, Scott. hehe

lotusgirl said...

I'm an "alright" user. I use "all right" sometimes. I think there are times when alright is okay though. I'm going to have to research that one. This anti "alright" thing has to be a vast "smarty pants" conspiracy to make us all conform. The same goes for those commas. It's like they want us all to follow some huge set of rules or something. Alright, y'all, that's just tyrannical. Glad you had fun in NYC, Tess. I've missed having you around.

Tess said...

Kristen: ah, the English teachers of our youth.

Scott: Arrrgh! is right!

Robyn: hahaha...they are purty.

Lotusgirl: now this had me cracking up. Thanks, I needed a laugh this morning. "a vast smarty pants conspiracy....like they want us to all follow some huge set of rules or something"
so clever, you.

Anonymous said...

I do say all right but that's because my dad was pretty on top of his game about correcting me. ;) I worry about the comma thing with myself. Sometimes I think: "Dude! I'm the BEST with commas!" And then other times I think: "I'm so screwed."

Glad you had a wonderful time in NY! So happy to "see" you!

Davin Malasarn said...

I'm glad you had a good trip, Tess! I use all right, based on the advice of a 90-year-old ex-English teacher in my writer's group!

Kristin said...

This is so funny! Both of these words were on my 9 year old's spelling list last week. I had to google it to explain to him how to use each in a sentence! Ha!

I hope your daughter had a great trip too! It sounds like you did!

Cynthia Chapman Willis said...

Wow, now that you ask, I'm not sure whether I use alright or all right. I'm really not sure. I am going to have to pay more attention. But hurray that you had a wonderful time in NYC!

Mary Aalgaard said...

Alright. I've always squished'em together. I'll be more aware of it now, as I rework my novel.

Susan Fields said...

I've always been an all right girl. I think maybe I looked up alright in the dictionary once and couldn't find it, or I could be totally dreaming that. :) I'm glad you had a great trip!

Elana Johnson said...

I'm so glad you had fun in NYC! I'm going in April. And I always use all right. All right? All right. ;-)