Grader Wages 8/22 - 9/21

There have been a few important changes in the grading world.

1. If anyone wants me to thoroughly analyze one of their grades and give feedback, let me know. I want to start offering that option to interested graders.
2. We have reinstituted an old system of quality moderation. Here are the details. The basic gist: if you pump out too many Weak grades, we banhammer your grading powers. SO DON’T DO WEAK GRADES. There has been a lot of improvement over the past few months, and we want to keep things moving up.
3. If you’re grading something, please include an exact character count. If the author edits later, especially after an unsuccessful capture, I don’t know how much to pay you.
4. The Library system has been instituted. Consistent high quality grading will result in promotion to Councilor level. Once there, you can put forth potential Library candidates, which Kat and I’ll read through. If you are a non-Councilor grader, feel free to post things in the recommendation log for Councilors to pick up. You won’t get paid for reviewing things unless you’re a Councilor, though. Also. Ataro got 15k for reading something. YOU WANT TO BE A COUNCILOR.

Alaskapigeon
$3,000 Basic – Mother
$2,600 Basic – Shattered
$2,200 Basic – Abigails Birthday Your grades are barely making it over that Basic barrier. Good job with not writing up any Weak grades this session, though. You should continue reading higher rank grades from various graders. …Annoy me (and other experienced graders—some of the Councilors would be good choices) about giving you tips.

Ataro
$20,000 Extensive – *-The Jewel Of Life-* I gave you pay based on the edited version of the story, because the character count of the non-edited version could have been the difference between Moderate and Extensive pay—depending on whether or not the 24k rounded up to 25k. YOU’RE LUCKY I’M GENEROUS. Consider it your regrade bonus. Anyway, very nice work. Thorough, helpful, specific to the story. Be careful that you don’t expend this much effort on some of the shorter stories, because it won’t do much for the authors in 80% of the cases.
$15,000 Review – Left Behind THANK. YOU.
$5,000 Moderate – The Magikarp That Tweeted
$5,000 Moderate – Vs Weedle and Caterpie Highly useful advice. However, the in depth nature may have been a bit overwhelming for a new writer. I wouldn’t call it “overkill,” but at the same time, that level of analysis for such a brief story does get tricky. Shaving off some of the deeper nuances could have helped with the clarity of this particular grade.

Elrond
$21,000 Complex – Left Behind: Final Part This grade handled some fundamental downfalls with the writer’s style—good job.

MagikChicken
$7,000 Moderate – Between A very strong Moderate level, in most ways. Two main things, though. These are more in the way of writing theory than grading functions. “There has to be some kind of excitement.” No, there doesn’t. Some writers use “excitement” like gunfights and chase scenes to entertain their readers. It seems, from your grade, that neither of those suit the tone of the story. Just because there is a brief chase scene doesn’t mean that dwelling on it would benefit the story in its artistic entirety. I’d say that would detract from this story, actually. It doesn’t fit with the ideas. That still leaves a perceived lack of “zing” for you, though. So. What you should be talking about here is the concept of engagement. Explain the aspects that prevented the story from being wholly engrossing, and then make suggestions to rectify this in ways that suit the story. Action scenes aren’t the only way. BUT SO, point being with this is, there isn’t an “absolute good story” parameter bar. If something could be changed for impact’s sake, help the author think about how they could do so while keeping within the concept of the story itself. Secondly, your advice on description was very well posed and explained, for the most part. I was impressed—so nice job. But, your “description bettering exercise” insinuates that adding adjectives to nouns is how you write good description. And it’s not. In fact, adjectives often weaken description. Lastly, just an insignificant note: “Lost eggs led to lost babies led to feral Pokemon.” That is grammatically correct in the sense that you dealt with it. The fix you suggested loses a nuanced grammatical construction. A comma (of ellipsis, denoting an omitted “which”) added after “babies” would have been a clarity fix that would retain the initial tone and subtlety. Not so much a “YARG” thing as a “I saw this and it bugged me” thing.

Nyurgh
$0,600 Weak – Like a G6 This grade wasn’t so much advice as an extended summary. Make sure you tell the writer how they can improve something or other. The only concrete “change this” statement was in the grammar section. Ask more questions that provoke story-related thought. Don’t be afraid to get analytical, even if the story won’t necessarily hold up against hardcore evaluation.

sorocoroto
$8,500 Moderate – Demons of the Forest
$7,000 Moderate – The Worst Friend Ever Normally such a grammar-heavy grade wouldn’t be beneficial to a writer. You made a good choice here, though, as the writer did struggle with grammar to the point that focusing heavily on other areas of writing would just cross wires and prevent improvement.
$2,600 Basic – A Wild Pair You can definitely reach Moderate level with your analysis. You should try for it consistently. Don’t just talk about what you found wrong with the story, because when you get to writers who are experienced, you won’t have anything to say. Talk about how writers can do what they’re doing better. Touch not just on what they did well, but on how they can use that strength to improve their style and story. Ask questions, and don’t always give the answers.
$2,000 Basic – Reeling in a Whopping Wooper! If you’re going to approach a story with such a radically different style, you should probably adopt an alternate evaluation style. This stands for any work, really—you should suit the analysis to the story—but especially for something like a script. If you want an example, check out Ataro’s grade of Alaska’s twitter Magikarp story.

Nice job, overall.

Taras Bulba
$40,000 Extensive – It’s a Dog’s Life
$18,000 Complex – A Blade in the Night
$17,000 Complex – Something to Prevent
$15,000 Complex – Finding Refuge: Part Two
$6,000 Moderate – Haunted

First off. Elements of Style: GOOD. Keep recommending it to people. Second off. Hacker: GOOD. More obscure, but more accessible. Third off. TVTropes. Not as official, but also, GOOD. Fourth off. In depth coverage of the science-based elements of worldbuilding: Very, very hard to find, and as such, highly valuable to writers using them. GOOD. Fifth off. Details. I saw an improvement. I’ll talk to you about building that section up more, if you like, but you’re handling it well on your own. Keep up the good work.

 

Claimed, and thanks again Scourge. I'm trying not to get grade banned. 0_0

 

Thanks Nemo!

 

*claims*

Thanks, Katie. I AM HAPPY THAT I MADE YOU PROUD.

 

Thanks Scourge, Claiming them moneyz

 

1337, $600.Yeah, I'm pretty lazy, so I think I'll stick to reffing. Thanks Nemo.