Beta reader.

[j_mercuryuk]

:help: I have a friend who is writing a Willow/Tara fanfic, but she wants an american beta reader who can tell her if she's using the correct terms and is using the american education system correctly (if what she's writing about it is correct). I'll transfer the documents from her to you, and back again.

Is anyone interested? It would be a great help if you could help out.:good: :help:

[Bane]

I would help, but I don't know what that Beta Reader is. Or what a Willow/Tara story is. Can we have some more info? I guess since I don't know what it is, I can't help. :erm: Sorry.

[TamTam]

Not sure I can help you. I'm familiar with American terminology, but not so much with their education system. If that's all you want, and don't want the Willow/Tara story edited, I can half-help you. ;)

I want to know what Beta Reader is, too.

[Bane]

Is Beta Reader just a second reader who knows terminology? I know the school systems pretty well - I was in them for 12 years, after all - and what I don't know about them my mom can help with.

[Shalyn]

A Beta Reader is someone who reads your writing before you go to "publish" it. Beta-anything is for test markets.

Microsoft uses Beta-versions to test for bugs in their up and coming systems.

So what this person is doing is asking for people to read her story before she goes public with it, to find any mistakes.

Now...

What's Willow/Tara?

[Yonuh Adisi Fiend Jedi]

:help: I have a friend who is writing a Willow/Tara fanfic, but she wants an american beta reader who can tell her if she's using the correct terms and is using the american education system correctly (if what she's writing about it is correct). I'll transfer the documents from her to you, and back again.

Is anyone interested? It would be a great help if you could help out.:good: :help:


I reckon I can help you out, I was born and raised and still live in the U.S. so I know the school system (from a student's point of veaw anyhow)

[Anareth]

If you can't find anyone, I'll glance over it. I'm a BTVS fan so I can get the Willow/Tara stuff, and I did go through the US public school system.

[TamTam]

(snip)
Now...

What's Willow/Tara?
They're characters on the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" TV show. That's about all I know about it, though. I saw the movie, not the show.

[j_mercuryuk]

Willow/tara= they're Buffy the vampire charaters, the forward slash means they are a couple.

It's good that she has some feed back I'll tell her :D Thank you very much.

[cwolf]

Well... one, www.tthfanfic.com, click forums. You can also type "Twisting the Hellmouth" in a search engine. It's a website that's dedicated to all things crossed with Buffy. There's a contact list on the main page as well where you might find a beta.

:help: I have a friend who is writing a Willow/Tara fanfic, but she wants an american beta reader who can tell her if she's using the correct terms and is using the american education system correctly (if what she's writing about it is correct). I'll transfer the documents from her to you, and back again.

Is anyone interested? It would be a great help if you could help out.:good: :help:

[j_mercuryuk]

My friend asked me to put this up for people wanting more info.

If more info will help people you could tell them the following:

'The first few chapters of my fic will be set in Tara's home town with
her
as a high school senior (I think that this means last year in school).
The
aim is to show how Tara comes to be at UC Sunnydale. She is applying
to uni
secretly as she is having to hide what's she's doing from her Dad as he
really doesn't want her to go. The first chapter will be her speaking
to a
guidance counsellor and getting advice, with the chapters after that
dealing
with uni application, probably including her attempts to get
scholarships as
she'll have no financial support from her Dad.

I would want someone to check that my dealing with this makes sense and
is
approximately correct! As a Brit, even though I have done some
research, I
know I could make mistakes here. I hope this gives people a bit more
idea of
the type of areas I think I need help with. Thanks'

I don't know if this would help, but it might, as exactly what areas of
the
education system I'm dealing with might effect who would be happy to do
Betering (is this a word?!)

Thanks for your help. :D

[Anareth]

First thing would be we never call it 'Uni' unless we're somewhat pretentious and have lots of British or Aussie friends (like me. ;) ) We almost always refer to post-high-school as "college", as in "Are you going to college next year?" "University" is usually only used to refer to a particularly school by name, when it's part of the name. (To qualify as a university, there has to be more than one college contained in the school. The uni I went to as an undergrad, Washington and Lee, qualifies because it has a law school, and the Commerce School for undergrads is viewed as a separate program.) As such, we'd never say, "I'm going to University," we'd say, "I'm going to a University," or "the University." There has to be a modifier in there or it sounds very strange to American ears.

The usual American public school, which Tara because of her socio-economic status probably attended, is Kindergarden through twelfth grade, and is usually broken up into K-6 as elementary, 7-8 as middle school/junior high school, and 9-12 as high school. (There's some fudge factor--it could be K-5, 6-8, too--7-8 is how my district did it.) Twelfth year is called senior year (it's like college--freshman, sophomore, junior, senior). It would probably be in the fall if she's talking about applications. If she's just starting to plan, it would be more likely the spring of her junior year--there are tests you can take then that increase your chances of getting scholarships. She would also have had to take either the SAT or ACT tests.

Another issues--applications cost money. I think mine averaged about $50 a pop to apply to each school, and that was almost ten years ago. These usually have to be cheques, and are nonrefundable--you pay whether you're accepted or not. Then there's the application essay, and the application itself.

Oh, and Tara would almost certainly be eligible for federal financial aide. I'm VERY odd in that I've had about eight years of various higher educations now and never taken any loans, even from the govenrment. That's more forms, but given her family's apparent financial situation, Tara would DEFINITELY qualify for a Stafford Loan (which she'd have to pay back) and maybe even a Pell Grant (which she wouldn't.)

[Yonuh Adisi Fiend Jedi]

My school district in Artesia New mexico did it this way.


Kindergarden. 1-5 Elementary School. 6-7 Intermediate School 7-8 Junior High 9-12 High School.

Kindergarden
ABO Elementary........................................................ABO Gophers
Zia Intermediate.......................................................Zia Hornets
Park Junior High (Parkatraz) :evil: :evil:..................................Park Trojans
Artesia High.............................................................Artes ia Bulldogs

[TamTam]

Around here, it's a little different. For instance, basic schooling goes K-6 for elementary, 7-9 for jr. high, and 10-12 for high school.

I do know a little bit about grants, because I got one to finish high school as an adult. They'll pay your tuition, books and other necessities (graphing calculator for math, etc.), and a small living allowance. There was a fair amount of paperwork for me, but not so much since I was getting basic education.

If Tara does not have a wealthy family, she might want to try for a scholarship. There's an awful lot of them out there, but they require a lot of work with essays and good grades and whatnot. Teachers encourage their students to try for as many scholarships as they can, because it's not guaranteed that they will get one in particular, or any, for that matter.