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Hello everyone, my name is Jos K Kitten, I'm a little new here, however I have noticed a few things since I joined this guild a few days ago. I've noticed that many people don't know much about grammar, spelling, or writing literally. Now this is kind of a problem for the few of us who are trying to dechiper some post because it's difficult to read!
So, the reason for this forum. I know a friend of mine who was a Vice Captian in another guild who made a forum about spelling, grammar, and basically a forum of tips how to write literally! It was extremely helpful, so I decided to post it here for you guys! I'm sure it'll be very helpful to those who don't know much about writing.
So, let's get started!
Please don't put actions between ** or --.
Honestly, it's a little confusing (to me at least) and looks ugly. Don't do it, it's more work for me trying to figure out what you mean to say and retype it.
Don't be lazy and use "u" or "r" or anything stupid like that.
I don't care if you chat outside our little roleplaying world like that, but please, when you are roleplaying, be literate. "U r so cool!" DOES NOT CUT IT! Type the freaking word out! Don't be lazy because 'It's the Internet! =D'. Please... don't get me started.
Please use periods or some kind of a punctuation mark at the end of a sentence.
This bothers me a lot and it's hard to explain without an example. So here we go:
Shadow put his Chaos Emerald away "Alright then " He said.
It would be better with some periods in there:
Shadow puts his Chaos Emerald away. "Alright then." He said.
Do you see it now? I also hate to see run on sentences, or basically sentences that don't ever seem to end except for one period at the very end. Please use periods and separate your ideas. sweatdrop You have no idea how annoying run on sentences are I dare you try to read this out loud without a break because I didn't put in any commas so you're screwed aren't you? Different ideas means different sentences, and that means the use of periods!
Dialogue and quotes must always be between equation marks ("")!
Dialogue, if you don't know, is what your character says. Need an example? Here; "I'm just going to go to the store." That's it. Then the quotation marks go around the first letter of the first word and punctuation mark at the end. If you want to make it look pretty, people like to make it bold. Not necessary, I certainly don't do that. Please, however, don't forget the quotation marks.
People and places have a capital letter in their name.
So please put Sonic instead of sonic. It's the same thing for everyone else and their characters. Names always have a capital! Places do to, but only if it has a name. So something like Ice Cap mountain, but the mountain wouldn't have the ''M" capitalized. I realize this shouldn't be a big deal if you forgot to put a capital in, but it just bothers me. Sometimes I edit, sometimes I don't, just depends on my mood.
**My mouse likes to double click now, so unless you want 'sShadow', you better do it yourself. wink **
Contractions! Remember those apostrophes!
I don't know if people are lazy, or they forgot, or they don't see it, but words like "Don't" or "Let's" do have the apostrophes. Usually, the apostrophes mean that something is missing, if that helps with anything. It's the same thing for anything that has to do with possession as in "Sonic's shoes" so don't forget about that either. "Sonic's shoes' actually means "Sonic his shoes" and "Let's" means "Let us". If you have to say out loud, then put in the apostrophe, you probably should. Please note one more case! If an name ends in an 's', like "Chris", and you want to say Chris owns something, you either use "Chris's" or "Chris'". Both mean the same thing, neither is wrong, but I always prefer the latter option.
Apostrophes can be used in other ways from removing words or letters. For example, "Because" can be shortened to " 'Cause " (I hate putting the spaces in there but you need to see the apostrophe) but " 'Cause " needs the apostrophe. "Until" works the same way, removing the first two letters to get " 'Til ".
Also, I've noticed people like to use " quotation marks for apostrophes, or use apostrophes were they are not needed. "She's" is actually "She is" where as Chaos Emeralds doesn't need a apostrophe because it's not "Chaos Emerald is" the 's' is just stating that it's a pronoun instead of a noun.
You're is different from your like threw is different from through.
Homophones are a little tricky but I thought I would address it but it's okay if you mess up on them, especially if English isn't your first language! Homophones are words that sound the same, but they have completely different meanings. "Bare" and "Bear" sound the same, but they mean different things. See it now? It's hard to help someone with these, since it's up you to know these, there's not special rules for these. I'll list common ones I see:
Your = Your book, your game...
You're= You are (note that the contraction rules here too. Turing "You are" into "You're" involves taking out the the "A" and replacing it with an apostrophe!)
Through= Like going through a door
Threw= Past tense of 'Throw'
If possible, use spell check! It's your best friend!
Spell checks are really good for roleplaying, so use them if you can. They help if you forget an apostrophe and good spelling just looks really good. Not to mention it's easier to read. The best way to get a spell check is to download a browser that has it (such as Firefox) or use a program like Microsoft Word, then just copy and paste to Gaia. Openoffice is another program you can use if you don't have or can't afford Microsoft Office. Just be careful not to add the improper spelling to your dictionary. I've done that, it sucks and I have to go back and edit my own post.
Read it out loud! If it sounds funny, fix it!
You may feel stupid but it has the best way to check your work or post. Your brain is used to patterns, so you will merely skip over simple mistakes such as 'They they'. Reading it out loud completely changes everything for that.
Ellipses are not twenty periods long!
This is getting a little annoying. Ellipse are those three dots (...) that show a little pause or if you're using a quote, you can uses ellipses to cut off the parts you don't need! I see a lot of "....................and then..............." NO! They only have THREE periods. Count them! One, two, three!
Fragmented sentences are no-nos!
I don't these happen very much, but I've seen them here before. Fragmented sentences are sentences that lack a subject (I, you, he, we, she, they, it, etc.) or anything else that's a key component to the sentence, like verbs. It's an incomplete thought and at the same time, an incomplete sentence.
"For all the Chaos Emeralds in Mobius."
This sentence is missing a lot of information (no subject or verb)
and it can't be a sentence on it's own.
"I wouldn't drink that for all the Chaos Emeralds in Mobius."
Now it has a subject and a verb and it's a more complete thought.
We're not all American!
Has little to do with grammar, but I thought it was kind of fun. razz I'm Canadian, so my English differs slightly than an American's English. Canadians tend to add extra letter (the Us) to words that American people wouldn't. "Favourite" and "Colour" are good examples of these rule. It doesn't make sense, but that's the spellings I grew up with. I'm not spelling anything wrong in Canada! whee
That's basically all the tips she gave. It was from a Zelda guild, so I changed some of the examples around to match this guild ^^; Hope you guys use it efficiently and that we can all have fun! This helped me a lot in my novice years, so I hope it is helpful for everyone else.
If you have anything to add, maybe a rule you wanna add or a tip. Please go ahead! I'll see it and add it as soon as I can, or if a crew member or the captains could do it, ^^;
Have fun roleplaying everyone!!!
(This is approved by Sazie-Chan.... SO I HAVE POWER MUHAHAHA! No I kid, but please don't yell at me saying it's not allow because I did ask ^^; )
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