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Fizzlesticks' Grammar and Punctuation Guide
With Guest Contributor, ambiguitylotus

I think the writing forums have needed one of these for a long time, so here it is. If you'd like to add or contest anything, feel free to contact me. Note that some of these rules may apply to British English only.

10/09/2012: I'm mostly vacating Gaia, guys. Just letting you know. I'll leave this here. Be excellent to each other.

Index
1 - How does English work? Part A - Parts of speech
2 - How does English work? Part B - Sentence structure
3 - Basic punctuation
4 - Punctuating dialogue
5 - Common grammatical errors - Part One
6 - Common grammatical errors - Part Two
7 - Other errors!
8 - When to italicise/underline sources
9 - Reserved
10 - Reserved


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NB: Unfortunately, I cannot proofread for you at this time. Please don't ask; instead, try the prose forum, or minishops. Cheers. smile

Helpful Websites
Grammar Girl - Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing
(Podcasts = audioporn for grammarphiles)
Looking for a proofreader on Gaia? MyMedievalMotet may be the one for the job.


Keep this thread at the top of the WF: the first poster (discluding me) on every 10th page wins 2500 gold!


Upcoming topics
- Tense
- Active and passive voice
- Cases and pronouns (+ who/whom)
- Subjunctive mood ["I wish I were..."]
- The Gentle Ellipsis...
- Commonly confused words


I also run Fizzlesticks' Fantastic Safer Sex Kit over in Lifestyle Discussion. If you are insecure, worried, or unsatisfied, try this thread.

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How does English work??

The English we speak now is only about five hundred years old. It’s practically still teething. It’s also irrational, inconsistent and never shuts up. But it sure is beautiful, isn’t it? It’s also an exciting and imaginative language, because it’s still evolving. But how does English work now? It seems instinctive, doesn’t it? Well, to be a good writer, it’s essential to understand the mechanics of the language. So that’s what we’re going to explore now.

Parts of Speech

Nouns – names of people, places or things.
....concrete – Brisbane, carpet, teapot
....abstract – love, happiness, anger
....proper – Shane, Paris

Pronouns – stand in for nouns
....Spock has located the Klingons.
....He has located them.
....NB: see coming article on pronouns, cases and tense

Verbs – ‘doing words’; indicate action or state of being
....My cat often runs into walls.
....Paris Hilton’s life is very boring.
....Alice has been to Wonderland.
....NB: Sometimes nouns disguise themselves as verbs. These are called gerunds.
....Alice likes swimming. ‘Likes’ is the verb; ‘swimming' is a gerund (noun).

Adjectives – modify (or describe) nouns and pronouns
....Elliott is a gifted boy, but he has yet to learn good manners.
....Mermaids, it is commonly known, have green hair.

Adverbs – modify verbs, adjectives and other adverbs
....I seriously think I might slowly be becoming a teapot.
....Only I can observe this transition.
....Others think I am quite mad.

Conjunctions – ‘glue’; join or relate parts of sentences
....I like chocolate ice cream, but I don’t like squid-flavour.
....Hatter and I are going to have a tea party.
....Not only will there be tea-cakes, but also biscuits.
....Hatter, I’m sure, will behave; however, keep your eye on the Hare.
....While you’re not looking, the Hare may ruin your tea.

Prepositions – signal relationships between nouns and other words in the sentence
....I’m sure there’s a universe under my bed where my missing socks go.
....In spite of the rain, Juliet set for her walk.
....Use your imagination throughout your life, or until your brain melts.

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Sentence structure

The ‘actor’ in a sentence is the ‘subject’. In this sentence, Batman is the one driving, so Batman is the subject:
....Batman drives the Batmobile.
The thing being ‘acted upon’, in this case, the Batmobile, is called the object.

An indirect object identifies to or for whom the action is performed.
.... Batman offered Robin the Batmobile for his weekend road trip.
....Robin gave Batman a box of chocolates in thanks. ['A box of chocolates' is the direct object, as is 'the Batmobile' in the previous example.]


An independent clause is a sentence or part of a sentence that makes sense on its own:
....Alice talks to caterpillars.
....Holly plays the banjo.

A dependent clause does not make sense on its own:
....Although I don’t like drinking coffee.
....No matter how hard I tried.

A phrase has no subject, and no verb.
....Under the boardwalk.
....Down by the sea.


The simplest sentence possible is just a verb:
....Help!
....Go!
....Look!

The next simplest has a subject and a verb:
....The crowd cheered.
....The antelope leapt.

Next, ‘subject – verb – object’ (an independent clause!):
....The Beatles released an album.
....Batman’s new hobby is gardening.


Compound sentence – two independent sentences joined together:
....Batman lent the Batmobile to Robin, but Robin crashed it.
....Batman would like to buy a garden gnome for the Bat Cave, so he’s driving to K-Mart.

Complex sentence – independent clause + one or more dependent clause:
....Although I don’t like drinking coffee, sometimes I must to keep awake.
....No matter how hard Batman looked, he couldn’t find a gnome to his liking.

Compound-complex sentence – two or more independent clauses + at least one dependent:
....Robin, who was an Ebay whiz, secretly ordered a fantastic gnome for Batman’s birthday, even though it was months away.

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MAGICAL PUNCTUATION SHEET


THE COMMA

Commas are used to connect independent clauses with dependent clauses and phrases (but never to join two ind. clauses); to improve the flow or clarify the meaning of a sentence; and to separate items in a list. The comma before 'and' in the second and third examples is called a 'serial comma'.

1. It has recently been proven that Australian Idol may rot the brains of viewers, especially those who choose to vote.
2. In my pocket I have a Star Wars stamp, two paper clips, a few bits of paper, and a can of pepper spray.
3. The colours of the New Zealand flag are red, white, and blue. [NOT red, white and blue. The serial comma shows that each colour is separate.]
NB: Avoid 'comma rape'; only use commas when necessary.


THE APOSTROPHE

The apostrophe has two main uses. It is used to show possession (1) and also to indicate the loss of letters in a contraction (2).
NB: Apostrophes are not necessary in plurals (e.g. dogs, ideas) CDs, 1000s, and so on.

1. The boy’s teaspoon collection.
....The sisters’ cat; i.e. – the cat belonging to the sisters
....James’s hot air balloon; Fizzlesticks' fairy floss.
....NB: An exception to this rule is the possessive pronoun. Its, yours, and ours, for example, do not not require apostrophes.
2. I can’t go to work today; I’m feeling ill, and I’m turning quite green.
....It’s awfully unfair of you to speak to me in this way, Cecil.


THE SEMICOLON

The semicolon is used to connect two independent clauses in a sentence. It often replaces conjunctions such as so and because (1). It can also precede words like however, moreover, nevertheless, then and therefore (2). The semicolon can separate a long or complicated list of items (3).

1. I can’t go swimming today, Mr Barry; I forgot my togs again.
....I didn’t do the homework; I’m afraid I can’t answer the question.
....Don’t go near that bunny rabbit; it might eat you up with its nasty pointy teeth.
2. Albert and Quentin are twins; however, they have quite different personalities.
....First we went to the theatre; then we visited the art gallery.
3. I saw the film about life on Mars; the film about the cannibalistic turtles; the original Star Wars, because you know I wouldn't be seen dead near Jar Jar Binks; and that weird one about Harry Potter fan fiction.


THE COLON

Put simply, colons introduce things. They can introduce a word, phrase, sentence or list -- all of which would elaborate on or explain the info that came before the colon. Colons may only follow independent clauses.

1. Jill has only one thing on her mind this weekend: a zombie film marathon.
2. We believe in the following things: freedom, truth, beauty and love.


THE DASH

The em-dash is used in pairs—like this—to create "a strong break in a sentence". "It can also be used alone to detach one end of a sentence from the main body."

The en-dash, which is slightly shorter than the em-dash, means 'through' or 'to'.
1. The festival runs January 1–January 14.
2. Refer to pages 44–63.



Magical Punctuation Questions
Kindly fix up these sentences by punctuating and adding capitals, et cetera, where appropriate.

1. oh no said andy ive lost my marbles
2. jenny stole the childrens ball and ran off down the road with it
3. the two girls skipping ropes made wonderful weapons the boys discovered
4. i dont like baths without bubbles i wont have one today
5. james cds are all scratched they wont work

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Punctuating dialogue

Here’s a topic that causes a lot of confusion! Below are a number of examples that show how dialogue should be punctuated in prose. Take special note of where commas are!

Generally with dialogue, punctuation goes inside of the quotation marks and the following 's/he said' is not capitalised:

....“Hello,” said Elliott.
....“Hello, Elliott,” said Cornelia. “How are you today?”
....“I’m well,” he replied, “thank you. And how are you?”
....“I’m wonderful!” said Cornelia with a smile.

....“I am going to the zoo,” said Martha.

....“Gosh! A flying pig!” said Gerry.

....Inigo said, “I’m not left-handed.”

....“Are you sleeping?” Audrey asked her cat.
....“I don’t know why you’d ask,” replied the cat, “because if I were sleeping, you know I’d hate to be disturbed.”


NB: Where quotation marks indicate a title or emphasise a word/phrase, punctuation goes on the outside.

....The other day I bought a book called "Barbies of the World"; the pictures were fascinating.*
....Gerald told me that these newfangled wirelesses are at the 'cutting edge', but I think they look rather too complicated to catch on.
....I took four buckets of popcorn into the cinema with me when I went to see a marathon screening of "The Lord of the Rings".*

*However, it is better to italicise or underline such titles. See ambiguitylotus's article below on when to italicise sources.


Differences between British and American English
(aside from spelling dialogue as dialog xd )

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Common Grammatical Errors
Part One


The Comma Splice - where a comma tries to play the role of a full stop, semicolon or conjunction, but is not strong enough. Commas cannot separate/join independent clauses.

Incorrect: I am going out tomorrow, what should I wear?
....Correct: I am going out tomorrow, but what should I wear?
....Correct: I am going out tomorrow; what should I wear?
....Correct: I am going out tomorrow. What should I wear?


The Fused Sentence – where there is no punctuation at all between independent clauses.

Incorrect: The protesters marched all the way to parliament house police arrested eight people the activists say they did nothing wrong.
....Correct: The protesters marched all the way to parliament house. Police arrested eight people, but the activists say they did nothing wrong.
....Correct: The peace protesters marched all the way to parliament house. Although police arrested eight people, the activists say they did nothing wrong.


The Dangling Modifier – a word, phrase or clause that doesn’t clearly modify (describe) anything in the sentence to which it belongs.

Incorrect: After watching TV for an hour, the electricity went off.
Of course, the electricity (the subject of the sentence) didn’t watch TV, so we need to clarify:
....Correct: I’d been watching TV for an hour when the electricity went off.


Ambiguous Pronoun Use – where it’s unclear what a pronoun refers to because of its placement in a sentence.

Incorrect: Marcus and Othello decided to share the prize money, but when it arrived he refused.
It’s impossible to know which person ‘he’ refers to. It would be better to say:
....Correct: Marcus and Othello decided to share the prize money, but when it arrived Othello refused.
....Correct: Marcus convinced Othello to share the prize money, but when it arrived he refused.

More in next post...

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Common Grammatical Errors
Part Two

Differentiating between which, that and who
It may surprise many readers to learn that ‘which’ and ‘that’ actually have different uses.

That is used with restrictive clauses, i.e. information that is essential to the sentence.
....The short story that is most creative wins a prize.
If we were to remove the restrictive clause from the sentence, it would no longer make sense: “The story wins a prize.” What story? Why does it win a prize?

Which is used with non-restrictive clauses, i.e. information that is not essential to the sentence. It is always preceded by a comma.
....Aunt Agatha’s teapot collection, which she keeps on shelf in the sitting room, is very valuable.
Regardless of where Aunt Agatha keeps her teapots, the important information is that they are valuable. The sentence would make perfect sense without the non-restrictive clause: “Aunt Agatha’s teapot collection is very valuable.”

Who is a type of pronoun. It always stands in for one or more persons.
....Who is coming to bingo today? Jenny and Wilson are coming to bingo today.
....Aunt Agatha, who has a prize teapot collection, lives in Dublin.


Fewer/less and number/amount

Fewer refers to items that can be counted.
....“I want no fewer than 100 people at my party,” said Violet.
....Add no fewer than two litres of water to the mixture.

Likewise number refers to things that can be counted.
....There were a great number of people at Violet’s party.

Less refers to things that cannot be counted.
....Add less water to your porridge for a thicker consistency. [You can’t count ‘water’, you can only count ‘litres’ or ‘millilitres’ of it.]

Amount refers to things that cannot be counted.
....No amount of grovelling could convince Frodo to forgive Gollum.


Subject/verb agreement

Subjects and verbs must agree in person and number. The three persons are ‘first’ (I, we), ‘second’ (you) and ‘third’ (s/he, it, they). The two numbers are singular and plural. A number of examples are below.

Person – This usually comes naturally. Few would write, “You is ridiculous,” without doing so on purpose. The correct sentence is of course: “You are ridiculous.”

Number
....Audrey is digging to China. [Audrey is singular.]
....Audrey and I are digging to China. [Audrey and I (or ‘we’) is plural.]
....Edith or Jonathan is to fetch the spade for us. [Only one will go.]
....Edith and Jonathan are to fetch the spade for us. [Both will go (plural).]
....Neither of them is obeying us!
....Everybody is cantankerous today!
....The school of fish was frightened by the swimmers. [Collective noun = singular]
....The fish were frightened by the swimmers.

NB:
A number of people are protesting outside the gates. [plural]
The number of people at Violet’s party was 98! She was very disappointed. [singular]

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Other Errors


your/you're

'Your' is a possessive pronoun, meaning 'belonging to you'.
....Your step-mother is a witch!

'You're' is a contraction of 'you are'.
....My husband thinks you're a witch, mother!


its/it's

'Its' is a possessive pronoun, meaning 'belonging to it'.
....That painting is losing its colour.

'It's' is a contraction of 'it is'.
....It's plain to see that Sea-Monkeys are excellent pets for busy people.


Misuse of 'of'

I often hear writers using 'could of' and 'should of'. This is an error that seems to have 'Chinese Whispered' itself into being. The correct word is HAVE, as 'of' is not a verb at all.

....I could have gone, but I didn't want to, after last time.
Hence the contractions: could've, would've etc


'Then' and 'than'
In plain terms, 'then' is a time expression.
...."Will you come out with me Saturday night?" asked Albert.
...."Sorry Albert; I'm washing my hair then," Martha replied.

In technical terms, 'then' is usually a type of temporal adverb; that is, an adverb (word that describes a verb, adjective or another adverb) that relates to time.
....I walked to the door, then turned back, remembering my keys. [For those who are interested, in this case, 'then' is a conjunctive (joining) temporal adverb.
'Then' can also be a noun meaning 'that time'.
....Since then, she's been a lot calmer.
It can also be an adjective indicating a past state, or 'existing or acting at or belonging to the time mentioned':
....Ethel's then girlfriend, Lobelia, is now a successful lawyer.

'Than', on the other hand, is used to compare things.
....Roses are prettier than daisies, some might argue.

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ambiguitylotus

Topic: When to Italicize/Underline Sources

Quote:
The other day I bought a book called "Barbies of the World"; the pictures were fascinating.
I took four buckets of popcorn into the cinema with me when I went to see a marathon screening of "The Lord of the Rings".


My concern lies in the italicizing, underlining, or putting in quotation marks of books, poems, newspapers, etc...

By just taking the above example, BARBIES OF THE WORLD should be underlined or italicized like so: Barbies of the World or Barbies of the World, because it is a book (even though I never heard of it). Now, here is where it gets a bit sticky. When citing a book by electronic means (i.e. computer or typewriter), then you would underline or italicize it, but NOT place it in quotation marks (at least in American grammar; I'm not too sure about the British). When citing a book by hand with pen, pencil, or any other writing utensil, you can't really italicize the title of the book (since some people may write in slant anyway); hence, you would underline.

The same can be said of THE LORD OF THE RINGS. Since, it is a book and a film, one would also italicize or underline it.

Here are other examples of sources in which you would italicize or underline (according to the Modern Language Association or the MLA):

1. an anthology or collection
2. magazines
3. newspapers
4. name of a series/program of TV or radio (e.g. Sesame Street)
5. name of a TV show
6. title of the entire album of an artist/band/singer
7. scholarly journals
8. name of an entire website (e.g. Wikipedia)

Note above that I could have italicized those sources as well. However, it is important to note that when writing (or typing), consistency is key. You don't want to hand in a 5-page essay to your teacher, using BOTH italicization and underlining. Pick one, and stick to that one method. Thus, as an example, I chose to underline my examples of sources in the above list.

If you have questions, concerns, or suggestions, feel free to comment. smile

Next topic: When to Use Quotation Marks for Sources

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_reserved_

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*bump*

Invisible Ghost

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Any chance you'd put a section in which you show the correct way to do dialog? Too many times, I've seen it done wrong, and although it's probably not that big of a deal, it annoys me. ^^;;

WRONG
"Hello." Said Character.
"Hello," Said Character.
"Hello", said Character.

RIGHT
"Hello," said Character.

WRONG
"Pardon?" Asked Character.
"Pardon?," asked Character.
"Pardon"? asked Character.

RIGHT
"Pardon?" asked Character.

WRONG
"Damn!" Yelled Character.
"Damn!," yelled Character.
"Damn"! yelled Character.

RIGHT
"Damn!" yelled Character.

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the hidden ghost
Any chance you'd put a section in which you show the correct way to do dialog? Too many times, I've seen it done wrong, and although it's probably not that big of a deal, it annoys me. ^^;;


That was actually next on my list of things to do!

Invisible Ghost

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Fizzlesticks
the hidden ghost
Any chance you'd put a section in which you show the correct way to do dialog? Too many times, I've seen it done wrong, and although it's probably not that big of a deal, it annoys me. ^^;;


That was actually next on my list of things to do!


Ah, good! Like I said, not quite as bad or as noticeable as comma neglect or abuse, or some of the other things that have been mentioned, but still, technically, incorrect.

I'm going to be egotistical now and say you're free to use the examples I gave to save you having to write out new ones! ^^;;
Why is it egotistical? It just sounds egotistical to me when people offer examples for things, and the examples suck.

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the hidden ghost

Ah, good! Like I said, not quite as bad or as noticeable as comma neglect or abuse, or some of the other things that have been mentioned, but still, technically, incorrect.

I'm going to be egotistical now and say you're free to use the examples I gave to save you having to write out new ones! ^^;;
Why is it egotistical? It just sounds egotistical to me when people offer examples for things, and the examples suck.


Thank you, but I was already a good way through the sheet on dialogue anyway, so it's all right. I might draw on yours for the last few. It'll be up in a second.
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