Welcome to Gaia! ::

Welcome student to the class of literacy. Here, you will be assigned a tutor to learn how to become a literate role player. In this forum we expect the best you have to offer out of every post. We require that you reread all of your posts for grammatical, speed, and spelling errors. To those of you who have Internet Explorer, please use Word, or another spell check device to check your typing before you post.
Here there are a few main rules and objective. Our rules consist of helping those around you, and never being cruel. This is not the place for cruel feedback that is unhelpful and demeaning. In this room we are all equal and we will all follow the same rules. Failing to abide by these rules will result in strict punishment decided by the appropriate crew. The teachers of this forum will be listed below and beside them, a small description of what they can teach, and who they cannot handle. The goal of this forum are to set up teachers with students who are fit to learn and teach each other.
We understand that not all teachers have the patience for all students, and reverse, not all students have the need to know all that every teacher can teach. Thus it is a requirement to post a small profile to understand what it is each student and teacher is looking for. The teacher profiles will be saved where as the student profiles are to be posted on the forum as needed. Those that were posted first will get a teacher matched up first and under each teacher profile there will be list of the teachers students.

For the teachers:

Your profiles are to be small representations of your skill. This does not mean your profile takes up a whole page or even the box that you type in to post. This should be a compact, simple, yet represent how you type, what you can do, and what you can stand. Because of these standards, I want to limit the size of your profiles to make every word count. Each profile may only be 200 words long. These profiles must include your Gaia name, your teaching style, who you will teach, and who you won't teach. An appropriate skeleton to use would be this one here:

To choose a student a teacher must first complete a profile of 200 words and post it in this forum. Then, the profile will be placed in the grand roster of teachers. Lastly, when a student is chosen, the teacher must inform myself or a moderator so we may place their name beneath the last section of their profile. All teachers may have more then one student and every student my have multiple teachers because what teachers can teach varies. After a teacher is done helping a student, inform a moderator or myself and we shall cross out the name of the student on the teacher's list. This creates people who can represent the teacher's teaching ability and someone for other students to ask what a teacher like.
To teach students it is preferred to PM them and conduct the sessions trough that system rather then the forum. The forum will be used for people who just need help shortly, such as if they do not understand a word or need to know if the sentance is correct. Teachers should post in the forum when necessary and pay attention to students as they speak asking for help. As a teacher it is required to take on students that ask for assistance if no one else will. Students may PM a teacher asking to be taught if a teacher has less then five active pupils. When they PM a teacher they are required to include a link to their posted profile to prove it was posted over three days ago. A teacher may deny any student that asks to become their pupil. A teacher may not deny all students who ask, and a teacher must pay attention to the forums. Teachers should search for students by posting in the forums. If they are leaving for a prolonged period or cannot respond to their students they must tell a manager or myself so we may put 'Absent' upon their profile

For the students:

You are here to learn how to be literate, or how to improve on yourselves. This is your oppertunity to connect with the more experienced users and learn how to improve yourself. Because of this, your profiles will be simplistic and easy to fill out. The requirements to be a student are devotion to learning, and to be willing to understand. Each student will be required to fill out the following profile:

This profile should consist of what the student already knows, what they have problems doing and do not wish to fix, and what they wish to achieve. Why a student must reveal what they do not wish to fix is because the teachers should know what to avoid when they teach the students. A student's job is to learn what they want without having to bother with what they don't want to learn. In filling out what skills a student already has, there should be a mention of how they role play and type now, what they believe their level is, and what they think they're good at. This self evaluation will help the teachers decide what a student types like as well as well as a writing sample. The last section of the profile can have thousands of answers. Literacy includes grammar, quality, and straight forward spelling and comprehension. This leaves a wide variety of teachers and students who can be paired together by their profiles.
As a student, teachers may not pay attention to profiles initial and so after posting a profile students should stay around and speak among each other, and the teachers, to allow teachers a chance to understand the students and choose who they wish to teach. A profile can only tell so much and the personal connections as well as discussions with the teachers will be vital to getting people paired up. A student in waiting must talk, and wait, three days before they may PM a teacher they think is suitable to teach them. Students should not PM teachers who are 'Absent' (Which will be noted upon their profile) or those who do not like or match their own needs. A student may be rejected by the teachers whom they PM. Students are required to PM a link to the page with their profile posted, and a formal request to be their student. Do not just send the link and do not just send a request.

Becoming Literate

In this section I will create samples of semi-literate and literate posts back to back so that you can read and understand the differences. These examples will be actions that are drawn into detail by literacy from a semi-literate starting point.
A few things that will make a person literate is avoiding words that don't describe enough. The main difference between a semi-literate and a literate is the emotion their characters have and the voice their characters receive. The next thing is the amount of description that goes into the character and the role play profile. This section will only be dealing with the posting portion of literacy and quality. The first example will be in a bar setting. Both posts are the same action by the same person unlike before where each style was a different person. You will be re-reading the post and I will place it in a quote tower to allow you to see them one right after the other and understand the difference. I will not be using small text or centered for the literate although generally they would respond with more. That is why it's called a sample.

The main difference between the semi-literate, and the literate, as you may notice is the lenght. The semi-literate summed up what happened in a short concise sentance. The literate added character to the sentance which describe the area around him better then the semi-literate's sentance. The other thing the Literate did was add a background to the character. This gives him a full feeling rather then a bland flat character who doesn't have any reason for being there, or out of breath.


It is imperative that a literate person be able to play characters other then their first creation. One of the main differences in a literate character and a semi-literate character is a literate character is not reused. A literate will create a new character for each role play or several for one role play. Becoming a literate requires that a semi-literate stops making a character 'themselves' or the one they wish to be. Understanding basic human attitude will aid in knowing what a character may do. Typing from more then one point of view becomes easier if a role player considers the characters history and defines how they act discreetly before they start to type. Writers and literate role players alike have to watch out for traps which could jeopardize an out of character situation. Here are a few good rules to follow when considering what type in a literate situation:
Refer often to the characters history to get inside their head or refer back to earlier posts.

When following this list make sure to use your own style and make the characters exactly how you want. The characters, in the RP are actual people so make them act real. If they get hurt, make them cry out in pain, if they see someone hot, make them whistle. Do what's natrual to the characters and if the character has a profile that's good enough, they will 'tell you' what to do themselves. If you see an obvious reaction from your character, let them do it. Become the describer instead of the manipulator.


Putting feeling into a character is one of the most important things someone can do. In order to put feeling in a character a role player must first know the character and then they can describe the feelings they should have. Most semi-literate role players can describe feelings in the overall terms used for short and quick replies, but this is generally not the best way to express a character. Saying someone was sad can be done so many different ways with so many different depths that it is necessary to make the character real by trying to make the reader feel as the character does. Below is an example of a semi-literate and a literate in the view of a cutter. In order to achieve the understanding I wish, I will use a paragraph for each. Obviously the literate will be longer and the last one read. I can't vouch for whether this is actually like what it feels like. I'm not a cutter, but from what I've read, this is close.

The obvious difference is going through and giving her 'nervous jitters' and the repeated sentences such as 'She needed it.' The short sentences and words like 'need' and 'ate' all help explain the feelings without outright saying she was nervous. This is one way that literate role players make their paragraphs longer and more descriptor. The literate writer did not use much more description about the girl then the semi-literate yet the literate's feelings came across better by the way they composed the sentences and the words they chose to use. In this way the literate sample was all the same actions, but with more sentences and emotions. The best way to achieve this is not always through short sentences though. Most of the time word use is the most important thing. It's the difference between: 'She glared out into the woods.' and 'She gazed out into the woods.'