Quick Grammar Lesson

Now for those of you who have been having their posts edited, it's time you had a little grammar lesson. And for those of you who haven't then it wouldn't hurt to have a little brush up on your grammar.

Lesson One: Punctuation


Pay attention my pretties as I explain how punctuation works in an easy to follow, easy to read guide.

Period (.)
These are used to signify the end of a complete sentence.

Comma (,)
Commas are used to separate two complete thoughts within a complex sentence in their most basic form. Now, commas can also be used to add a thought that doesn't pertain to the sentence, like extra information and names.
e.g. She climbed the tree with ease, it wasn't very that hard, after all she was the best climber.
See, that sentence doesn't need the phrase, "it wasn't very hard," because it's excess.
Commas are also used to separate linking words from the rest of the sentence.
e.g. Look, I don't want to have to do this.
In general, commas can also be used as a breath. So if the person were to read it aloud, they'd know where to breath because a comma would be there. Commas also play an important role in dialogue, but we'll cover that later.

Semi colon (;.)
A semi colon is used to separate two independent clauses. Unlike a comma, which is used to separate an independent and dependent clause, a semi colon separates two like independent clauses.
e.g. Can you believe she did that; isn't that just incredible?

Apostrophe (')
Apostrophes are used to express possession, as well as conjunctions.

Quotation Marks (")
Quotation marks are used to indicate dialogue, quotes, or supposed meaning or sarcasm of a word.
e.g. Yeah, I guess you could say he was "running."
Another rule to take note of is that any punctuation that will be used, must be used within the quotation marks.

Parenthesis (())
Parenthesis are used to express added voice in a sentence. These are rarely found in fictitious writings written from any form of third person, though are commonly found in first person, second person, and informative pieces.
e.g. I was scared (not that I wasn't already scared), needless to say.

Excalmation Point (!)
An exclamation point is used to express strong emotion in any form, and follows the same basic rules as the period, until we get to dialogue.
e.g. "I can't believe you just did that!" Cathy exclaimed.

Question Mark (?)
Question marks are used to express a question, and follow the same rules as the period, with the exception of with dialogue.

***Note, when using question marks and exclamation points, do not put the two together, e.g. "What?!" She screamed.
"She screamed," already describes that you meant for the phrase to have strong emotion as she asked the question. Therefore, the correct way to type this sentence would be, "What?" she screamed.
Now I suppose you'd wonder why I neglected to capitalize, "she." Well, read on and I will explain.

Lesson Two: Capitalization


Capitol letters are put into a sentence to signify certain aspects about it. Read about some of the places capitol letter can be used.

The beginning of a sentence: Capitols must be used to signify the beginning of a sentence. So basically, they will be used after the following punctuation marks, ?, !, .

Proper Nouns: Proper Nouns are people, names, and names of places. Therefore, they must be capitalized.

Lesson Three: Dialogue


Dialogue is when a character says something, for a basic definition. Now there are special rules to keep in mind when using dialogue, and are explained below.

How to Show Dialogue: Dialogue must be signified by the presence of a set of quotation marks.

Dialogue Ending in a Period
Any dialogue that ends with a period must have a capitol letter to start the next sentence.

Dialogue Ending in an Exclamation Point of Question Mark
Any dialogue that ends with and exclamation point or question mark will not be followed by a capitol if the word that starts the next sentence is a pronoun, or anything but a proper noun.
e.g. "That was quite the adventure, wouldn't you agree?" he said.

Dialogue Ending in a Comma
Dialogue that ends in a comma is not a complete sentence, therefore requires that you continue in a regular fashion. For simple sentenced dialogue is is actually more grammatically correct to use a comma instead of a period.
e.g. "I guess so," she murmured.

***Note, whenever a new character is speaking, or your character starts off on another subject, you must start a new paragraph.

Examples of Dialogue

"Well I suppose that just wouldn't do," he sighed. "What do you think?"

"Well I suppose that just wouldn't do," he sighed, then added, "What do you think?

"Children," she snapped, "get into your seats!"

"Is she insane?" Fredrick moaned.

Hope this little grammar lesson improves your role-playing. I may add more later, so keep checking back.

Key
Independent Clause: Basically a phrase/ simple sentence that can stand on its own.
Dependent Clause: A phrase that depends on another clause, and cannot stand by itself.
Phrase: A thought.
e.g.: en exemplum (latin)