Grammar FAQ (READ IT)

Hello fellow Rpers! I'm Tetsuya Kimiko, here to introduce you to the wonderful world, of
GRAMMAR.


Now, there are quite a few common things, little mistakes like misplacing quotation marks or periods, or big things like no punctuation whatsoever.

So, I'll break this down into a few segments.

Where's my punctuation!?


That's right, I wanna see it. So, a post like this:

Arnold ran through the trees he wanted to find his lost puppy but he had probably been eaten by a snake and Arnold could not find him which made Arnold sad so arnold kicked a tree and hurt his foot

BAD.

A post like this:

Arnold ran through the trees; he wanted to find his lost puppy, but he had probably been eaten by a snake, and Arnold could not find him. This made Arnold sad, and the sadness turned into anger; Arnold kicked a tree, hurting his foot.

Better. Except for the fact that when one is on an alien planet, one's puppy is not their primary concern.

Now this is how the code of punctuation works:

. = End sentence

! = End sentence... In a more dramatic manner.

? = End question

, = substitute for "and"

; = substitute for "XXX, furthermore"

: = substitute for "And here it is/And here they are"

"XXX" = indicates speech

Ok, doesn't seem too hard, does it? It shouldn't.

Now, here's an example of each one:

(.)

He tripped over his untied shoelace.

(!)

He tripped! Over his shoelace no less.

(?)

Why did he trip?

(,)

He tripped over his untied, black shoelace.

( ; )

He tripped over his shoelace; the shoelace was black.

( : )

He tripped over his comrades: Jake, Jack, and Billy-B-Jo.

("XXX")

"I, uh, I tripped over my shoelace."
...

Again, that is probably irrelevant to the plot here, but it's all for the sake of examples. Now, I notice that some people have the most trouble with space. This is what you do with that:

I ran up to him and kicked him in the stomach, or at least I hoped.

Stop right there. See that little gap after the comma? LEGASP! A space! You do that whenever you seperate an idea. (In more sophisticated terms, a clause.)

So, the comma will not be spaced away from the word before the end of the idea, but it will be spaced away from the word after the end of the idea. GET IT?

If you don't, please bang your head against your keyboard until MS word yells at you and the paperclip-man threatens to kill you and your family.

...

Not really.

DIALOGUE


This is simple, and yet it can be enough to drive an english teacher into a coma. Here is a good example of a post with dailouge:

Miriam sighed. "Look, I know that you're hungry, but what can I do?"

"You could make something."

"Is that because I'm a woman, or because you're too lazy?" Miriam said with a flat expression on her face.

The man said nothing. Instead of speech as a response, he rubbed the back of his neck, indicating that he didn't want to answer. He stammered slightly as he tried to respond, "Well... I-"

"Screw you," Miriam said as she lit a book on fire.

"My book!" A third man said in dismay.

"What? We needed to light a fire, paper is flammable."

You see how that works?

You start a new paragraph when there's a new speaker.

You put the punctuation on the inside of the quotation marks.

You put a space after the actual speech, and before it when it follows something such as, "He said."

It helps people know what your character has said. So...

If you understand it, good. I can tolerate you.

If you can't, meet my foot! *kicks angrly in the head*

TO BE CONTINUED

(Borrowed with permission from http://worldinpieces.proboards.com/index.cgi, and credit goes to Wicked.)