Panta's 1st Lesson: Spelling and Punctuation

Hello, Panta here. I'd like to assist some of those new/not quite literate people we have here on RP Gateway, that want to be as good at RolePlaying as everyone else (not to say I'm great, I'd just like to help those that are really bad [sorry for the bluntness]). I will address three major points: Punctuation, Spelling, and Literacy. Within these points will be smaller subjects, such as use of specific punctuation (gotta love 'em).


Point one: Punctuation

A) Try to remember to put spaces after all punctuation. An example of not doing this would be here: The boi q walked thru the medaw!He wuz happy!He saw his frands!Thoy were way on te other siade!He ran 2 them!They all chaired 4 ham d when he got dere!

This example fixed up (kind of): The boi q walked thru the medaw! He wuz happy! He saw his frands! Thoy were way on te other siade! He ran 2 them! They all chaired 4 ham d when he got dere! (Of course, this isn't my best work. What a stupid sentence. We'll work on it later. ;D)

B) Excessive use of exclamation points (yes, you cheerful people, I'm looking at you) isn't exactly a good thing. So, back to the example sentence: The boi q walked thru the medaw! He wuz happy! He saw his frands! Thoy were way on te other siade! He ran 2 them! They all chaired 4 ham d when he got dere!

This example fixed up (again): The boi q walked thru the medaw. He wuz happy. He saw his frands. Thoy were way on te other siade. He ran 2 them. They all chaired 4 ham d when he got dere! (Only one exclamation point is needed in this sentence, as most of it isn't very exciting)

C) When you need commas, not periods, it can get kind of confusing. :/ Let's work on this, shall we? The example sentence once more: The boi q walked thru the medaw. He wuz happy. He saw his frands. Thoy were way on te other siade. He ran 2 them. They all chaired 4 ham d when he got dere!

Fixed: The boi q walked thru the medaw, he wuz happy. He saw his frands, they were way on te other siade. He ran 2 them, they all chaired 4 ham d when he got dere! (Actually, those commas [in both cases] would normally be semi-colons, but we're not going to go in to all of that if you're only working on commas. O.O)


Point two: Spelling

A) Sooooooo, don't know where to put those vowels? Why don't we take a look. Example: The boi q walked thru the medaw, he wuz happy. He saw his frands, they were way on te other siade. He ran 2 them, they all chaired 4 ham d when he got dere!

And fixed up (a bit more, it's still really sloppy; isn't it?): The boy q walked thru the meadow, he wuz happy. He saw his friends, they were way on te other side. He ran 2 them, they all cheered 4 him d when he got dere! (No, sorry to disappoint you, his 'frands' were not chairing for ham)


Point three: Literacy

A) Here's where we'll be doing a lot of fixing up: No text talk! Ex: The boy q walked thru the meadow, he wuz happy. He saw his friends, they were way on te other side. He ran 2 them, they all cheered 4 him d when he got dere!

Fixed: The boy q walked through the meadow, he was happy. He saw his friends, they were way on the other side. He ran to them, they all cheered for him d when he got there!

B) Random letters, all over the place?!?! WTF! Ex: The boy q walked through the meadow, he was happy. He saw his friends, they were way on the other side. He ran to them, they all cheered for him d when he got there!

Fixed: The boy walked through the meadow, he was happy. He saw his friends, they were way on the other side. He ran to them, they all cheered for him when he got there!


Edit: I went back and highlighted when I made changes, so it'll be easier to see.

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So, to recap:


Really bad first sentence compared to kind-of fixed ending sentence.........................(<<<< Don't use this many periods in sequence in a post! D:< It is bad, and I am setting a terrible example!)



The boi q walked thru the medaw!He wuz happy!He saw his frands!Thoy were way on te other siade!He ran 2 them!They all chaired 4 ham d when he got dere!


The boy walked through the meadow, he was happy. He saw his friends, they were way on the other side. He ran to them, they all cheered for him when he got there!

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If the reaction to this piece is positive enough, I will make a 'Part Two' and put the link under this.

Very nice. I think I'm going to have to put this in my signature and point it out whenever someone that writes such as you described tries to join one of my Role-Plays. I am a bit of a grammar freak, you see, so I could really use a reference to send people to.
This could make my out of character threads much more interesting if people were to fully type words and use proper punctuation, spelling, and capitalization, as it gets really annoying when someone posts a character sheet saying:

nam. kayla
age: 60
gendr: feamal

Such stuff like that gets annoying after a few posts...

Anyways, in short, thank you for posting this, and I will put it in my signature as soon as possible (meaning right about now), so that my twin and I are not constantly pointing out how painful someone's post is, and asking them to try and use spell-check in the future.
I know I'm droning on, but I felt it necessary.

Thank you again,
Ty

And in terms of grammar, let me please point out that the ellipsis, designed to represent a long pause or an omission of words... Is ONLY three periods long. No more. No less.

Poor spelling doesn't really have an excuse nowadays, however. If you aren't the best of spellers, it may well not be your fault, but that's okay, you can just download the FireFox web browser which has a built-in spell-checker. If you want to make sure your grammar is correct, then just write your posts in MS Word or similar; it will check your grammar for you as well.

This may well be the internet, but in a community that is all about writing, it is vitally important. Especially if you want people to understand you. Look at the following two passages (credit to Miyumi for the original post):

Dear John: I want a man who knows what love is all about. You are generous, kind, thoughtful. People who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me for other men. I yearn for you. I have no feelings whatsoever when we're apart. I can be forever happy--will you let me be yours? Gloria

Dear John: I want a man who knows what love is. All about you are generous, kind, thoughtful people, who are not like you. Admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me. For other men, I yearn. For you, I have no feelings whatsoever. When we're apart, I can be forever happy. Will you let me be? Yours, Gloria

Notice something? Yep, that's right. The words are exactly the same in each passage, and in the same order. However, different usages of grammar completely changed the meaning.

That is why grammar is so important.

Be kind to other roleplayers: Make sure they know what you are trying to say.

Very nice intro, Panta, definitely deserves a continuation! My only gripe is that the provided example, even when fixed, still comes across as stilted. I know you weren't striving for an incredible sentence here, but the comma splices are worth pointing out.

The boy walked through the meadow, he was happy. He saw his friends, they were way on the other side. He ran to them, they all cheered for him when he got there!

All commas here separate two independent clauses, which deserve three big NEINS. A simple remedy for this would be to use coordinating conjunctions (and, but, for, so, or, yet) following the commas. Semi-colons could work as well... if you wanted a really stiff sentence. Maybe Part Two could focus on grammar? Misplaced modifiers, faulty pronoun case an' all that?

Combatant876 wrote:And in terms of grammar, let me please point out that the ellipsis, designed to represent a long pause or an omission of words... Is ONLY three periods long. No more. No less.

I'm glad you addressed this, Combatant. The ellipsis is often a source of confusion for most of us. Some may come across what appears to be a four-dotted ellipsis. On the contrary, this doesn't exist; the fourth period is meant to indicate the end of a complete thought, whereas the typical three periods, as you mentioned, represent a long pause, an omission of words, or an unfinished thought.

Since it appears that I can't edit this, I'd like to post the link to my Second Lesson down here. Enjoy! After all, it's been about nine months since my first work.