In the last Lesson, I went over simple punctuation and correct spelling, so I suggest you check it out first. It's a bit more rough here, and I'm not being as nice with things. Grr.
Hey, look! It's our example sentence: 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!
Now, in the comments of my last Lesson,
Before fixing: 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!
After fixing: The boy walked through the meadow; he was happy. He saw his friends, but they were way on the other side. He ran to them, and they all cheered for him when he got there!
Look at that, it only required three little modifications. Now it's good to go, right? Right. If you want to sound like a fifth-grader, that is. Let's take a look at this adjective: The boy walked through the meadow; he was happy. He saw his friends, but they were way on the other side. He ran to them, and they all cheered for him when he got there!
There are plenty of other words that could work better in that sentence. 'Happy' is about as common a word as you can get when referring to positive emotions. A few of the many other choices would be 'gleeful', 'joyful', 'cheerful', or even 'jovial' if you really want to sound smart. Cheerful is the closest to what we're looking for here.
So, a bit more work: The boy walked through the meadow; he was cheerful. He saw his friends, but they were way on the other side. He ran to them, and they all cheered for him when he got there!
For now, that's all we're going to do with that sentence. It looks pretty nice, doesn't it? Let's leave it alone. Who knows, it might just pop up somewhere later. <.<'
Delicious Little Writing Tip Tidbits
On Punctuation: An ellipse, when used as a printing term, is designed to artfully omit certain words from a sentence. As a grammatical term, an ellipse is the omission of the words, and not the punctuation that does the job. For example, the sentence 'I have gone to Birmingham, but they have not gone to Birmingham,' could be reduced to 'I have gone to Birmingham, but they have not' with the use of an ellipse. In this case, the ellipse is not shown, but used in such a way that it prevents a phrase from being repeated twice in the same sentence. As a printing term, it is comprised of three dots '...' and only three. However, if you happen to come across an ellipse with four dots, the last one is not part of the ellipse--it is a period that shows the end of a thought. Typically, an ellipse is immediately followed by another word, or a whole sentence, but if it is a four '....' dot ellipse, then there should be a space between the period and the next word. Example: "I'm not sure if I should.... The fair seems dangerous at night."
On Into and In To: The difference between into and in to is a frequently asked question. The difference is simple. "I put the letter in to the mailbox," is not incorrect, but it is not correct, either. The only time you should use 'in to' instead of 'into' is when it is following a word or phrase that would imply something different than its original meaning; "I will turn the form into the board of directors for a raise," has a different meaning than "I will turn the form in to the board of directors for a raise." In the first sentence, the speaker is implying that he or she will change the form (presumably by magic) to be the board for a raise. However, in the second sentence, the speaker implies that he or she will give the form to the board of directors in a quite plausible exchange.
Thank you for reading, please rate my post and check out any other lessons I have up. ^.^
