Guide to Grammar

**Zetsumi** · 04/18/06, 09:33 AM

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Literacy. Everyone tells you to be literate, but what exactly is literacy, and how do you achieve it? Are you literate? Are you flamed/harassed for poor literacy? Did those telling you to be literate stop to explain literacy to you?

If the answer to any of these questions is no, or even if it is yes, for that matter, then you need to improve your literacy, and I am here to help you do that.

A large part of literacy is the correct use of the English language...and by that, I don't just mean dotting your I's and crossing your T's. I mean effective and correct vocabulary and punctuation: That is to say, grammar. I myself am currently training at university in a Bachelor of Learning Management, a degree that once achieved, will allow me to teach from year one to year ten in the schooling system, and a major component of my course is grammar. During this course, I've encountered several parts of grammar relevant in particular to roleplaying, and as such, I plan to bring them to you, the roleplaying community, in an ordered and easily understandable format.

Many of you may see self-improvement in creative writing or roleplaying a chore, however, many others are feeling the pressure of the new rules of the roleplaying section brought in to herald Morpheaus' promotion to moderator of the roleplay section, and see the necessity to improve yourself. I'm providing this guide for those who want to improve themselves, so if you don't, just don't read it.

Now, I will first explain this: I will not follow every single nuance of the English language in this guide. English is one of, if not the most complicated language on the planet, and not only contradicts it's own laws on several counts, but has some extremely obscure and complicated rules. I'll be explaining the very basics of punctuation and grammar, simplifying it to suit role-playing in general, with the result being a smaller, simpler dialect that uses the same basic rules as English. Therefore, anything stated in this guide applies to the roleplaying forums only.

And now...na na na na na, na na, na na, Can't touch this...
...It's Grammartime!

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Contents

Paragraphing
Punctuation
____________________

Paragraphing

The use of paragraphs is something that not everyone understands entirely, and even fewer people use properly, especially in regard to roleplay. In the Rules, a paragraph is described as 'Five sentences or more'. I'm here to tell you that this is complete and utter [expletive]!

A paragraph can range in length from a single sentence response to a page-spanning article, and there's no set limit to the length. The only true limit on a paragraph's length is how much you feel inclined to type.

Each paragraph should revolve or centre on a single idea or concept. A new concept is a new paragraph, and sometimes it's hard to tell one idea from another, especially in roleplay. One method is to separate your posts by action and inaction, for example, if your character performs an action, and then reflects upon this action, the action itself should be a separate paragraph to the thought process. You can see an example of this simply by observing this passage. When I was talking about the length of a paragraph, it was a separate passage to when I began talking about how it should focus on a single concept. Displayed below is a graphical representation.

(1st Idea or Character Action)
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(2nd Idea or Character Thought)
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Punctuation

Many roleplayers are deemed 'n00bs' or 'illiterate' simply because their posts are difficult to read due to punctuation errors. Simply by correcting your punctuation, you can make yourself seem a much better roleplayer. I'll list several of the common mistakes.

Capital Letters
One of the most abused functions of the modern keyboard: The Caps Lock key. In my experience, roleplayers either overcapitalise or undercapitalise, detracting from their roleplay.
Several basic rules of capitalisation follow.

Capital letters are used at the start of a sentence:

The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.

Capital letters are used to denote names or titles:

The quick brown Fox jumped over the lazy Dog
(Assuming that the fox's name is Fox, and the dog's name is Dog)

Captial letters are used to denote places or important words:

The quick brown fox lived in England, which is ruled by a King.

Capital letters are not used to denote shouting or the like:

"THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPED OVER THE LAZY DOG."

Instead, do something like this:

"The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog!" shouted Zetsumi.

Full Stops

Full stops are used at the end of a sentence. They denote that the sentence has finished, and that the reader should take a pause. Every time you read something in your head, and pause before starting the next sentence, that is where you need to place a full stop in your text. After a full stop, you may put one or two spaces. I, out of habit, use two spaces, but the choice is really yours.

Commas
A comma is used to denote a pause mid-sentence. Use one if you feel that you would pause in that place while speaking it, or before such words as 'or'. They can also be used to separate items in lists.

Apostrophes
An Apostrophe is used in several situations, two of the main ones being it's use to demonstrate a conjunction (he's, she's, won't), and the other being a herald of ownership, eg: Zetsumi's Guide to Grammar
Usually in this circumstance, the apostrophe would be placed before the S, however, in some circumstances this isn't possible. Take for example the username Morpheaus. Morpheaus ends in an S, so if we were to talk about something he's done, how would we use an apostrophe to show ownership?
Would we use something such as: Morpheaus's Roleplaying Rules?
In a situation where the object or person who is the owner of the subject's name ends in an S, we simply add the apostrophe after the S, eg: Morpheaus' Roleplaying Rules.

Exclamation and Question marks
Ah, one of the more overused methods of punctuation. Often, people feel compelled to stress their point by doing something like this:

The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111one!

If there's something I cannot stress enough, it's that when it comes to exclamation and question marks, ONE will suffice.
In case you didn't understand that, let me say it again. You only need to put ONE exclamation or question mark at the end of your sentence.

Quotation Marks
Often referred to also as '66' and '99', quotation marks are used to denote speech. I'm sure you've used them at some point in your life, and if you haven’t, please, take the cords out of the back of your computer and stick them in your mouth right now. You have no place roleplaying.

One of the things not many people realise about using quotation marks to denote speech is that each new speaker should be on a separate line...that is, each time someone begins talking, you need to press the enter key. Like thus:
"The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog." Said Zetsumi.
"What is it with you and this fox?" Inquired Mitsukai.

However, when someone continues talking, it can remain on the same line. Like thus:
"The quick brown fox..." Zetsumi explained "...jumped over the lazy dog."

Ric · 04/18/06, 09:41 AM

Good idea Zet. It should be very helpfull to all of us, especially me. I'm pretty darn illeterate if I do say so myself. I have rped with you and you have seen my rping. Not the best I could say that for sure. Thanks alot.

~~Mitsukai~~ · 04/18/06, 09:56 AM

"Awesome Guide Zets!" shouted Mitsukai as he stood on his hands and gave his friend a goofy smile.

And it got stickied too! Thats great!

**Zetsumi** · 04/18/06, 11:43 PM

K, i've done some editing...because some people seem to think it makes them smart to point out that grammar is not spelt 'grammer'...not mentioning any names, eh Mitsukai?
And I totally knew that...I was just seeing if you guys were awake.

Anyway, I also added some more to punctuation, and I'll be adding a section on conjunctions and sentance joining this afternoon.

**Thelonepickle** · 04/19/06, 01:36 AM

Congratulations on being stickied, Zetsumi. I also wrote a guide, in the fan fiction section, but it hasn't been stickied. Still, I wish you success. I just have a problem with a couple of parts so far.

Quote:

The quick brown Fox jumped over the lazy Dog
(Assuming that the fox's name is Fox, and the dog's name is Dog)

Well, you were mostly right, but you still have "The"s there. It's kind of inaccurate (sp?), because you wouldn't say "The quick brown Harold jumped over the lazy John", would you?

So that part is wrong, because you have to get rid of the articles "the", I think. You'd say "Quick, brown Harold jumped over lazy John". Or, like in your example, "Quick, brown Fox jumped over lazy Dog."

The second problem is here.

Quote:

Captial letters are used to denote places or important words:

The quick brown fox lived in England, which is ruled by a King.

I'm not sure "king" should be capitalized. It would be if you were saying "The quick brown fox lived in England, which is ruled by King Watermelon," but not in this case. Unless you know something I don't, which is entirely possible.

This is a very nice guide, even though there were some errors in your last post, too. o.o; Good luck!

**Zetsumi** · 04/19/06, 01:41 AM

TLP...what are you, a freaking dictionary? O_O

Yeah, you have a point about the name thing, I'll fix that up. The King thing, however, is correct because it's reffering to a position of power or title.

**Thelonepickle** · 04/19/06, 01:43 AM

Alright. Sorry to trouble you about the King thing, though. I'm not sure whether I should take the dictionary thing as a compliment or not. XD

Yeah, I dunno. I was blessed with super-human typing and grammar skills ((Not actually "Super-Human", but ya know)). But I couldn't POSSIBLY be good at sports or maybe even reach 5'2", oh, NO. That would be cruel. XD

Again, good luck on your thread. =D This is Pickle... Signing out. XD

**GuardianOfHearts** · 04/19/06, 02:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zetsumi

TLP...what are you, a freaking dictionary? O_O

No, she's a grammar nazi. =D I'm the dictionary of this family. xD

Well, anyway, glad someone finally did it here, and that it got stickied. A grammar guide was really needed. O.< I hope certain members read this, while I go campaign to have Pickle's stickied in the fan fic section.

~~Mitsukai~~ · 04/19/06, 07:33 AM

I read the additions you made to the guide and guess what?

I... Learned something... New... DUN DUN DUN! *dramatic reverb*

No not really, but its great anyway, and I'm sure that lots of people who read this are going to learn something they didn't know before.

Tobuoi · 04/19/06, 10:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GuardianOfHearts

No, she's a grammar nazi. =D I'm the dictionary of this family. xD

My friends call me both. Anyways, good idea, Zetsumi...now, hopefully people will actually take a look at this. However, I do know some members (shall remain annomymous) who have told me that they're really trying to improve their roleplaying and literacy skills...you've put a good deal of work into this guide, so I'm sure that it will prove a great help to those members. Keep it up.

Vendetta · 04/21/06, 06:46 PM

Very nice. The RPers who wish to imrpove their ability to write, best look at this.
-One of my friends read it, and found it extremely helpfull. He sends his thanks, Zetsumi.

Not only will this help the RPers in-need, but the ones who are already slightly experienced. Not to mention, the Role-Play section will graduate into somthing alot more efficient, and hopefully, we'll get some of the old school Role-Players back, eh?

Congratulations - Stickied.

Good work Zetsumi <3

wisdom&valor · 04/21/06, 07:46 PM

Wow that was good. It must taken you forever to type that.

~~Yihazu~~ · 04/22/06, 01:21 PM

Wow, congradulations zetsumi on getting it stickied. I actually did learn sumthing from this. hopefully I can be as good as you and the best of them.

_Riku_ · 04/22/06, 02:48 PM

These are the times where I consider Zetsumi one of my ultimate heroes. This guide was needed. Hopefully some n00bs will take the time to read it.

Jet_Fire · 04/22/06, 04:06 PM

Man, this is cool, nice work. And Wisdom&Valor, it wouldn't have taken all that long. Its just simple English that he could be copying out of a text-book he has from Uni or something? (woops, spoil your moment?)

Anyways, congrats on a job well done.

04/18/06, 09:33 AM	#1
Zetsumi Square peg, Round hole Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Rockhampton, QLD Age: 19 Posts: 3,139 Rep Power: 8	Guide to Grammar -------------------------------------------- \| \ \ \ \ UNDER CONSTRUCTION \ \ \ \\| -------------------------------------------- Literacy. Everyone tells you to be literate, but what exactly is literacy, and how do you achieve it? Are you literate? Are you flamed/harassed for poor literacy? Did those telling you to be literate stop to explain literacy to you? If the answer to any of these questions is no, or even if it is yes, for that matter, then you need to improve your literacy, and I am here to help you do that. A large part of literacy is the correct use of the English language...and by that, I don't just mean dotting your I's and crossing your T's. I mean effective and correct vocabulary and punctuation: That is to say, grammar. I myself am currently training at university in a Bachelor of Learning Management, a degree that once achieved, will allow me to teach from year one to year ten in the schooling system, and a major component of my course is grammar. During this course, I've encountered several parts of grammar relevant in particular to roleplaying, and as such, I plan to bring them to you, the roleplaying community, in an ordered and easily understandable format. Many of you may see self-improvement in creative writing or roleplaying a chore, however, many others are feeling the pressure of the new rules of the roleplaying section brought in to herald Morpheaus' promotion to moderator of the roleplay section, and see the necessity to improve yourself. I'm providing this guide for those who want to improve themselves, so if you don't, just don't read it. Now, I will first explain this: I will not follow every single nuance of the English language in this guide. English is one of, if not the most complicated language on the planet, and not only contradicts it's own laws on several counts, but has some extremely obscure and complicated rules. I'll be explaining the very basics of punctuation and grammar, simplifying it to suit role-playing in general, with the result being a smaller, simpler dialect that uses the same basic rules as English. Therefore, anything stated in this guide applies to the roleplaying forums only. And now...na na na na na, na na, na na, Can't touch this... ...It's Grammartime! ____________________ Contents Paragraphing Punctuation ____________________ Paragraphing The use of paragraphs is something that not everyone understands entirely, and even fewer people use properly, especially in regard to roleplay. In the Rules, a paragraph is described as 'Five sentences or more'. I'm here to tell you that this is complete and utter [expletive]! A paragraph can range in length from a single sentence response to a page-spanning article, and there's no set limit to the length. The only true limit on a paragraph's length is how much you feel inclined to type. Each paragraph should revolve or centre on a single idea or concept. A new concept is a new paragraph, and sometimes it's hard to tell one idea from another, especially in roleplay. One method is to separate your posts by action and inaction, for example, if your character performs an action, and then reflects upon this action, the action itself should be a separate paragraph to the thought process. You can see an example of this simply by observing this passage. When I was talking about the length of a paragraph, it was a separate passage to when I began talking about how it should focus on a single concept. Displayed below is a graphical representation. (1st Idea or Character Action) -------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------- (2nd Idea or Character Thought) -------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------- Punctuation Many roleplayers are deemed 'n00bs' or 'illiterate' simply because their posts are difficult to read due to punctuation errors. Simply by correcting your punctuation, you can make yourself seem a much better roleplayer. I'll list several of the common mistakes. Capital Letters One of the most abused functions of the modern keyboard: The Caps Lock key. In my experience, roleplayers either overcapitalise or undercapitalise, detracting from their roleplay. Several basic rules of capitalisation follow. Capital letters are used at the start of a sentence: The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. Capital letters are used to denote names or titles: The quick brown Fox jumped over the lazy Dog (Assuming that the fox's name is Fox, and the dog's name is Dog) Captial letters are used to denote places or important words: The quick brown fox lived in England, which is ruled by a King. Capital letters are not used to denote shouting or the like: "THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPED OVER THE LAZY DOG." Instead, do something like this: "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog!" shouted Zetsumi. Full Stops Full stops are used at the end of a sentence. They denote that the sentence has finished, and that the reader should take a pause. Every time you read something in your head, and pause before starting the next sentence, that is where you need to place a full stop in your text. After a full stop, you may put one or two spaces. I, out of habit, use two spaces, but the choice is really yours. Commas A comma is used to denote a pause mid-sentence. Use one if you feel that you would pause in that place while speaking it, or before such words as 'or'. They can also be used to separate items in lists. Apostrophes An Apostrophe is used in several situations, two of the main ones being it's use to demonstrate a conjunction (he's, she's, won't), and the other being a herald of ownership, eg: Zetsumi's Guide to Grammar Usually in this circumstance, the apostrophe would be placed before the S, however, in some circumstances this isn't possible. Take for example the username Morpheaus. Morpheaus ends in an S, so if we were to talk about something he's done, how would we use an apostrophe to show ownership? Would we use something such as: Morpheaus's Roleplaying Rules? In a situation where the object or person who is the owner of the subject's name ends in an S, we simply add the apostrophe after the S, eg: Morpheaus' Roleplaying Rules. Exclamation and Question marks Ah, one of the more overused methods of punctuation. Often, people feel compelled to stress their point by doing something like this: The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111one! If there's something I cannot stress enough, it's that when it comes to exclamation and question marks, ONE will suffice. In case you didn't understand that, let me say it again. You only need to put ONE exclamation or question mark at the end of your sentence. Quotation Marks Often referred to also as '66' and '99', quotation marks are used to denote speech. I'm sure you've used them at some point in your life, and if you haven’t, please, take the cords out of the back of your computer and stick them in your mouth right now. You have no place roleplaying. One of the things not many people realise about using quotation marks to denote speech is that each new speaker should be on a separate line...that is, each time someone begins talking, you need to press the enter key. Like thus: "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog." Said Zetsumi. "What is it with you and this fox?" Inquired Mitsukai. However, when someone continues talking, it can remain on the same line. Like thus: "The quick brown fox..." Zetsumi explained "...jumped over the lazy dog." Last edited by Zetsumi; 06/27/06 at 04:16 AM.

04/18/06, 09:41 AM	#2
Ric What is this shit? Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 3,254 Rep Power: 7	Re: Guide to Grammer Good idea Zet. It should be very helpfull to all of us, especially me. I'm pretty darn illeterate if I do say so myself. I have rped with you and you have seen my rping. Not the best I could say that for sure. Thanks alot.

04/18/06, 09:56 AM	#3
~~Mitsukai~~ Banned Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: I must be dreamin'. Age: 17 Posts: 1,464 Rep Power: 0	Re: Guide to Grammer "Awesome Guide Zets!" shouted Mitsukai as he stood on his hands and gave his friend a goofy smile. And it got stickied too! Thats great! Last edited by Mitsukai; 04/18/06 at 10:04 AM.

04/18/06, 11:43 PM	#4
Zetsumi Square peg, Round hole Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Rockhampton, QLD Age: 19 Posts: 3,139 Rep Power: 8	Re: Guide to Grammer K, i've done some editing...because some people seem to think it makes them smart to point out that grammar is not spelt 'grammer'...not mentioning any names, eh Mitsukai? And I totally knew that...I was just seeing if you guys were awake. Anyway, I also added some more to punctuation, and I'll be adding a section on conjunctions and sentance joining this afternoon.

04/19/06, 01:41 AM	#6
Zetsumi Square peg, Round hole Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Rockhampton, QLD Age: 19 Posts: 3,139 Rep Power: 8	Re: Guide to Grammer TLP...what are you, a freaking dictionary? O_O Yeah, you have a point about the name thing, I'll fix that up. The King thing, however, is correct because it's reffering to a position of power or title.

04/19/06, 01:43 AM	#7
Thelonepickle I don't like bugs! Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 3,759 Rep Power: 7	Re: Guide to Grammer Alright. Sorry to trouble you about the King thing, though. I'm not sure whether I should take the dictionary thing as a compliment or not. XD Yeah, I dunno. I was blessed with super-human typing and grammar skills ((Not actually "Super-Human", but ya know)). But I couldn't POSSIBLY be good at sports or maybe even reach 5'2", oh, NO. That would be cruel. XD Again, good luck on your thread. =D This is Pickle... Signing out. XD

04/19/06, 07:33 AM	#9
~~Mitsukai~~ Banned Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: I must be dreamin'. Age: 17 Posts: 1,464 Rep Power: 0	Re: Guide to Grammer I read the additions you made to the guide and guess what? I... Learned something... New... DUN DUN DUN! dramatic reverb No not really, but its great anyway, and I'm sure that lots of people who read this are going to learn something they didn't know before.

04/21/06, 06:46 PM	#11
Vendetta Personal [^^^] Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: In the artless world. Age: 17 Posts: 1,644 Rep Power: 5	Re: Guide to Grammer Very nice. The RPers who wish to imrpove their ability to write, best look at this. -One of my friends read it, and found it extremely helpfull. He sends his thanks, Zetsumi. Not only will this help the RPers in-need, but the ones who are already slightly experienced. Not to mention, the Role-Play section will graduate into somthing alot more efficient, and hopefully, we'll get some of the old school Role-Players back, eh? Congratulations - Stickied. Good work Zetsumi <3

04/21/06, 07:46 PM	#12
wisdom&valor wanna be like me Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: NY Posts: 1,701 Rep Power: 4	Re: Guide to Grammer Wow that was good. It must taken you forever to type that.

04/22/06, 01:21 PM	#13
~~Yihazu~~ Banned Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: in australia, and yes kangaroo's live in my backyard Age: 17 Posts: 444 Rep Power: 0	Re: Guide to Grammer Wow, congradulations zetsumi on getting it stickied. I actually did learn sumthing from this. hopefully I can be as good as you and the best of them.

04/22/06, 02:48 PM	#14
_Riku_ (^^)V Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: The Corrupted States of America Age: 17 Posts: 1,334 Rep Power: 5	Re: Guide to Grammer These are the times where I consider Zetsumi one of my ultimate heroes. This guide was needed. Hopefully some n00bs will take the time to read it.

04/22/06, 04:06 PM	#15
Jet_Fire I bid you farewell.... Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: The Same Place The Evil Voices Are... Age: 20 Posts: 1,918 Rep Power: 5	Re: Guide to Grammer Man, this is cool, nice work. And Wisdom&Valor, it wouldn't have taken all that long. Its just simple English that he could be copying out of a text-book he has from Uni or something? (woops, spoil your moment?) Anyways, congrats on a job well done.

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