Sem Edit: Yoshimitsu originally wrote this post.
Alright kids, me and Linkachu have been going absolutely bonkers over the poor grammar in RP at the moment. Because of this, I've decided to make a grammar thread so no one has any excuses any more. To begin with!:
Rule One - Capital Letters
Seriously, I'm shocked by the bad use of capital letters. They're all over the place! And not all over the places they should be! Capital letters should be used in these situations, and only these situations:
1) At the start of a sentence. I'm absolutely appalled whenever I see a sentence start WITHOUT a capital letter.
For example, a sentence should not look like this:
it was a cold day in Cherrygrove city.
It should look like this:
It was a cold day in Cherrygrove city.
Without the capital letter, it just looks messy and ugh.
2) Names. All names should have a capital letter at the start. This includes place names (like Cherrygrove) and pokemon names (like Eevee). Even titles such as Gym Leader and Champion, in relation to the game characters, should had capital letters.
For example, a sentence should not look like this:
Even though charles fought his hardest, his charmeleon just couldn't beat violet city's gym leader.
It should look like this:
Even though Charles fought his hardest, his Charmeleon just couldn't beat Violet City's Gym Leader.
3) When a character is shouting. Not every time a character is shouting, but when you want to get across that the character is shouting especially loudly. This really shouldn't be abused, though.
For example, when you want a character to be shouting very loudly, you don't want this:
"Give me back my pokemon!" Patrick roared.
You want this:
"GIVE ME BACK MY POKEMON!" Patrick roared.
Rule Two - Punctuation
This one shocks me too. Bad punctuation is used everywhere -.- Even things such as full stops and commas don't get used like they should be. Let's look at full stops:
1) They should be used to finish a sentence. It ends the sentence off nicely, and allows the next sentence to start.
For example, two sentences should not look like this:
Howard won the battle It was pretty easy actually.
They should look like this:
Howard won the battle. It was pretty easy actually.
Notice the difference? It lets the description get broken up, and it's just common sence and looks tidier.
2) Do not abuse full stops. Seriously, just because you can use them, you shouldn't use them all the time. Remember, conjunctives such as "and" and "but" are just as helpful as full stops. Even commas are useful here.
You don't want your sentences looking like this:
The sky was blue. There were no clouds. There was no chance of rain. This caused Ben to smile.
You do want this, though:
The sky was blue and there were no clouds, so there was no chance of rain, causing Ben to smile.
Notice the use of commas to break up the description, and the "and" that connected the first two sentences? It flows a lot better and is much nicer to read.
Rule Three - Commas
Commas are glorious little bundles of joy in just a few pixels. They are very, very useful, but please don't over use them. The writing gets tedious and confusing to read.
1) Comma sandwiches, so to speak. One really useful thing you can do with commas is what I call a 'Comma Sandwich'. Basically, you put a sentence into another sentence, in between two commas, that could be removed and still make sense.
See what I did there? In that last sentence, I wrote "in between two commas". Now, you might notice that it was in between two commas. Now re-read that, but ignore those four words. Does the sentence still make sense? Of course it does! That's an effective use of comma sandwiches.
Commas are used when listing things. Very useful, if you ever have to list something. Commas break apart the things being listed so you can tell what's what.
You don't want this:
Jimmy needed a toothbrush torch flask potion clean underwear and a sandwich.
That makes it sound like he wants some crazy toothbrush/torch/flask/potion/clean underwear combination.
What you do want is this:
Jimmy needed a toothbrush, torch, flask, potion, clean underwear and a sandwich.
You can clearly tell what each object is, and you don't start thinking "Awesome, where can I get one of those crazy toothbrush/torch/flask/potion/clean underwear combinations?!"
3) Breaking apart sentences. Commas are very good for joining up parts of sentences, and making description flow better.
Rather than having this:
It was sunny. There were no clouds. Even though the weather forecast said it would rain.
You want this:
It was sunny, there were no clouds, even though the weather forecast said it would rain.
The only thing to watch out for here is commas sandwiches - just make sure you can spot the differences.
Rule Four - Speech
Okay, this is where the problems start. Speech is positively abused >>;; I've seen so many cases of poor speech in writing that I'm tempted to just start banning people.
1) A new line for every speaker. This breaks up the speech and makes it much more manageable to read.
You cannot put this:
"How's the egg?" Bob asked. "It's fine," Jon replied.
You must break up speech like this:
"How's the egg?" Bob asked.
"It's fine," Jon replied.
You can clearly tell when someone new is talking this way, making it much easier to read and not be confused.
2) When opening a line with the speech, if you intend to put something like "Jared said", you must use a comma when closing speech but before the speech marks. What a mouthful, eh? Look at this.
This is not right:
"I'm fine." Jared said.
Putting the full stop in closes the sentence, and thus "Jared said" becomes a standalone sentence, which makes no sense. This is how to do it:
"I'm fine," Jared said.
These keeps the sentence going, making it make sense again.
3) Speech starts with a capital letter unless a sentence is broken up by something such as "Sir Nedwar said." If the sentence is broken up, then "Sir Nedwar said" must be followed by a comma.
This is how not to do it:
Sir Nedwar approached James. "hey kid, I found this really cool thing," Sir Nedwar said. "that makes pokemon eggs hatch faster!"
This is how to do it:
Sir Nedwar approached James.
"Hey kid, I found this really cool thing," Sir Nedwar said, "that makes pokemon eggs hatch faster!"
Even if speech is put without a new line, which is allowed under certain situations, it must be started with a capital letter. No arguments.
Rule Five - Paragraphing
Paragraphing goes here because it's tedious reading through blocks of text.
1) Paragraphing must be used to indicate certain things, including a change of time, a change of scene or a change of character.
2) Paragraphing is also good for breaking up chunks of description. If you're in a battle, and you either dodge or get hit, and then attack, use a paragraph to split up the dodge/hit and the attack. After the first part of description (the dodge/hit), start a new paragraph by hitting our friend the Enter key, next to the # key, twice.
Like that.
And a few pointers
Try to not use numbers. Don't put things like 5, 83, 194. Type them out and put five, eighty-three, one hundred and ninety-four.
Don't go overboard with any of the above.
Try not to go into TOO much detail. We don't want to know that a pokeball is exactly seven point three two centimetres diameter and forty six point nine two centimetres circumference or whatever. It gets boring to read. Just say something like "grapefruit-sized" or something.
That said, don't be too lax with detail. Don't just say "it was a specialized pokeball", tell us HOW it's specialized. Is it green? Purple? Designed to only catch fire pokemon? Maybe only works when it's raining? We want to know!
Okay, that'll do. If anyone has anything to add, feel free to do so.
Alright kids, me and Linkachu have been going absolutely bonkers over the poor grammar in RP at the moment. Because of this, I've decided to make a grammar thread so no one has any excuses any more. To begin with!:
Rule One - Capital Letters
Seriously, I'm shocked by the bad use of capital letters. They're all over the place! And not all over the places they should be! Capital letters should be used in these situations, and only these situations:
1) At the start of a sentence. I'm absolutely appalled whenever I see a sentence start WITHOUT a capital letter.
For example, a sentence should not look like this:
it was a cold day in Cherrygrove city.
It should look like this:
It was a cold day in Cherrygrove city.
Without the capital letter, it just looks messy and ugh.
2) Names. All names should have a capital letter at the start. This includes place names (like Cherrygrove) and pokemon names (like Eevee). Even titles such as Gym Leader and Champion, in relation to the game characters, should had capital letters.
For example, a sentence should not look like this:
Even though charles fought his hardest, his charmeleon just couldn't beat violet city's gym leader.
It should look like this:
Even though Charles fought his hardest, his Charmeleon just couldn't beat Violet City's Gym Leader.
3) When a character is shouting. Not every time a character is shouting, but when you want to get across that the character is shouting especially loudly. This really shouldn't be abused, though.
For example, when you want a character to be shouting very loudly, you don't want this:
"Give me back my pokemon!" Patrick roared.
You want this:
"GIVE ME BACK MY POKEMON!" Patrick roared.
Rule Two - Punctuation
This one shocks me too. Bad punctuation is used everywhere -.- Even things such as full stops and commas don't get used like they should be. Let's look at full stops:
1) They should be used to finish a sentence. It ends the sentence off nicely, and allows the next sentence to start.
For example, two sentences should not look like this:
Howard won the battle It was pretty easy actually.
They should look like this:
Howard won the battle. It was pretty easy actually.
Notice the difference? It lets the description get broken up, and it's just common sence and looks tidier.
2) Do not abuse full stops. Seriously, just because you can use them, you shouldn't use them all the time. Remember, conjunctives such as "and" and "but" are just as helpful as full stops. Even commas are useful here.
You don't want your sentences looking like this:
The sky was blue. There were no clouds. There was no chance of rain. This caused Ben to smile.
You do want this, though:
The sky was blue and there were no clouds, so there was no chance of rain, causing Ben to smile.
Notice the use of commas to break up the description, and the "and" that connected the first two sentences? It flows a lot better and is much nicer to read.
Rule Three - Commas
Commas are glorious little bundles of joy in just a few pixels. They are very, very useful, but please don't over use them. The writing gets tedious and confusing to read.
1) Comma sandwiches, so to speak. One really useful thing you can do with commas is what I call a 'Comma Sandwich'. Basically, you put a sentence into another sentence, in between two commas, that could be removed and still make sense.
See what I did there? In that last sentence, I wrote "in between two commas". Now, you might notice that it was in between two commas. Now re-read that, but ignore those four words. Does the sentence still make sense? Of course it does! That's an effective use of comma sandwiches.
Commas are used when listing things. Very useful, if you ever have to list something. Commas break apart the things being listed so you can tell what's what.
You don't want this:
Jimmy needed a toothbrush torch flask potion clean underwear and a sandwich.
That makes it sound like he wants some crazy toothbrush/torch/flask/potion/clean underwear combination.
What you do want is this:
Jimmy needed a toothbrush, torch, flask, potion, clean underwear and a sandwich.
You can clearly tell what each object is, and you don't start thinking "Awesome, where can I get one of those crazy toothbrush/torch/flask/potion/clean underwear combinations?!"
3) Breaking apart sentences. Commas are very good for joining up parts of sentences, and making description flow better.
Rather than having this:
It was sunny. There were no clouds. Even though the weather forecast said it would rain.
You want this:
It was sunny, there were no clouds, even though the weather forecast said it would rain.
The only thing to watch out for here is commas sandwiches - just make sure you can spot the differences.
Rule Four - Speech
Okay, this is where the problems start. Speech is positively abused >>;; I've seen so many cases of poor speech in writing that I'm tempted to just start banning people.
1) A new line for every speaker. This breaks up the speech and makes it much more manageable to read.
You cannot put this:
"How's the egg?" Bob asked. "It's fine," Jon replied.
You must break up speech like this:
"How's the egg?" Bob asked.
"It's fine," Jon replied.
You can clearly tell when someone new is talking this way, making it much easier to read and not be confused.
2) When opening a line with the speech, if you intend to put something like "Jared said", you must use a comma when closing speech but before the speech marks. What a mouthful, eh? Look at this.
This is not right:
"I'm fine." Jared said.
Putting the full stop in closes the sentence, and thus "Jared said" becomes a standalone sentence, which makes no sense. This is how to do it:
"I'm fine," Jared said.
These keeps the sentence going, making it make sense again.
3) Speech starts with a capital letter unless a sentence is broken up by something such as "Sir Nedwar said." If the sentence is broken up, then "Sir Nedwar said" must be followed by a comma.
This is how not to do it:
Sir Nedwar approached James. "hey kid, I found this really cool thing," Sir Nedwar said. "that makes pokemon eggs hatch faster!"
This is how to do it:
Sir Nedwar approached James.
"Hey kid, I found this really cool thing," Sir Nedwar said, "that makes pokemon eggs hatch faster!"
Even if speech is put without a new line, which is allowed under certain situations, it must be started with a capital letter. No arguments.
Rule Five - Paragraphing
Paragraphing goes here because it's tedious reading through blocks of text.
1) Paragraphing must be used to indicate certain things, including a change of time, a change of scene or a change of character.
2) Paragraphing is also good for breaking up chunks of description. If you're in a battle, and you either dodge or get hit, and then attack, use a paragraph to split up the dodge/hit and the attack. After the first part of description (the dodge/hit), start a new paragraph by hitting our friend the Enter key, next to the # key, twice.
Like that.
And a few pointers
Try to not use numbers. Don't put things like 5, 83, 194. Type them out and put five, eighty-three, one hundred and ninety-four.
Don't go overboard with any of the above.
Try not to go into TOO much detail. We don't want to know that a pokeball is exactly seven point three two centimetres diameter and forty six point nine two centimetres circumference or whatever. It gets boring to read. Just say something like "grapefruit-sized" or something.
That said, don't be too lax with detail. Don't just say "it was a specialized pokeball", tell us HOW it's specialized. Is it green? Purple? Designed to only catch fire pokemon? Maybe only works when it's raining? We want to know!
Okay, that'll do. If anyone has anything to add, feel free to do so.
