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RP 101: Spelling, Grammar, Format
Topic Started: Apr 12 2009, 09:17 PM (238 Views)
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  • [size0]Disclaimer: This tutorial, and others of the same name, are being written by the staff (that's Kat) of Fantasmic (and all of her other forums) for the members, to aide them in their writings. No matter how experienced, everyone has room for improvement when it comes to writing! One can always look back and see how they have changed in their styles. We aim to help those who are just getting started, and to polish those who have been doing it for a while. Please do not take any advice given here personally: we are just trying to help! If you have some suggestions or ideas to add to the topic, you are more than welcome to post them!
LESSON ONE: SPELLING:

Spelling is VERY important when it comes to writing ANYTHING; be it a story, an essay, or a rp post. Having a post with accurately spelled words makes it SO much easier to read and follow the storyline. After all, haven't you had an experience where you have tried to read something and have discovered you can't figure out what the writer means because they have botched the spelling of a word? It's inconvenient, but it's easily fixable!

Spell Check is a writer's best friend. Found on most writing programs, such as Microsoft Word, all you need to do is either write your post in the program, or copy/paste it there when you are finished typing it up. Misspelled words will show up underlined in red. If you click the spell check button, the program will run through your writing, offering you the options of words it believes you mean to say. This is an easy fix to your spelling problem.

When it comes to some names of people and locations, a spell check might not pick up on your mistakes, or might not have a correct spelling for you. In this case, please ask someone on the board for help, or else look up the name using Google or another search engine. Examples might be Japanese words/names and other fictional names or places.

It only takes an extra few minutes or so to run a post through a spell checker, but it makes a world of difference when it comes to the quality of your post. So please, do yourself and the rest of us a favor: use your spell check!

LESSON TWO: GRAMMAR:

Grammar is also important when it comes to writing. The way you use a word or form a sentence can completely change what you are trying to say in it. For example, consider this. I could say, "I am hear!” which makes no sense at all, or I could say, "I am here!" which obviously, does. Making sure that you are using the right (not write!) word in a sentence is ever so important. It can change a sentence completely, and it can throw the reader off. Other words that you should watch out for include to/too/two and there/their.

When it comes to writing in a roleplay, writing 'lyke dis' does not cut it. We do not want chat-speak or major abbreviations in a post. Take the time to actually write out what you mean to say. We don't want to see things like 'u should go 2 his house'. We want to see 'you should go to his house'. Occasional abbreviations are all right, but we don't want to see them all the time.

Finally, please also keep in mind that depending on where you put an apostrophe, you can change your word completely. Be very careful when using its/it's and you're/your.

When you put a post through spell check, you might see a green underline on some of your words. This is your spell check's way of telling you that you have a grammar error! If possible, the program will try to offer you options for the best way to fix your problem, but it does happen where the program does not pick up your problem, because the word you have used incorrectly is still a word, and it doesn't realize it! So please make sure to re-read your post a few times in hopes of catching these errors before posting.

LESSON THREE: FORMAT:

Last but not least, and perhaps one of the most important of all: formatting. The way you write your post is EXTREMELY important. This can make you or break you. Your post must be neat, tidy, and easy to read, or chances are: people might just skip it! If you have a lumped up post with no spacing or paragraphing, it will simply look like a mush of words and letters. We can fix this problem.

When it comes to paragraphing, it is really quite simple: when you are changing topics, or moving onto a new train of thought, it is best to start a new paragraph. For example, here a post from a roleplay where I played Giselle from Disney's Enchanted:
Quote:
 
There were voices...she heard them, so distantly...and while she couldn't distinguish what they were saying, she was guessing it was Morgan and Robert, perhaps, calling in to wake her up. Perhaps she had slept in! Oh, such a rare occasion it was...she was always up with the sunrise and the birds singing, to tidy up the house before making breakfast for the family. Could she really have slept in...? Shifting in her 'sleep', she mumbled softly to them, "Morgan...Robert...Oh, I'll be right there...just five more minutes..." Goodness, she was never this tired...! How strange!

Someone was poking her...little darling Morgan, she was sure. As much as Giselle wished to shoo her away and turn around and go right back to sleep, she knew she very well couldn't, as she most certainly didn't wish to offend the little girl that she held so near and dear to her heart. And so it was with little reluctance (but still some just the same) that she started to stir, stretching out her arms and arching her back slightly as she prepared to get up and start breakfast for the day. She opened her blue eyes, expecting to see little Morgan hovering over her expectantly...

And instead, she saw a boy...LITERALLY hovering over her.

With a screech of alarm, the girl sat up abruptly, scrambling back through the grass a few paces with wide eyes. That boy was...FLYING! In the air! Like a bird! Things like that didn't happen in New York. Or Andalasia, for that matter. And when she actually did dare to look past him at the scenery, she judged that this place didn't look much like her birthplace, either. But it wasn't New York either, this was certain...

She was lost. Again.

But there wasn't time to deal with that at the moment...she would have to figure out her location, and more importantly, how to get back to 'The Big Apple' as it was sometimes called (for reasons she didn't understand) after she escaped this...flying boy. Slowly, she raised a hand to shoo the child away, then paused, double-taking as she actually noticed the hand in front of her face...it was...different. Or, back to the way it was before... or... however you wished to call it. To put it simply...she was animated again. "Oh dear...oh, my." she murmured, lifting both hands to stare at them unhappily. She even forgot the boy was there, for the time being. She was more interested in her current plight: that she was once again in some fairytale world, far from the ones she loved.

How would she ever get back?

See how I started a new paragraph each time I started on a new thought? It made it a lot easier to read then say, this...
Quote:
 
There were voices...she heard them, so distantly...and while she couldn't distinguish what they were saying, she was guessing it was Morgan and Robert, perhaps, calling in to wake her up. Perhaps she had slept in! Oh, such a rare occasion it was...she was always up with the sunrise and the birds singing, to tidy up the house before making breakfast for the family. Could she really have slept in...? Shifting in her 'sleep', she mumbled softly to them, "Morgan...Robert...Oh, I'll be right there...just five more minutes..." Goodness, she was never this tired...! How strange! Someone was poking her...little darling Morgan, she was sure. As much as Giselle wished to shoo her away and turn around and go right back to sleep, she knew she very well couldn't, as she most certainly didn't wish to offend the little girl that she held so near and dear to her heart. And so it was with little reluctance (but still some just the same) that she started to stir, stretching out her arms and arching her back slightly as she prepared to get up and start breakfast for the day. She opened her blue eyes, expecting to see little Morgan hovering over her expectantly... And instead, she saw a boy...LITERALLY hovering over her. With a screech of alarm, the girl sat up abruptly, scrambling back through the grass a few paces with wide eyes. That boy was...FLYING! In the air! Like a bird! Things like that didn't happen in New York. Or Andalasia, for that matter. And when she actually did dare to look past him at the scenery, she judged that this place didn't look much like her birthplace, either. But it wasn't New York either, this was certain... She was lost. Again. But there wasn't time to deal with that at the moment...she would have to figure out her location, and more importantly, how to get back to 'The Big Apple' as it was sometimes called (for reasons she didn't understand) after she escaped this...flying boy. Slowly, she raised a hand to shoo the child away, then paused, double-taking as she actually noticed the hand in front of her face...it was...different. Or, back to the way it was before... or... however you wished to call it. To put it simply...she was animated again. "Oh dear...oh, my." she murmured, lifting both hands to stare at them unhappily. She even forgot the boy was there, for the time being. She was more interested in her current plight: that she was once again in some fairytale world, far from the ones she loved. How would she ever get back?

...didn't it? Yeah, I thought so. So, case in point...try paragraphing! It really does help, and it makes posts look SO much neater, and really helps the reader get through them. Sometimes, clumpy posts like the one above just hurt your eyes, and you find them very hard to follow!

In addition, capitalization is VERY important! We don't want to see posts like this, for example: 'I Saw You Yesterday In The Field' or 'i saw you yesterday in the field'. How about 'I saw you yesterday in the field.' Or if it were a location with a name, 'I saw you yesterday in Blossom Field.' Please do not capitalize or lower-case excessively. Again, this can be annoying, and oftentimes hard to read.

Finally, punctuation! Oooh punctuation. It is needed. Or else your posts just look like major run on sentences! Commas, periods, quotes and parentheses...we like them all. Please use them, and use them correctly. We don't want an unneeded overabundance, of course, but we want them use where they should be. You've all passed English, I'm sure. Use what you've learned there, here. ;) Make it easier for the readers.

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Conclusion: With the knowledge posted here, you should now be able to form a easy-to-read post! Congrats! :) If you have any questions, or have anything at all to add to this lesson, please feel free to do so! We can all help each other out, to learn and improve our writing skills! Lets make this a learning experience as well as a good time. :D
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