Post by Riku on Jul 3, 2010 15:02:10 GMT -4
This was taken from an awesome writer named Malamyn. Thank you so much for making this article! It helps out lots of other admins and role players alike!
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“Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;”
For those of you who have not yet had British Literature, these are the first four lines of Chaucer’s great literary masterpiece the Canterbury Tales (ok Chaucer was the guy that lost his clothes in a bet in A Knight’s Tale with Heath Ledger, with me now? Good.). Note the strange form of English. It’s called Old English otherwise known as ‘An Archaic form of English that no one uses anymore and requires a linguistics class to even learn how to pronounce it’.
English is a lovely thing; it’s a Germanic language though over 66% of our words are derived from Latin. On words, did you know that there are over 500,000 of them? There’s even a dictionary, the Oxford English Dictionary (know affectionately as just the ‘OED’), in which every word ever used is listed.
So why do some people insist on butchering it?
Spelling, grammar, these are not difficult concepts. And word choice… certainly with over 500,000 of them from which to choose you could avoid redundancy. And certainly there is no need to make up words unless in dialogue to characterize a person as ignorant, impatient, or scattered. However, there is a danger with a large vocabulary. Do not search for meaningless synonyms just to heighten the tone. You know of whom I speak, but I’ll give you a one word hint:
Optics
However the group of individuals so entrenched in that style are just that, entrenched and I could not dare hope shake them of there ways, so I will move on to more constructive areas.
Spelling
Apostrophes do not make you sound smarter, they make you sound lazy. Only when developing a sophisticated accent for dialogue is it appropriate to shorten or lengthen words with pauses or inflections of speech. In terms of basic typos, it is advisable to run longer posts through a word program with spell check.
Grammar
Sentences begin with the first letter capitalized. There are two spaces after a period. And when in doubt, DO NOT PUT A COMMA! Commas should be placed:
1.) Before the conjunction to separate two independent clauses.
She went to the store, but did not find the dress she wanted.
2.) After an Introductory Adverbial Clause.
When the rain stops, we shall go outside.
3.) When addressing an individual.
You, Tom, shall lead the band.
There are a few more appropriate places, but that’s enough for now. Verb tenses are another cause for vexation on my part. It only takes one or two read-thrus to ensure that the post begins and ends in the same tense. In general, past tense is preferable to present since it reads more like fiction. Though some have a unique ability to Role Play in present tense and still sound intelligent, it is a rare gift and if you haven’t been told you have it then you don’t. There is also the matter of First Person, Second Person, and Third Person, but fortunately I shall simplify for you. THIRD PERSON ONLY! Text based RP is very much akin to writing a book, and books written in First Person are written by one person, not 50. Multiple character point of view (which is essentially what RP is) is written in third person so stick with it. So the words “You” and “I” should only crop up in dialogue.
In Summary
The only trick to writing well is to write often. The other trick is to criticize yourself and don’t get too lazy. Begin taking note of your mistakes and correct them. Write down basic grammar rules and tape them to your computers if need be. English is not that difficult and with a little bit of patience and practice, you can master the basics to move on to the more entertaining aspects of writing such as style.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
“Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;”
For those of you who have not yet had British Literature, these are the first four lines of Chaucer’s great literary masterpiece the Canterbury Tales (ok Chaucer was the guy that lost his clothes in a bet in A Knight’s Tale with Heath Ledger, with me now? Good.). Note the strange form of English. It’s called Old English otherwise known as ‘An Archaic form of English that no one uses anymore and requires a linguistics class to even learn how to pronounce it’.
English is a lovely thing; it’s a Germanic language though over 66% of our words are derived from Latin. On words, did you know that there are over 500,000 of them? There’s even a dictionary, the Oxford English Dictionary (know affectionately as just the ‘OED’), in which every word ever used is listed.
So why do some people insist on butchering it?
Spelling, grammar, these are not difficult concepts. And word choice… certainly with over 500,000 of them from which to choose you could avoid redundancy. And certainly there is no need to make up words unless in dialogue to characterize a person as ignorant, impatient, or scattered. However, there is a danger with a large vocabulary. Do not search for meaningless synonyms just to heighten the tone. You know of whom I speak, but I’ll give you a one word hint:
Optics
However the group of individuals so entrenched in that style are just that, entrenched and I could not dare hope shake them of there ways, so I will move on to more constructive areas.
Spelling
Apostrophes do not make you sound smarter, they make you sound lazy. Only when developing a sophisticated accent for dialogue is it appropriate to shorten or lengthen words with pauses or inflections of speech. In terms of basic typos, it is advisable to run longer posts through a word program with spell check.
Grammar
Sentences begin with the first letter capitalized. There are two spaces after a period. And when in doubt, DO NOT PUT A COMMA! Commas should be placed:
1.) Before the conjunction to separate two independent clauses.
She went to the store, but did not find the dress she wanted.
2.) After an Introductory Adverbial Clause.
When the rain stops, we shall go outside.
3.) When addressing an individual.
You, Tom, shall lead the band.
There are a few more appropriate places, but that’s enough for now. Verb tenses are another cause for vexation on my part. It only takes one or two read-thrus to ensure that the post begins and ends in the same tense. In general, past tense is preferable to present since it reads more like fiction. Though some have a unique ability to Role Play in present tense and still sound intelligent, it is a rare gift and if you haven’t been told you have it then you don’t. There is also the matter of First Person, Second Person, and Third Person, but fortunately I shall simplify for you. THIRD PERSON ONLY! Text based RP is very much akin to writing a book, and books written in First Person are written by one person, not 50. Multiple character point of view (which is essentially what RP is) is written in third person so stick with it. So the words “You” and “I” should only crop up in dialogue.
In Summary
The only trick to writing well is to write often. The other trick is to criticize yourself and don’t get too lazy. Begin taking note of your mistakes and correct them. Write down basic grammar rules and tape them to your computers if need be. English is not that difficult and with a little bit of patience and practice, you can master the basics to move on to the more entertaining aspects of writing such as style.