Some Basic Grammar, Things to be aware of.

For some of you, this may not be a big problem. However, for those of you who are coming from role plays that have lesser expectations for writing and are not completely use to the kind of writing that is expected here, this may help to improve your writing. I am, by no means, grammatically perfect myself, but there are at least a few basic things that everyone should be able to do decently. This help section is for those who are trying to (or are in need of) improving some basic parts of grammar so that it will be easier for other players to understand their posts.

Confusable Words

There are a lot of words that are easily confused with others because of the similarities in their spellings or pronunciations. The following is a list of words that I have seen commonly confused with each other during role play and clarifications for what circumstances each word should be used. Some of these confusions may just be due to going through a spell-check and picking the wrong word, but I thought I’d still point them out. Some of the words have other uses than are listed below, but I chose the ones I wrote because they seem to be the most commonly confused use of the word. There are many other words outside this list that can be confused with each other, but I don’t plan on attempting to list every single possibility. Please try to keep these in mind while typing up a post so that it is easier for everyone to understand what you wrote.

Accept: to give admittance or approval to
Except: exclude

This pack will ACCEPT anyone EXCEPT those that are evil.

Wander: to move about without a fixed aim or goal
Wonder: to feel curiosity or doubt

Your character can WANDER anywhere she desires. However, she may WONDER at times where to go next.

Been: a past tense form of Be
Bin: a container

She had BEEN looking for the BIN of food, but got lost.

Which: an adjective or a pronoun
Witch: a female who practices black magic

WHICH WITCH is WHICH? (yeah, that’s a fun sentence.)

They’re: they are
Their: possessive, indicates belonging (their land)
There: usually used to indicate some place or as a function to introduce a sentence/clause

If you look over THERE you will see that THEY’RE plotting to overthrow THEIR leader.

Then: used in ordering (in time, etc), used with prepositions to mean that time in the past or future, and used as "in that case"
Than: used to show comparison between two things

THEN I saw that the first box was larger THAN the second one.

Overall, if you have any doubt or are uncertain about a word, look it up in a dictionary. If you do not have a dictionary at home with you, there are some internet dictionaries you could look up as well. They are not always as good as a print dictionary, but usually work if you are in a bind.

Sentence Fragments

I’m sure you’ve all heard complaints about fragments at some point in your life from your English teachers. Now it’s time for my attempt (oh, dear) on talking about them. Please do your best to avoid them in your posts. If your character is speaking in fragments, that’s one thing. Your character will talk how she or he talks, whether in fragments or with some drawled out slang. The rest of the sentences in your post should be full sentences, though there are at times literary techniques to using fragments.

Fragments are, basically, incomplete thoughts. In more technical terms, a sentence should have a subject and a predicate. The subject of a sentence is some noun, whether it is a name, place, or thing. Sometimes the subject is not stated in a sentence, for example “Get out!” is a sentence who’s subject is “you,” though “you” is not written anywhere. A predicate is the verb and all its friends (objects, complements, and modifiers), which I don’t feel like getting into detail over. In general, sentences shouldn’t start with “and,” “but,” or “because.” However, there are ways to make a full sentence while using “because” to start off, but it is usually seen in the middle of a sentence. The words “and” and “but” are more like connectors between two parts of a whole thought and as such are not good to use in the beginning of a sentence.

Fragments:
1. While looking through the window.
2. Because it snowed.
3. They narrowly escaped the cave. And had nothing to show for it.
4. The two friends ran as fast as they could. But it was too late.
5. Therolin is good at many things. Hunting and tracking are among them.

Fixers:

Numbers one and two are very similar in their problems and have similar type solutions. Numbers three and four are similar to each other as well and both have very easy fixes to turn them into proper sentences. The later are the more common types of fragments that I have seen during role playing. Number five is another common one that seems to pop up among role players, but it too has an easy fix.

1. While looking through the window, she saw a bear. OR She saw a bear while looking through the window.
2. Because it snowed, the streets had turned a white color. OR The streets had turned a white color because it snowed.
3. They narrowly escaped the cave and had nothing to show for it.
4. The two friends ran as fast as they could, but it was too late.
5. Therolin is good at many things; hunting and tracking are among them.

Run-ons

Another common error is a run-on sentence. Really, the best way to avoid these is to sit back, read what you wrote, and make sure that your sentences don’t look as though they could be split into two different sentences. Keep in mind a few things from fragments so that you don’t split a good sentence into bad ones instead. There are four main ways that you could fix a run-on (NOTE: I got these examples from A Writer’s Reference, fifth edition…also, things in green indicate what was added/changed):

1. Use a comma and a coordinating conjunction (and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet…).
Gestures are a means of communication for everyone, but they are essential for the hearing-impaired.

2. Use a semicolon (or a colon or dash if appropriate). A semicolon may be used alone; it can also be accompanied by a transitional expression.
Gestures are a means of communication for everyone; they are essential for the hearing-impaired.
Gestures are a means of communication for everyone; however, they are essential for the hearing-impaired.

3. Make the clauses into separate sentences.
Gestures are a means of communication for everyone. They are essential for the hearing-impaired.

4. Restructure the sentence, perhaps by subordinating one of the clauses.
Although gestures are a means of communication for everyone, they are essential for the hearing-impaired.

Actually, you'd need a semicolon there instead of a comma. Also, the first example for number five wasn't a fragment.

Therolin is good at many things; hunting and tracking are among them.

Therolin is good at many things.

Sorry, I'm extremely OCD about that sort of thing. -Studying to be an English major- xD;;

Hm...that comma is a typo...thanks for pointing that out. That's what I get for writing that up near midnight...lol...

Yes, I do know that first part isn't a fragment, but neither is the first part in 3 & 4. It's an example set to show how most people tend to throw their fragments in their posts. There's a tendency for players to have fragments clustered next to one of those non-fragments they should be combined with to make more sense. So, that's the most common type of section to look for to spot buried fragments.

*goes to edit typo and bold the fragments in the double-part examples for extra measure*