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:iconphantom-inker:

Artist's Comments

A number of people asked for this, so here it is: The top ten grammar errors most frequently made by inexperienced storytellers.

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The document itself is fairly self-explanatory, but what is not self-explanatory is the rationale behind writing such a thing. I know that a number of people don't like being told what to do when it comes to grammar, and my aim here is not to exacerbate their grievances. Rather, my purpose here is simply this:

If you write, and you don't follow these rules, no-one will want to read what you wrote. You could be the next Shakespeare, but if you ignore the rules --- and I don't mean break the rules, because there are times when breaking them is useful --- but if you ignore the rules entirely, no-one will ever want to read what you wrote. No-one will ever get past your first mangled sentence, much less to the good part involving the llamas and the chickens and the ghost of the boy's father in the bathhouse.

Like it or not, most readers are much more harsh and judgmental than I have been in this document. So follow the rules to the letter until you learn the correct times to break them. Astute readers will know the difference between you voluntarily choosing to break the rules and you being ignorant of them.

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There is also one unspoken rule here, which is simply spell correctly. I think that almost goes without saying in an age where spell-checking software is cheap and plentiful.

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So there it is. If you want a printer-friendly PDF version of this, just ask, and I'll be happy to prepare and post one to my scraps.

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Edit, 2008-03-22: The typographical error in the example in #4 has been fixed.

Daily Deviation

Given 2008-10-22

Let's face it: spell check doesn't catch all your mistakes, and even if it does, you may not know exactly how to right your mistakes. Top Ten Grammar Errors by *phantom-inker is an excellent resource for those of us who are grammatically challenged and need a little help with editing. (Featured by `lovetodeviate)

Comments


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:icontimosprey:
Error in #4. You spelt teh instead of the

--
Osprey Hawk

"Spaceships are nice, but I think Giant Robots definitely rule" - Seina Yamada

My Homepage
:iconcukeman:
For the record, you use subjective pronouns after all linking verbs, not just "to be". Also, it might be a good idea to mention the correct usage of pronouns in sentences like "I made a better grade on the test than she."

--
I remember back in the day in 'Nam, when me and the other fellers used to eat pataters every meal o' the day. Sometimes they was mashed. Others was fried. But one thing always remained:

They was pataters.
:iconjurassic-gothic:
Interesting, but some grammar errors are just for mere n00bs =p

--
Si vis pacem, para bellum :spyedvsjark:
:icondestroyer77:
Hells yes (watches you cringe), someone needs to tell people how to write properly :)

--
"You have thirty minutes to move your car. You have ten minutes to move your car. Your car has been impounded. Your car has been crushed into a cube. You have thirty minutes to move your cube."

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:iconbramblefox:
:giggle: This is great!!

--
An artist is never uninspired. They're just too lazy to buckle down and draw.--Artoveli (I think)
:rose: Phantom Phans unite! :rose:
Check out my gallery...:D[link]
=^_^= --JAVVIE!!
:iconayame-seeker-cjbart:
lmfao, nice!=Seeker

--
"Even if you silence me, My silence will still defy you"-Me

"It's not Lying...It's Neglecting the important parts"-Me

"I'm Not stealing.. I'm borrowing with the intention of not returning."-Me
:iconchaoswolf1982:
lol, irony.

--
Cry, little sister - Thou shall not fall
Come to your brother - Thou shall not die
Unchain me, sister - Thou shall not fear
Love is with your brother - Thou shall not kill
:iconlordthawkeye:
The only one I'm iffy on is paragraph breaks. Is dialogue ALWAYS followed by a paragraph break? I've had a few situations where doing that felt awkward somehow. What's the rule?

--
Give me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage the change the things I can't accept and the wisdom to...remember what I'm supposed to have the wisdom to do...
:iconphantom-inker:
The rule is that you are only allowed one speaker speaking about one topic per paragraph. So the following two examples are illegal:


"How are you today?" asked John. "I'm fine," said Mary. John smiled and gave her a hug.

"Alright, so let me get this straight: Mary, you want just ice cream for lunch; Larry wants turkey on rye; and Bill wants ham and swiss," said John. "I'll put in the orders. Has anyone checked to see the weather in London? When we go there tomorrow, I think we ought to bring jackets."


The first is illegal because there are two different speakers; the second is illegal because there are two topics (lunch, and then the completely unrelated topic of the weather).

The paragraphs below are legal and well-formed:


"How are you today?" asked John.

"I'm fine," said Mary. John smiled and gave her a hug.

"Alright, so let me get this straight: Mary, you want just ice cream for lunch; Larry wants turkey on rye; and Bill wants ham and swiss," said John. "I'll put in the orders.

"And has anyone checked to see the weather in London? When we go there tomorrow, I think we ought to bring jackets."


The first two paragraphs are legal because they only contain one speaker speaking on one topic. Notice that you can include descriptive prose in either paragraph, either before or after the speech; but generally, a paragraph should be structured so that it's either mostly speech or mostly description unless you have a good reason not to.

More importantly, the description should relate to the speech in some way: If you took Mary's statement of "I'm fine" and then followed it up with a discussion about Peruvian anteaters, that would probably be unrelated and require a separate paragraph --- unless it began with something like "Mary looked down at the Peruvian anteaters in the cage." Conceptual transitions like this, where you lead the reader from each part of the story to the next, are vitally important: If the reader's mind can't flow smoothly from one sentence to the next, if he gets jarred often enough, he's likely to stop reading altogether.

And notice, by the way, the missing ending " after the third paragraph; that is correct grammar, indicates that the speaker is continuing but is continuing in a separate paragraph with a separate thought. The inclusion of the word "And" to start the next paragraph helps as well: It indicates to his listeners that even John knows his speech is disjoint there, that what he's speaking is an unrelated afterthought. The third and fourth paragraphs here flow much more naturally than the single paragraph above that was mis-formed.

--
Do you suppose if I were to put a signature here, anyone would bother to read it? No? I didn't think so either.
:iconphantom-inker:
Very true, but I'm trying to quash the worst of the worst errors here, the egregious ones that scrape across your brain like fingernails scraping a chalkboard. I can forgive people misusing subjective pronouns in the two cases you described so long as they get them mostly right most of the time in the other cases: As the rule points out, English is an evolving language, and for many dialects, including those spoken by such types as U.S. Senators and Court Justices and even British Royalty, objective pronouns have become legal in many of those cases.

So my objective here is really not to be a proscriptive hardass: My objective is just to make many of the stories that I see online go from illegible garbage to at least passably readable, and that's a fight I think I at least have a chance of winning.

--
Do you suppose if I were to put a signature here, anyone would bother to read it? No? I didn't think so either.

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March 21, 2008
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