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Join Petiton For Ban Bad Grammer Toady!


bonesiii

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grammerhead.png


BZP must ban the bad grammers toady! Its really anoyying when member's use bad grammer and speling, their just spaming. it need's for stop! Yay of the grammer hammar! Sine hear!

If you think I'm making up the style of posts mimicked above, think again. I've seen it time and time again; members complaining about others' bad grammar and spelling, and in the same post, using bad grammar in the very same post, and worse, misspelling "grammer".

Now, don't think I'm here to rant about bad grammar myself. I've long felt like some of us are too picky and stuffed-shirty about proper grammar. I think we need to stand on a reasonable middle ground, where we promote good grammar, but we don't act pompous when we see someone slip up or not know the correct way. Just wait -- you'll make a typo yourself eventually. ;)

It does annoy me, being an English major, (and History minor -- believe me, history profs are far far worse than English profs). Good grammar and spelling can help you communicate your ideas well, as people will know instantly what you mean, in most cases.

But we seem to forget that this is a fansite about a toy, aimed at young kids, to whom English grammar is often a new subject that they're still learning. Also, we get a lot of international members who may not speak English as a first language -- remember this is one of the hardest languages to learn in existence. Sometimes the obsession with "Youse must speak English perfect, capisce?" comes across as insulting or demeaning to these members, something you might not think of if you grew up in an English-speaking country. IMO we should be a lot more forgiving of simple mistakes.

This also needs said -- grammar and language in general is a constantly changing and shifting phenomenon. There are some examples of new grammar that I support but some people resist; for example, shortening words like "equiv". Personally I've been pushing the use of the plural second person pronoun "yall" for a long time, despite being from the North. :P German, Spanish, French, pretty much every language has a plural "you", so IMO we should all be usin that'n.

And there's a lot of new styles of language too. We mustn't forget that all grammar we use today is a modification of a previous grammar and language, so it is inconsistent to say English should never change.

However, some basics of English grammar should be used consistently so that the meaning of what you're saying is clear, and so that you come across as competent and intelligent. When you mess these ones up, you almost universally come across as ignorant. Ignorance isn't anything to be ashamed of -- it just means you happen not to know something -- but there are real benefits to knowing basic grammar. :)

So instead of just the usual useless "use better grammer" complaints, I'm going to actually post a quick guide to some of the biggest grammar/spelling mistakes made on BZPower. Hope dis helps, yo!

Quick Grammar Guide

Plural Apostrophes

The apostrophe ' is to be used ONLY (almost :P) for possessive "s". If the car belongs to Tahu, it's "Tahu's car". Possess means to own, notice.

If he has more than one car, it's "cars." NO apostrophe with the "s" for plural. Plural means "more than one".


It's and Its

Here's the one exception to that rule. "It's" is a shortening of "It is". That is NOT possessive.

The possessive one, as in "what belongs to it" is "Its". Don't ask me why, it just is. :P


Your and You're

"Your" is possessive. It's "your car". The car that belongs to you.

"You're" is "You are", shortened. So if you say "You're car", you just said that the person is a car.


Their, They're, There

"Their" is possessive. The car that belongs to them is "their car."

"They're" is "They are."

"There" refers to a place. "Tahu parked his car there, in the garage."


Grammar

NOT spelled "Grammer". Just so yall know. ;)


Capitalization

Capitalize the first letter of a sentence. Possible exception is if you start a sentence talking to a member who has all lowercase letters, like me. And don't capitalize every word. Just the first one, and any special words like names. (Like "Tahu" is always capital.)

And don't "ALL CAPS" entire sentences. One word allcapped can be considered just emphasis for when you're in a hurry and don't want to bother with italic or bold tags. But an entire sentence or phrase allcapped means you're yelling, and that is generally considered flaming.


Comma Splice

You don't put a comma between two sentences. This one is a little harder to understand, but a common mistake. Basically it's when the first part and the second part could stand on their own as seperate sentences. A lot of times, the second part is a related idea to the first one, explaining the first one.

So for example: "Tahu parked his car in the garage, he didn't know wheels aren't allowed in Metru Nui."

That can be fixed by adding a "conjunction" -- a word like "and" or "because" after the comma:

"Tahu parked his car in the garage, because he didn't know wheels aren't allowed in Metru Nui."

Or by changing the comma to a semicolon (mostly obsolete unless you're writing a history essay):

"Tahu parked his car in the garage; he didn't know wheels aren't allowed in Metru Nui."

Or the modern equiv of the semicolon, the "em dash", which can be made simply by two dashes. On a word processor like Word there are usually ways to get an actual long dash (type a word, no space, two dashes, no space, another word, and a space, and Autocorrect will change the two dashes into an em dash, if that feature is turned on). On the internet it's usually done with spaces and two dashes:

"Tahu parked his car in the garage -- he didn't know wheels aren't allowed in Metru Nui."

That one may be a little more picky Lawyerahk than necessary, but personally splices really annoy me. The comma signals a short pause, but in these situations you mean a longer pause, so it makes more sense to use a designation for a longer pause (or a connecting word).


Spelling

No spellcheck is perfect, but do try them out. We have a spellcheck feature built into the posting area on BZP, which can help in some cases. [Edit: Erm, it appears not to be functional. Okay, so I'm out of it on that one, lol. It used to work.]

Free Online Spellcheck.

It can also help to read professional books and articles, as words are almost always spelled correctly in them. So instead of joining the petiton toady, you can join the petition today. But really, please don't. :P


Emoticons

Yes, this actually is a form of grammar. On the internet, understanding the "tone", or emotional intent of a statement can sometimes be difficult. Misunderstandings are rampant, and often even friendly sentences can be confused with insults. Take this sentence for example: "You're weird, bones." Notice how the meaning changes depending on the emoticon that accompanies it:

You're weird, bones. :P

You're weird, bones. :burnmad:

You're weird, bones. :rolleyes:

You're weird, bones. :blink:

You're weird, bones. ;)

Some people dislike emoticons, and actually criticize people who use them a lot. Never did figure out why, but that's fine for them. But you should know that using a simple smile when you mean a statement in kindness can go a long way. In my experience, they help prevent flame and misunderstandings, so it's wise to use them, albeit sparingly. Don't post twenty in a row -- but use them where you would smile or whatever in real life. Remember emotions are for communication; so communicate them with emoticons.




Anything else major that I've forgotten (that you see on BZP often), please suggest.

29 Comments


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Well, this is good. I actually haven't seen any super bad grammar around the forums and I know I don't have bad grammar(Unless I'm just joking around...). But this should help cut down on the bad grammar posts(hopefully).

 

Good job on this small guide to goode gramerz! :P (If you didn't know, I did that on purpose).

 

-TNTOS-

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Thank you so much Bones. I hope all of the noobs on this site read this and learn from it.

Then what will you eat? :o

 

Your weird bones. :satisfied:

 

-Ikk

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I sometimes use "[/sarcasm]" to show my tone when I'm sarcastic. It's like an emote, but still in code. It would be kind of hard to portray sarcasm in an Emote, though...

 

What are opinions on "emote", "..." and intentional blog chatspeak?

 

Edit: I used the semicolon a lot in Language Arts, and the teacher likes it.

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Also, we get a lot of international members who may not speak English as a first language -- remember this is one of the hardest languages to learn in existence.

I think English is a comparatively easy language. I study English and French as foreign languages at school and in English I usually make less mistakes and get better marks. The big andvantage of English is that words don't have to be altered depending on the sentence so often. To give some examples, in French or German the conjunction of verbs is a complicated and irregular matter while in English you just have to add an "s" for the third person singular. Furthermore "the" always stays "the" in English but in German it can be "der, die, das, dem, den".

 

And about mistakes like "toady" I think they happen unknowingly when people type very fast. ;)

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German, Spanish, French, pretty much every language has a plural "you", so IMO we should all be usin that'n.

Meesa bein liken yousa postin. :)

...

Since I'm not English, I love the auto-spell check in Linux.

Or it's just in Mozilla. Yeah.

 

But I disagree with English being hard.

Try Spanish.

I Am? Soy? You are? Eres? Upside down question marks? Sí.

BTW, is it "spellcheck" or "spell check"?

My spellcheck/spell check doesn't like spellcheck.

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your wierd bones. :P This is great, thanks. It's noce to learn something bout grammar here and there. And the Spell check link is great too. I needed that. :)

 

~CN

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Nice guide, bones. I hope people will read it. Otherwise us good grammar people will have to continue to suffer. :P

 

BTw, your wierd. :P

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You're weird, Bones. :P

Remember that 're= "you are" and your=it belongs to you.

Gosh, people are making mistakes in this entry. *bangs head against wall and glares at Gravitan*

 

Yeah, I'd like to ban bad grammar. And I'd like to comment on how awesome Bones' entries are.

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*signs paper*

 

I get a little annoyed by some grammatical mistakes. I'm not perfect and have definitely done my fair share of errors, but it still gets to me sometimes. :P

 

One thing really gets me, but I'm not positive about whether or not it's allowed so it may be personal preference.

 

Anyway, it's when people use "as" or "for" instead of "since" or "because".

 

Example (I have seen actual sentences with different words, but exact set up): He is awesome. For he is *onua nuva* fan.

 

Example 2: He can heal. As he is Wolverine.

 

Sometimes the sentences will be properly combined, but still use "as" and "for" in that way.

 

 

 

Yall.

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I will admit that I mix up my grammer sometimes. (Mainly my "it's" and "its") You have a good point though, and I shall try to act accordingly.

By the way, this is long overdue:

award2.jpg

 

By the way, you're cool Bones. :D

-Ax-

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You're wierd, bones. :rolleyes:

 

Whoops! Wrong smiley. My bad.

 

*signs paper*

 

I hate bad grammer wneh the noobs start using it without all the perids and all like this without any forms of punktution. runon sentenses are bad.

 

 

LOL, okay, I shall remain in my usualy calm manner without trying to make myself look stupid. Anyway, yes, I am against bad grammar. But it is the typo that I hate the most. ;)

 

~EW~

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Also, don’t forget, bonesiii, that the apostrophe (') can be used in names to separate letters in order to pronounce it properly.

 

Example: Le'iva would come out differently than Leiva.

 

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*puts a hole in paper where his pencil should be* I resent that hugley: massivly, I am positivly insulted by this.

 

There are those of us that do not speak English as our first language and I think there are those of us who have made great progress and everything most of us say is readable. While I admit that there are noobs out there who have NO respect as to how there topics look, but encompasing English for ALL of us seems unfair. If you don't speak English perfectly, then you are the victem of this petition

 

I am a native speaker of Norwegian and proud that my skills in my native speech outstrip my english skills.

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Since I wasn't sure if you were joking or if you misunderstood me, Leviathen, lemme quote myself to make sure:

Also, we get a lot of international members who may not speak English as a first language -- remember this is one of the hardest languages to learn in existence. IMO we should be a lot more forgiving of simple mistakes.

What you're saying is one of my main points of this entry, but maybe I could say more about it. Yes, the sentiments you're expressing are the kind I've seen a lot of international members saying, and it's very true.

 

(Sorry if I ruined a joke there. :lol:)

 

I am a native speaker of Norwegian and proud that my skills in my native speech outstrip my english skills.

Yeah, that's something I think too many of us just don't even think of, and the obsession with perfect English does come across as insulting a lot of times because of it.

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