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. 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 ) 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.


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.


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.

You're weird, bones.

You're weird, bones.

You're weird, bones.

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.