Welcome to Pokemon Meadow!

[Ruijichu]

I have taken it upon myself to help you, the member, make better posts. Don't worry; this is a simple guide, and each section is clearly marked, either as a new post or a boldened and separate title.

Each post talks about different things. I recommend reading all, but you may, if you feel, just skim to the section that applies best to you.

I have used the book All Write, made by WRITE SOURCE: GREAT SOURCE EDUCATION GROUP -- a Houghton Mifflin Company, to aid me -- but otherwise, I have written this all myself, so I would like to ask that you refrain from copying any material here. I may give you permission if you ask me nicely. Sites with permission:

Pokémon Meadow
Portal Borealis

There are serious charges for copyright infringement.

Don't let the above statements intimidate you, though. I don't bite... much.

Anyhow, if the above sounds too formal, don't worry. All the posts below will be written as simply as I possibly can manage.

RP Guide ©
Ruijichu of Pokémon Meadow
☆ Ruιji ☆ of Portal Borealis

[Ruijichu]

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- Basic Grammar Rules -

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USING PUNCTUATION

Ending a Sentence: When you're ending a sentence, you don't just leave the end hanging. You put a period, exclamation point, or question mark, depending on the situation. Question marks are for, well, questions (and the only time you neglect to put one is if the question is in a sentence tone, i.e. "Oh, really now.") exclamations for surprise or extreme joy or anger, and periods for everything else. ex.

Question Mark: "What do you mean?"
Exclamation Point: "Oh my God!"
Period: "Oh, I see."

Commas: Commas have to be the most versatile punctuation marks EVER. In fact, I even used one in the "period" example! However, that also means they're used incorrectly. A comma can make a difference between a run-on sentence and a regular sentence, and a regular sentence and a sentence that constantly breaks up thought. You use commas to hook together two clauses: an independent clause and a dependent clause, or two dependent clauses. Independent clauses can be stand-alone sentences, but dependent clauses, when alone, are fragments. Anyhow, here are common misuses of commas:

UNDERUSE:
"That guy there you see who works at the shop on Saturdays is named Bob."
FIX:
"That guy there you see, who works at the shop on Saturdays, is named Bob."
In this case, "who works at the shop on Saturdays" is the dependent clause, and "That guy there you see is named Bob" is the independent clause. This is to provide more information about a person. Parentheses "()," dashes "--," and commas have the same function in this sentence.

OVERUSE:
"I wandered, around there, and I saw, this huge fish, coming toward me."
FIX:
Not every single pause in the sentence needs a comma. You may try:
"I wandered around there and I saw this huge fish coming toward me."
Or you can restructure the sentence for a more dramatic effect--
"I wandered around there -- when, suddenly, I saw this huge fish coming toward me!"

Semicolons: Ah, semicolons. They are quite the rare gem; however, they can make sentence flow a bit easier (like in this sentence). A semicolon means the same thing as ", and" in most cases, i.e.--
"I watched the front door for a while, and soon, it got boring."
Can be replaced with
"I watched the front door for a while; soon, it got boring."
As well, semicolons are useful for lists which use commas, i.e.--
"I had to choose between Charmander, a fire type; Squirtle, a water type; and Bulbasaur, a grass type."
Use semicolons more often; I encourage you! Remember, though -- semicolons are NOT commas. So, grammatically, this makes no sense:
"As I approached the meadow; I felt odd." As I approached the meadow is a dependent clause. Semicolons are meant to bond multiple independent clauses into one sentence.

This post has been edited by Ruijichu on Aug 9 2009, 09:37 PM