Want more Respect on the Forums?

[Kaukolastan]

K-stan's Handy-Dandy Disclaimer:
This thread is based upon the assumption that you will be participating in character-oriented, story-oriented, or story-style-combat role playing. As such, it is aimed at improving that genre of role play. If you prefer to run storefronts, numbers-based role play, or other forms of forum activity, you may find this guide of less importance.

Still, it could not hurt to read it, could it?

Quick and Easy Steps to Better Writing
You write and write and write, and no one cares, or they don't give good reviews. You're getting angry, you want more respect. Here's some easy steps to get an exponential improvement in RP quality, and therefore, in respect you get:

• Write everything for an RP or story in MSWord, or OpenOffice, or some other good word processor. (I really recommend MSWord). This will correct spelling and grammar errors... at least most common ones.
  
  
• Paragraph your works. The rules of paragraphing are simple: Change paragraphs with every topic, and change with every speaker. This means, that whenever someone new starts talking, you need to change paragraphs. Observe this made up scene:

  "Turn left!" Declared John, pointing to the map. "I think the restaurant is over there."
  
  "I can't see it in this fog!" Stated Bob as he leaned over the wheel.
  
  "So, how about those gas prices?"
  
  "What about 'em?"
  
  "They're high."

  This may seem to stretch a post out, but it greatly improves readability, and adds a professional look to your posts. This is one of the least used and most abused mechanics rule in NS.
  
  
• DON'T WRITE IN CAPS IN AN RP. Writing in all capitals is a bad technique. Instead, use italics to emphasize a point. You type "[ i ]" to start an italic style, and "[ /i ]" to end it (without the quotes, obviously, and no spaces). In this way, the word "big" becomes big. This is much nicer to read. Despite what you've heard, CAPSLOCK is not cruise control for cool.
  
  
• When typing a character's thoughts, put them in italics, and treat them like dialogue when it comes to paragraphing. This means, whenever you change speakers, or "thinkers" in this case, you need to change paragrpahs. An example:

  Since the italics command "i" did not work, I substituted the bold command "b". In normal writing, use italics instead of bold.
  
  The commander turned from the window. So, it is done, then? His fist clenched. All is lost now, and we cannot save this dying world.
  This is allowed, because only one character, the commander, has thought dialogue.
  
  The door behind him opened. "Sir?" the officer asked. "Do you have an order?"
  When another character, the officer, speaks, the paragraph changes.
  
  "Pull the fleet back." Damnit, we have to retreat. The commander turned back to the window. "We need to regroup."
  The commander can both speak and think in the same paragraph, as it still one character having dialogue.
  
  In his mind, he felt the tingle, the psychic call from his bonded partner. You have failed us.
  
  No, I have not. I shall return here, victorius.
  
  You had better.
  Like spoken dialogue, mental dialogue changes paragraphs with each new "speaker".

• Do not abbreviate in your writings. The phrase "et cetera" is not just "etc". Absolutely, do not put "u"... write "you", and so on.
  
  Do not use numbers. If you need to say "13", type "thirteen". Disclaimer on this at bottom of Advanced Section.
  
  Never, ever, ever, put chat-speak into your writings. Keep "LOL" and "WTF" in your chats.
  
  The exception to this rule is titles and proper names. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration can be called NASA, and America Online Instant Messenger can be called AIM. The Secretary of State could be SecState, and so on. If the abbreviation is commonly used as the name, such as these listed, or NSA for National Security Agency, then it can be abbreviated.
  
  
• On "I": whenever the word "I", as in self, appears in writing, it is capitalized.
  
  
• Seperate OOC (Out of Character) and IC (In Character) statements. Notate your writing as such:

  OOC: Where did those tanks come from, Kaukolastan? I thought you didn't even have armored divisions left!
  
  IC: The thunder of the tanks treads shook the ground... <insert huge post here> ... The guns thundered.
  
  OOC2: If you goofed, just ignore this post, and we'll do something else. If not, this is my response.

• Dividing topics. This is pretty simple. If you have a post, and you have to cover multiple topics, such as explaining about two characters, miles apart, you need to make this clear. An easy way to shift the focus of a post is to do insert a break with "****", "----", or just about any string of characters. It would look like this:

  The fires in Alexinberg were raging, and they showed no sign of stopping. The sirens... <this goes on for however long>.
  
  ---------------------------------------------------------
  
  Thompson stepped off the bus into New Kerindan, looking at the glint of the city towers... <this continues>.

  Now, if you really want to be spiffy, you can add "media tags" that give away the location, like the text at the bottom of the screen in a TV show:

  Alexinberg
  0600 Hours
  The fires in Alexinberg were raging, and they showed no sign of stopping. The sirens... <this goes on for however long>.
  
  ---------------------------------------------------------
  New Kerindan
  0700 Hours
  Thompson stepped off the bus into New Kerindan, looking at the glint of the city towers... <this continues>.

• Do not put smileys into IC posts. Your president, warlord, or Joe Blow the Dock worker is not going to turn to his confidante and proudly state, " " or " ", much less " " or " ".
  
  Please, only you can stop the smiley whoring.
  
  
• Please God, stop the uber-signatures. There is nothing more distracting in an RP than this kind of post:

  IC: I oppose this research.
  
  ----------------------------
  LOOK I HAVE A SIGNATURE!
  IT'S SO HUGE!
  
  HERE, HOW ABOUT SOME SMILEYS?
  
  
  HERE'S SOME LINKS:
  www.somethingawful.com
  www.theonion.com
  
  I LOVE ALL CAPS! I HAD AN APPLE FOR BREAKFAST!
  
  MY FAVORITE BOOK:
  "Call me Ishmael... <insert entire contents of Moby Dick here>"

  Please, keep your signature down to one or two lines. A lot of RPers, even good ones, have the never-ending signatures, and it's really annoying.
  
  A note on signatures. Underneath "Additional Options" - "Miscellaneous Options" you have the choice to:
  
  [x]Show your signature
  [x]Automatically parse links in text
  [x]Disable smilies in text
  
  If you must keep the uber-signature, make sure you uncheck "show your signature" when posting in RP's.
  
  
• On quoting: Quoting is good, but don't quote the entire content of a three page post. Rather, just quote the post, delete the insides, and replace it with "-snip-" or some other phrase, and reply to it.

Trouble Words
-They're = Contraction of "They Are": "They're turning left."
-Their = Possive of "They": "Their accomplishments make them proud."
-There = Location: "Go over there."

-To = Preposition: "Take this road to the fork."
-Too = Adverb, giving degree: "There is too much here."
-Two = Number: "There are two of them."

-Your = Possessive of "You": "Is this your dress?"
-You're = Contraction of "You Are": "You're a moron."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Advanced Section: More Depth Available Here

On Apostrophes
The loveable apostrophe (') is used to show possession and to create contractions, where two words are combined into one. Here's some examples:
Contractions
They would = They'd
He would = He'd
She would = She'd
It would = It'd

They will = They'll
He will = He'll
She will = She'll
It will = It'll

They have = They've
He has = He's
She has = He's
It has = It's

Can not = Can't
Is not = Isn't
Has not = Hasn't
Have not = Haven't
Will not = Won't

Would have = Would've
Could have = Could've

Now, this does not (doesn't) cover all the contraction, but it is (it's) more than enought to get the point across. When typing formally, try to avoid using contractions, but they are perfectly fine inside of character-dialogue.

(As a little note, using contractions in writing is one of my personal bad habits, so if you want to go dig up some and embarass me in this thread with my own screw-ups, go right ahead. )

Possessives
For most nouns, simply adding 's is enough to show possession.

Jacob = Jacob's
Susie = Susie's
Spot = Spot's
Spots (plural of "spot") = Spots'
With the plural noun, the apostrophe came after the s, not before it.

NOTE: Pronouns are different.
He = His
She = Hers
They = Their(s)
It = Its

Who and Whom
When dealing with "who" and "whom", remember that "who" is the subject, while "whom" is the Direct Object. In other word, "who" commits and action, while "whom" receives the action. For example:

“Now, who carried that vase?” Here, ‘who’ is the subject as ‘who’ is carrying the vase.

“Now, he carried whom?” Here, ‘whom’ is the direct object; ‘he’ is carrying ‘whom.’

“Whose vase is this?” Here, ‘whose’ is being used as a possessive; ‘who’ owns the vase.

Prepositions
Prepositions are words that indicate a relation between the object they refer to, and the verb. These include words such as"to" and "at". They are used as such:

"Drive to the store." Here, "to" gives a direction on where to drive.

"Take a turn at the light." Again, the preposition "at" indicates a location.

In general, it is bad form to end a sentence in a preposition, such as:

BAD:
"Where did you come from." The preposition "from" is ending the sentence.

CORRECTED:
"From where did you come?" This sounds odd, but it is more grammatically correct. Most people, however, do not talk like this, so in-character dialogue is fine in the "bad" form.

A Note on This "Rule":
-The rule of not ending sentences in a preposition was invented as a parallel to Latin, and is actually more of a tradition. Some phrases, written "correctly" are quiet stilted, such as Winston Churchill's famous statement:

This is the sort of English up with which I cannot put.

Obviously, then, some degree of adjustment must be made.


Disclaimer on the Numbers
As I mentioned earlier, you should type out numbers instead of writing the numerals. This will never be wrong. There is some argument about what the cut-off is for having to write out the word form (go ahead and read the thread to see all the theories). If you choose to take the easy way and simply write a numeral string, please remember that characters will never speak in numbers. That is, no matter how large a number may be, it must be written out in dialgue. For example:

61,320 soldiers waited. - OKAY
"Sir, we have 61,320 soldiers waiting!" - NO NO NO
"Sir, we have sixty-one thousand, three hundred twenty soldiers waiting." - OKAY

Remember, it is always better looking to write it out, unless you're making an OOC list.


Beyond Mechanics: Writing Style
Once you've mastered the mechanics of writing, you can hit the aesthetics. This is where the slag and steel comes apart, so don't worry about this unless you already know how to convey your points effectively. This is probably more important than just mechanics, but without the mechanics under command, good style would be just like trying to run a Corvette with a Model T engine.

Showing, not Telling.
When you wish to convince your readers of a scene or character, don't just state the situation or status. Instead, paint a picture of what's happening.

This is "telling": Harry is an evil person.
This is "showing": Harry watched quietly as the woman thrashed in the water. He counted silently in his head until she reached the surface again.

"Oh my God!" cried a man passing by. "She's drowning! Aren't you going to help her?"

Harry turned and favored the man with an icy glare. "Why should I? What's she ever done for me?"

Which of these two scenes is going to convince the reader that Harry is indeed a bad person?

Painting the Scene.
The correct use of descriptive words can create a much more potent scene than simply rote action. Take this scene, for instance:

Basic Action: John looked outside. It was snowing. John decided to put on a sweater before he left for work.

Expanded Scene: The snow was quickly blanketing the ground, and the simple thought of it made John shiver. Perhaps his father was right. Working outdoors did have its disadvantages. Still, John could never imagine himself behind a desk, wasting his life away filling out forms and generally pushing papers. Throwing on a sweater while banking on the false hope that it wouldn't be cold in the freezing winds, John ventured out into the wilderness, locking his front door behind him.

Once again, the difference is quiet obvious, and doesn't take that long to do. (Steel Butterfly, who contributed this, claims to have written the long scene in under five minutes.) A small investment of time will pay off greatly.

Over-stating
It is possible to overdo your description. This scene speaks for itself.

It is clear from the haunted look in the man's burning eyes that he has studied and mastered the dark arts of magick, and his eyes burn darkly.
-Taken without permission from Elf Only Inn, then taken from Treznor with implied permission.

There is such a thing as too much, when it gets redundant.

TLC
Give your posts tender-love-and-care. It will show.

[Simpsons Springfield]

Well, if you're writing a post purposely funny, I think using WTF and LOL adds to the humour.

Important things to remember

you're = you are
your = possessive pronoun

their = possessive pronoun
they're = they are
there = place or location

Capitalize i.

For example

"i'm so tired," said Commander Frederick as he moved ever so slowly to his bed, his legs like logs.

should be

"I'm so tired," said Commander Frederick as he moved ever so slowly to his bed, his legs like logs.

Separate different plots.

For example

<<five paragraphs dealing with a presidential speech>>

--- (or *** or any marker you want)

<<five paragraphs of dialogue among soldiers>>

If a sentence ends with a single quote (') or double quote (") be sure to include the sentence's puncutation inside the quote.

'The end.'

"The end."

"The end!"

and so forth.

Numbers between one and one hundred (and the numbers 200, 300, 400... 1000, 2000... 1,000,0000...) should be typed, however, it is not neccessary to type out numbers like 124.

Use semicolons, they make you look cool if you use 'em correctly!

Remember to note OOC talk.

I use greater than (>) and less than (<) signs.

<OOC: ooc stuff here>

[Kaukolastan]

Okay, updated to here. Simpsons Springfield, your stuff has been added. I didn't put in the part about the punctuation, because if they use a Word Processor, it will catch that automatically. The part about semicolons wasn't added because I'm trying to keep it simple and quick. The parts about OOC and IC have been added, as has a section on problem words, dividing topics, and capitalizing "I".

Thank you, and keep it coming, people.

[Valinon]

Perhaps something on comas and apostrophes? They seem to be neglected by many a writer.

[The Island of Rose]

Funny, I seem to overuse them. Here's some advice.

Write something original, put something ironic in the writing. Do something that nobody is going to expect. Like a President dancing while wearing a suit >_>

Also if you don't know much about war, stick to character RPs...

[Iansisle]

Okay, updated to here. Simpsons Springfield, your stuff has been added. I didn't put in the part about the punctuation, because if they use a Word Processor, it will catch that automatically. The part about semicolons wasn't added because I'm trying to keep it simple and quick. The parts about OOC and IC have been added, as has a section on problem words, dividing topics, and capitalizing "I".

Thank you, and keep it coming, people.

((ooh, I wouldn't recommend using a wp to check grammar. Just the other day, I was checking someone’s essay and I noticed they wrote “who does this belong to?” or something like that. I changed it to “to whom does this belong?” and it said I was wrong!? Dumbass Microsoft Word. That’s the exact reason I use AppleWorks. That way, I don’t have the option to ‘correct’ my grammar, so it can’t annoy me.

Oh yeah, and remember: use ‘who’ for the subject, ‘whom’ for the direct object or after a preposition, and ‘whose’ to denote possession. For example:

“Now, who carried that vase?” Here, ‘who’ is the subject as ‘who’ is carrying the vase.

“Now, he carried whom?” Here, ‘whom’ is the direct object; ‘he’ is carrying ‘whom.’

“Carry this vase to whom?” Here, ‘whom’ is being used as part of a prepositional phrase. PS: it’s bad form to use a preposition to end a sentence; only do so if it’s out of character or in conversational dialogue and you feel that is what the character would say.

“Whose vase is this?” Here, ‘whose’ is being used as a possessive; ‘who’ owns the vase.))

[Kaukolastan]

I'm going to clear up a quick thing, just to help out. I meant this thread to fix the "gloss" of a post, to make the mechanics (spelling a grammar) better. Quality of RP is whole new can of worms. While I appreciate the feedback, there are whole stickies devoted to quality of RP, but nothing to quality of writing.

Also, try to keep this simple, as this thread is not aimed at those with complete command of the language, but those many posters for whom English might be a second language, or just might have problems with writing. I'm going to split my post into "Quick Fix" and "Advanced" sections because of this, but please, try to keep the amount of minutia or "rule breakers" down. I want this to be easily digested by even a person with rudimentary writing experience.

Thanks, K-stan
To all you wordsmiths our there, who weave the stories that make life worth living...

[Sarzonia]

Do not use numbers. If you need to say "13", type "thirteen".

I disagree with this one slightly. For any numbers from one to nine, I generally spell them out, but anything above nine gets a numeral. That's the way I was taught in AP style when I was writing for newspapers.

Writing something like six hundred thousand troops can be needlessly cumbersome. Writing 600,000 troops saves space and is more legible in my opinion. However, if the number began a sentence, you'd spell it out.

Example:

I wanted to send 600,000 troops to Holy Panooly.

Six hundred thousand Sarzonian troops nervously awaited their orders for the final march into Panooly City.

A lot of what you've said makes a lot of sense and as a former English major, I like seeing it.

[Kaukolastan]

Okay, work calls for now, but I'm up to Iansisle's post in terms of updating the topside. I'll finish up when I return from work, including adding the disclaimer on numbers.

K-stan

PS: Happy to provide this, and thanks for the feedback.

[Klonor]

Well written, well thought out, easily read, and you actually follow your own rules!

Good work!

[imported_AmandaTheGreat]

Well, if you want to get technical about numbers, this is the rule. One must write out the numbers one through ten, but anything over ten came written like this 12, 13, 14, and 15 that is for MLA format. For APA format one must write all the numbers out.

[Soi-Disant]

I think I was always taught to write numbers out until they either got to three sylables(sp?), or three words. I dont really remember a whole lot about it though because I usually just write numbers out no matter what.

[Sdaeriji]

See, I was always taught to spell out words up to but not including 100. Such is the problem. You can get ten people together and they will have been taught ten different ways.

On another note, how do we go about getting this stickifiedinized?

[The Most Glorious Hack]

There are no hard and fast rules for numbers. It's all style, which is why publications have style books. AP has one, the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, etc. all have them. The style book for an American publication will be different than one for a British publication, as the two nations have different styles of writing (such as: CD's vs. CDs, or where punctuation is placed by quotation marks).

Since style books vary depending on how the publication wishes to write, there is no "true" rule on some bits of grammar, like the numbers in question. Therefore, it is probably best to do whatever seems to easiest to write, and fits your personal style (as most people don't keep a copy of AP or MLA style books handy).

Myself? I tend to write things out until they start getting clunky. "Three thousand" in stead of "3000", but "7642" as opposed to "seven thousand, six hundred forty-two". Decimals tend to get clunky too (ie: "Three point one four one five nine two seven"). However, I'd likely write out something like "Four hundred trillion", largely because "400,000,000,000,000" is... large.

Meh. Whatever floats yer boat, I guess.

Oh, and have a sticky.

Oh! One last thought: NEVER USE SMILIES IN IC POSTS! Ahem, sorry. Pet peeve, that.

[Steel Butterfly]

My advice to better writing: pay attention in english class at least a little, watch a lot of drama tv (Law & Order, Nip/Tuck, etc.), play RPG's (FF used to give me inspiration in one way or another often), and use adjectives, write with style, and just be generally descriptive. Used properly, good adjectives improve your writing ten fold.

Example:

1. John looked outside. It was snowing. John decided to put on a sweater before he left for work.

2. The snow was quickly blanketing the ground, and the simple thought of it made John shiver. Perhaps his father was right. Working outdoors did have its disadvantages. Still, John could never imagine himself behind a desk, wasting his life away filling out forms and generally pushing papers. Throwing on a sweater while banking on the false hope that it wouldn't be cold in the freezing winds, John ventured out into the wilderness, locking his front door behind him.

Notice how #2 used adjectives and flowed together better? It also established John as a character with depth. Depth means that your readers can identify with John more personally, and therefore get more out of your story and the emotions that you're trying to get across. This simple paragraph shows that John is a man who works outdoors, who is an "outdoorsy" type of person, and that at some point in his life, his father and he disagreed on employment options.

Also, #2 was written in less than five minutes. Normally, I'd spend a lot more time making it read even easier, as well as try to form a perfect mental picture in my mind of exactly what's going on.

Put time into your writing. Not too much that you simply stress over it...but not too little that it doesn't make sense. It also helps to plan out what you're trying to do before hand, and also listen to "mood music" while you're writing.

Intense scene? Heavy Metal. Sad? Slow classical. Love? Obviously a love song. Happy? Something upbeat.

Take my word for it...it works.