HIIIIII =D



Teach me grammar please =D



O_O Though I'm old enough to be self taught. But it's just so hard.


Help pwease

Well, my English teacher told me to go to this site: Guide to Grammar and Writing. She had linked me to the quizzes, though, so I could practice... but I've been slacking on those, obviously. I'm just too lazy to bother with that.-__-

i accidentally clicked cancel on my original reply, so i'll rewrite this again.

try this:

grab a magazine article, preferrably a wide-known professional magazine like Timesweek or NewsWeekly.

Look for an article in there, or the essay article located at the very back of the magazine.

Rewrite the entire article.

Why? Because these articles are written by professional writers, and you can learn alot from them grammar-wise. From rewriting, you copy everything down, including punctuations. By copying the punctuations, you can learn where are appropriate places to use them and how they enhance writing. You can also find words that you've never heard of before. You can underlines new words and then search for their meaning later. then, ta-dah~ you've learned a new word!

I hope i helped a little, MS~

Rikayu's advice is great. Here is what I do (most of the time, alright?). I read what I have written out loud. If it sounds odd, I change the wording. Even if the original version was grammatically correct, doing so will improve the flow of the story. In my reading and writing, I pay more attention to how authentic the languge reads than the letter of the law, anyway. I, for one, favor sentence fragments and salty language, since that is how almost everyone I know actually talks, and it is generally accepted in creative writing classes. Perfect grammar usually resuts in a stiff, formal story. On the other hand, I have been turned off by stories that are written TOO carelessly. This applies especially to the story summary. If that is written in instant messaging speak, or contains really poor grammar, I will often just pass the story by... One trick taught by my high school English teacher was that, when in doubt when confronted with a choice between "he and I" or "me and him" or anything similar, eliminate one of the people, then read your sentence out loud. While we might be tempted to write "you and me", It would sound odd to say "me went to town". So you know that "you and I" went to town, as opposed to "you and me" went to town.

This is my favorite place to go: owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/

It's saved my a** on more than one occasion.

Noacat wrote:
This is my favorite place to go: owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/

It's saved my a** on more than one occasion.

Couldn't agree more! The Purdue site is excellent--my kinky grammar fetish looooves it.

ah awesome tips everyone!


But sadly, I write how I speak. And how I speak have a lot of erm... grammar problems.


It's going to take a while for me to get used to writing at least a little bit better =(


Thanks guys!

MiserablySweet wrote:
ah awesome tips everyone!


But sadly, I write how I speak. And how I speak have a lot of erm... grammar problems.


It's going to take a while for me to get used to writing at least a little bit better =(


Thanks guys!

Well, writing is like anything you do in life. It just takes time and practice to get better. Someone recommended reading magazines like Newsweek which is a good idea, though I'd say you'd be better off reading published works of prose(ie: prose = stories.) Not only will it help grammar-wise, but it'll also help you develop your style. My favorites when I first started were Jane Austen (not so much for the grammar, as her grammar and spelling is a bit antiquated), Clive Barker, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Stephen King. I looked at the way they wrote things and copied it to some extent until I had a better understanding of grammar. It also helped me developed the way that I write until I wasn't copying them anymore and I'm confident enough in my own style.

Honey-Bee wrote:
Well, my English teacher told me to go to this site: Guide to Grammar and Writing. She had linked me to the quizzes, though, so I could practice... but I've been slacking on those, obviously. I'm just too lazy to bother with that.-__-

The Overcoming Writer's Block bit is excellent. "There is no such thing as writer's block for writers whose standards are low enough."

I like this site! Thank you.

Noacat wrote:
This is my favorite place to go: owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/

It's saved my a** on more than one occasion.

This site is a god for college people. It shows everything and offers examples. I've had to use it on multiple occasions for research papers.

Don't feel too bad about grammar. Today, I had a kind reviewer point out that I had my dialogue improperly punctuated. Apparently I had treated it like an in-text citation/quote. Whoops.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that everyone makes mistakes.

The only problem with magazine articles is that journalism adheres to a different writing format than creative writing. With journalism you start with broad statements encompassing the entire basis of the story, then work down to the minutia of the details. It's the inverted-triangle, focused on portraying the facts upfront so that the reader only has to read the first sentence to know what the entire article is about. The rest slowly narrows into the specifics of the article's subject. With creative writing you use a far more free format, that focuses more on flow and description than conveying an event (for example). If you're looking to build technical grammar skills, then they'd be helpful, but for pacing and flow, I would suggest short stories.

Most libraries have volumes of Reader's Digests that you can read through. Otherwise, a good beta reader is always a plus. In fact, most published authors have abysmal grammar; Anne Rice being a prime example. The grammar in her earlier novels (before she fired her editor) is much better than in her newer works.

I, personally, had the good fortune (if you can call it that) of having a grammar teacher for a grandmother. Grammar was drilled into me from infancy.

inali! You are so lucky =D


I never had the privilege to finish High school =(
I had to drop out and get a full time job to pay for my father's medical bills.

But I did get a GED diploma, and it really didn't focus on the grammar part.


I guess I'm lucky too =D I'm a fast learner!


I really have a different style of writing that many authors in the fanfiction industry. I don't know why. maybe it's because the authors finished high school, or maybe i'm just weird.

I like reading magazines for the heck of it, but I just don't pick up their writing. Actually, I pick up dialect from movies. I get extremely focused on how the characters move and I interpret that into words.

That's why my grammar is so bleh! I get too flowery sometimes.



Heh, I'll be forever grateful if someone would take the time in helping me improve my grammar =D

Like a private tutor almost. But don't go out of your way to do it.

I'm just asking


(Heh, I have a lot of readers commenting on my grammar ^_^)