So, it's a new month. The second day, because I was too lazy to do it yesterday. And I'm finally going to write some writing tips. And yes, my post has a cool alliterative title. ;D
1. COMMAS. Going on inkpop, I notice commas are a big problem for people. Commas seperate two ideas. For example:
"Suzy ate some watermelon, then went outside."
I know my example is bad, but whatever. Notice I didn't put:
"Suzy ate some watermelon then went outside."
That one is incorrect, and a very common mistake. Another use for commas is to seperate nouns into a list. As I know that probably doesn't make much sense written that way, here is an example:
"I drove to the store for some milk, bread, and waffles."
This is generally only for lists as long or longer than 3 items. Now that wasn't too hard, was it? Something that I frown on:
"I drove to the store for some milk, bread and waffles."
This one is very controversial, because it's also correct. Some writers do prefer it this way. I can't remember what this comma rule is called, but it kinda makes me group bread and waffles together, like milk is an afterthought. So, I just put a comma after each item until I reach the "and".
2. HOMOPHONES. They sound the same, but have different meanings. Hear and here; two, to, and too; air and heir; sun and son. It looks downright weird if you use the wrong word. For example:
"I hear music in the air."
It is definitely NOT:
"I here music in the heir."
That is a funny mental picture. "Here I am, singing inside the heir to the kingdom!" Haha, sorry. But you get my point. The meaning of the sentence is confusing without the right word.
3. DIALOGUE TAGS. It is generally a smart idea to include dialogue tags. Not all of the time, but yea, at the very least a couple of times. You know what these are- "he said", "she replied". Example:
"'Bye, Mom!' she called."
You notice I used '' instead of "". That's because I already have quotation marks around the whole sentence, so I cannot add more to the dialogue without it being confusing. But normally, yea you put "" around dialogue. The word "she" is not capitalized.
"'I'm going to the library,' he told her."
Before the second quotation mark, you put a comma. You have to have some sort of punctuation before the second quotation mark, which is usually a comma. Unless you're not putting a tag at all, but that's irrelevent. For the first example, I have an exclamation point instead- you can put ! or ? at the end of a sentence instead of a comma, but make sure it doesn't look weird, like:
"'I'm going to the restroom?' she said."
Don't pose it as a question if it's a statement. Please. Here's an example of how NOT to do it:
"'Several monkeys are parading around our room' They told me."
No punctuation, and the 'they' is capitalized. Wrong. It should look like:
"'Several monkeys are parading aroung our room,' they told me."
Should anyone ever tell you that, just smile and nod. Do you understand all of this? Good.
That completes my grammar lesson for today. If you think I missed something or point out something wrong, politely tell me in a comment. I hope this post helps any of the grammar challenged out there. So goodbye, and:
"The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug." -Mark Twain
Black cat. Classic halloween picture. And, oh, how I love cats, especially the black ones.
