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Out of all of my many Comm posts, this may have been the all-time most controversial -- and, in all honesty, I've never understood why. Someone posted a list of a half-dozen words commonly misspelled and misused in posts, and I decided to try to put together a comprehensive collection. I'd been posting the thing once every couple of weeks for several months with no comment other than the occasional addition. Then someone, I don't even remember who, and for no apparent reason, went off all over me for the post, accusing me of attacking people's writing and various other heinous crimes. This led to a literally weeks-long bash-WW fest on Comm. I was accused of saying things I'd never said. Quotes and opinions totally contrary to anything I believed were attributed to me even after I listed the numbers of the posts where other people had said them. Something I'd meant as helpful and useful was turned into a weapon against me.
a -- indefinite article, used before a consonant: A big ogre. an -- indefinite article, used in place of "a" before a vowel: An ugly ogre. and -- conjunction: One ogre and another.
a lot -- many: We have a lot of ogres here. allot -- to give or assign: More than the allotted number of ogres. alot -- (not a word)
accept -- to receive or welcome: The rogue accepted the invitation. except -- excluding; to exclude: We invited everyone except ogres.
all right -- synonym for ok: All right, let's do it. aight -- (not a word) alright -- (not a word)
allude -- to refer to: His title "Ogre Eater" alluded to hours leveling in the ogre cave. elude -- to escape from: He was good at eluding hungry ogres.
aloud -- capable of being heard: Read it aloud to me. allowed -- permitted: You are allowed to read.
are -- present tense of "to be": You are reading this. our -- possessive of "us": That is our ogre!
band -- a ring or a musical group: What's your favorite band? banned -- past tense of ban: He got banned for bug abuse.
bare -- unclothed: Peasants have bare feet. bear -- furry creature; to carry; to tolerate: Bear with me.
clothes -- what you wear cloth -- what clothes are made out of cloths -- multiple types or units of cloth
come on -- let's go, continue: Come on, get on with it. common -- not rare: Ambers are a common ogre drop. comon -- (not a word)
compose -- to make up: the parts compose the whole comprise -- to embrace: the whole comprises the parts consist (of) -- to be made of: the whole consists of the parts constitute -- to be part of: the parts together constitute the whole
defuse -- disarm; to reduce tension: Defuse an angry confrontaton. diffuse -- become widespread: The diffusion of knowledge.
deter -- discourage: Don't let that deter you from hunting ogres. detour -- an alternate route: The gate was blocked, so we had to take a detour through west gate.
I -- always capitalized. you -- not capitalized unless at the start of a sentence. u, ur, u'r, ure -- (not a word)
imply -- suggest something: He got mad when I implied that he smelled like an ogre. infer -- conclude from evidence: From the smell, I inferred that he really was an ogre.
its -- possessive of "it": The ogre is in its cave. it's -- contraction of "it is": It's where ogres are.
lead -- a heavy metal: Turn lead into gold.; to direct: Lead us to victory! led -- past tense of lead: You led us to the supermarket!
lose -- opposite of find: Lose your mind. loose -- opposite of tight: Turn the goose loose.
patience -- endurance and perseverence: Getting weapons from Slime Ogres requires patience. patients -- those under medical treatment: Ogres make bad doctors because they eat their patients.
reign -- to rule: King Yuri reigns. rein -- what you steer a horse with: To give free rein. rain -- to drip: Why is it raining in my house?
rogue -- a Nexus character path: There's a rogue on my deathpile. rouge -- French for red; makeup to redden the cheeks: She's wearing rouge.
sight -- something seen: What a sight that ogre was! site -- location: The ogres camped on this site.
their -- possessive of "them": That is their stuff. they're -- contraction of "they are": They're reading too. there -- location other than here: It's over there. (easy to remember: T+here)
threw -- verb, past tense of throw: Oops, I threw my Flameblade! through -- preposition: Tiptoe through the tulips.
to -- think of towards: Going to Kugnae too -- also: Visiting Buya too.; modifier: Too bad. two -- between one and three: Two ogres.
waste -- squander; something wasted: Don't waste your time on Slime Ogres. waist -- the middle of the body: A belt goes around your waist.
well -- one of those null words: Well, it's over with. welp -- (not a word) whelp -- a puppy; to give birth to puppies
whose -- possessive of "who": Whose ogre is this? who's -- contraction of "who is": Who's on first?
your -- possessive of "you": This is your stuff.
you're -- contraction of "you are": You're reading this. The apostrophe: It is used in place of missing letters in a contraction (can't = can not, with "no" replaced by an apostrophe) and to generate possessives (Hroth's bald head). It is non-standard usage to use an apostrophe in the plurals of abbreviations (two FB's). The apostrophe is not, never, ever, EVER correctly used for plurals of anything else. Never. Period. The plural of "mantis" is "mantises" not "mantis's". The comma: They generally travel in pairs. If your sentence has a subordinate clause, like this one, then you put a comma at each end of it. (Impress your English teacher by knowing that a subordinate clause is sort of a sub-sentence that can be taken out without really changing the meaning of the sentence) It is incorrect to put a comma between the subject and the predicate of the sentence. Writing like this, is wrong. A sentence should contain a subject and a verb. Simple sentences are the clearest. Long, rambling sentences with multiple clauses set off by commas, like the ones I clutter up my writing with, are complicated and hard to read. However, they are still much more readable than endless run-on sentences that just go on and on because the person writing had more to say and his period key didn't work very well so he just kept on writing and writing until he was through with whatever it was that he had to say and then he pounded the period really, really hard and finally brought the paragraph-long sentence he was writing to a long-awaited end. The number "100" is pronounced "one hundred" so writing "I saw a 100 ogres" is incorrect. That should be "I saw 100 ogres" or "I saw a hundred ogres." It's grammatically incorrect to start a sentence with a conjunction such as "and" or "but". But I do it anyway. Do as I say, not as I do! This is meant to be a roleplaying game, not an AOL chatroom. Please spare us the B1FFisms like "l8r" and "o i c". They're not clever, they're not unique, they're CONFUSING. They make your posts harder for people to read. If nobody can (or wants to) read what you just wrote, you can't convince them of anything and you're wasting your time. And finally, two comments from the writer's guidelines I wrote for a magazine I edited once upon a time: Why do spelling, grammar, and punctuation matter? Not only are they critical to your meaning but they are also important to your credibility as a writer. Your words are your only image in print. Submitting a proposed article with bad spelling, tortured usage, and fractured syntax is the equivalent of scribbling it in red crayon. Don't trust your computer's spelling checker. Wen ewe dew it mite tell yew that awl ewe rite seams grate weather ore knot their is allot yew halve dun witch ewe knead two fix. Thanks to all of the people who have suggested additions! |