Hey guys,
I have been feeling really bad lately about my writing grammer/punctuation. I try and try to form sentences right, but it just never works out. I really thought I was getting better, turns out I am still am having problem with commas and periods and the like.
Do you guys have any grammer tips? or any advice?
Thanks a lot guys,
Elisabeth/Ana

*hugs Ana*

The nice thing about spelling and grammar, is that it's something someone else can easily help you with, or even fix for you, as there's a right and wrong and there's no style involved.

In fact, I don't even worry about grammar when I'm writing, usually. I always figure I can go back and fix it later.

I can't think right now of tips to help you get better, but I'll try to think of something and let you know if I do. For now though, my encouragement to you is, don't worry -- it can be fixed later. If you have confidence that your plot and your story are good and worth it, then focus on your style and storytelling, and perhaps when you're done you could find someone who would be willing to work with you on the grammar, or even edit it for you.

The one thing you might do is pay very careful attention when you're reading to the grammar. How are sentences arranged? Where do people put commas? Try to force yourself to notice those things. That's mostly how I learned.

*hugs again* And I am praying for you. Don't give up. Keep writing!

Well, in the sample of writing that I read, your grammar, that is, how the words were arranged, looked very good. But your punctuation (you know, periods, commas, quotation marks) needed some help. Let me go back and refresh my memory on it.

And don't get discouraged, Ana! If you keep trying, you can't get worse, you can only get better.

Okay, here's a general rule of thumb I thought of:
When you are about to put a spoken part in quotation marks, "Like this," you should always put either a period or a comma first. I'm not sure why, but it makes it "look right".

And how to know which to use? Well...um...let me think some more.

And, like Aniese said, when you read, study the grammar and punctuation carefully. I don't know if you like reading or not, but it is an excellent way to study these things. Choose a paragraph, and circle all the periods and commas, then think and observe why they are there.

How's that?

Thank you guys!
I still would like help with punctuation if any of you had tips.
*Thank Aemi and Aniese for the comments they were both very thoughtful*
I know I can get people to help me edit, I have one very helpful editor right now But I am still disapointed I just can't "get it" myself .
It is all very confusing to me
Ana

I don't really have any tips on how to get better, but I thought I'd pop in and tell you to keep trying. I've seen some of your writing, and I know you can do it!!!!!!

I think the suggestions Ani and Aemi gave are good advice, and well worth a try. Everything takes practice, and some things take more practice than others.



~ZA

I'll give you some tips, Ana, on commas. Commas used to be the bane of my existence, but once I grasped how to use them, I loved them.

Use a comma to separate the elements in a series (three or more things), including the last two. "He hit the ball, dropped the bat, and ran to first base." You may have learned that the comma before the "and" is unnecessary, which is fine if you're in control of things. However, there are situations in which, if you don't use this comma (especially when the list is complex or lengthy), these last two items in the list will try to glom together (like macaroni and cheese). Using a comma between all the items in a series, including the last two, avoids this problem. This last comma—the one between the word "and" and the preceding word—is often called the serial comma

Use a comma to set off what is called a "parenthetical element". A
"parenthetical element" is something that can be removed without changing the essential meaning of a sentence. For example:

"The Founders Bridge, which spans the Connecticut River, is falling down."

The part I put in italics is a part of the sentece which we could remove, if need be. "The Founders Bridge is falling down", still makes sense. The part that goes in between the commas is added information.

Use a comma to separate coordinate adjectives. You could think of this as "That tall, distinguished, good looking fellow" rule (as opposed to "the little old lady"). If you can put an and or a but between the adjectives, a comma will probably belong there. For instance, you could say, "He is a tall and distinguished fellow" or "I live in a very old and run-down house." So you would write, "He is a tall, distinguished man" and "I live in a very old, run-down house." But you would probably not say, "She is a little and old lady," or "I live in a little and purple house," so commas would not appear between little and old.

Use commas to set off phrases that express contrast. Examples:

Some say the world will end in ice, not fire.
It was her money, not her charm or personality, that first attracted him.
The puppies were cute, but very messy.


Also, when you have "too", at the end of a sentence, there is always a comma in front of it.

Hope some of those helped. Stay encouraged, my friend!!!

I can't say I have a very long, informative post like Airi, but I have to tell you this:

Grammar and punctuation may not be easy all the time.

But...

Not much comes without working on it and practicing, does it?

So I have to tell you to keep looking ahead and keep trying. When you were learning to walk, or read, or ride a bicycle, it wasn't always easy, was it? But when you worked on it, step by step, word by word, pedal by pedal, it seemed easier when you learned, right? And soon you were taking hesitant steps, reading phonics books, and riding slightly wobbly on the bicycle. And it gets easier... now you can walk, read, and ride a bicycle better.

Grammar and punctuation is like this.

It takes time. And you WILL get better at it.

Sometimes some of the best ways to "get it" yourself is to have other people look over your writing, correct it, and explain the corrections. I still give my writing to my dad (an INCREDIBLE writer) and he'll catch things that I didn't catch, and then explain to me the corrections. Eventually, I start "getting" different things and make the mistakes much less.

Advantages to having people look at your work: they see things differently and so can tell you when certain things aren't clear, and can catch punctuation and spelling you may have missed. They also have new ideas that you may like to use.

By having other people look at your work and explaining to you how to fix it over and over, you'll eventually "get it." The best thing I can tell you is to practice the punctuation rules. You can probably google punctuation rules and come up with a plethora of help there.

I hope this helps, Ana!

That refresher on commas certainly, helped me a lot! Thanks Lenshi!
*hands Ana a brotherly hug wrapped in a smile* Punctuation is something that trips up even the best of us at times. I for one am known for writing in lots of long, complicated sentences that, though they seem like run-on sentences from their mere length, are actually unified expressions of a singular line of thought and thus deserve to be left as whole sentences, even though they make it really tricky to get the punctuation just right. In fact, if an editor would give that last sentence a once-over to make sure I didn't fudge something up, I would really appreciate it Anyways, Ana, just hang in there and keep whacking away at it, and before you know it you'll be giving Shakespeare a run for his money

No problem, Jem. Glad it helped.



All commas were good. You could, technically, add a comma after I and one, but I think you could get away without it, if you wanted.

How has this been going for you, Ana?