every time you abuse punctuation, God kills a kitten

[meretricula]

(my hands are totally instruments of God.)

I'm just going to put this here until I figure out how to better use it: writing aids and standards collected by our holy mother of webzines, bb_shousetsu. guys... English is the worst. I know. I know, okay? I know that being a native speaker and lifelong avid reader with a thorough knowledge of Latin and a less-thorough but still present knowledge of ancient Greek gives me a leg up in the grammatical sweepstakes. but when I kick and scream and throw tantrums about how people don't know how to use commas, it's not for my own entertainment. grammar is important. language only helps us communicate when we're using the same one. commas and apostrophes and sentence fragments may seem insignificant, but they affect whether what you mean in your head is understood by the person who reads your words. think about it.

Comments

[luckyblonde.livejournal.com]

I still don't know how to use commas, so I would go read that link.

And I agree with what you said, I think that grammar is important in every language.

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

let me tell you, reasoningwithvampires (http://reasoningwithvampires.tumblr.com/) is teaching me about comma usage still! it's an ongoing process. XD

[paper-tzipporah.livejournal.com]

That subject line is why we're friends.

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

o/\o GO NERDY BLS GRADS GO GO GO

[the-beanster.livejournal.com]

Oh, I so agree, it's not even funny. I mean, I'll admit that my grammar is far from perfect but after reading "Let's go eat Jack" when I'm pretty sure the author didn't mean that the speaker wanted to eat Jack, I couldn't take the fic seriously anymore. It's something so small, but mistakes like that seriously throw me out of a fic, so yes, totally agreeing with you.

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

it's kind of hard for me to articulate sometimes the effect of stumbling across a grammatical error in text, but that's pretty much it. it throws me out of the story, and then I can't get back in. I wish it didn't, but it does. =/

[the-beanster.livejournal.com]

Ugh totally with you. I sometimes think that I'm probably missing out on some great plots/ideas, but I can't :(

[tabacoychanel.livejournal.com]

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

I MISS YOU.

[khoshgeleh-16.livejournal.com]

COMMAS ARE YOUR FRIENDS, PEOPLE. I am terribly glad I live in a city where commas are taken so ~seriously. No dead kittens 'round these parts, no siree!

(That is a lie. Even in this most hallowed shrine of comma usage, some people need a little extra edumacation.)

Also that Twilight tumblr is... fascinating. It's like a trainwreck, I just can't look away.

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

I have learned so much from reasoningwithvampires! everybody, no matter how many degrees in hand already, could always use just a little extra edumacation ;)

[khoshgeleh-16.livejournal.com]

Agreed! (Also I think I am forgetting how to English, it is a little worrying.)