How to type semi-proper english on a forum in a nutshell
I think the use of language on many forums, including this one, has degraded severely. I understand the occasional typo, or tongue-tie, but when I read through a post and cannot understand the message, or have to re-read it, that makes me angry.
Here are 5 things to ask yourself before hitting the notorious 'submit new thread' or 'post reply' button(Main points and mistake examples in bold/underlined):
1. where are the cApital Letters?
When you start a sentence(Right after a period, exclamation point, or question mark), there should be a capital letter. Also, proper nouns such as New York, or Virginia should be capitalized. 'I' should be capitalized while 'me' should not be capitalized. Proper names should also be capitalized.
Improper: "if it were Me out there, i would try harder."
Proper: "If it were me out there, I would try harder."
2. Where did I put the punctuation.
This one is simple. There should be a period after every complete thought, a question mark after a question, an exclamation point after an exclamation, and commas to break up run on sentences and lists.
Improper: "Why is it that you do not understand why I am the best I am the biggest fastest and strongest."
Proper: "Why is it that you do not understand that I am the best? I am the biggest, the fastest, and the strongest."
3. Wherearethewordsspaced?
This is an unusually obvious and easy concept which should not be overlooked. You need to hit the Largest button on the keyboard(Thank you for reminding me of other layouts, changed it to make it non-discriminant). There should also be A space after punctuation(Thank you for bombarding me with that one).
Improper: "I really enjoyeating alot of food."
Proper: "I really enjoy eating a lot of food."
Any suggestions for better examples on this one, tell me... no need to point out this one being a failure.
4. Is my words making sense, maybe?
Another simple concept. Do not put words like 'maybe' at the end of a sentence. Plural words should have 'are' in front instead of 'is'. If you reread a sentence and you have trouble understanding it, chances are, we will not understand it.
Improper: "Is you sometimes the one who maybe has tooken my pretty watch, maybe?"
Proper: "Are you the one who sometimes steals my lovely watch when I am not looking."
5. Do I use quotation marks?
I don't even care if you punctuate correctly around the quotation marks, because there are a billion rules. But if you are saying he said, "this," or she said, "that," at least let us members of the forum know that you are saying what someone else said. In addition to this, if you are trying to tell what someone said do not type, "He said, "That I was supposed to."" If you use he said that or she said that, please do not use quotes.
Improper: 'I remember when you said "that I was a terribly awful person"'
Proper: 'I remember when you said, "You are a terribly awful person."'
OR: 'I remember when you said that I was a terribly awful person.'
6. Do I use proper words? (Thank you, mcciff2112)
This one particularly annoys me. Using words(not) like "u" instead of "you" is terribly annoying. Another one that catches my eye is "wat" instead of "what." Would it kill you to hit the H key every now and again?
Improper: "Wat r u doin tonite wen i am at the stor?"
Proper: "What are you doing tonight, while I am at the store?"
I hope this guide has given you the motivation to type in a slightly more clear, more precise English which may prevent blindness from all the squinting to try to overlook errors.
If you are one of the people for whom the post was created, thank you for reading... really... thank you for hopefully trying to absorb something out of this.
If you find any errors, or things which must be added in this post, please tell me.
Edit: I just noticed, my title is an epic fail... run-on.
Typed proper and improper usage of sentences, as suggested by jacob15728.
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Originally Posted by Samlambert
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