At 05:38 PM 1/21/97 -0500, Jeanne Hedge wrote:

At 01:23 PM 1/21/97 -0500, Andrew Huang wrote:

	Yes, I'm going to be incredibly anal. But these things have been
annoying the Hell out of me ever since I finally got them right myself.
Anyways, here are some commonly broken grammar rules that I seem to be
finding here a lot.

Very well said.  And now I'd like to re-post something sent to the list over
a year ago about one of *my* pet peeves:

Date: Tue, 12 Dec 1995 17:15:01 -0500 (EST)
From: Sailor Gallifrey <omega@io.org>
To: fanfic@andrew.cais.com
Subject: Re: Punctuation.


Hi!

	Yes, quoted dialogue that does not end a sentence uses a comma 
instead of a period.  As in:

	"But I don't like commas," he said.

	Only periods are replaced, not question or exclamation marks. As in:

	"I prefer to use exclamation marks, you bastard!" he screamed.

	When the order of the sentence is reversed (when the description 
starts before the quote) the comma is used when the description connects
the dialogue. As in:

	He screamed, "I said that already!"
			or
	He then scratched his head and said, "I really need some sleep."

	Otherwise, it's just a simple sentence. As in:

	He scratched his head again.  "Where's my bed?"

That's all for today's class.  There will be a test tomorrow! ^_^

--Omega



--------------
omega@io.org
small sig, eh?
--------------

well, this thread better not turn into that "loose vs lose" debate. If that
happens, I'm going to jump through my computer screen. Well, that would
kinda hurt, but most importantly, my computer won't work either.



Okay, here is my grammar lesson for the decade.

accept - verb "to receive" I'll accept your damn golden globe award then!
except - prep "not counting" I take all those women for my harem except for
that fat, ugly, bitchy one.

adapt - verb "to adjust" You'll die before you even try to adapt to the 600
degree temperature.
adept - adj "skillful" I am adept at making stupid examples.
adopt - verb "to care for something as one's own" I adopted this new image,
now I'm cool.

advice - noun "guidance" Let me give you an advice, stay away from burning
dogs.
advise - verb "to recommmend" I often advise you to send some money to me.
It will make the world a better place.

affect -verb "influence" If you chop one's leg off, it affects their walking.
effect -noun "consequence" The effect of mixing NaCl and H2O is nothing. 

a lot is the correct spelling of alot.

all together - "everyone in one place" When we scream all together, we
don't usually make a nice sound. 
altogether "completely" This altogether is false.

among "three or more stuff" Among all these fics, I choose that person's to
be the best.
between  "two stuff" Between yin and yang, there is a yiang?

loose (adj) "not tight" Make sure that cap is not loose on that bottle of HCl
lose (verb) "to misplace" and "not win"  Hmmm score is 100 to 0, I think
we're losing.

There are seven zillion of these more examples. I would advise (heh) you to
get a book called "Writing Essentials" by Dawn Rodrigues and Myron C.
Tuman. published by W. W. Norton & Company. Cost = $12.95
I never used it though :)

Jeanne Hedge
http://www.accsyst.com/jhedge/

Assistant System Operator
Compuserve Anime/Manga Forum