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Post by zevie on May 19, 2007 1:04:15 GMT -5
I'm decent with grammar for the most part, I think. I took a beginner's Italian course this year and BOY - if you ever really need to learn English grammar, learn another language. That said, I just had my own battle with the apostrophe (um, on this site, lol). It's my weakness.  I used to do the same thing with commas! Still do, in first draft. I'm paranoid about everything I post, so I triple-check almost everything, and a lot of commas come out in the process, lol. (I also tend to ignore a lot of grammar rules - like sentence fragments and starting sentences with a conjunction. It's fun. ) My worst problem is just writing the wrong word. Sometimes it makes sense, like replacing "and" with "a" but sometimes I just don't know how I got there. A recent example: "Still was in and bad doom." Which was supposed to be: "Tim was in a bad mood." (I don't get the Still bit. I probably never will.) I'm not keen on grammar books, though I know they'd help. Kinda like brussels sprouts. Most of my training comes from reading - which, in my experience at least, seems to be the absolute best teacher for everything writing, technical or otherwise. (That probably didn't need to be said, lol, but there it is.  |
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Post by Nittanylizard on May 19, 2007 22:43:54 GMT -5
Did somebody say frosting? I am so there.
Oh, and I bow to the miracle that is spellcheck. Except when it messes up, lol. Grammar, I can do.
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Post by Tensleep on May 20, 2007 1:46:27 GMT -5
My problems are getting to the point where I am pretty well fixing them on my own (Yay for Tens!).
The biggest one I have is where I just capitalize random words.
This was an Example from the other Day. I have no Idea why I do this. Makes me look Pretty Darn Silly.
Another is where I use were instead of where or vise versa. I had it in my head that some weres were supposed to have 'h's since they sounded longer. Yeah...I had a lot to learn when I started writing. You can find some of those in the early chapters of my stories that I have yet to edit. Gotta love it.
I'm sure I have more, but ignorance is bliss when you have made so much progress already.
See ya in the funny papers!!!
Tens
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Post by printandpolish on May 20, 2007 18:51:37 GMT -5
I have my mechanics down pretty well -- I have to as part of my job. And that is a blessing and a curse. We follow AP (Associated Press) style and after all these years, I automatically default to that, which may or may not be correct in prose writing.
For example -- do you write a number like one or 1? AP says write them out one to nine, they're numerical 10 to infinity, except for addresses and times and ages and .... It's correct for the newspaper but it's inconsistent.
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Post by fairlane on May 20, 2007 20:18:23 GMT -5
Their - they're - there. I know it's one of the basics but I never know which one to use when.
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Post by printandpolish on May 21, 2007 5:56:09 GMT -5
Their - they're - there. I know it's one of the basics but I never know which one to use when. Maybe this will help -- a cheat sheet!  Their -- possessive: The boys loved their car. They're -- short for 'they are' -- They're washing their car. There -- a place -- They're washing their car over there. |
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Post by Keira on May 21, 2007 12:03:51 GMT -5
My biggest issue is using words correctly. Malapropism. Just learned that word yesterday. Look it up if you don't know what it means  I find myself thinking a word sounds great in a sentence, but when I look it up it means something completely different than I thought it did.
I also have issues using correct English altogether. I hail from Utah where we think that "boughten" is a word. But also small things such as saying, "These ones" and the like, but I don't think those count as much... Right?
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Post by st.elmo-lover on Jul 2, 2007 12:50:53 GMT -5
They're, their, there. I often find myself writing they're when it shouldn't be there and it should be there. It's a subconscious thing I think and I always have to try really hard to slow down when I'm writing to make sure I don't do it.
Another thing is the fact that I write a lot of comma splices and run-ons. It's a horrible thing with me and my Honors English teacher is always getting on me about it. I hate it and I have to try really hard not to do it.
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Post by BlindedxxFalcon on Jul 8, 2007 22:10:11 GMT -5
I have trouble with spelling and grammer. It's weird, because I read a lot, so I should know how to spell words but I just don't. And I don't know why I am writing this, but did you know numbers less then ten should be written out? Like 1 should be one and so on. I learned that from my humanities teacher!
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Post by samanthamae on Jul 8, 2007 22:39:32 GMT -5
Wow, I thought it was less than fifty  My biggest issue? Staying in-character. I swear, plain fiction is SO much easier to write! |
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latch22
Up To No Good
Anybody got a pitchfork?
Posts: 206
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Post by latch22 on Jul 8, 2007 22:48:47 GMT -5
Oh, I'm kind of strange... I write out any number under one thousand, mostly.
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Post by fairlane on Jul 9, 2007 19:00:29 GMT -5
What about money amounts?
Would it be "it cost $5.10"
or; "it cost five dollars ten"
I usually write it out but I'm never sure which one its supposed to be.
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Post by jrc on Jul 10, 2007 21:36:51 GMT -5
I have no connection between my brain and my finger tips. I put "walk" for "rock"in an entire essay for my science thing a while ago. It was all about walks. And you can't tell me he couldn't have figured it out.
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Post by blackcat2010 on Apr 28, 2011 12:01:08 GMT -5
My biggest issues are that I can't really stay iin character that good. We all have our own looks on the guys. So, if one person lets say has Two-bit as a wise cracker, the next might not. Anyways, it's hard for me to stay in character. My other problem, most will know, is grammar and spelling. I have a hard time remembering where to put commas. my one beta said that a comma goes before As all the time. But someone else tells me that a comma hardly goes infront of As. Also, infront, is it one or two words?
The small things get me, I have to ask my mom once in a while how to spell something because in my mind it sounds right but it's not. There's a lot of things that are hard for me. But, I slowly learning them a little at a time.
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I used to do the same thing with commas! Still do, in first draft. I'm paranoid about everything I post, so I triple-check almost everything, and a lot of commas come out in the process, lol.
I find myself thinking a word sounds great in a sentence, but when I look it up it means something completely different than I thought it did.
