Table of Contents Part 1:
EDIT: Sticky Please?
Chapter 1: Acronyms Chapter 2: Apostrophes Chapter 3: Punctuation Chapter 4: Common Misconceptions
More to come (though probably not).
----------
Now we can go on.
----------
Chapter 1: Acronyms
Who knows what an acronym is? I'll tell you all anyway just so it's made known. An acronym is simply:
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Dictionary.com A word formed from the initial letters of a name, such as WAC for Women's Army Corps, or by combining initial letters or parts of a series of words, such as radar for radio detecting and ranging. |
Alright, we've got that much down. Congratulations. That was the first part of the lesson for acronyms. On to part two.
How can one pluralize one of these acronyms? It's really quite simple. Most of the time, you know what the acronym stands for, correct? All you need to do is pluralize the acronym as you would pluralize the last word in the acronym itself. For example:
PCed. While this looks incorrect, it is very much proper. As you can see, Perfect Comboed is the correct spelled-out form of this acronym being used in the past tense.
Another example is RPGs. To pluralize Role-Playing
Game, you simply add an "s" to "game".
There are but a few exceptions to this rule and that exception is not even necessary. It has become proper to pluralize an acronym whose last letter (of the short form) is "s" with an apostrophe.
An example of this is SOS's. SOSs is also acceptable, but the crazy people that continue to make rules up about our language prefer the apostrophe.
Another such exception is the use of numbers and letters of the alphabet.
Credit to footfairyman07.
EX. Sara got 3 A's and 2 B's on her report card.
EX. John can now count by 2's, 3's, and 4's.
(Although I'd say "A"s instead just because the letter grade isn't part of the sentence structure and deserves to be set apart from the rest of the sentence.)
Which brings me to my next point.
----------
Chapter 2: Apostrophes
No, not "apostrophe's". In fact, you NEVER pluralize a word with an apostrophe. Let me re-state that in italics on the next line.
You NEVER pluralize a word with an apostrophe.
I cannot find of any good examples of this occurring here off-hand, but believe me, it happens. Even in the real world, as THIS link proves.
The only time you need to use an apostrophe is as a contraction or to show possession. Keep in mind that a contraction is not limited to 40 or 50 examples you learned in English. Almost any noun can become a contraction.
Examples of contractions:
"I'm" = I am (I'm posting a message).
"They're" = They are (They're not listening).
"That's" = That is (That's really horrible).
"Lawyer's" = Lawyer is (Your lawyer's dead) (Thanks for the example, LD).
Examples of possessives:
"Computer's" (The computer's RAM).
"Earth's" (Earth's trees).
"Game's" (This game's graphics).
****
This entire section was written entirely by GuidoHunter. Obviously, he knows what he's talking about. This should help you immensely.
****
APOSTROPHES IN POSSESSIVES
Squeek touched on part of this, but the rest is not the most well-understood of subjects, so mistakes of this kind are often overlooked. I'll try to clear some of this up.
Case 1:
Singular possessives that do not end in 's'. Everyone knows how to do these. Add an apostrophe and 's', e.g. "chair's legs", "Mary's face", etc.
Case 2:
Plural possessives that do not end in 's'. Like with singular nouns, these are often quite obvious. "The children's homework," "the deer's meat," and "the feet's smell" are all examples.
Case 3:
Singular possessives that end in 's'. Unlike with plural possessives, these WILL NOT terminate in an apostrophe simply because they are singular. "Chris's hand," "Tyler Jones's room," or "my boss's job" all end with an apostrophe and 's' just like the other singular possessives.
Case 4:
Plural possessives that end in 's'. With these nouns is the ONLY time (save for the two exceptions that will be noted below) that a word terminates in an apostrophe. Examples: "The Millers' house," "the students' homework," and "the rabbits' down." Also note that regardless of the structure, surnames will take the apostrophe after the pluralization. This can look especially awkward with -es names such as with Jones, but the dog belonging to the entire family is still "the Joneses' dog."
Case 5:
Exceptions.
Obviously, as Squeek has said, "its" is what you should use to denote something belonging to whatever "it" is. It is a singular possessive that does not take an apostrophe, so it is an exception to Case 1.
Moses and Jesus. These are the only two singular possessive nouns that terminate in an apostrophe. For some reason, philologists saw fit to let these two figures be special, so don't flip out if you read about "Moses' staff" or "Jesus' word," because they are completely fine.
I have also seen books that say the possessive of any singular noun whose last two syllables have an 's' sound should be marked by just an apostrophe. Moses and Jesus fit that description, but I can't think of another word that does, so you're probably best off just adding 's.
That's all for now. I think I'm going to have fun writing these.
--Guido
****
End Guido's awesome guide to apostrophes
****
I thought I'd just add something here. When you want to say a specific time period (say, a decade) and want to cut off the first two digits of the year, the apostrophe takes the place of those digits. The correct usage for referring to the 1950s is the '50s.
-----------
Chapter 3: Punctuation
Ah, the joys of punctuation. When to use it? What do certain symbols do / accomplish? You're about to find out. Note that apostrophes are in their own section because you people butcher those most often.
We'll begin with end marks. These are the marks that appear at the end of a sentence.
Period
This is a period. That last mark there. It's just a dot on a screen. It denotes the end of a sentence. When reading a period aloud, you would start to lower your tone near the last few syllables. The meaning of the period is to bring the sentence to an end and ease into the next sentence.
Question Mark
A question mark - ? - looks like that and is used to tell the reader that you are asking a question. This could be something simple like, "Would you like fries with that?" Generally speaking, a question begins with one of the following words: Who, what, where, when, why, how. There are many times when those words are not going to be in there, much like my example. When reading aloud, you would start to raise the tone of the last few syllables when ending the sentence.
Exclamation Point
An exclamation point - ! - looks like this and is used to tell the reader that the sentence is bringing some form of emotion to you in a "shocking" way. It's an emphasis on your sentence. The one thing I hated about grammar lessons in school about this mark is that their example sentences ALWAYS sucked. I recall seeing "What an exciting day this is!" or "What a gorgeous painting this is!" all the time. It was never proper. Nobody talks like that. It's always "This is an exciting day!" or "This painting is gorgeous!" nowadays. The tone of this sentence when read aloud is much higher throughout.
---
We now move onto inner-sentence marks.
Comma
I hope all of you know what a comma is. It's a mark that, when used properly, can make all the difference in the way a sentence sounds. If abused, it will destroy you.
A comma has one major purpose. It is used vocally to tell the reader, "insert a pause here." Of course, the way I just used it is slightly different, but I'll get to that.
Commas for pauses: I just used an example of this about three seconds ago. When you start your sentence with some specific words (ie: For example, of course, however, etc) you need to set them off from the rest of the sentence with a pause (comma). This is to make the sentence flow better. When reading the following sentences aloud, just tell me which one sounds better.
Of course, there's no right or wrong answer here.
Of course there's no right or wrong answer here.
In fact, the meaning of the sentences completely changes! The first sentences says to the reader, "There's no right or wrong answer." The second says, "What is wrong with you? OF COURSE there's no right or wrong answer here!"
Commas for sets: I'm not even going to get into the lengthy argument in favor of or opposed to the Oxford comma. I just love the Oxford definition and will continue to abide by it.
Commas in sets work in a way that places a pause between each set of items greater than three. "I want this, that, those, and these too." (By the way, the British would write this, "I want this, that, those and these too." Which I just think is silly. There's no pause after "those" to tell the person that the last two terms are separate. They just run together.) It's just that easy. You place a comma after every term except the last. There is no comma after the "and", "or", or "but".
Commas for pairs: This is the other most commonly used comma. While this is basically the same thing as the first comma I mentioned, I put it separate for you all. The notion for this is to place a form of an "aside" within your sentence. For example, you might say, "I went to the store, which was very far away, for some eggs." Or something to that effect. I don't care.
I hate commas. Let's move on.
Colon
Colons are easy. Use a colon to tell the reader, "I'm about to say a one or more things that I was talking about before." For an example, you could write, "I'll tell you what I hate most: morons." Or, better yet, "There are only two kinds of people in the world: those that understand binary, and those that don't." Make sure that the items listed after the colon are set off by commas.
We also use colons for time (8:45) and other stuff, but that's irrelevant, really. I read someplace that the best way to test for colon usage is to insert the word "namely" where you'd want to put the colon. It almost always works.
Quotation Mark
I HATE THIS MARK. I honestly HATE it to death. I want the inventor of its usage to make up his mind on what to do with it. It's a horrible mark.
Now that I've gotten that out of my system, let me explain my hatred. Consider the following (correctly punctuated) sentence.
I told the guy that I wanted a "foot." I don't think he caught my drift.
It's so wrong! I swear! The quoted word should not have a period in it. It doesn't fit in there. The word belongs in its own quotes and deserves freedom from the sentence break. Ugh. Luckily, the British know my feelings for this and use my method of quotations. Therefore, if you want to say,
I told the guy that I wanted a "foot".
YOU CAN. Join me in doing so.
Anyway.
You use a quotation to quote direct material or to put a word that might not mean what it's supposed to mean inside. Another use is to mention a word that doesn't belong in the context of the sentence itself. Here're the examples.
He said, and I quote, "I hate you." - Note the period INSIDE. Quoted phrases need it. I get that.
He told me that I was a "greenhorn". I don't know what it means.
I commonly see people putting the letter "a" where it doesn't belong.
There you go.
I will end punctuation there since nobody on a public forum uses dashes, hyphens, semicolons (sadly), etc.
-----------
Chapter 4: Common Misconceptions
Please call this chapter "common mistakes" if you wish. Here, I address common problems occurring in everyday posting that must be made clear. Let me state my theory as to why these problems occur in the first place.
Simplicity - Shortening or slightly editing a word to create a small "shortcut" while typing, only to find out that the entire population has also conformed to that method and the original word is lost.
Speech - A very common problem. People want to write words the same way it sounds when it is said. This is a problem when spelling and when writing phrases. I will point out a few of the most prevalent.
Lack of Information- If you never knew how to use something properly, go with what everybody else says. They have to be right...right?
Well, that's just about it. Speech and simplicity are the biggies. Here are some examples.
"
Should of". I see this often, along with "would of" and "could of". The only reason you type this is because you say it like this. However, this is incorrect. The correct spelling of this word is "should've". The contraction is taking the place of "have", thus making the complete phrase "should have".
"
Alot". Yeah, this is wrong. The site says,
Quote:
If you can't remember the rule, just remind yourself that just as you wouldn't write 'alittle' you shouldn't write 'alot.'
That just about does it.
"
Could care less". Boy do I hate to see this. It makes me want to pull you aside and mention to you that you're really telling the person, "I care some, maybe even a lot, but now I might care a little less." What you MEANT to say was, "I don't care. I never cared. I will continue to not care."
Case and Point. Qualy sent this one in. It's "Case in point." Insert big explanation as to why this is later.
COMMONLY-MISSPELLED WORDS.
The order goes: right spelling, wrong spelling(s).
Sequel - Sequal
Wednesday - Wednsday, Wedsnesday, Wensday
Basically - Basicly
Awesome - Awsome
Challenge - Challange, Chalenge, Chalange
Separate - Seperate
Definitely - Definately (I hate you all), Definitly (Hate you too)
Forty - Fourty
February - Febrary, Febuary
Light - Lite
Through - Thru
Night - Nite
Dialogue - Dialog (Same goes for Analogue. I don't care though)
Paid - Payed
Lied - Lyed
Lying - lieing (HOW COULD YOU THINK THIS IS RIGHT?!)
Congratulations - Congradulations (Jewpin, I'm looking at you.)
***AMENDED INFORMATION!***
Chardish has written a lovely article to be amended into this document. I found it fitting to go here.
----------
I'd like to recommend a section on commonly misused phrases. I can think of a few.
"For all intensive purposes." This phrase does not exist. The correct spelling is "for all intents and purposes."
E.G. vs. I.E. vs. A.K.A.
Global rule: All of these acronyms always have a period after each letter. At the beginning of a sentence, all letters are capitalized. Anywhere else in a sentence, all letters are lower case.
E.G. is short for the Latin exempli gratis (a free example). It means "for example" and can be used anywhere that you could use the words "for example." It is a dependent clause, which means it should be separated by a comma from the main clause of a sentence.
Example: "I need you to write a paper on a natural science of your choosing; e.g., biology or physics."
I.E. is short for the Latin id est (it is). It means "that is" and can be used anywhere that you could use those words. It is typically used to give further explanation to something. It is a dependent clause, which means it should be separated by a comma from the main clause of a sentence.
Example: "We didn't think he was doing a good job, i.e., we hated his guts and wanted him fired."
Example: "She was a lady of the night, i.e., a prostitute."
A.K.A. is short for "also known as" and should only be used literally, in that sense. Do not put a comma after it anywhere.
Example: "The place was known as Red Herring's Bar and Tavern, a.k.a Big Red's."
Example: "She was a lady of the night, a.k.a. a prostitute."
You'll notice that "a.k.a." and "i.e." can be used interchangeably sometimes, but not all the time. The first examples for each of those cannot be interchanged. Take care to pay attention to what the acronyms stand for to differentiate the meanings.
------------
To be continued. . .
