Chapter 1--Grammar

                                    

                                          
Grammar mistakes are some of the most ANNOYING errors in books. Though it is extremely hard not to have any, people should read through this and learn from it. Major grammatical errors in sentences, paragraphs, or books can make the plot hard to understand.
                          
1: Apostrophies'
                          
Look there. Look. RIGHT THERE. I used an apostrophy incorrectly. Oops! That could get confusing. Here are ways that I've often seen people use apostrophies wrong, and how to correct them:
                          
A. Apostrophies; skipped letters. Most of the time, when you use an apostrophy, it is to abbreviate a word, or to merge two words together. For example: "Can't" means "Cannot." In this example, the apostrophy replaces the "n" and "o" in "not." So, instead of saying "cannot" or "can not," you could write "can't."
                          
B. Apostrophies; ownership, possession. Other times, when an apostrophy is used, it represents a noun's ownership of something. If I write, "Kennedy's dog," I'm not saying "Kennedy is dog." That would just be silly! The one exception is the word "it." If I say "It's cold out here," it is the same as saying "It is cold out here." If "it" owns something, like in "Its jaw dropped open at the sight of the bone," you do NOT have the apostrophy. Which one sounds better; "It is (it's) eyes grew wide," or "Its eyes grew wide?" The SECOND one. Just one more thing about apostrophies used in ownership: If you have a plural noun or a noun that ends in "s" that owns something, like "Lamps," the apostrophy comes AFTER the "s". So, if I had a sign that said, "Lamps's light bulbs," that would be incorrect. Instead, I would write, "Lamps' light bulbs." I do NOT need another 's' there.
                          
C. Awkward words with apostrophies. For words like "who," apostrophies are NOT used the same as in other cases. If I say, "Who's dog is this?" then I'm saying, "Who is (who's) dog is this?" To ask who owns the dog, I would write, "Whose dog is this?" That looks wierd, I know, but it's correct. A lot of people (including me, in the past) mistake the two. It is important that you review your writing and edit it before or soon after posting to fix these mistakes.
                          
2. CaPiTaLiZaTiOn
                          
That word looks ridiculous, and is a little hard to read, right? Right. Correct capitalization is very helpful in books. I'm sure you all know how to capitalize words... But let's go over that.
                          
A. Sentences. Make sure that, in sentences, the FIRST (and ONLY first) letter of the FIRST word is always capitalized. "I ate the cheese. another piece of cheese appeared on the table." That is not correct. "I ate the cheese. Another piece of cheese appeared on the table." That is right. It looks a lot better, too.
                          
B. Proper nouns. A specific person (a name of a person), place (the name of a specific place), or thing (Liberty Bell, in this case) has to have its first letter capitalized. Here is when that would be neccessary: "New York City (place) is a very crowded place." Or, "We went to see the Liberty Bell (thing)." Another example would be, "Shelly (person) asked Maria (person) if she could borrow her sled." Make sure you capitalize these. If I wrote, "New york city is a very popular place," that would be incorrect.
                          
C. Pronouns. If you have a pronoun (a word that replaces a proper noun), it does not get capitalized. "The clerk asked Emily if she wanted some candy." That is correct. "Emily" is the only proper noun in that sentence, so it gets capitalized. If I were to do it incorrectly, it would be: "The Clerk asked emily if She wanted some Candy." However, if I wanted to specify, I could write (with that same capitalization), "Jhonas asked Emily if Emily wanted some Skittles." However, that could get confusing. Who is this Jhonas? What are Skittles? Why is Emily's name repeated twice? Replacing some of these proper nouns with pronouns makes the sentence clearer. "The clerk asked Emily if she wanted some candy" makes the most sense.
                          
D. WORDS written in ALL CAPS! That looks awkward. I know... I've done that, even in THIS (oops) book! It does put emphasis on specific words, like, "Emily ate ALL of the candy in only two seconds!" This isn't the most important rule as lots of authors choose to use all caps to put emphasis on words. However, it works (and looks) better if you just put that word in bold, italics, or even both! That is the proper way to write it. Here's that same sentence, written correctly. "Emily ate all of the candy in only two seconds!" Nice job.
                          
E. eVeRy OtHeR lEtTeR. Trust me, anyone who writes like tHiS is going to come off as stupid. Those words right there are written in idiot language. Never... I repeat, NEVER write like that! It makes it hard to read. Which one is better? 1. "i LiKe To ReAd StUpId BoOkS wItH wRiTiNg LiKe ThIs." Or, 2. "I don't like reading stupid books with writing like that." I really hope you chose the second one!
                          
F. Titles. When you write a title, you capitalize the first letter of EVERY word, EXCEPT articles, like "the" or "and." Although, if the first word is an article, capitalize it. The first and last words always have a capital letter in titles. "the Hunger GameS." That's not right... Let's try again! "The Hunger Games." That's better. Also, there's the other type of title, that goes before someone's name. Like King George, President George Washington, or Colonel Sanders. If the title is before a name, like in "Queen Elizabeth," the first letter is capitalized. However, if you are using the title without a name, like in "a princess," the first letter is not capitalized. Whether or not you capitalize the first letter when referring to a specific person without the name depends on your writing style. For example, "the Queen" and "the queen" are both arguably correct. Many authors disagree on this, so it's a matter of opinion.
                          
3. Actual Grammar
                          
Having correct grammar is always important in books, in order to properly understand what's going on.
                          
A. I'm talking to YOU! "It's me Sam." That's confusing. Is the speaker saying that he is Sam? Or is he just talking to Sam? "It's me, Sam." That looks better. This way, it could still be confusing--I would recommend putting it that way if the speaker is Sam. If the speaker is talking to Sam, then he should say: "Sam, it's me." That's better! Whenever the speaker is addressing someone in particular or renaming a word, there should be a comma setting it off from the rest of the sentence. "The home-made ice cream already in the box has been placed in the fridge." Oops! "The home-made ice cream, already in the box, has been placed in the fridge." That is correct. The first one was not. A comma  indicates the speaker (or reader) is taking a breath or pausing before moving on. If I were reading that aloud... I would read it "The home-made ice cream, (pause) already in the box, (pause) has been placed in the fridge," rather than "The home-made ice cream (faster!) already in the box (running out of breath!) has been placed in the fridge."
                          
B. Run-on sentences. "I looked around the room nobody was there I turned around I saw nothing but an old box inside of it was a spider in its web all of a sudden thunder boomed I jumped ten feet in the air." That ALSO has to do with commas. Read that quickly without stopping to breathe. You start to run out of air! That's called a run-on sentence. They are NOT ACCEPTABLE. You must fix it by doing one of two things: Turn it into a pile of simple sentences, or have it in multiple compound sentences. Here's the first option. "I looked around the room. Nobody was there. I turned around. I saw nothing but an old box. Inside of it was a spider in its web. All of a sudden, thunder boomed. I jumped ten feet in the air." Another, more fluid-sounding option would be this:
                          
C. Compound sentences. Here's that other sentence turned into compound sentences: "I looked around the room, but nobody was there. When I turned around, I saw nothing but an old box. Inside of it was a spider in its web. All of a sudden, thunder boomed and I jumped ten feet in the air." When you merge two or more simple sentences, you must add ; or a conjunction (and, but, or, etc.) in addition to a comma. "I ate my ice cream. It made me all sticky." Compound sentence: "I ate my ice cream and it made me all sticky." (Note, with most "and"s, no comma is needed.) OR "I ate my ice cream; it made me all sticky." A combination of simple and compound sentences makes writing more interesting.
                          
Author's Note: This book is not meant to be offensive, and it is not aimed at any particular book/author. That's all I can think of for now (in grammar)... Bye!