SamuelRSmith on 16 June 2008
| Tormod said: Let me give you the rundown. First, you have Mr. Capital-Letter, he may seem imposing - but he's really friendly once you get to know him. Mr. Capital-Letter is the final form of Mr. Lowercase-Letter, and he can be transformed by holding the "shift" key before you type him! He is the beginning of all good sentences, therefore, it's a good idea to put him at the start of a sentence. He also belongs at the beginning of proper nouns. Miss Comma goes after a phrase, and she's pretty nice too, as long as you don't overuse her (somebody needs to learn STET). When Miss Comma comes into a sentence, she gives the reader cues on when they can breathe. Miss Comma can be quite a useful little character, as not only can she be used as a breathing que for people reading aloud, they can also be used to group different parts of the sentence together - making the sentence much easier to read. Proper Spelling is a dashing young gentleman who loves to be a part of your sentences. When you use him, not only will he be happy, everyone else will be, too. Why is this? Your sentences become coherent, that's why! (sentences can still be perfectly corherent, even with poor spelling. It's usually the punctuation that makes, or breaks, a piece of writing) Correct Grammar, she is also pretty cool. She's hip, trendy, and oh-so-fashionable for today's sentence writers. In a sentence (might want to use a word other than 'sentence' it's starting to become a bit repetitive, now), Correct Grammar makes sense of your jumbled pile of words. She puts subjects before nouns, apostrophes in the right place, and makes certain words look right. Miss Grammar knows that sometimes you mis-type and enter "there" instead of "they're". Don't worry though, she's here to help. Finally, Captain Punctuation. The Captain is a commanding man, for sure, but he just wants you to make the most of what you type. Captain Punctuation's special job is to end your sentences right. If you're asking a question, he'll put in a question mark for you! Assuming you're making a statement, he's always right there with the period (you're trying to teach someone from the UK - changed "period" to "full stop") you need. What if you're surprised or excited? There's an exclamation mark with your name on it. (exclamation marks are often considered as lazy. What about the rhetorical question mark? Sure, it's rarely used, but when in Rome) What's really amazing though? When these five unassuming parts of speech come together, they form the mighty lexical juggernaut, WELL-FORMED SENTENCE!!! Even better though, is that they want to be YOUR friends! Get to know them, okay? |
