Young Writers Society

Fortunately, YWS does not have a problem with chat-speak. We also have a lot better grammar here than most internet sites. In fact, the grammar on display on most of the political blogs I read is absolutely abhorrent. And many of those commentators work on Capitol Hill.

But YWS isn't a political site or a tech site or a gaming site. It's a writing site. As such, everyone should try to use good grammar. As I've said before, we're not crazy enough to ask for perfect grammar, but we do want to see that you're trying.

To catch mistakes, just read over your post once before clicking submit. When you're reviewing, you owe that to the author. When you're just making a post, then you owe it to yourself. After all, people will take you a lot more seriously when you write well.

For sure. I feel like if there are several mistakes in someone's critique, I almost feel obligated to ignore it. If you can't be serious about such a small thing as grammar, then how can you be serious about something as large as content? After all, we are a writing site. Proper grammar ought to be a given.

I completely agree. Seeing somebody use minimal to no grammar makes me want to turn away.

Can I "like" this thread more than once?

This should go without saying, but also try to work on grammar in your works. If you're not capitalizing words and have gotten rid of grammar because you're writing that in a rush of creativity, wait until that rush is over, look at the work, and fix the grammar as best you can. You'll certainly get more reviews as a result. I know that if the grammar is bad in a story, all the writer is getting from me is a grammar review.

YWS has trained me well. Wherever or whenever I meet someone using poor grammar, I automatically have a lesser respect for them. (That makes sense, ja?) It's not that difficult to hold down the shift key when pressing 'I' or clicking the apostrophe key. If you can put five hundred exclamation points at the end of every sentence, I'm more than willing to bet that the apostrophe key isn't too much of a burden.

i hate that to zomg its so anoying who culd live wit demseves ater doin that??

(Snoink has taught me well. )

I accidentally have a bad habit of being grammar-deficient.

Though, I do think I've improved.

The way I look at it is that when most people first join, they're used to simply not following grammatical conventions when on the internet. So when they first join YWS, they don't really expect to use good grammar, and that's a pretty reasonable expectation all things considered.

Yet, one quickly learns that's not how YWS operates. They also learn that if you write like your eight years old, then you're going to be treated like your eight years old. It's not something anyone does consciously, but with only words and text to judge you by, it's what inevitably happens.

So after just two weeks on the site, you can usually notice a huge difference in the way one writers. After six months, the difference is incredible - especially in regards to short stories & poems. And the way it happens is not by any directive from up top, but rather from the demeanor of those who have been here for some time.

Nate wrote:like your eight years old.

*You're

in the way one writers.

*writes


Can only assume it was intentional.

I was always that person who typed with perfect grammar because I am a writer. When I found YWS and saw that it was a rule, I nearly cried with joy.

Good times.(please note the date on this though)

Can I *like* this thread, twice?

I have weird commas. I don't know why? I just have really weird commas in my writing xD

Kamas wrote:Good times.(please note the date on this though)

Woah, Kamas.

There need to be more places like YWS, even in the world outside the internet. I was reading over a friend of mine's school paper (from high school, no less) and was weeping inside.

We don't expect perfection. We just want you to be as close as possible to perfection, or else we'll stab you.

Gry...

From what I can tell, the main rules followed are spelling, caps, and homonyms being right (It's/its, there/their/they're).

If anybody wants a brush-up on general punctuation, check out the Grammar Section of the Knowledge Base.

From what I can tell, the main rules followed are spelling, caps, and homonyms being right (It's/its, there/their/they're).

Not doing this would make me weep inside, anyway. xD