Grammar tips

[IBBoard]

This is meant as helpful information, and not as an insult or anything to anyone. I'm a stickler for detail, so before I've been uploading stories recently, I've been reading them and checking for grammar and spelling errors. The following are just some useful points that have popped up

• Attributed speech (e.g. 'he said', 'they yelled' etc - things where the person's action is a form of speech) should follow a comma at the end of the speech. i.e. it's:
  

  "My name is Giddeon," he said.

  
  and not
  

  "My name is Giddeon." He said.

  
  The second one leaves 'he said' as a sentence of two words that doesn't work on its own.
  The same applies to quotation marks and exclamation marks followed by things like 'he said' as well. Although it would normally be a sentence ending punctuation mark, it isn't with attributed speech.
  
  Note, though, that non-speech actions should leave speech ending with a fullstop, e.g.
  

  "He was known as Giddeon." He rubbed his hands together involuntarily as the memories flowed back to him.

  
  
• Make sure that you use commas to separate long sections of description - partly to break it up instead of being in one long breath, but partly to add clarity. Just to borrow an example of 'comma clarity' from Brannick:
  

  The giant Bloodthirster gestured towards two smaller daemons that swooped over the three marines carrying a large bronze slab.

  
  is ambiguous. Is it the three Marines that are carrying the bronze slab, or is it the daemons? A comma after the word 'marines' clarifies it.
  

  The giant Bloodthirster gestured towards two smaller daemons that swooped over the three Marines, carrying a large bronze slab.

  
  
• If a sentence is getting particularly long and unwieldy, try breaking it down into a number of smaller sentences. Don't try to describe lots of slightly related things in one sentence and get a huge sentence. Instead, use a number of small sentences to describe all of the sub-areas of the scene.

Hopefully those points should be useful and help people improve their FanFiction And now to go and partly blame my fiancee and her beta reading website for making me pick up on even more of those errors than I used to

[IBBoard]

Thanks to Angron of Warvault.net for the following alternate explanation of 'attributed speech':

As a rule I 'commarise'
(Yeah, I can make up words) the end of speech, if it's leading on to a
description on how the speech actually transpires.

Also, as an additional point:

• When giving orders or directing speech at a person, you should put a comma before or after their name or title. For example, it should be:
  

  "Draco, take the ridge," commanded Halnus.

  
  or
  

  "You should watch them, Sergeant."

  
  The same also applies to any group naming, for exampled 'brothers' when refering to a group of Space Marines

I'll add more when I think of them - yell if it doesn't make sense and I'll try to make it clearer

[Simguinus]

When listing large numbers of things, people or objects, it's best to use a colon; especially if you're planning on a long list.

Example:

The forces of the Imperium were arrayed before them: Blood Angels, Astral Claws, Space Wolves, Cadian Shock Troops, Adeptus Arbites Judges, Sisters of Battle.

Bonus marks for anyone who can spot the mistake in that sentence....

[IBBoard]

Astral Claws aren't forces of the Imperium - they were, but now they're a traitor legion

*looks up on Google to check* Yep, now the Red Corsairs

[IBBoard]

Another pointer on the 'attributed speech' - the first point in the thread applies even if the sentence ends with an exclamation mark. If the text after the speech is a description of how it was said (e.g. "he said", "he retorted", "he whispered, while stroking his bolter") then the following text should not be capitalised, as if it had followed a comma.

As an example, it should be:

"Charge!" he yelled.

and not

"Charge!" He yelled.

since "He yelled" is not a complete sentence in the second instance.

[IBBoard]

Commas are awkward things. A good description (starting with "everything you've been told about 'use it where you pause' is wrong") is available here.

Listing commas have already been mentioned. The other common one that adds clarity is the "bracketing comma".

If a section of a sentence is optional (such as some uses of "however") or a "weak interruption" then it is normally surrounded by commas - e.g.

The Space Marines stormed the building. The Imperial Guard, however, cowered at the back of the battle field.

this also reads correctly without the "however" as

The Imperial Guard cowered at the back of the battle field.

Or:

He groped for his sword in the dark and, upon finding it, swung it at the lurking darkness.

which still makes sense as

He groped for his sword in the dark and swung it at the lurking darkness.

because the fact that he found it is implied.

Another common mistake: it's - short for "it is" as in "it's the red one", its - breaks the rule of "apostrophe s" for possessives and means "owned by it" (whatever "it" may be).