Part 1: Punctuation.
Part 2: Improvement of roleplay and how to write good applications and stories
Hello there, folks.
Well if you want to look professional in your sentence's forming and if you missed a lot of English classes, look here.
Lately, I encountered some players who don't know how to use punctuation and it's a big problem because it changes the meaning of your sentence, and that shows that you're not capable of roleplaying etc.
Introduction:
The punctuation is one of the most important basics of English, and all languages that's why you have to use them in your roleplaying to look more professional and other, so this guide is here to help you and the usage of each one, also I'll add some of English basics for the minor English skills and that needs improvement.
Why do we use punctuation?
Well punctuation might have some effect on the meaning of the sentence, so it's important to use them either in your roleplaying or in any message, letter in your life.
I'll write some sentences with punctuation and I'll try to add most of the punctuation needed, and I'll re-write it without punctuation so you can see the difference.
"
Gregory found his sources of happiness cooking his family and his pet"
"
Gregory found his sources of happiness: cooking, his family and his pet."
In this example, the comma changed the whole meaning.
Without punctuation, the meaning is Gregory loves cooking his family and his pet, Gregory sounds like a cannibal!
With punctuation, the meaning is Gregory loves cooking and he loves his family and he loves his pet, Gregory is sweet and adorable.
"
Let's eat dad"
"
Let's eat, dad"
The comma changed the whole meaning, in the first sentence, you're talking like a cannibal who wants to eat his father, but in the second one you're inviting your dad for some food.
"
Your donation just helped someone get a job."
"
Your donation just helped someone. Get a job."
The first sentence, you're telling an individual that his donation just got someone a job, you're generous and kind!
The second sentence, you're telling an individual that his donation helped someone, and he should get a job.
"
I love you."
"
I love you!"
"
I love you?"
You can conclude the meaning by yourself here.
So we can conclude that punctuation can deliver diverse meanings of a sentence, and here's the usage of each one:
- The comma ","
- The comma is used to separate a lot of items in a sentence OR writing a lot of adjectives in one sentence, because you cannot more than an "and" in a sentence.
For example: I ate some rice, meat, chicken, salad, juice and a dessert.
- Also it's used to pause before proceeding, it's not necessary but it's a relief for the reader, to organize your sentence.
For example: The boy saw his mother coming, he ran to open the door.
- It's used to describe the first part of the sentence, like if you want to add a description for what you said, you add a comma and proceed.
For example: This man looks professional, he holds a leather briefcase and wearing a nice toxido.
- The fullstop "."
- The fullstop is used to end a full sentence, having all the meanings you need and if you want to write a new sentence with new concept, also when the reader sees it, he feels that that the sentence is neutral, no emotions in it.
For example: I'm attending to a party tomorrow at 6 PM.
Note:If you're saying a normal sentence, it's required to put at the end of the sentence to organize your sentence.
- The colon ":"
- It's most used for listing some a lot of elements or items.
For example: She placed the following things in the drawer: a pencil, a ruler, a gun and a book.
- Also it's used to precise a saying, a quote or giving an example.
For example: Gregory said: "We must be more professional."
- The speech marks " "..." "
- It's used to indicate a saying along with the colon, like in the example above.
- Also in some roleplay occasions, it points indicates a referring word in the sentence, or for sarcasm on a specified word.
For example: Are you interested in my "stuff"?
The individual said "stuff", if we removed the speech marks, the word loses its suspicions.
So when he said stuff, the reader/listener searched for other meanings of this word.
How to place the punctuation in a sentence?
Well to look more organized and more professional, there's a sequence you must follow to use the punctuation correctly.
You place the comma/fullstop/colon/exclamation mark/question mark without leaving a space between it and the part before it.
For example:
Let's eat ,dad. -
WRONG-
Let's eat , dad. -
WRONG-
Let's eat, dad. -
CORRECT-
Same goes for the rest.
Where to put capitals?
The capital must be at the first of any sentence or after a fullstop.
Capitalizing your whole sentence is the most annoying things the reader could see.
For example: Our team won the match yesterday. The match was fun to attend. -
CORRECT-
Our Team Won The Match Yesterday. -
WRONG-
Some few exceptions:
- The pronoun I, it must be capital at any part of the sentence.
- Countries, names, languages and nationalities.
- Shortened names like: USA, UAE, KSA, UK etc.
Why is this important?
It's important because some of the players aren't capable of forming proper ordered sentences, that are hard to understand during the roleplay, so this should be helpful for them
I hope this was useful for whoever is encountering a difficulty in forming sentences.
Welcome to part 2 of my guide, I hope part 1 was useful enough for you!
Part 2 is mainly talking about how to
improve your roleplay.
Well first of all for a quick reminder,
what's roleplay?
Roleplay is acting a character like in a piece of theater, you choose how it appears, how it reacts and it's philosophy.
So mainly to improve your roleplay:
1-You must be creative and open minded, and you must know that this is a piece of acting, this isn't real life, so any offence IC shouldn't be taken personally.
2-You must have good English in-order to know how to explain your act precisely. Easy ways to improve your English: Read books, watch movies, or playing video games.
3-When explaining your act, add a lot of adjectives to be more precise in-order to make it easier when roleplaying with other parties, as long you're exaggerating and making yourself a superman or giving yourself abnormal powers.
4-In a /me, the verbs' tense is usually in the present continuous or present simple, this is a basic and the most simple form the /me, you can modify it as long as you're making your sentence comprehensive.
5-In a /do, the verbs' is usually present perfect or past perfect, also this is a basic and the most simple form of the /do, you can modify it as long as you're making your sentence comprehensive.
6-When roleplaying with someone, try to decrease the amount of actions in a /me or a /do, to give them the chance to roleplay with you and give you a response on your actions.
7-Keep it realistic, and try to find more than a way in your roleplay to avoid a gunfight, roleplaying a psycho is not tolerated.
Also roleplaying isn't the /me's and /do's only, it's wider than that.
IC applications are roleplay too (weapon license/job center's applications/SAPD's application)
Also writing a story for your character and a story of a crew you're forming is roleplay too.
So to make a good application to write a good story, you have to follow the following sequence to make it better and to have higher chances to achieve your goal:
1-Form paragraphs. Most paragraphs have only one idea or concept, you're talking about a specific thing in your paragraph, so if you want to talk about another idea or concept, form another paragraph to make your article clearer and more ordered.
2-To make your article rich, add more adjectives and write more detailed information about the main idea your talking about in a paragraph.
3-Make sure you're using punctuation to make your article more comprehensive and more ordered.
4-The verbs in each sentence or paragraph must be at a specific time, in a basic form.
5-The first paragraph (The introduction) is a quick summary of the article you're writing about. You have to sum up the ideas inside in the introduction in 2 or 3 lines, the introduction is the most important part of the story, it's the key that drags the reader's emotions and to tune his mood to your story, it must be nicely written and you don't have to put all your ideas in, you have to keep some as surprises in your main story.
6-The last paragraph must have a smaller and last summary, and the result and the current state of the mentioned in your article.
7-Try not to lose the main subject in your paragraphs.
How is this helpful?
Well this is helpful for whoever tries to improve himself and his roleplay in the server, it helps people in their applications and whoever trying to achieve good things in the server.
I hope this was helpful for all of you, newbies and veterans.