Originally written by sinaddict, edited by herowlness:

There's really no excuse for bad spelling with the advent of the spell-check, and most grammar problems can be solved with grammar checker in Microsoft word processors.

Not only do grammar and spelling mistakes distract readers from your story, they look incredibly amateurish. We all learn the basic rules of the English language by sixth or seventh grade. Understandably, those who have learned English as a second language may have a bit more difficulty picking up the intricacies of the language, but this is an excellent example of where having a beta that is strong in grammar and spelling can really be an asset to your writing.

By no means is this article supposed to be a course in grammar or anything; it's simply a reminder of the basic rules that you'll probably need to know at some point in your life, particularly if you want your story to be widely read and recommended. After all, nothing gets me hitting the back button on my browser quicker than seeing a plethora of spelling and grammar errors within the first paragraph or two of the fic.

The article is broken up into the following sections to keep this page shorter, and to give you a chance to brush up on whatever you're having problems with, without making you search through one really long page for it.

01. ( CAPITALIZATION )

02. ( ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS )

03. ( TENSE SHIFTS )

04. PUNCTUATION
a. ( Ending Sentences )
b. ( Commas and Semi-Colons )
c. ( Parentheses and Asides  )
d. ( Ellipses and Dashes )
e. ( Apostrophes and Hyphens )

05. ( SUBJECT AND VERB AGREEMENT )

06. ( RUN-ONS AND FRAGMENTS )

07. ( QUOTING AND DIALOGUE )

08. ( ''SAID'' AND DIALOGUE TAGS )

If you have any questions or need clarification, feel free to ask.

Still to come? Lesson number nine - Homonyms and misused words. Hoo boy, do I have a whole slew of them to write up.

( List of words that will be included - if you have any others that you think should be added, please let me know! )