Grammatical rules for Forum Posts?

Posted by: Shayman on 05 January 2006

A few grammatical tips which should be followed whilst posting on the forum.....

1. Verbs HAS to agree with their subjects.
2. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
3. And don't start a sentence with a conjunction.
4. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
5. Avoid cliches like the plague. (They're old hat)
6. Also, always avoid annoying alliteration.
7. Be more or less specific.
8. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are (usually) unnecessary.
9. Also too, never, ever use repetitive redundancies.
10. No sentence fragments.
11. Contractions aren't necessary and shouldn't be used.
12. Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.
13. Do not be redundant; do not use more words than necessary; it's highly superfluous.
14. One should NEVER generalize.
15. Comparisons are as bad as cliches.
16. Don't use no double negatives.
17. Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
18. One-word sentences? Eliminate.
19. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
20. The passive voice is to be ignored.
21. Eliminate commas, that are, not necessary. Parenthetical words however should be enclosed in commas.
22. Never use a big word when a diminutive one would suffice.
23. Kill all exclamation points!!!
24. Use words correctly, irregardless of how others use them.
25. Understatement is always the absolute best way to put forth earth shaking ideas.
26. Use the apostrophe in it's proper place and omit it when its not needed.
27. Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "I hate quotations.Tell me what you know."
28. If you've heard it once, you've heard it a thousand times: Resist hyperbole; not one writer in a million can use it correctly.
29. Puns are for children, not groan readers.
30. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
31. Even IF a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.
32. Who needs rhetorical questions?
33. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.
And finally...
34. Proofread carefully see if you any words out, or made any spilling
Posted on: 05 January 2006 by Polarbear
Do you really think us uneducated people are going to follow that lot?
Posted on: 05 January 2006 by JeremyD
LOL. Smile

But I am happy to boldly split infinitives, start sentences with conjunctions, end sentences with prepositions and write one word sentences; and I can't help words out. Also sentence fragments. Really.
Posted on: 05 January 2006 by Shayman
My fave was

30. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms

Winker

Jonathan
Posted on: 05 January 2006 by Guido Fawkes
Smile Brilliant
Posted on: 05 January 2006 by Roy T
Long live Linguo!
Posted on: 05 January 2006 by Gianluigi Mazzorana
quote:
Originally posted by Shayman:
A few grammatical tips which should be followed whilst posting on the forum.....



I like english and try my best to write and speak it properly.
I must say that sometimes it's very hard to understan some posts, but i do understand that colloquial english can be different than the school one.
A sort of dialect?
Posted on: 05 January 2006 by Geoff P
For those not familiar with english in detail it may not be obvious that Johnathan has cleverly worded a lot his rules in such a way as to break the very rule they are describing.

As a "toungue in cheek" piece of work it is quite clever.

regards
Geoff
Posted on: 05 January 2006 by hungryhalibut
quote:
As a "toungue in cheek" piece of work it is quite clever


Which is a fine example of damning with faint praise..........

Nigel
Posted on: 05 January 2006 by graham55
....and also a misspelling of "tongue"........
Posted on: 05 January 2006 by BigH47
What's that noize ? It's grammer nazis on the warpath i think.

Howard Roll Eyes Razz
Posted on: 05 January 2006 by Lomo
Number 11 hurts.
Posted on: 06 January 2006 by Shayman
I must point out that I should take no credit for this list. It came round our office as a circular e-mail and I just thought it particularly applicable to the forum, owing to the constant interjections by the Grammar Police (myself included).

Jonathan
Posted on: 06 January 2006 by Gianluigi Mazzorana
quote:
It came round our office as a circular e-mail
Jonathan



Where i work a lot of people use the intranet to spread porno movies.
Some of them have an entire collection on company servers.
Posted on: 06 January 2006 by Derek Wright
There is one missing commandment

all threads related to football should include the words "Boring football thread" in the Thread subject so that innocent passersby do not waste bandwidth opening the thread.
Posted on: 06 January 2006 by Shayman
I must admit I've got a secret stash of grammatical usage files and documents on my works system. The shame if I ever got found out Red Face

Jonathan
Posted on: 06 January 2006 by JonR
quote:
Originally posted by Derek Wright:
There is one missing commandment

all threads related to football should include the words "Boring football thread" in the Thread subject so that innocent passersby do not waste bandwidth opening the thread.


Hear-bloody-hear!
Posted on: 06 January 2006 by Nime
Picking on someone's grammar is the final resort when you really cant find anything rude or funny to say about their post, or their online personality, but sorely feel the need to respond somehow. I blame the serious lack of smilies for such "below-the-belt" attacks. Winker
Posted on: 06 January 2006 by Stephen Bennett
quote:
Originally posted by Nime:
Picking on someone's grammar is the final resort


You can't pick on my Grammar -she died when I was a kid.

Winker

Stephen
Posted on: 06 January 2006 by Nime
They must have been related. Mine died too! Eek