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[Immz]

After work, I'm up for the challenge.

HELLO, HELLO, TEAM MATE YOU SPOKE I CAN'T HEAR A THING. I JUST JOINED INTO THIS GAME TO PLAY, YOU SEE, SEE.

[Darth Betty]

what, what whhhaattt did you say, your mics lagging on me
sorry I cannot hear you, connections shitty.

connections shitty
connections shitty
et cetera et cetera

[IronStomach]

I can has words plz? Common grammatical corrections

1. It's versus Its
http://homestarrunner.com/sbemail89.html

Say it with me, everyone: "It's" is a contraction, a blending together of two words, which in this case are "it is." For example:

• "It's 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses."

Here, it is 106 miles to Chicago, and it is also dark. By contrast, "Its" indicates a posessive, something belonging to something else.

• "In order to maintain air-speed velocity, a swallow needs to beat its wings forty-three times every second, right?"

In this case, "its wings" are wings that belong to something, in this case a European Swallow.


2. Possessive forms

Now, here's the tricky part: possessive forms in English also use an apostrophe (followed in most cases by an s).

• Correct: "That is Zoey's shotgun."
• Correct: "Louis' shirt is dirty."
• Incorrect: "Well, maybe we'd win if Bills fat head got out of the way!"

For nouns ending in an s, the possessive apostrophe comes after with no additional s, as in Louis' shirt.


3. Their, to, lies the problem.
(...note: the above title is using both their and to incorrectly. For humorous effect, but since this is a guide on grammar, let's not confuse people.)

Homophones often make speech simpler, but can cause problems in writing. Here are three relatively self-explanatory examples that are easy to mix up.

A. Their, They're, There.

It's really very simple.

• Their: Posessive pronoun, indicating that something belongs to Them.
• They're: They are. A contraction used for ease of speech.
• There: Adverb indicating a location.

B. To, too, two
Similarly, it's easy to pick one of these at random when you hear them in your head, but do try to pay attention.

• To: Preposition expressing motion or bounds of movement, as well as purpose and intention; "I needed to go to the store to buy some more grenades."
• Too: Adverb meaning also, or to an excessive degree; "But that's far too many grenades! How many do you think we need?"
• Two: A number more than one and less than three. "They had a two for one special!"

4. (Semi)colons

Colons are either used to introduce a list of items, or to introduce an explanation of something. Semicolons are a little like colons, but are used to join two independent ideas in a non-specific way. If you're not sure what the distinction is, or if you're not sure whether to use a colon or semicolon, err on the side of colons.


5. Sentence Structure

Unlike rules of grammar, style is a much more subjective element of the writing process. But if your writing is easy to understand, it makes reading it a much more easy and enjoyable process. Here are a few suggestions geared towards writing gaming reviews and articles:

A. Commas

This is by far the most time-consuming of any corrections I do, so listen up. Commas are used to break up separate ideas in sentences. If you're giving an example, changing the order of your sentence, or naming items in a list (see what I did there?), you need commas. For example:

• "Even though we made it over the hill there still wasn't any chance of making it down not with a wounded gunner broken humvee and two mags left."

It's not fun for any editor to play pin the comma on the donkey, so figure out where the different ideas are in your sentence as you're writing it and break it up as you go, like so:

• "Even though we made it over the hill, (this is relocated from later on in the sentence, and so needs a comma) there still wasn't any chance of making it down, (here's the end of the root sentence structure) not with a wounded gunner, broken humvee, and two mags left (the jury's out on whether you need the Oxford comma at the end of a list, but I always include it for clarity)."

B. Conjunctions

Here's a short paragraph containing a few key ideas:

• Conjunctions are important. They make sentences flow better. They aren't necessary all the time. They help ease things along. Overuse can clutter your writing. It helps if you think in paragraphs, not individual sentences. One. After. The other.

Boring, right? Now try the same thing, but with the magic of conjunctions!

• Conjunctions are important, in that they make sentences flow better. They certainly aren't necessary all the time, but they do help ease things along. Overuse can even clutter your writing, if you're not careful. It helps if you think in paragraphs, not just individual sentences one after the other.

Oh, and use a spell-check.