Ahem, I've been noticing a quite a few stories with the same simple 
mistakes.  They aren't that big, but it's a little tiring to see them 
time after time.  How old are we, people?  I'm guessing at the youngest, 
9 years old.

  Now, it's just a minor pet peeve, so I'm going to lay it down here and 
now.  Spelling, Capitalization and Punctuation.

  Examples of WRONG sentences: "Hey, Akane, this is you're fault!"
                               "Your it!"
                               "baka!"
                               "Your fool!"
                               "Its him!"
                               "Here you are!!!!!!!!"
                               "GET HIM."

 Wrong - "Hey, Akane, this is you're fault!"
 Correction - *you're* is the wrong kind.  *Your* is better.  *You're* 
is for a conjunction for *you are*.  It should not be used in this 
sentence.
 Right - "Hey, Akane, this is YOUR fault!"

 Wrong - "Your it"
 Correction - *your* is wrong.  *your* is for ownership.  *You're* works 
here.  Or better yet, just spell out *You are*.  It may seem a bit 
lengthy, but at least you know it's the right one.
 Right - "You're it!"

 Wrong - "baka!"
 Correction - Capitalization of the *b* at the beginning of the 
sentence.
 Right - "Baka!" 

 Wrong - "Your fool!"
 Correction - An additional letter.  It's easy to hit an extra key, but 
if this happens a lot, you should slow down.  Possible fans will enjoy 
your stories more if they don't have to keep wondering if there's a 
missing word.
 Right - "You fool!"

 Wrong - "Its him!"
 Correction - Okay, this needs an *'* between the *t* and the *s*.  
Otherwise, hentais will use their minds in overtime and laugh.
 Right - "It's him!"

 Wrong - "Here you are!!!!!!!!"
 Correction - Too many *!*s.  Unless these people are screaming, 
shrieking or bellowing, you only need maybe one or two.
 Right - "Here you are!"

 Wrong - "GET HIM."
 Correction - If the rest of the words are capitalized, except in cases 
where you're trying to have someone with a booming voice and this is how 
they normally talk, you should put an *!* where the *.* is.
 Right - "GET HIM!"

 Now, I know that most of us passed English with straight As, but 
sometimes, I read a good story that's bogged down with bad spelling and 
such.  This gets in the way.  Sorry for the rant, but when I see people 
who start fanfiction series and don't even know basic spelling and such, 
it's quite embarrassing.  I spend more time trying to figure out who's 
saying what.

Ben McCrillis
reply at akun15@hotmail.com

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