Quoted from Old Time Wesley What is the difference between it's and its or is their one?

It's stands for it is just like you said. Its is possessive.

This thing is great. I finally learned the difference between affect and effect. Apparently I have a British touch to my writing as well since I tend to use towards instead of toward.

Quoted from Old Time Wesley What is the difference between it's and its or is their one? I've always just used it's if it means it is and its when it's doesn't make sense. Ms Words grammar check always says to change it's to its and its to it's so it really confuses matters.

MS Word has no idea what it's talking about most of the time with grammar. Its dictionaries appear to be very limited in what it can actually decipher. While I sometimes take its suggestions, it's usually wrong, so I usually have my mouse cursor trained on its correction window's "ignore" button.

This has been not only a Word commentary, but also a big example of how to correctly use "its" versus "it's". James' explanation above is absolutely correct.

As for me, I grew up in Oklahoma watching Doctor Who and Fawlty Towers on PBS, so my English has been an American/English cross forever.

Where I work about 80 percent of the customers are black, and I hear a lot of the ebonics. I've come to understand a lot of it, but sometimes a new piece of slang is thrown at me that I don't understand so I just smile and hope that it's nice. I must have looked pretty stupid one time because a guy said, "She's cute" referring to me when I was smiling at something I didn't understand. Oh well...    

Dang! Why do I always end up tell a story? It must be an age thing. Sorry...

Anyway, I use "toward" instead of "towards". LOL

Cindy

What's the difference between a comma and a semicolon? Like always MS Word tells me to put a semicolon where my commas are.

It basically says to only use a comma when the word then or and comes after it. And for everything else it says to use a semicolon but it also says to use a semicolon for and then which confuses the whole thing.

I read an article saying the basic art of getting it right is the semicolon should be used when connecting different sentances and the comma for similar ones.

You know they never taught this in school, I honestly never seen a semicolon until I started using computers.

i try not to fret about it too much. my MS Word processor does most of the clean up...if theres anything left... well its really not worth fretting about.. as long as its not a complete mess...im good. its the story that counts

Quoted from Herodreamer79 i try not to fret about it too much. my MS Word processor does most of the clean up...if theres anything left... well its really not worth fretting about.. as long as its not a complete mess...im good. its the story that counts

This is the excuse writers with poor spelling/grammar skills always use to justify their poor skills. The excuses why grammar is irrelevant are many:

1) It’s the story that’s important.

Yes, and that’s why one would think that it would be important for you to convey it in a well communicated way so that readers could fully grasp your meaning and intent.

2) I’ll proofread it later.

Okay. Hope you get rereads.

3) I don’t have spell check.

Spell check can’t check the correct spelling of a word that is used in the incorrect context. And grammar check (which is far less used than spell check) can’t be expected to catch everything. The spell and grammar check functions on the programs are intended to be used as tools, not excuses for illiteracy. A writer who doesn’t care about spelling and grammar is like a musician who refuses to use chords. Sure you can still put notes progressively together but you’ll never produce the full sound.

I’ll never understand these writers who think spelling and grammar aren’t important.


Wesley,

According to Cliffs Quick Review on Writing: Grammar, Usage, and Style, people have more questions about the comma than any other punctuation mark. In fact, the comma is a subject of debate among editors. The comma can easily be correctly used to the point of annoyance and disruption. The trend is toward trying to keep them down.


Some common usages of commas are listing and after introductory clauses or phrases.

Example, Listing:

I need a 35 mm camera, film, a crane, a helicopter, a dolly, a crew, actors, etc.

After an introductory clause:

To make my movie, I’m going to need all the things I just listed.


Generally, the semicolon is used to join independent clauses that are closely related. For example:

I watched “V for Vendetta” last night; now I’m in love with Hugo Weaving.

Semicolons are also commonly used to list instead of a comma when the items listed have commas in them. For example:

The film crew included Wesley, the writer; George, the director; Greg, the director of photography; and Mike Shelton, world renowned Karaoke singer.

Sentences separated by a semicolon should be related. Semicolons should never be used for sentence fragments. Also (and I’m guilty of this), semicolons should always be outside quotation marks.


The colon is generally used to introduce lists, as I’ve done throughout this post. It’s also used to introduce a quote or an explanation.

Example, quote introduction:

Keep this in mind: anything worth doing is worth doing right.

Explanation introduction:

It’s not a good idea to get drunk when you’re wearing high heels: it greatly increases the odds that you’ll fall down the stairs.

And of course, the colon has the famous usages of notating time (3:00 a.m.) and separating volumes of works (Mathew 21:21).


Of course, these are just a few of many usages. The truth is that they are all very closely related and that often the usages are interchangeable. I’m just discussing some of the more prominent usages. I hope this helps in some way. I may not be the best explainer.


Brea

Thanks Breanne, I appreciate your insight on the subject matter. The only way to fix problems is to ask, I'll probably butcher then/than until the end of time but at least I've learned a few new things.

Quoted from Breanne Mattson This is the excuse writers with poor spelling/grammar skills always use to justify their poor skills. The excuses why grammar is irrelevant are many: 1) It’s the story that’s important. 2) I’ll proofread it later. 3) I don’t have spell check.

so ive got my excuse, whats everyone elses?

Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers occur in a word.  The olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae.  The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh?

It is, I didn't notice that was screwed up until it said it ha-ha

Quoted from Herodreamer79 i try not to fret about it too much. my MS Word processor does most of the clean up...if theres anything left... well its really not worth fretting about.. as long as its not a complete mess...im good. its the story that counts

I get picky when I'm typing fast and a read line appears. However I've come up with a theory while recently. I think that when writers used type writers a lot of care into the work. Making a mistake is a biznitch and if you want to make a copy you have to put a peice of carbon paper behind the paper and then tissue paper behind that.

But with all that on the line, you have to think about what you're going to write. You have to think about where the conversations going to lead. Well I tried using an old type writer for my garage, for an essay I had in school. And I have to say I wrote a lot better than I did on a computer.

I'm going to try typing a screenplay on a typewriter one of these days. And see what effect it has on my writing.

Takeshi,

Thanks for the additional info.

Quoted from Herodreamer79 so ive got my excuse, whats everyone elses?

Hero,

My point, which you evidently didn’t get, is that you in fact cannot care about the story if you do not care about spelling/grammar. They are interconnected. You probably didn’t get it because you evidently don’t believe in grasping anything that you don’t like to read (as evidenced by the fact that you quote me in bold while deliberately cutting out the explanation of my point.)

The point is that your story is best told with both a good story and good spelling/grammar. Writers like you, who don’t think it’s important, are lazy writers. If you’re too lazy to care to tell your story in the best way to communicate it because it’s too much work, then one can assume your story suffers from the same laziness.

Good writing means both good storytelling as well as good communication skills. The two cannot be separated.

Get it now?

Quoted from Breanne Mattson Takeshi, Thanks for the additional info. Hero, My point, which you evidently didn?t get, is that you in fact cannot care about the story if you do not care about spelling/grammar. They are interconnected. You probably didn?t get it because you evidently don?t believe in grasping anything that you don?t like to read (as evidenced by the fact that you quote me in bold while deliberately cutting out the explanation of my point.) The point is that your story is best told with both a good story and good spelling/grammar. Writers like you, who don?t think it?s important, are lazy writers. If you?re too lazy to care to tell your story in the best way to communicate it because it?s too much work, then one can assume your story suffers from the same laziness. Good writing means both good storytelling as well as good communication skills. The two cannot be separated. Get it now?

yeah breanne i got your point.. and you missed my punchline...

and you also missed the fact that i said my word processor cleans up most of my mess...probably 90 to 95%....

whatever is left really isnt a big deal to most readers... so i miss a then/than once in a while.... when you read your own work a lot of the time you dont pick up on that stuff..other people who read it do... and when they point that out i happily fix it...

but whats usually left isnt a big deal....

OKAY???

sometimes on this board i wonder if some of you people should look up the word SARCASM....yeesh

Quoted from Takeshi Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers occur in a word.  The olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae.  The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh?

haha my case and point....



oh wait.. is this what they call a double post?  

Takeshi, I've awlyas getotn a kcik out of taht eiaml. Wreid how the hmaun mnid wrkos smeteimos.

And Hero, I consider one of the greatest compliments I can get on any script is "And I didn't find a single typo." I personally put great care into ensuring that not only is my spelling and grammar basically correct, but also making sure that those pesky homophones are weeded out and other stuff that MS Word is not going to catch. Attention to detail is a big positive trait in any industry. Screenwriting is no different.