Your "You're" is Lacking...

[Django]

Since this is an intermediate role-play, I'd like to help everyone here write at this level. I know excellent grammar and spelling isn't always needed, especially in the general board and Cbox, but it is helpful and greatly appreciated in your posts. This may have been done before, but I am a huge Grammar Policewoman.

So, first things first. Contractions versus possessives.

Your = 'This belongs to you. It does not belong to me.'
You're = The contraction for 'You are'

There = 'Not here, but there.'
Their = 'This belongs to them.'
They're = The contraction for 'They are'

There's = The contraction for 'There is'
Theirs = Similar to 'their', but can stand alone. 'This is theirs. It belongs to them.'

Whose = 'This belongs to who.' Used in questions.
Who's = The contraction for 'Who is'

It's = The contraction for 'It is'
Its = 'This belongs to it.'

Were = The past tense of 'was'
We're = The contraction for 'we are'

PLEASE, PLEASE , PLEASE DO NOT FORGET ABOUT APOSTROPHES! THEY DO NOT ALWAYS MEAN POSSESSIVE! FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THIS POINT, POST IN THIS THREAD, AND I WILL TRY TO EXPLAIN AS BEST I CAN!

Secondly, sentence lengths. This isn't a big one, and if it's too nit-picky for you, don't worry about it too much.

If a clause (group of words) has a subject and a verb and can stand alone, it is a complete sentence.

Examples: Jan loved Alne. She did not love him back.

Those are two separate simple sentences. They can stand by themselves without sounding awkward. They can also be joined by a conjunction.

Jan loved Alne, but she did not love him back.

They MUST be joined by a conjunction, not just a comma, otherwise it is a run-on sentence, like so.

Jan loved Alne, she did not love him back.

I realize this is usually done for emphasis, but your English teacher/professor and programs like Microsoft Word would hate your guts for something like this.
If you really want to add emphasis, separate the sentences into two simple ones like the first example.
If you absolutely HAVE to use a comma to separate these ideas, either use a conjunction, or write it something like this.

Having always loved Alne, Jan was brokenhearted when he found out she did not love him back.

See? You have just turned 'Jan loved Alne' into a fragment. It now reads (by itself) 'Having always loved Alne...' which cannot stand alone. It is no longer a sentence.

As I've said, this isn't a huge problem, and commas and fragments for emphasis are ok on RP sites. I just felt I had to mention it, since this is a grammar lesson.

Also, capitalization. Basic rules are as follows:

Capitalize the first word of a sentence. Ex: This one is pretty self-explanatory.
Capitalize proper nouns like names, places, etc. Ex: Django, Skipper, Redwall, etc.
Capitalize names of months, days, etc. Ex: Tuesday, January, Christmas Day, etc.

If there are any other points I should expand on, please let me know, and I will add to my lesson. This was all I had the energy for at the moment. Also, I didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings or call anyone out, I just wanted to point out these few things. Since they are some of the most common errors on the Internet.

If you have any questions, post to this thread, and I will answer to the best of my abilities.

[lorki]

Oh, Django, if there was a like button for this I would click it.

[Django]

Haha, thanks, Lorki! Like I said, I just wanted everyone to be writing at intermediate level, since that is the level of this site. Anything you think I should add?

[Nagini]

This thread is made of win.

[Django]

Thanks, Nagini! Think I need to add anything?

[Nagini]

I'll say it's fine for now, although I could easily see this thing turning into a giant grammar thread, which could be quite awesome.

The writer/reader/English major/language person in me is going, "Oh there's so much that could be added!" and the rest is like, "Yeah, but we don't feel like keeping track of and writing out all of what you're thinking."

[Django]

Haha, same here. And in fact I did add something just now. I thought of another few words to add in the possessives vs. contractions list. It's not really a possessive, but it's a common mistake. Were and we're.
But, yes, this could go on and on and on. It'd be pretty sweet if it did. I really wouldn't mind.