Sports Forum Rules

[DoubleStar3]

1. Do not bash another person for the team/sport/player that they like. You can discuss why one team/sport/player is better then another, but I don't want to see 'I hate this team, they Suck.'

2. This is a sports forum. This means that anything pertaining to sports can be posted here. Anything that is not vaguely related to sports will be deleted or moved to the appropriate forum.

3. Pease don't post about silly made up sports such as Quiddich. Post about about sports that can be played by real people.

4. I realize that abbrevations occur alot in sports. A lot of people may not follow your sport as closely as you do. Please explain if asked what they mean, without getting upset or calling that person 'stupid.'

5. I will allow links to some sports pages. Please site your source and give a valid reason for posting it. (This would include links to trade rumors.)

6. Do Not try to control the whole post. This is a community, not a dictatorship, and this forum is not just about you.

7. Please read through the forum to make sure that your topic isn't being discussed already in another thread.

8. If you are posting a link make sure it works. Also site your source.

9. Do a spell check before you post. It's hard trying to decipher what you are posting because you don't know how to spell. Keep in mind that we do not expect your grammar to be PERFECT, just readable. In addition, please take the time to type out entire words. For example: hey u 2 seem pretty nice! Can I talk with u l8r? If we find that you're posts are like this, guess what, edit or delete time! You can find a spell checker Here: http://www.spellcheck.net/ (http://www.spellcheck.net/)

10. Please use proper Grammer, Capitalization, and Spacing in all posts. Failure to do so will end up in a deleted post, and if persistent, a note to the administrator saying you are not following the rules. (For more on this, please see the Grammar 101)

11. I don't want to see a thread that has a whole lot of swearing in it. If you feel your post must have swearing, please bleep some of the word out, or use a different word.

12. If you have any questions, comments, or ideas -Please feel free to PM Gilenea, Lord Anubis or West at any time.

[DoubleStar3]

Grammar 101


I've noticed that a few people have trouble with punctuation and grammar. With that in mind, I've taken it upon myself (what a burden! :p ) to provide a short little guide to help with Grammar.

Quotations and dialogue seem to give people the most trouble. The one rule for writing conversation is this: Always keep in the ending punctuation inside the quotation marks.

Here are a few examples to clarify.

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A statement with no speaker. If there isn't a speaker, the quote ends with a period. The same goes for exclamations and questions. As always, the ending punctuation goes inside the quotes.


Quote:
"Hello."
"Hello!"
"Hello?"


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A statement with a speaker. Notice how the dialogue ends in a comma, and the first word to denote how the word is delivered is NOT capitalized. The sentence ends in normal punctuation.


Quote:
"Hello," said Jill.
Jill said, “Hello.”


-

A more excited expression or a question works the same way. The first word after the speaker is finished is still NOT capitalized, even though the sentence ends in something other than a comma.


Quote:
"Hello!" yelled Jill.
"Hello?" asked Jill.
Jill yelled, “Hello!”
Jill asked, “Hello?”


-

If the dialogue does not contain who is speaking, but rather flows into action, the expression ends in a period, exclamation, or question mark.


Quote:
"No." She frowned.
"No!" She frowned.
"No?" She frowned.
She frowned. “No.”
She frowned. “No!”
She frowned. “No?”


-

An “interrupted quote” is a dialogue sentence with an action in the middle. These are a little tricky as the speaker’s thought flows as if there is nothing in between it. The end of the first half of the quote ends in a comma, while the last half is not capitalized (unless the first word is someone’s name).


Quote:
“Before we begin,” Jill paused briefly before continuing, “we should have everyone sit down.
“Before we begin,” Jill paused briefly before continuing, “Jack should sit down.”


-

A quote within a quote can be fun. The primary expression uses double quotes, while the part being quoted uses single quotes.


Quote:
“The letter said, ‘Meet me at nine o’clock,’ but nothing else,” Jill said.
“The board had ‘Death to Ender’ written all over it,” McKitty noted.


-

Thought sequences are just like quotes without the quotations, and, generally, they are in italics.


Quote:
Jill thought, Jack sure is cute!
Jack sure is cute! Jill thought.

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I will point out, though, that in some places it is OK to use single quotes for primary quotation and double quotes for secondary.



Quote:
'The e-mail read, "Meet me at midnight," with a smiley after it.'
While this can be confusing as generally the traditional (that is mentioned above) is more commonly used here. As long as your posts clearly distinguish between primary and secondary quotation it should be fine.\


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Another thing people tend to struggle with is possessives. The whole "'s" can be a little confusing. But you're in luck, my illiterate compadre! Here I am, once again, with another Grammar Read-Me.

Today, class, we will be concentrating on possessives. There are two main types: Singular possessive and multiple possessive. The singular possessive can be broken down into two categories: Nouns that end in "s" and nouns that don't. Possessives are good if you don’t feel like writing, “Such and such belongs to this person” all the time.

Examples below, dearies!

-

A singular possessive without a noun that ends in “s” consists of the noun, followed by an apostrophe and an s.

Quote:
That is John’s duck.
We can visit the park’s playground.


NOTE: This is very similar when the verb “is” is contracted. It only looks the same. They are, in fact, completely different. After all, “John is duck” just sounds silly! Contractions will probably come in another Read Me.

-

A singular possessive that has a noun ending with an “s” simply has a single apostrophe at the end. This is most commonly used with a proper noun.

Quote:
Jesus’ Bible.
Bess’ cow.


-

A multiple possessive shows that a group has possession of something. It is similar to the singular possessive except for the fact that the noun is more often common rather than a proper noun.

Quote:
The kids’ crayons.
The classes’ books.