Establishing Greatness -to write with blood. : Forum : Guidelines for Stories


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JlB

Guidelines for Stories

17 Years Ago


Introduction:

If you wanted to design and build your own home, what would it be � a streamlined modern building with lots of windows? an ornate, Victorian ''gingerbread'' house? a stone castle? a cottage with a thatched roof? an igloo? Your choice would reflect some part of yourself. Perhaps, in the farthest reaches of your imagination, you would even want several houses to express your different moods.

Putting your best thoughts and perceptions into writing is like building home for them. As thoughts originate in your mind, they drift through and around, sometimes floating away quickly on a breeze. When you put them in writing, you've made a permanent home for them. And depending on what your thoughts are, that home will take a specific form, whether it's an essay or a letter, a poem, a short story or a drama.

Knowing what you want to say, of course, is simply a beginning. If you were designing a home, you'd probably consult books, experts and other interested builders for ideas. Similarly, in the process of writing you can consult books for guidelines, your teachers for expert advice, and fellow writers for an exchange of comments and suggestions. With this assistance you'll move through several steps of construction, such as assembling material, putting it into a coherent order and expressing ideas with clarity, interest and suitability for your audience.

The aim of this section of the group is to establish the Guidelines for good writing.
To start off with, let me walk you through a basic questionnaire that you can use when reviewing other members' work.



Communicating Ideas Clearly




1. Are the ideas presented in an order that makes sense?
2. Are all the sentences in a paragraph about the same topic?
3. Are linking words and phrases (but, also, nevertheless, on the other hand) used to connect ideas?
4. Are the words specific and precise in meaning? Are overused words and expressions avoided?
5. Is the tone (formal or informal, serious or humorous) right for the intended reader?


Writing Strong Sentences




6. Have sentence-combining skills been used to avoid too many short, choppy, sentences?
7. Is there a variety of sentence lengths and sentence structures?
8. Are sentence fragments and run-ons avoided?


Observing Standard Usage




9. Do sentences begin with capital letters and have the correct end punctuation?
10. Is correct internal punctuation used? (Apostrophes, Commas, Hyphens, and Quotation Marks)
11. Do the subject and verb in each sentence agree in number?
12. Are all words spelled correctly?






Ask yourself these questions when you're reading stories. Poems will have different guidelines, but they will be similar to these. Hopefully this is a good start for all of you.

Thank you.

JlB

[no subject]

17 Years Ago


What are Stoies? ::tongue::
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JlB

[no subject]

17 Years Ago


Yeah that s**t really isn't funny.

You've totally made a mockery of what I'm trying to do.

[no subject]

17 Years Ago


Finally someone who is as Type-A as I am! YAY, JL! I simply love lists and guidelines; it's the German blood coming out in me!

I have to say right now, I will be quite guilty of run-on sentences, and I am the Queen of Fragmented Sentences. You guys are going to have a field day with me.

And JL�go easy, little bro. Jinx makes jokes as gentle pointers that you've made a typo or something. She doesn't mean it disrespectfully and I am positive she didn't mean it to mock you. ;-)
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JlB

[no subject]

17 Years Ago


For sure I suppose, but I still put a lot of time typing the whole subject of it to be flawless, and I made a typo in the title and I got knocked for it ... in the first comment . . .

after I anticipated a comment for an hour . . .

it wasn't exactly what I expected, my bad.

jb