Grammar / Spelling / Punctuation Discussion and Appreciation (questions welcome!)

[Professor_S]

Thanks Feast of the Muse!

Sorry to hear it hasn't turned up yet, Whytewytch. And you just know that if dear old Murphy's up to his usual tricks, the moment your order ships, the book will finally turn up! But I empathize - geeky withdrawal is the worst to be had! ()

[Sage of Mirrors]

If you have a character do something (like sigh) before he/she actually speaks, do you do it like this:

-He sighed.
"What's wrong here?"

Or like this:

-He sighed. "What's wrong here?"

Also, is it proper to have a single apostrophe when the word that owns something already ends in an 'S?' Would you use "Atlantis's" or "Atlantis' "? I wasn't really sure on that. Thanks!

[Whytewytch]

If you have a character do something (like sigh) before he/she actually speaks, do you do it like this:

-He sighed.
"What's wrong here?"

Or like this:

-He sighed. "What's wrong here?"

I would choose the latter, myself. Since it's the same person making the action and speaking, it belongs in one paragraph. If a paragraph is all one person but long and with different focusses, you can break it into more than one.

Also, is it proper to have a single apostrophe when the word that owns something already ends in an 'S?' Would you use "Atlantis's" or "Atlantis' "? I wasn't really sure on that. Thanks!

The way I learned was to use the extra "s", but the more modern way is to drop it. Personally, I think it looks cleaner without the extra "s".

[Sage of Mirrors]

Alright. Thanks.

[SF_and_Coffee]

Don't use a "-" before those lines. Just do it like this:

He sighed. "What's wrong here?"

And I was always taught that you never add a second "s" when making a possessive of a name or word ending in "s". But anyway, yes, it does look much cleaner without.

[Sage of Mirrors]

I used the '-' because I wanted to show that it was an example... guess I should've gone with italics instead.

[Professor_S]

I agree with SF_and_Coffee. The em dash tends to be for sentence fragments. 'He sighed.' is a full sentence.

As for the possessive rules, I've heard just about every version of the rule you can think of. I tend to do what has been said here though; that is, for aesthetic purposes I omit the second 's'.

(EDIT: Ha. I see the dash thing was just a misunderstanding. Sorry, Sage of Mirrors. Now I see that you were just asking about the paragraph break *facepalm*... my bad!)

[Whytewytch]

Hey, all you ff.net-ers, anyone know what happened to the dictionary there? It was one of the best and was either on ff.net or fictionpress.com, but I cannot seem to find it. Is it lost or am I? If it is lost, anyone have any good recs for a extremely comrehensive online dictionary/thesaurus? Thanks in advance for any help.

[SF_and_Coffee]

Hmmm, I never used theirs and kind of forgot they had it. But I'm a huge fan of the Merriam Webster online dictionary and thesaurus.

[Whytewytch]

Hmmm, I never used theirs and kind of forgot they had it. But I'm a huge fan of the Merriam Webster online dictionary and thesaurus.

I stopped using it for some reason a couple years ago, then was trying to find it a little while ago because my thesaurus just wasn't giving me what I wanted. It was FABULOUS! Definitions and more synonyms and antonyms than you could shake a fist at. The forums over there are difficult to use, otherwise I would've just asked there. I may have to go in and give it a go. Will try the M/W--think I use that one sometimes when I give up and close the copies I have on the desk.

[Ryn]

*pokes head in* Oh, just curious. What dictionaries are the best online? I tend to use dictionary.reference.com a lot. Helps me with checking words whenever I do an RP post.

[Professor_S]

*pokes head in* Oh, just curious. What dictionaries are the best online? I tend to use dictionary.reference.com a lot. Helps me with checking words whenever I do an RP post.

I mostly use the dictionary on my shelf (guess I'm old-fashioned like that ), but when I am looking something up online, I head over to Google and type in "define: _________". It pulls up definitions from a bunch of dictionaries/sources online. But yeah, I'm partial to my Concise OED...

[mathpiglet]

I tend to put it into Word and let that dictionary check for whatever country I want. Since I live in Canada, we have a hodge-podge of American and British spellings, so if I'm writing for school, I use Canadian spelling. If I'm writing fanfic, I tend to use American spelling since most of my readers are American.

[Whytewytch]

I tend to put it into Word and let that dictionary check for whatever country I want. Since I live in Canada, we have a hodge-podge of American and British spellings, so if I'm writing for school, I use Canadian spelling. If I'm writing fanfic, I tend to use American spelling since most of my readers are American.

I didn't know you could do that! Prof, I tend to use the ones on my shelf first, as well. When I'm out, though, it can be hard. If I'm working on a story on my lunch hour, for example, I need the online dictionary/thesaurus access. I tend to avoid the Word synonyms if I can--they just don't usually have what I need, although sometimes they get my creative juices flowing. I also tend to Google the words I need, just would rather have a dedicated online dictionary that I know is wonderful saved in my favorites.

On a side note, I still have not found my "Eats, Shoots and Leaves".

[Goose]

I'm a traditionalist: I prefer the Oxford English Dictionary. Of course, being 20 volumes long, it's a bit... big, not to mention expensive, so unless I'm in a library, I stick to the Concise and Shorter versions.