This is the bane of all writers, especially today with spell checker tools that pamper us to the point of forgetting even the most basic fundamentals of spelling. Fortunately, this writing campaign is electronically based, and spell checking is an integrated tool in all e-mail programs both PC and web-based. My advice is to use this tool several times before hitting that "send" button.

Even with a spell checker, it doesn't stop the occasional misspelling where you wrongly enter a word that actually exists, but is not the one you intended (eg: "too" instead of "to", "snow" instead of "now", "late" instead of "slate", "rome" instead of "home", etc.) Some word-processing programs have a grammar check in addition to a spell checker, and this alleviates the problem to some degree. However, the only real way to stop this kind of spelling error is to proofread, proofread, PROOFREAD! Make sure that you've successfully communicated the message you intended for the reader by looking over your work before posting it. One good way to do this, and which many newspaper editors do, is to read the message backwards. That way, you catch many mistakes that you would otherwise overlook while deciphering the meaning of the text.

It may seem silly to cover such a rudimentary subject, but it's sheer importance in making your writing understandable is extremely under-rated. Listed are most of the main symbols used, and their uses/misuses:

( ) -- Parenthesis. I like to consider these as footnotes inline with the main text of a story. If there is need for an addition descriptor to something in your sentences, these are helpful. However, there's one important rule to remember before using them: If the text you put in parenthesis is long enough to be it's own sentence, then don't use parenthesis.

" " -- Quotations. In online stories and PBEM's, it's amazing to see how little these are used. Some campaigns have even come up with odd, alternative groups of symbols to show someone talking when simple quotations would suffice. My theory is that people are trying to find a shortcut to the tag, or explanation of who is talking. All it takes to make a tag is a name, a verb indicating speech, a comma, and a period: "Hi," Jack said. -- Jack spoke up by saying, "I'm in Starfleet." -- The lieutenant said, "I'm a helmsman." Using quotes without tags can make it difficult for the reader (read any book by Earnest Hemingway), but to not use quotes at all can render your writing illegible.

, -- Comma. This is SO underused in online writing, yet very important. It separates elements of your sentence when used in combination with a conjunction (see below): Jack thought that this planet might be interesting, and he was ready to explore it. The comma can not only expand your sentences, but it also prevents run-on sentences which can be very annoying (see "sentence structure" below).

: -- Colon. A simple tool to make a list of items in a sentence. Just remember to use commas and a concluding conjunction (see below) on the last item: Jack had a communicator, tricorder, and phasor.

; -- Semicolon. As the name implies, this is a cross between a colon and a comma. Use it as you would a comma when you require a greater degree of separation than a comma could provide: Jack was ready to beam up; but he wasn't alone.

' -- Apostrophe. Used to make contractions ("Can't" instead of "Cannot," "Don't" instead of "Do not," etc.), possessive nouns (Jack's communicator), and to denote certain plurals (5's and "Cross your t's"). We also use it here on the Republic to indicate thoughts instead of speech (although quotations would suffice): 'What was that sound?' thought Jack.

. -- Period. The end of a sentence. Not much more to say, eh? Although I would like to add that some writers use it in a sentence as a title contraction like "Mr." instead of "Mister," or "Lt." instead of "Lieutenant." Personally, I find it cumbersome in a full sentence since it's just as easy to spell out the whole title. I can only assume others feel the same way.

? -- Question Mark. Many writers forget to use this when denoting a question, more out of lack of proofreading than anything else. Use it as you would a comma when quoting a character: "What happened to Jack?" said the transporter chief.

! -- Exclamation Mark. If any punctuation is overused, this is it. It's used to emphasize an Exclamation (I know, "duh"), but some writers like to use extra Exclamation marks to over-emphasize an Exclamation: "He didn't beam up!!!" STOP IT!! Not only is it grammatically incorrect, it's annoying! One will suffice in all situations, and never mix it with a question mark: "He was eaten by a Targ!"

Okay, I know we all learn this in sixth grade, but there are many writers who forget some of these basic rules. So, here the basics of the basics, just in case you missed them in junior high:

Nouns -- A word that explains a person, place, or object. A noun within a sentence is generally the focus of the sentence.

Generic (common) nouns -- A generalized noun: engine, ship, console, helmsman, planet. Doesn't actually name them, just explains what they are.

Proper nouns -- A specific noun, referring to a specific person, place or object: Earth, Republic, Jack, Starfleet.

Pronouns -- No, this is not a noun that lost it's amateur status. These are words that can be used instead of a noun (he, she, it, who, me, etc.), or used to introduce a question: "He did what?"

Verbs -- Action words. Words that explain what a noun is doing: Jack ran, the Targ followed, the helmsman died.

Adverbs -- A word that modifies a verb, adjective, part of a sentence by expressing time, place, manner, degree, cause, etc. Many of them end in "ly": After running fast, Jack carefully turned a corner, then jumped over a bush.

Prepositions -- A relation or function word that connects a noun or pronoun to another element of a sentence: Jack ran through the woods, with his heart pounding in his ears.

Adjectives -- Words that quantify or qualify a noun, giving it more of a description: Jack was afraid of the hungry Targ, and began to shiver in the cold air. The word "the" can be considered an adjective, as it often describes a noun.

Conjunctions -- These words connect words, phrases, clauses, and sentences together: Jack's scream echoed through the forest, and before the transporter could activate, the last thought that ran through his head was "if I could only reach my phasor or tricorder." But, it was too late.

At this point, you've had your quick, dirty review of some grammar basics and punctuation. Now, it's time to thread it all together. If you have any questions on any of the above subjects, many large college dictionaries have better reviews of these fundamentals in the foreword or index.

The following sentence takes the basics above and makes a simple, grammatically correct sentence:

Jack walked through the corridor to his quarters.

Our old friends are there: proper noun (Jack), verb (walked), preposition (through, to). generic nouns (the, corridor, quarters), and pronoun (his). "Jack" is the subject of the sentence, the verb "walked" explains what the subject is doing, the preposition "through" describes what manner of the verb (action) is taking place. "The corridor" is the noun(s) explaining what the subject, using his action (walking) and manner (through), is engaging. With that explained, the rest of the sentence describes a third noun "quarters," qualifies that noun with a pronoun (his), and uses a preposition (to) to connect the noun/pronoun to the rest of the sentence.

Did you follow all that? It all comes together when you realize that the sentence has three main subjects (or nouns): Jack, the corridor, and Jack's quarters. Once these are established, you can build a simple sentence from there. Jack is walking. Where is he walking? In the corridor. In what manner is he walking in the corridor? Up it? Across it? No. He's walking through the corridor. Is that all that Jack's doing? Why is he walking through the corridor? He wants to go to his quarters. So he's not walking from his quarters or past his quarters? No. He's walking to his quarters.

So, put plainly, identify the subjects you're dealing with, start asking questions about how they relate to one another, which of them are animated, and in what manner they are relating. Ask the 6 w's: Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? Okay . . . so the last one doesn't start with a "w." Sue me.

Okay, so we've built our sentence:

Jack walked through the corridor to his quarters.

Now, we could just take it as it is. However, it seems short, bland, and uninteresting. As our PBEM sim rules state, "A single sentence with little dialog and lack of detail is not considered sufficient material for a cooperative writing campaign." So now what do you do? You've come this far, so let's see what we can do with this sentence and try to put it into a paragraph.

First off, there are no adjectives in the sentence. Nothing to add quality to any of the nouns (or subjects) we're focusing on. So let's start asking some more questions:

So Jack is walking to his quarters. Where is he walking from? Maybe he stepped off a turbolift. Okay, so we add another subject, or noun, to the sentence, along with qualifiers (adverbs), and connect it to the sentence with prepositions:

Coming off the turbolift, Jack walked through the corridor to his quarters.

Still too small? Ask more questions: Why is Jack coming off the turbolift? What was he doing in the turbolift? Answers: He was coming off duty, and he was riding in the turbolift. Okay, we'll need to rewrite the sentence a little, but we've got our adverbs and prepositions, right?:

Coming off duty, Jack walked through the corridor to his quarters after riding in the turbolift.

Hmm. We can do better here. Let's ask even more questions. Why did Jack want to go to his quarters? He wanted to sleep. How did he want to sleep? He decided to sleep. Where is his quarters? On deck eight. Okay, let's add even more stuff:

Coming off duty, Jack decided to sleep, so he walked through the corridor to his quarters after riding in the turbolift to deck eight.

Not bad. Let's add some adjectives, and see what more we can squeeze out of this. Again, ask questions: How did Jack walk? He walked slowly. How did he know to ride the turbolift? He's rode it many times before. We can add an adjective to his turbolift ride too:

Coming off duty, Jack decided to sleep, so he walked slowly through the corridor to his quarters after taking his usual turbolift ride to deck eight.

Finally! A good long sentence with ample detail. But, it's still one sentence. Now what do we do? The answer is to incorporate it into a paragraph. A paragraph is a collection of sentences that talk about a particular subject. In this case, it's our friend Jack and his trip to his quarters. A good paragraph has an opening sentence, a few sentences that detail and/or explain that opening sentence, and a final, closing sentence that sums it all up. So, using our sentence-building skills we learned above, we can build some support sentences, and embellish them with adjectives and details by asking questions about the subjects. In this way, we can come up with a good paragraph that explains Jack's trip to his quarters:

Coming off duty, Jack decided to retire to his quarters by taking his usual turbolift ride to deck eight. As he walked off the elevator with a leisurely stroll, he passed through the off-white concentric corridor lined with black consoles and an occasional potted plant. Arriving at his abode, he pressed the entry button causing the sliding doors to open with a soft, pneumatic hiss. With a tired yawn, he proceeded into his apartment with pleasant thoughts of a good night's sleep.

Okay, so I added a little more of my own touch to it. But with practice, you can develop the same writing skills. Here are some tips:

Notice that the paragraph above doesn't use an adjective, verb, or noun more than once. This is a good writer's trick to make a sentence and paragraph flow smoothly. Watch what happens when I use the same word to describe similar activities:

Coming off duty, Jack decided to go to his quarters by taking his usual turbolift ride to deck eight. As he walked off the turbolift with a leisurely walk, he walked through the off-white concentric corridor lined with black consoles and an occasional potted plant. Walking to his quarters, he pressed the entry button causing the sliding doors to open with a soft, pneumatic hiss. With a tired yawn, he walked into his quarters with pleasant thoughts of a good night's sleep.

Not so good as the first paragraph, is it? Adjectives work the same way. Your best friend here would be a good thesaurus and find different words that have about the same meaning. Not a writing session goes by where my thesaurus isn't near me (or a dictionary, for that matter).

Here are some more tips:

Some people over use proper nouns in their writing:

Coming off duty, Jack decided to retire to his quarters by taking his usual turbolift ride to deck eight. As Jack walked off the elevator with a leisurely stroll, Jack passed through the off-white concentric corridor lined with black consoles and an occasional potted plant. Arriving at his abode, Jack pressed the entry button causing the sliding doors to open with a soft, pneumatic hiss. With a tired yawn, Jack proceeded into his apartment with pleasant thoughts of a good night's sleep.

Sounds less appealing, doesn't it? In truth, you only need to mention the proper noun once in the paragraph because the rest of the sentences are describing what Jack sees and does. For this, pronouns, such as "he" and "she" work, as do occupational titles and short descriptions when you need to refer back to the main subject of the paragraph. Watch:

Coming off duty, Jack decided to retire to his quarters by taking his usual turbolift ride to deck eight. As the lieutenant walked off the elevator with a leisurely stroll, he passed through the off-white concentric corridor lined with black consoles and an occasional potted plant. Arriving at his abode, the assistant helmsman pressed the entry button causing the sliding doors to open with a soft, pneumatic hiss. With a tired yawn, the young officer in command red proceeded into his apartment with pleasant thoughts of a good night's sleep.

An expansion of this concept can be to use the occupational titles and short descriptions as the subject of EACH paragraph if the entire scene is about your main subject (Jack in the above paragraph). For this, use simple pronouns throughout each paragraph, referencing the main subject in the opening sentence. Using this expanded technique, you could go several paragraphs without mentioning the main subject by its proper noun no more than once!

One last tip is to avoid run on sentence:

Coming off duty, Jack decided to retire to his quarters by taking his usual turbolift ride to deck eight, and as he walked off the elevator with a leisurely stroll, he passed through the off-white concentric corridor lined with black consoles and an occasional potted plant, arriving at his abode where he pressed the entry button causing the sliding doors to open with a soft, pneumatic hiss, and with a tired yawn, he proceeded into his apartment with pleasant thoughts of a good night's sleep.

That's a mouthful, isn't it? My personal guideline is that unless I'm writing a list of items with commas and colons, I try not to break the sentence up into more than three or four parts with conjunctions. Read and re-read each sentence you write. Speak them out loud if necessary. Maybe even have your roommate read it to see if it makes sense to him or her. It never hurts to have an outside critic.

This ends the Starship Republic's Writers Guide. For more tips on writing, roleplaying, and story development, visit our roleplaying guide.