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Let's fix our english with a forum game [Continue the story]

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koolkei

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Post Tue Feb 16, 2016 12:57 am

Let's fix our english with a forum game [Continue the story]

it's amazing seeing the diversity of people here, people from everywhere around the world comes and join and play the game
but sometimes, we butcher the english language in our forums posts (i'm also guilty for this) :oops:
i have an idea.

let's play the forum game "continue the story". maybe just 2 sentence per user per post.
and if anyone see someone is doing the grammar wrong, he/she can point out the mistake and correct it.

now it's not impossible for someone that's correcting someone else is also wrong, and for that,
i'd like someone who speaks english as a 1st/mother language to volunteer help out here. since they are the least likely ones to be wrong.

TL;DR : simply play the "coninue the story" game, and everyone tries to fix someone else's mistake in grammar or phrasing etc. :)
Last edited by koolkei on Wed Feb 17, 2016 4:11 am, edited 3 times in total.
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squidhead

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Post Tue Feb 16, 2016 1:06 am

Re: Let's fix our english with a forum game [idea]

2 sentences per post, continuing the story. For story sake you may only either introduce a new character, have existing characters perform an action, or change location. Only one of those 3, not all of them at once.
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07CobaltGirl

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Post Tue Feb 16, 2016 3:34 am

Re: Let's fix our english with a forum game [idea]

I speak proper English natively, but not "The Queen's English", and have for many decades as an American. After reading the initial post several times, I think I finally understand what is expected to happen in here.
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koolkei

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Post Tue Feb 16, 2016 4:38 am

Re: Let's fix our english with a forum game [idea]

@07cobaltgirl. yup another example of bad english phrasing then. :oops:

simply play the game, and everyone tries to fixes someone elses mistake in grammar or phrasing etc. :)
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07CobaltGirl

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Post Tue Feb 16, 2016 5:09 am

Re: Let's fix our english with a forum game [idea]

squidhead wrote:2 sentences per post, continuing the story. For story sake you may only either introduce a new character, have existing characters perform an action, or change location. Only one of those 3, not all of them at once.


Sentence fragment, no possessive indication for "story", improper list use of either/or, and sentence fragment can all be found in the quote above. This is not a complete list, but it does cover the major blunders.

As a native speaker, and also a self-proclaimed OCD Grammar Nazi, I think it might not be such a good idea for me to play this game with anyone here. I find poor grammar frustratingly annoying, and tend to overlook it rather than driving myself insane trying to correct it.
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EnryGT5

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Post Tue Feb 16, 2016 12:00 pm

Re: Let's fix our english with a forum game [idea]

Oh boy. This should get really interesting, really fast. I also tend to make grammar trainwrecks once in a while :D

So... When someone writes a grammatically butchered story bit.... do we just correct that or get to continue the story as well?
CEO of Seishido Motors.
Forum Thread: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=8343

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strop

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Post Tue Feb 16, 2016 12:45 pm

Re: Let's fix our english with a forum game [idea]

I do speak "the Queen's English" and have a particular penchant for misused apostrophes. I'm not mistake proof, of course, but I can chip in with suggestions on occasion. I may have to wait until next week after my exam to start.

In addition, I tolerate (and sometimes advocate) the use of idiosyncratic sentence construction, such as starting sentences with a conjunction or ending a sentence with a preposition. And I further tolerate altered constructions endemic to internet forums. I feel this is a fairly broad strokes exercise for generalised fun and improvement.
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koolkei

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Post Tue Feb 16, 2016 4:39 pm

Re: Let's fix our english with a forum game [idea]

EnryGT5 wrote:Oh boy. This should get really interesting, really fast. I also tend to make grammar trainwrecks once in a while :D

So... When someone writes a grammatically butchered story bit.... do we just correct that or get to continue the story as well?


both if you can :)

i.e.
he finally took the brush and.........

(@randomguyontheinternet : hey, *insert what's wrong here and how to fix it*/*other suggestions*)



strop wrote:I do speak "the Queen's English" and have a particular penchant for misused apostrophes. I'm not mistake proof, of course, but I can chip in with suggestions on occasion. I may have to wait until next week after my exam to start.

In addition, I tolerate (and sometimes advocate) the use of idiosyncratic sentence construction, such as starting sentences with a conjunction or ending a sentence with a preposition. And I further tolerate altered constructions endemic to internet forums. I feel this is a fairly broad strokes exercise for generalised fun and improvement.


oh boy. i just made a test for myself didn't i :oops:
i had to google up 3x because of the words used in this post alone :lol: :lol:
and i still only understand maybe only 75% of what you just said :?

BOLD : does this mean like "gr8 m8 i r8 5/7"? :lol: :lol:
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Vri404

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Post Tue Feb 16, 2016 4:44 pm

Re: Let's fix our english with a forum game [idea]

I am a pure Grammar Whore. I would not be able to stand this.
Salt is what 95% of children are made from, and generally 72% of forum users.

Also 82% of statistics are made up.
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strop

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Post Tue Feb 16, 2016 5:18 pm

Re: Let's fix our english with a forum game [idea]

@koolkei: I'll ignore certain abbreviations, syntax and slang, yes. In addition forum posts tend to have a lot of fragments in them, but that depends on how prosaic we get.
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koolkei

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Post Tue Feb 16, 2016 5:46 pm

Re: Let's fix our english with a forum game [idea]

well then it's a go?

we'll start at page 2 :)

anything else left to discuss?
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strop

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Post Tue Feb 16, 2016 9:51 pm

Re: Let's fix our english with a forum game [idea]

Yes, all good. For simplicity I'm going to suggest formatting corrections like this:

koolkei wrote:TL;DR : simply play the "continue the story" game, and everyone tries to fix(es) someone else's mistake in grammar or phrasing etc.


At least, when it comes to spelling errors. We don't have strikethrough on the board, unfortunately, else that's what I'd do. And of course if the phrase is wonky then an explanation and revision may be necessary.
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koolkei

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Post Tue Feb 16, 2016 11:02 pm

Re: Let's fix our english with a forum game [idea]

yep. already butchering it :oops

well then. let's just start this now shall we?


"Mr.B just woke up in a hotel room that he didn't even remember checking in to.
last night must have been a wild night, but he really doesn't remember the things he did, so he started to look around the room to find some clue."
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strop

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Post Tue Feb 16, 2016 11:22 pm

Re: Let's fix our english with a forum game [idea]

koolkei wrote:Mr.B just woke up in a hotel room that he didn't even remember checking into.
Last night must have been a wild night, but he really didn't remember the things he did, so he started to look around the room to find some clue.


I'm assuming here that we care about keeping tenses consistent, and will assume past tense for conventional narration purposes.

The first sentence does end with a preposition; I did say I'd tolerate it but the phrasing can nonetheless be optimised. Furthermore, the prose can be made a little punchier with the elimination of a bit of redundancy, so I'll make a suggestion below:

Mr. B woke up in a hotel room. He didn't even remember checking in.
Last night must have been wild. But as Mr B. had absolutely no recollection of any of it, he started to search the room for clues.


Two seconds later, Mr B. doubled over, clutching his head. Oh! What a hangover! He stumbled towards the ensuite bathroom, but the door wouldn't budge: something was most likely blocking it from the other side.
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partario

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Post Wed Feb 17, 2016 12:30 am

Re: Let's fix our english with a forum game [idea]

strop wrote:Two seconds later, Mr B. doubled over, clutching his head. Oh! What a hangover! He stumbled towards the ensuite bathroom, but the door wouldn't budge: something was most likely blocking it from the other side.


"Darn it! What have I gotten myself into this time," he thought to himself. Just as he began trying hard to recollect any memories from the previous night, his train of thought was interrupted by a buzzing sound, likely coming from a cell phone.

/* Couldn't find anything to fix in strop's text. Not that there probably is anything to fix :D anyway, I'm always looking to better my English. Tried some direct speech. */
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