![]() ![]() Not: “They think their doing well, but there not.”Įxample: “I really like your handbag. ![]() “There” = location, placement, here/there, over thereĮxample: “There’s the gun.” (there is the gun)Įxample: “Their eyes are blue.” (two or more individuals have blue eyes)Įxample: “They think they’re doing well, but they’re not.” Not: (re: a car) “You can tell it’s tires are worn just by looking at them.” Not: (re: carpet) “You can tell by it’s faded color that its really, really old.”Įxample: (re: a car) “You can tell its tires are worn just by looking at them.” In this case, the object is possessed by the it.Įxample: (re: carpet) “You can tell by its faded color that it’s really, really old.” This puts special thoughtfulness into the way the speaker would say “you are,” and because it is filled with emotion, may well be appropriate to that moment.īasically, if you’re not saying “it is,” DO NOT use an apostrophe. You can specifically not use a contraction as a choice if you are putting special emphasis on those words.Įxample: “You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met.” In both of these instances, the speaker would likely be angry and would not take the time to separate out the “you are.” In general, use the contraction, otherwise the reader will wonder why you didn’t. Not: “If you are so high and mighty, you do it.” Make your dialogue sound how real human beings speak.Įxample: “If you’re so high and mighty, you do it.” To this end, make sure in your dialogue you are conscious of when someone speaks with a contraction and when not. Most people don’t speak without using contractions. Not: He loves “Seinfeld”, especially the one wherein Kramer gets an award for being retarded. Not: She said to me, “It’s a beautiful day, don’t you think”?Įxample: He loves “Seinfeld,” especially the one wherein Kramer gets an award for being retarded. This is likely by far the most common mistake I see.Įxample: She said to me, “It’s a beautiful day, don’t you think?” Didn’t we learn this rule in the fourth grade? Come on, people. DO NOT PUT THE COMMA OUTSIDE THE QUOTATION OR APOSTROPHE. ![]() The comma (period, punctuation) goes INSIDE the quotation mark and the apostrophe. All I know is I get very annoyed if I am reading an entire script and there are no commas anywhere. If the aside falls within the sentence, it might not require a comma unless you are placing specific emphasis on that word. The main one appears to be that if you begin a sentence with an aside, it warrants a comma. Use a comma when it is grammatically correct to do so to indicate the first example.Įxample: “Anyway, I was thinking we should go to the movies.”Įxample: “Furthermore, he needs to get his shit together.”Įxample: “However, it doesn’t usually go like that.”Įxample: “Nevertheless, it was a good idea.” These sentences have two very different meanings, and it is not my job as your reader to try to intuit what you mean to say. Not: “I don’t know Brian.” (You are telling a third party that you are unacquainted with and have never physically met the individual Brian.) I am addressing the most common incorrect usage I see in the scripts I read.ĭepending upon usage, if you do not insert a comma in this scenario, your sentence will have a different meaning than the one you intended.Įxample: “I don’t know, Brian.” (You are telling Brian that you do not know.) When you do a proofreading pass on your own work, here’s what to look for. So, here is the short of it on the most frequent errors I see. I did a copy editing pass for a friend recently who thought there would be only a couple of errors, but I found many, many errors – in some cases, six to a page. We tend to fix typos in our mind, and it really does take a fresh eye to catch errors. Typos and formatting errors can be insidious and very easy to miss. If your script has more typos than this, it just looks like gross negligence, and I wonder why the writer is writing if they have such a poor grasp on our most basic tool. I’d say, on average, well written screenplays come in with less than a handful of typos – five or less. If your grammar is not stellar, please hire someone to read through your script who does have stellar grammar. However, even my grammar isn’t fantastic, which you’ll notice in reading this blog – but at least I make a concerted effort. I worked as a copy editor for a newspaper when I was younger, so I probably have more of an eye for grammar than the average person. I’ll admit it: my skin crawls when people don’t use adverbs properly or are grossly ignorant with bravado (Madre de vs. If you want use English to a professional end, you should have a level of mastery. I get really annoyed when people justify their horrible grammar with excuses, as though it’s snobby to use subject-verb agreement. I’m a stickler for proper English grammar. By Monica on Jin Formatting, Process, Uncategorized ![]()
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