#commaful tips

[wordsaficionado]

If you’re ever insecure about how often you use commas or how long your sentences are I IMPLORE you to read the Treaty of Paris (1783), specifically article two.

510 words.

2 periods.

FIVE HUNDRED AND TEN WORDS.

A GRAND TOTAL OF TWO SENTENCES!

SIGNED BY DOZENS OF PEOPLE TO SET UP A TREATY AND AUTHORIZE LAND!!

Like don’t worry babes your 3 commas and semi colon are NOTHING to the revolution era and that’s what truly matters.

[theyuniversity]

🧠🎓 If your grammar goal is to finally figure out how to use a comma properly,

THIS POST IS FOR YOU. 👈

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[painsandconfusion]

okay what it the difference between ; and ,

and - and —

thank you

Great questions! These ones are pretty quick, so I'll give the basics.

There's two main instances where you use a semicolon: when you're joining two independent clauses, and when you're making a list of three or more things proceeded by a comma.

Okay quick refresher on dependent vs independent clauses. independent clauses can stand on their own. They're a full sentence in and of themselves. This means they at least have one (1) noun, and one (1) verb that that noun is attached to.

So. Basically. You use them when you want to make two full sentences into one coherent thought. Usually, this could just as easily be achieved by popping a comma and a conjunction in there, but sometimes the sentences are more complex or separate, and a semicolon works as kinda an in-between version of commas and periods.

I'll do some examples with commas, semicolons, and separate sentences so you can see how similar they are. It's usually a stylistic choice.

I went to the store today, and I got three dozen eggs. I went to the store today. I got three dozen eggs. I went to the store today; I got three dozen eggs.

In that example, all of them work just fine. It's more a matter of how long a mental pause you want your reader to have between 'went to store' and 'got eggs'.

(quick reminder that 'I went to the store today, and got three dozen eggs' would be incorrect because your comma cuts off the verb 'got' from the noun 'I'. Either repeat the noun to make the phrase 'got three dozen eggs' independent, OR just drop the comma. 'I went to the store today and got three dozen eggs' is also grammatically correct. I will go more into nuances like this in the comma post).

The other way you use semicolons is in lists, but specifically lists that are proceeded by a colon. You usually want to use a colon list when the listed items are more complex and likely to have commas of their own.

Here's an example.

I need to go to the store today to buy eggs, apples, milk, and bread.

That's a simple list with simple elements. But when the elements get more complex, using just commas gets confusing. For example...

Some of my favorite books are Farenheight 451, Girl, Interrupted, Arcanum Unbounded, and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

See how messy that gets? Is 'The lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe' one book or three? They read less clearly, so require a little more precision.

A better version of this sentence would be...

Some of my favorite books are: Fahrenheit 451; Girl, Interrupted; Arcanum Unbounded; and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

By using semicolons, you're able to better separate complex list elements, and the colon lets the reader know to be reading it as such. It's just a little neater. Like a folder inside a folder to help find things easier.

.

Em dash (--) and En dashes (-) are pretty simple. They're called that becuase the double one (which tumblr won't format right, but it's the -- one) is the length of an m and the single one (-) is the length of an n.

Anywho.

En dashes go between words that are being used as one word, while em dashes are used between phrases.

Em dashes are more stylized, used between phrases to expound on the first -- like so.

En dashes are used more practically. When two words are being used as a single adjective. It's just a way to quickly and elegantly compound words to create an image.

A blue-clad knight. Pent-up anger. Ever-falling snow.

En dash (single -) will always be shoved between words without spaces on either side. The em dash (double --) will always be between phrases with a space on both sides.

.

As a disclaimer, I usually just do n dashes instead of m when I write on tumblr purely because the formatting sucks. In more formal environments, I make sure it formats correctly.

Hope that helps!

[late-night-vocaloid]

tips for artists from twitter!

welcome! this is an extensive guide for new tumblr users, mostly geared towards artists, going over a few things I've learned here over the years.

(tldr at the bottom, short version of this post)

general tag usage

one of tumblr's best features is its tags. taking advantage of them will generally improve your experience (and ability to find posts later, something I think is a major advantage tumblr has over twitter)

tags on tumblr are used to help others find your post in site-wide tags and searches, to make your post findable on your own blog, and for commentary. they can use spaces.

your post will show up in the first 20 tags you use on it

if you use your main to reblog posts and post art, use one tag for all of your art. this will make it easy for people, yourself included, to scroll through all of your art at once without needing to dig through the reblogs. something as simple as "art" (if you don't use that tag for art reblogs too) or "my art" (if you do) will do, but it's also not uncommon to give the tag a more unique name with your name in it, like "[name] draws," etc.

speaking of which, some people also have a tag for talking, usually named similarly to "[name] draws," but again, it can be anything

don't censor your tags. there's no need to use "k*ll" or "unalive" here, and censoring trigger warning tags will cause your post to bypass people's blocked tags/words/phrases

sideblogs

sideblogs are additional blogs tied to your account. they work the same way your main does, except only your main can follow/block people, send asks, and like/reply to posts

there's no need to log into them, you choose which blog posts go to when reblogging/making them. going to a sideblog in the sidebar will auto-select that blog when you make a new post

people make sideblogs for different fandoms, blog types, etc., and because they're easy to manage and post to, many people make them for art! whether you use your main to post art or make an art blog is up to you, people do both

post longevity

posts on tumblr tend to be timeless. there are no automatically, immediately visible timestamps on posts, and people don't tend to think about when posts were made when reblogging them. you'll find your old posts will still get notes ages after you've made them

once a post is reblogged, there's no permanently deleting it. you can delete the original and it'll be gone from your blog, but the post as you made it will still exist on anyone's blog who rb'd it. this isn't to say it wouldn't get buried if only a few people reblogged it, just something to be aware of. same is true if you delete your blog

not about longevity, but the same is true of edits. if you need to edit a post, do it before people start reblogging it to prevent two versions of the post (the unedited original post, and the edited version) from circulating. of course, you can always tell people in the replies/reblogs of your posts to reblog/check the edited version on your blog (it's the same post, there aren't two individual posts) if it's important, but not everyone will open the notes and see that. people also sometimes use this for tricks

reblogging

considered the best thing to do if you really like a post, reblogging is for sharing posts with others, and saving them on your blog (+ being able to categorize them with tags if you'd like)

if you comment:

in the reblog: your comment is added as a part of the post itself, people are able to reblog the version of the post with your comment on it

in the replies: your comment is added under the post in the replies, people are able to reply back and forth to each other without needing to rb the whole post over and over, but can only reply with their main blog

in the tags: your comment will show up on your reblog of the post specifically without adding it to the actual post, it'll be visible on your blog and the tag viewing section of the post along with others' tags, keep in mind that the poster may read your tags on their post

people generally use tags to add little comments that they don't intend on getting a reply to when they reblog (for this reason, artists usually love going through the tags on their posts), but comments in reblogs and the replies are also perfectly fine

if you're on desktop, get the extension xkit rewritten and enable quick reblog. I cannot stress this enough. it makes reblogging infinitely faster by letting you hover over the reblog button for a little window with a blog selection dropdown, field for typing in tags, and reblog/queue/draft buttons, as opposed to pulling up the whole reblog screen (which is mostly good for if you want to comment with your reblog or type long tags and make sure they won't get cut off (tags have a 140 character limit each)

it's also totally normal to reblog your own art! at night if you posed it in the day, multiple days in a row, old art from forever ago, it's basically like quote retweeting it for people who missed it the first time. some people use tags like "reblogging for the later crowd" or "rb for the morning crowd" when they do this, but it isn't required

image descriptions

image descriptions (or IDs) make your posts accessible for those who are blind/visually impaired and use screen readers, which are software programs that read text aloud/make it readable through a braille display

to write them, give simple explanations of what the images you post are. for your art, include details like the medium (digital art, pencil drawing, etc), people/characters, outfits, hairstyles, expressions, poses, props, visual effects, backgrounds, and so on.

others may add image descriptions to your posts, but writing them yourself is the best way to ensure everything in your art is interpreted correctly, and the most notable parts are communicated

image descriptions can be put directly into the body/description of a post, right under or above the image (and not separated from the image under a read more)

there's also alt text, which is text embedded into the code of the image itself that screen readers will read like any other text when the image is hovered over/clicked. many websites have a way to add alt text when uploading images, tumblr included

examples of image descriptions are below the cut.

troubleshooting your posts not showing up in tags

new blogs may not be able to post to tags immediately (a bot prevention method). to make sure your posts show up in tags,

add an icon/description to your blog (you may have heard this is important to show others you aren't a bot so they don't block you when you follow them, but this is also a way tumblr itself determines if you're a bot)

reblog a post/posts (they can be deleted later)

wait a while before posting (maybe a day or two, it's been a while since I last checked the amount of time with a new blog)

certain things, like adding more than two links (not video links, just regular ones), can also cause your post not to show up in tags

an easy way to check if you're able to post to tags is to make a quick text post and tag it something specific, like "testingggg," and then check that tag to see if your post is in it. it can take a few seconds for your post to show up. this is a good way to test anything you think may be causing your post not to show up in tags, and you can delete it immediately after you check

sometimes, tags are just finicky. if your post isn't there, it may show up later, it may not. if it's really important that your post shows up in the tags, delete it and try again later

tldr/summary

the first 20 tags on your post will have it show up in those tags

if you reblog and post art, use a tag for your art

don't censor trigger warnings

if you want to, make an art only sideblog within your account

posts on tumblr are timeless and may still get notes long after they're posted

if a post is deleted, any reblogs of the post on other blogs will remain

editing posts does not edit already-reblogged versions

reblogging is for sharing and saving, and is very much appreciated

reblogging with a comment adds it as a part of the post

replying allows for short-ish discussion directly related to the post

tags are often used for making one-sided comments for the poster/your followers/people browsing the tags on the post to read

on desktop, get xkit rewritten for its streamlined reblogging feature

if you want to, reblog your art for those that missed it earlier

add simple descriptions of what your images are to your posts for those who use screen readers (see image descriptions section)

you may need to add an icon/description to your blog, reblog a post, and wait a bit before tumblr will let you post to tags with a new blog (bot prevention)

you can use text posts with any tag to test if you posts will show up in tags before posting the real thing

of course, none of the advice here is obligatory, and you should use your account/run your blog how you want to, but hopefully you find something in here helpful. there's a lot I didn't cover, mainly general tumblr things people have already covered as opposed to artist-oriented tips, and it doesn't get into all the features like custom blog themes (which I recommend desktop users look into), but these are a few things that aren't immediately apparent/are different elsewhere. that's all, thanks for reading and have fun!

image description examples are below the cut.

[ID: a chibi figure of Vocaloid Kaito sitting sadly on the floor, his scarf wrapped around his torso and lower face, and his arms to his sides. He has a single tear and is blushing slightly, and there's a bandage on his head. Beside him are a melty, spilled, blue popsicle and a wet floor sign with the text "caution" and an image of the popsicle. End ID.]

[ID: the cover of the Vocaloid Gakupo album “Celebration,” which features cursive text that reads “Celebration” above regular text that reads “Gackpoid V3 Song Collection,” along with digital art of Gakupo. His hair is half down, half up in a spiky bun with golden sticks crossed through it. He’s wearing an unbuttoned, white dress shirt, a black jacket, a black tie, and an earpiece with a mic. He looks to the camera with a neutral expression, his mouth slightly open, loosening his tie. There are glowing petals around him, and golden flowers that turn into feather-like shapes behind him. The background is a grey-to-black gradient with purplish-pink bars with patterns on them. End ID.]

these are a couple examples of how you might describe your art. if there's something distinct about your art, like very-saturated or pastel colors, you might specify that too. if you post comics, you might start out with text like "a four-panel digital comic," before describing what's happening in each panel. if you were posting a meme, you might specify which meme it is and give only relevant information, not describing things like shirt color, etc. like you might do with art. a good rule of thumb is to describe the images in your posts like you would to a friend who's in the room but can't see your screen.

[mostlyinthemorning]

seven sentence sunday

Thanks for the tag @rmd-writes! Just started playing with something new:

David should have known it was too good to be true. Even after five years of Patrick’s whispered ‘I love yous’ and soft good morning kisses, he should have known. But he’d let his guard down, he’d gotten complacent, he’d fucking leaned in and now here he was—alone. Just like he’d always thought he would be, but with one major difference. This time, he knows what it’s like to be with someone—to really be with them, to know their heart and the wrong way they load the dishwasher—and he’ll be damned if he’ll give that up without a fight.

He’s imagined a million scenarios of how things might go wrong—3 a.m. insomnia is not his friend—but he’d never imagined it would happen like this. One minute Patrick had him pressed against the kitchen counter, kissing his first caramel macchiato of the morning from his mouth, the next, two armed agents burst through the door shouting things about “arrest” and “contravention of the Magical Purposes Act” as they dragged Patrick away.

Tagging @blackandwhiteandrose @likerealpeopledo-on-ao3 @noahreids @carolrain @missgeevious @stereopticons

[cardcaptorsakura96]

My Nemesis

Commas always get me when writing. Either forgot one or misplace it lol

[kennythetrampvamp]

My commas are free range actually

[languagestudymaterials]

Because and since - punctuation

I didn’t go to the store because you were angry. Unrelated events.

I didn’t go to the store, because you were angry. Related events. Your anger kept me from going to the store.

I played football since I was nine. Time span. Now, I’m 30, so it has been 21 years.

I played football, since I was nine. Reason. In an appropriate context, the sentence might be implying that I was at a qualifiable age, and everyone at age 9 was supposed to play football. 

In fiction, there may be places where you want to fudge the comma rules to achieve a certain effect. For example, if you have a character speaking excitedly with run-on sentences, you may choose to leave the commas out to give her words a hurried, frenetic feel. With speech, you want the character’s personality and voice to come through, so comma accuracy should be weighed alongside these elements in your novel.

Source: C.S.Lakin - Say what? The Fiction Writer’s Guide to Grammar, Punctuation, and Word Usage

[alchemistc]

blue (for the "word in my wip" thing)

tbh I was actually kinda surprised I found "blue" but then I remembered that at LEAST one of the characters in my bb have blue eyes and I had to introduce them at some point.

The women were a study in contrasts — one short, dark hair and cautious eyes and a controlled kind of stillness that would have set Eddie on edge if not for the way she was facing him, open and understanding; the other all movement and energy, nearly of a height with Eddie, sun-kissed hair and grey-blue eyes, watching Eddie like she was trying to solve a riddle.

Send me a word, if it’s in my wip document I’ll answer your ask with the sentence that it appears in

[dansnaturepictures]

April end of month post 2 of 4: Ten of my favourite mammal and butterfly pictures I took this month of; Otters on Mull, Roe Deer at Nethy Bridge, Common Seal on Loch Eil, Red Squirrel at Dell Woods, two more of Otters on Mull, Grey Seal at Croggan on Mull, Comma by the River Stour in Dorset, Orange Tip at Winnall Moors and Speckled Wood at Lakeside Country Park. 

My month summary is here: https://dansnaturepictures.tumblr.com/post/716019757084770304/april-end-of-month-post-1-of-4-ten-of-my

[frogges-enlightenment]

gamers think they are sexy because they can button-mash your erogenous zones fast enough to break the sound barrier

gamers are actually sexy because if you bite their nipples and then flick in the konami code with your tongue, they will gasp your name breathily and squirm

[sojournerstales]

writing tip or something

I'm gonna say break the rules. I don't mean this in the squealing motorcycle, smoke cloud, 'n smoking sort of way. I mean it in the way that if you rigidly follow every correct grammar tip your writing is going to turn out to be incredibly dry. You gotta know the rules, they're there for a reason. Grammar helps maintain flow and understanding and eradicates (for the most part) ambiguity.

Sometimes you gotta not do that though. Sometimes you have to sacrifice a little clarity for a little lyricism.

Different POV characters will have a different perspective on the prose, and in turn the prose might have different ways of phrasing something. There is a difference in texture between a strictly objective narrator vs a narrator that is taking the perspective of its main character into account (whether that is in third person or first person), and that texture comes from your choice in sentence structure and grammar.

Sometimes run-on sentences are horrible, yes. Sometimes there is such a delightful horror to be found in a sentence that is going on for far too long, like the shrill rising whine of a high note being stressed to the point where something has just gotta give. And then the sentence lets you go.

Or something, iunno. I'm not the cops do what you want.

[teacup-captor]

Here's a tip to chronic over-commaers (anyone who adds too many commas to a sentence)

Read your sentences out loud or in your head! Every time there's a comma, pause a little! If it makes sense to pause, keep it. If it feels awkward, get it out of here!

Alternatively, change every comma to a period. If it makes sense, change it back into a comma and keep it. If it doesn't, change it to a colon. If it still doesn't make sense, remove it. If it made sense as a colon, keep it.

(this is because sometimes, it might make sense to put a comma or a colon, but not a period, like with the comma after "alternatively")

Example:

This, has the effect, of improving your writing, which is a positive thing!

reading method (where extra spaces is a pause):

This has the effect of improving your writing which is a positive thing!

Periods and colons method:

This. Has the effect. Of improving your writing. Which is a positive thing!

This: has the effect: of improving your writing. Which is a positive thing!

Hopefully, you'll have noticed that the first two commas feel really awakward and out of place, so we can remove them. The last one is placed in a spot that makes sense, so we keep it. Our sentence is now:

This has the effect of improving your writing, which is a positive thing!

Much better!!! Hope this helps :D

[mtcremovalsposts]

How To Pack Clothes for Moving

What is the Easiest Way to Pack Clothes for Moving?

Tips on what to do when packing clothes to avoid damages.

Keep hanging clothes on hangers

Fold the clothes properly and keep them in dresser drawers 

Line suitcases and cardboard boxes with packing paper

Reuse package boxes of your shoes

Use plastic baggies to protect the jewellery 

Wrap sharp objects to avoid accidents while packing

Here are the local SEO keywords separated by commas:

[write-lets-do-this]

What is it? If, like me, you’ve been fairly active on online writing spaces, be it reposts of Tumblr screenshots on Pinterest, or avidly following all your favourite authors on Instagram, chances are you’ve come across this term.

It’s a fairly popular piece of grammar to use, but also a pretty controversial one. Some people (like me) use it all the time, while others will avoid it at all costs.

What it actually is, is a comma that goes at the end of a list before the ‘and.’ Like so:

I bought apples, pears, bananas, and oranges. I bought apples, pears, bananas and oranges.

The first example above uses the Oxford comma, while the second does not.

The reason I and so many others swear by it is the clarity it can add to a list without overly complicating the structure of a sentence. For instance, if you’re including a pair of items in a list, or something that might be misunderstood as a pair when you don’t want it to be, an Oxford comma can simplify matters without you having to contort the structure of your list just for it to make sense.

I invited my friends, Linda and John. I invited my friends, Linda, and John.

Now, looking at this, you would think from the first example that Linda and John are the friends being invited, but in the second, the friends are more clearly a different group of people.

You could, of course, avoid this by rearranging the list to be:

I invited Linda, John and my friends.

This doesn’t need an Oxford comma to be clear to understand, but even here in terms of the rhythm of the sentence, it just sounds better with one. Also, when you have a more complicated example than this, it can become quite difficult to reorder the list without it ending up sounding all clunky.

In another example below, the same sort of rule applies, but here we’ve got a ‘paired’ item in the list.

I study Music, English and Design and Technology. I study Music, English, and Design and Technology.

This makes it a little more complicated, too, because, if you’re familiar enough with the two words being paired together to mean a separate thing than what they might mean together, then the addition of the Oxford comma isn’t especially important. But if you aren’t, the comma serves to separate the items in the list more clearly. Without it, it’s very much possible that the items could be read separately and the reader might just think you’ve worded the sentence a bit weirdly or, if it’s in a bit of dialogue, want to make someone’s speech mannerisms more accentuated.

Of course, these are all fairly minor things to be considered when reading a list, and can often be overcome by simply reading in the context of the rest of the text, but in my opinion at least, the Oxford comma adds an invaluable extra level of clarity that isn’t achieved otherwise.

Overall, whatever you decide, what’s most important is consistency. Don’t go using it in one paragraph and then a few lines later write another list without it!

Are you for or against using the Oxford comma? Let me know in the comments if you have any interesting thoughts on this pesky little piece of grammar!

-Olive Tree

header image by Paisley Diaries. source.

[cryptidapprentice]

been feeling mad rejection sensitive (or smthn similar) lately and i cant tell if its my upcoming period, or bc i tried adjusting my med schedule (per my doctor's rec) or if im just being all-around moody