Why is Grammar, Capitalization, and Spelling Important?

Why is Grammar, Capitalization, and Spelling Important?

I am aware this may be confusing, but I will try to make it interesting.

Okay, I will show you a very controversial topic, and most likely the topic will only get more controversial even after this article.

All controversies aside, I would like you to understand that this article is based solely on my opinions, and although you may hold your own, think before you comment nastily.
(*Definitions will be in asterisks, if they are not then it states it is a definition in the context*)

Here are the statements I would like to make before I type up my article:

*All definitions are with many thanks to "word-web" or myself. I rarely use paper dictionaries.
*This was written by scratch. All descriptions, sentences, words, etc... are written for you, by me. I did not Copy and Paste, and by all means, I would never.
*If I use a poem in the context of my article as an example, be sure to realize I got permission to do so by the writer, him or herself.
*I am not here to tell you that poems without grammar, capitalization, and correct-spelling are BAD, I'm just here to make you realize that poems with them are BETTER.
*Recognize that I am writing this for your knowledge, and it is your sole judgment whether or not to observe or disregard my opinions.
*Other than a dictionary, I won't consult anything/one else. I think that grammar books are too boring to read, so if I miss anything or get something wrong, please feel free to private message me and telling me so.

Enjoy! I hope it won't be boring, I will try to make it light-hearted and serious at the same time. Let's see how it comes out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I want you to think about your life.
It's the little things that count, right?
The small little peck on the cheek that you receive from your loved one. The soft touch on the hand you get when someone you have a crush on is hitting on you. The quick little movement you make that allows you to dodge a bullet shot by an enemy.

Eventually, that one peck is what you will think of and cherish when a loved one dies.
Eventually, That one touch may lead to an eternal relationship, happy and ever-lasting.
Eventually, you will look on that one movement with admiration and pride, knowing that just moving your body a little to the left saved your life.

What happens when those moments are gone?... never happened? Just taken out or not added in...?
Not too much with the first one, of course. But with the two following, they are life changing.

Had you not responded to the soft touch on your hand, you would have gone on much longer without love, or maybe had a lonely, loveless life that could have led to drastic differences ... just from that one touch.
Had you not made that quick movement, you would not be alive, or you would have been injured and... who knows, maybe getting shot would save your life from a fatal shot you would receive later, that shot only injuring you and sending you to a hospital (okay, and who knows, you might even meet a nice doctor or nurse there who you fall in love with, get married to, and maybe have children with.... but that's beside the point). But say it DID save your life...

Well, that's just like grammar and capitalization.

One little comma(,) can make that one second difference. Trust me, you won't survive just throwing ellipses(...) around the page like you would your hats at a graduation (ha ha, good metaphor!)... anyway, it doesn't work like that.

Okay, so here we go to the lessons. Trust me, I will make sure I won't bore you to death with different examples and stuff like your English teacher's, but you WILL have homework! Your homework will be to write a poem that is grammatically correct... although the poem does not have to be good. [Of course, this homework will never be checked, but if you would like me to read your poem[s] for grammatical err's, please feel free to send me some links via private message.]

Okay, since everybody LOVES the ellipses, we will start off how exactly to use them.

(...)
Here is the definition of ellipses:
"Omission or suppression of parts of words or sentences" (consult a dictionary for words in definition that you do not know =])
Well, we all know that definition is purrttyy crappy, am I correct? Of course, some would beg to differ, but to us poets, ellipses are unfinished thoughts, or infinite unknowledge... They are a symbol of intimacy between what is and could be.

Many times, ellipses are used in titles or at the end of a line. There are many examples of this. One good example would be the title of one of my older poems, "So Many Questions... So Few Answers..."
In the titles, the ellipses both have a symbolic meaning for their placement. The ellipses after "So Many Questions... [...]" Leads the reader to trail on, knowing questions are emitted... but they are there. The part of the title that says "... So Few Answers..." Signifies the answers you don't know, but hope to find out. Okay, I have the feeling that you're confused... Scratch this idea. Onto the next one.

There are many important grammatical symbols. Along with each one, I will give you a few examples of each:

*The Semi-Colon (personally, one of the most productive grammatical symbols in my opinion, this is used to pause between to closely related subjects. It is not so much a period as it is a comma, but of course, in the middle. Here is an example of a semicolon in text:

I tried to find a sweet escape,
but you could not be found.
I looked inside my dreams;
my fantasies were tied and bound.
(scratch, original)

Something like that.

Now, in place of the semi-colon, you may use the infamous -dashes-. The dashes work pretty much the same way, except they either cut into a complete sentence with a related, but abrupt, thought, or they make an additional pause and exclaim something important, sort of as a replacement of Bold Font.
The above verse would look like this with dashes instead of a semicolon:

I tried to find a sweet escape,
but you could not be found.
I looked inside my dreams
-my fantasies were tied and bound...
(scratch, original....)

I know that my examples may not be perfect, but they are the way it seems to work for me.

*The Comma

The comma is simple. It separates two things, such as in the verse:

I tried to find a sweet escape,
but you could not be found.
I looked inside my dreams
-my fantasies were tied and bound...
(scratch, original....)

A comma calls for just a slight hesitation, not a big one...

THE PERIOD:

Lemme stress one thing. At the end of your titles DO NOT PUT PERIODS!!!!! If you want to add ANY punctuation at the end of your title, the ellipses are your only option. Trust me, if I ever see a period at the end of a title, I ignore the poem completely. Some people have all their poems titled with a period at the end and so I just ignore all of their poems. It's just so.... distasteful.

But, on the other hand, the period is something you will often see in your poetry.
Lemme tell you one thing. A period calls for seriousness. A period does not call for the end, but it just calls for a delay.
In this example you will know what I mean:

He wanted everything to be okay,
but still, he knew he'd fail.
Everything was out of whack,
and evil on his tail.

(lol. Orignial, scratch.)

In the above verse, the first period could also be most likely replaced with a semicolon or even an ellipses... that's how short the pause for that period is.
The last period IS the end. It's just telling you to stop here. Why am I explaining a period to you? Geez... what do I think, you're stupid? Hee Hee....

*Sigh*

Let's see, any other important grammatical symbols...
:o
o_O
The Parenthesis.....

The parenthesis are important in the English language. In poetry, many poets are afraid that parenthesis will confuse the reader. First of all, don't worry about the reader... worry about your own satisfaction... Second of all, most reader's understand that what's in parenthesis is either being embellished or minimized. It is just common knowledge. Here is an example of parenthetical use in a poem:

No one saw her walk away.
(her bags: full to the brim...)
They all just went along their way
like she did not exist.
(Original, Scratch)

Okay, so you see how the second line is just giving you a little glimpse of how obvious her escape was, and proving the obliviousness of the people who were around her... if you don't, oh well =] Lol.

*Sigh* I'm running out of idea's. I'd be surprised if anyone actually has gotten to this point alive... If you do, Kudos... glad I didn't dig you an early grave.

Well, that's the extent of my second article.

Well, except for one thing...

I want to explain why all of this is important.
First of all, I can't help but stress the vitality your poem receives when you have proper grammar, spelling, punctuation, syllabication, and capitalization. It makes a big difference in the way that people look at your poem(s), and you as a poet, as well. The signs of a lazy person are obvious: All of the poem is clumped into one paragraph, the i's aren't capitalized, the spelling is off or nowhere near correct, and there are few, if any, signs of grammar use, and that's not even specifying whether the grammar is used correctly or not... Look at Lost@ngel's poems... her poems have that ring to them that everyone loves. Imagine if ALL of lost angels poems were just thrown together carelessly... people may still enjoy her poetry, of course, because there are people who see through those kinds of things, but many people would turn away in disgust and contempt. Instead, Danika puts her heart and soul into her poetry and makes it perfect... not just good, but perfect. I looked at one of her poems, and was amazed to find not one mistake... grammatically, spelling, syllabically, or even in capitalization. Her poems were just images of perfection.

On the other hand, there are other people who are just plain horrible (and, at one point I admit, I was one of them)... Their poems lack the spunk, the creativity; they prove laziness, ignorance, and incoherence to proper English. I actually saw a poem that had the word "Them" spelled this way, "Thum" throughout the poem... I mean seriously, get a clue!

I, personally, try my best in my poetry. I have to admit, I put my heart out to write the poems, but not necessarily to edit them, revise them, etc... Lately, though, my motivation has been clear: Perfection.
In order to achieve perfection, I feel I must master the skills of grammar, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling... And Microsoft Word isn't going to do all the work for you.

When you are writing your poetry, think of it this way:

Do you want to be remembered or forgotten?

One last thing before I end this article:

Would you like to know the perfect thing to download onto your computer that will help you with grammar, spelling, syllabication, AND rhyming at the same time!? Well, here is how you get it:

Go to * GOOGLE.COM
Type *VERSEPERFECT DOWNLOAD into the search engine.
Click on * ONE OF THE RESULTS and go from there.

Trust me, it's a lifesaver. I don't use it too often 'cause all the stuff VersePerfect does for you is done in my head, but some of you out there... WHEW! You need it!

My next article will hopefully explain the use of *Asterisks, /slashes/, and syllabication (A subject I wish I could have spoken about here, but I limited myself to 2000 words and I have gone over that with 2100 total.)

I'll leave you with that, and hopefully complete a second part to this. If not, then sayonara!

Please comment accordingly... I would appreciate anything that will make my next article 10x better!

Yours Truly,
~Stephen White

P.S. If anything is wrong, please correct me in a comment.