Alright, students, take out your notebooks. We're going to be going over the basics.

There are tons of writers on here. To put it bluntly, some use good spelling/grammar/punctuation... and some do not. This may not be speaking for everyone, but if you're the latter type of author, it really turns me off from wanting to read your story. But anyway, how better to start off a book about writing with these basics?

This chapter isn't trying to be mean or anything, so sorry if it comes across that way. Even authors can be bad with words on occasion.

Why It's Important
All this stuff is important for so, so many reasons. As I mentioned, it can make people not want to read your writing. Imagine if "Moby Dick" or "A Christmas Carol" was written with bad grammar, bad spelling, etc.? It may not be the best example, but it does go to show that good stories must have good language skills like these.

But don't think you have to go throwing semicolons in everywhere, or doing anything fancy. See what I'm doing? Just... keeping it simple.

And, punctuation can get your point across. "You saw a dog.", "You saw a dog!", and "You saw a dog?" all have different meanings, just because of that teeny tiny mark on the end. Spellings important in the same way. Their/there/they're, etc. All those words sound the same, but mean different things.

I know. I hate our language too.

Grammar
"Why does grammar even matter?" you (maybe) ask. Good question, answered above. So, just check through your story as you write it for simple grammar mistakes like these:

Who and Whom
Use the he/him method. Replace the subject (who/what you're talking about) with the pronoun that fits. If it's "he", you'll want "who". If it's "him", you'll want "whom".

Who/whom is running? He is running.
Who/whom should I vote for? I should vote for him.

And remember: "To whom" not "To who".

They're/there/their
They're going to their house because you are not there.

They're- they are
Their- belonging to them
There- talking about a place

Your/you're
You're walking your dog.

Your- belonging to you
You're- you are

Punctuation
Missing a period is bad, in life and in writing.

This is your friend, the period. Right there, at the end of that sentence. You should know when to put them in. For example, as I'm thinking this in my head and writing it down, I hear an automatic pause. Boom. Period.

And please, please, capitalize the beginning letter of the sentence after the period.

Commas are good, too. They denote lists, set off phrases, all kinds of stuff. So, throw one in. You should hear, in your head, a pause shorter than a period.

Question marks. Use them. I see it so often where there are periods instead of question marks. Look, it's good you love periods, since they're essential, but you shouldn't love them so much that they take over other punctuation. It's self explanatory. They go at the end of the questions.

That wasn't so hard. Was it, friend?