Grammar and Style

The Style Guide

Always refer to the Style Guide as the "rulebook" for your writing. This keeps our synopses consistent with one another, even when being written by many different writers.

Style Guide

Ensure that smart quotes are turned off and that the writer used double quotation marks instead of two single quotation marks. Check that em dashes are not made up of two singular dashes. Instructions on how to make these changes standard can be found in the Grammar and Style section of Writer Instructions.

Grammar and Style

Brush up on your knowledge of common grammatical mistakes.

Common Grammatical Mistakes

Vocabulary

Complex Words

Make sure that synonyms are used correctly.

Avoid unnecessarily complex words/phrases. Keep in mind that a significant portion of MAL users are ESL (English as a Second Language). A few "big" words are okay, but their meaning should be easy to infer.

When using obscure terms that are relevant to the plot but may not be known to all readers, especially those of different cultures, ensure that these terms are defined in the synopsis.

• For example, "tengu" and "yokai" are commonly found in Japanese folklore, but these terms would still need to be explained to the reader.

Overused Words

Avoid repetition of overused words and phrases. Each paragraph should begin with a different word, and two sentences in a row should hopefully not start with the same word.