A/N: The reviews for the last chapter weren't exactly overwhelming, but I understand that there are up and down weeks sometimes. Time to address the few reviewers who did review last week:

Lemonade Lunatic- People as a general rule are idiots, LL. Ignorance is one hell of a drug. The best thing you can do is politely correct them and hope it sinks in. I also loved those starter sentences with a passion; I went all-out on a couple of them in literary terms. Would you like to read my Ghost Eating a Sandwich one? I can PM it to you some time if you do.

Anastasia The Goddess of Drama- Oh my. I hope you didn't get discouraged by what I wrote in that entry. Using those types of summaries doesn't necessarily mean that you don't care about your writing or are inherently bad at writing; it's just that it may appear to be that way to your readers. I strongly encourage you to put more thought and effort into your summaries in the future, and I hope you keep reading and learning from The Guide.

I'mnotgoodwithusernames1234- Love the username. Thanks for your compliment of The Guide; I try very hard to help people out as well as I can to improve, and I hope you take something out of this Guide, too. I wonder, would you recommend any other writing guides here on Fanfiction for other readers to check out?

Entry Five: Grammar

Oh boy. You guys probably expected this chapter to come up eventually in a Guide like this.

As I have hopefully made clear up to this point, grammar is very important in any story that is enjoyable to read. Grammar as a definition is the body of various rules concerning how certain words and phrases should be used and organized in certain types of sentences. And if you don't follow them, well, people notice. Anyone who has familiarized themselves with the English language as a whole will understand that something's... off if grammar isn't followed, especially the more fundamental aspects. As a result, learning how grammar works is absolutely essential to any writer, and this section of The Guide will expand many go-to rules of grammar.

I shouldn't have to describe the state of grammar usage here on Fanfiction. I will inevitably sound pretentious, and while that doesn't usually stop me, I figure a line has to be drawn at some point. Just know that it's a bit ridiculous in this day and age of spell-check and grammar-check (not to mention Google search) that people are lazy enough or uncaring enough to not make their stories look good and well-written.

This section will be an ongoing expansion as more grammar rules are added or brought to my attention. My hope is that this entry will eventually be an extensive go-to list that anyone can use if they are unsure of grammar rules of any kind. I'll try to keep each point short, but encompassing what's needed to know.

Their/There/They're:

Very common errors concern the various vocally-identical words above. Basically "there" is always a specific place (often close in relation to where the speaker is, or is being referenced as such), "their" is a third-person possessive pronoun describing something belonging to a plural group of people (because of the lack of a gender-neutral pronoun in the English language, it is often also used as the possessive for a person of undetermined gender; while technically incorrect, it is slowly becoming integrated into the vernacular), and "they're" is a contraction of "they are."

"The sandwiches are over there. (Place in relation to the speaker. Imagine him pointing at it.)

Their sandwiches are the best. (People in charge of the sandwiches)

They're always made with the highest quality ingredients." (they [the sandwiches] are)

Your/You're:

"Your" is a second-person possessive pronoun describing something that belongs to the person(s) that the speaker is directly referring to, while "you're" is a contraction of "you are."

"Your sandwich seems to be terribly soggy. (Person he's talking to, not about)

You're not going to take mine, are you?" (You are)

Then/Than:

"Then" is a measure of time, referring to something directly proceeding after something else has happened. "Than" is a word used in comparison of two things, joined with an intensifier or "rather." By the way, an intensifier does exactly what it looks like it would do: makes something have more of a quality, such as "stronger" of "smarter," which would then be joined with "than" to make the contrast.

Then suddenly, the disgruntled young man with the soggy sandwich attempted to swipe the good sandwich out of his friend's hand. (Unit of time after the directly previous events)

"I would rather die than let you take my sandwich!" the betrayed friend screamed to his new nemesis. (Die -rather than- Give up the sandwich)

Who/Whom/That:

If you've been reading my A/N's recently, this is already being covered. "Who" is technically supposed to be used as a pronoun for a direct object, while "whom" is supposed to be used as a pronoun for the indirect object. However, "whom" is falling out of use in the English language, and as a result strict adherence to this rule isn't realistic or even wholly necessary. Another thing that isn't very well known to the average writer here on Fanfiction is when to use "who" and when to use "that" (as a pronoun). "Who" is always used as a pronoun for a person, while "that" is used for an animal or object.

"Am I the only one who doesn't get a good sandwich!?" (Note that it's both referring to the direct object [the speaker] and a person)

"No, but whom did the vender give the good sandwich? Me!" (Indirect object: speaker; direct object: vender)

The sandwiches were the only objects in the grand scheme of things that didn't care either way who got the good sandwich. (the sandwiches are objects, not people)

Like I said, this will continue expanding with sandwich-based examples as I think of them or others point them out. You are all probably furious at me for not updating in so long, so you all deserve an explanation. Studying for finals and practicing for my various Track meets really left me with no time.

In addition, I will keep my promise to myself and my good readers to continue Apple of Discord this summer. With school grinding to a close, I will begin updating that again. I will try to squeeze in a couple more entries while writing AoD, but obviously my attentions will be divided. Stay tuned one and all!

-Grandmaster4