Now, first let me say I hope I'm not over-stepping my boundaries by posting this..

Anyways, onward to the actually tip. My tip to writing is simple; practice typing with good grammar in other places than just stories. What I mean by this is to take your time and correct yourself while making comments on any other site you visit. With 'internet' speak such a big part of the world now, trimming down words into acronyms like 'Lol', 'Lmao', and the such means less practice in the long run. Also, misspelling on purpose for long words to simply shorten them down to make it easier to type faster can potentially slow down your writing if you need to use these words because you'll need to take the time to remember how to spell them out.

So, instead of going around the web and using shortcuts for words, take a little more time to type out each word. This has helped me immensely, so I hope that it'll be able to help at least one other as well. Happy writing!

Very good tip! Especially when you're commenting on stories. I think I'd prefer LMAO to be abbreviated, though...

That is definitely a helpful tip for many writers who are coming from a bad background of grammar and spelling know-how. Luckily for me, I've been writing on and off since I was a young-in, so all this is pretty much down to a science to me. I can switch from 1337 speak to proper grammar without any issues. Besides, when you're playing an MMO or an RTS, you need to communicate quickly, and voice chat isn't always an option, so typing everything out fully is just not practical. For instant messaging though I would agree. It's better to stick with "good" grammar mode to help you remember how to spell certain words and all that sweet stuff.

331761 Yeah, I guess your right.. I just haven't used any of them in so long myself, I've come up with different ways to get the point across if something came up as really funny

331858 Yeah, forgot about gaming and the such, my computer can't play any games really.. so I forgot how important short messages are in them..

Spot-on post. I first began practicing proper grammar in all contexts when I was playing Starcraft a few years ago. (Been playing that game since I was five, incidentally.) I'm fourteen now, and have good grammar, which is something I cannot say for some of my age group.

335458 I quite heavily agree myself. I am 14 as well, and most of the others in my class have facebook, so when I check facebook (Which is rare) I find myself wide-eyed at the lack of proper grammar.

I've loved reading since I was 5, so I've grown up learning proper grammar. I can read 1337 well, although I find it difficult to type in 1337 myself.

But yes, typing with full grammar is something one must do if they wish to become better with grammar. I do it myself, and have found that it increases grammar immensely.

I use proper grammar all the time, whether I'm texting, playing a video game with some friends, or even chatting in a chat room. It does have the drawbacks of being slower, but I find that I mentally can't send a message out with improper grammar. I've actually tried to force myself. It didn't work.

A tip I would like to add to the initial post when it comes to typing is: Learn proper touch-typing.

Many of you have brought up the issue of speed, and I have fully sympathy for that. As a gamer, being able to type quickly and accurately can be the key to success, and in writing, it also helps to write down ideas fast. It also helps overcoming the inhibition to write whole passages again if you feel you could do better.

I didn't really have a system for typing for most of my online days, and was stuck with about 50 wpm (words per minute), which is 250 keystrokes/min. After 3 weeks of learning touch-typing from scratch, I was up to 60 wpm and now after 6 months average at about 95. To see what your current wpm is, you can take this little test.

There are many ways and tools on the internet to teach yourself the touch-typing system, but the site I did it with the lessons on sense-lang.org, and I fared well with it. I never fell back into my old ways of "hunt and peck" after an initial acclimatization phase.

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I do the same thing, really. I've found that using good grammar and spelling helps people understand what you're saying and your meaning better than doing it any different. Besides, now that I have a typing speed of about 85 words-per-minute, doing proper grammar doesn't take as long as one would expect.