Grammar Despite the fact that the Simpsons community is made up of fairly intelligent people mistakes are often made in grammar, which can be an especially bothersome problem whilst writing essays on the latest episode. The focus on this page is how to cite titles and characters, but I'll keep adding to it as I discern the major problems. P.S. All of these mini-lessons were written by me. I hope to major in English in a few years, so any feedback on these is double-encouraged.     Capitalization of Episode Titles The most often made mistake while speaking of The Simpsons on the internet is, by a long shot, the capitalization of letters in episode titles. It can get to be tricky, and there are quite a few exceptions. Just follow these rules, and you should be correct 100% of the time. First, don't capitalize prepositions. If you've taken 4th grade English, and passed, then you should be aware of at least a few prepositions. Dictionary.com defines them as, "A word or phrase placed typically before a substantive and indicating the relation of that substantive to a verb, an adjective, or another substantive," but that's easily simplified. A preposition relates one word to another (i.e. travel by foot, a package from my uncle, drink to health). Second, don't capitalize articles. There are three articles in the English language: a, an, and the. I won't get into when to use each, but I will warn you to be vigilant that you don't mistake articles for other types of adjectives, such as possessives. If it isn't one of the three words listed in the second sentence of this paragraph, then it isn't an article. Third, I can't stress this enough, and I don't know how people began to be fooled: forms of the verb 'be' do not receive any special treatment. I have seen both 'is' and 'was' un-capitalized in titles, and there is absolutely no grammatical basis for this. Fourth, the first word of a title is always capitalized, even if it breaks the first or second rule. Articles and prepositions, when they're the first word of a title, are capitalized, without fail. Fifth, use what you know! Don't go along capitalizing every word just because that's common practice. It's only common practice among people who don't know they're doing it! Even if Fox were to capitalize every first letter of a title, it would still be wrong. Sixth, conjunctions are not capitalized. Conjunction is a pet of speech, which dictionary.com defines as, "The part of speech that serves to connect words, phrases, clauses, or sentences." Some examples are and, or, but, so, because, then, yet, and for. However, there are three different types of conjunctions, and some words that may act as conjunctions most of the time act as prepositions too. I won't try to explain all the ins and outs of conjunctions here; if you're questioning whether a word is a conjunction, look it up in a dictionary. Examples: Marge In Chains -> Marge in Chains The word 'in' is a preposition, connecting the words Marge and Chains in this title. 'In' should not be capitalized. Bart Gets An A -> Bart Gets an A 'An' is an article of the word 'A,' so it does not receive capitalization. A Star is Burns -> A Star Is Burns 'Is' is not a preposition or an article, and, therefore, does receive capitalization. the Italian Bob -> The Italian Bob Although 'the' is an article, it receives capitalization because it is also the first word of the title.           Episode Citation Another major problem that comes along while typing an episode title is the correct way to cite it. This is an interesting topic, because it gives the writer a choice, but, by the same token, offers guidelines as well. There are two main methods we'll examine here, and both are used about the same. The first way is to put the episode title in italics. This is the least confusing way, especially if the name of the episode in reference comes at the end of a sentence. In HTML, the <i></i> tags can be used. On most popular bulletin boards the tags are [i][/i], and, in most cases, if it is different from either of these it will be printed right on the page The second way is just as good, and is best known in the pages of The New Yorker. However, its usage can become a little hazy sometimes, especially if a person has learned how to correctly format dialogue in English. It uses either the double or single quotation marks: " or '. There is no specific preference as to when one is used, but it is professional to be uniform with one or the other. First, no comma is needed when using quotation marks to cite a title. Second, if the title comes at the end of a sentence or independent clause, the quotation marks encompass the period, exclamation mark, question mark, comma, colon, or semi-colon. Examples: Realty Bites -> Realty Bites Italics are used to set off the episode title. This is the simplest way, but it should be noted that a differentiation should be made between episode titles and series titles. If italics are used to show that a phrase is the title of an episode, then quotations should be used to show that a phrases is the title of a series. "Last Exit to Springfield" is a fantastic episode. Because the title comes at the beginning of the sentence, there is no confusion with what should be included. Also notice that no comma is used before the closing quotation mark, such as is the case in, "It was the best of times; it was the blurst of times," which is a piece of dialogue. I loved "Lisa's Substitute." The title is the last thing in the sentence, so quotation marks do go around the period. I enjoyed "Summer of 4 Ft. 2," but it is not flawless. Commas used to connect two independent clauses should be treated the same way as any other punctuation mark and are included in the quotations.	Home OFF -BK Lounge -Books -DVD Texts -Food -Grammar -I & S Guide -Lit Refs -Match-Ups -MIA -Protagonists -S18 Stats -Seven Sins -Showrunners -Springfields -Stubs -Tattoo -Trees On the Web -Buttons -Choice 06 -Choice 07 -Community -Graveyard -Halloween -Linkspaedia -Tips -Webmasters Year 3000 -GM Exhibit -Grades -Prelims -Six Feet -Textbook Real World -About -Accolades -Contacts -Disclaimer -Legal -Mission -Support
		Bethlehem, PA