A guide to literacy

[duna the killer]

This took like a week to think up .-.

Illiterate: This is a common insult that usually literates or semi literates use on innocent people who don't use correct punctuation or any of that. Illiterate's posts are usually 1-3 sentences long and their words sometimes can't be understood. Here is an example of an illiterate post: walks on shore catchs to fish Hey everyone look what i have! If you didn't notice in that post, the words after Hey where what the cat said and the walking on shore and catching the fish was the rp part. In rp battles, illiterates commonly auto-hit and power-play.

Semi literates: Semi literates aren't as good as literates, but decently better than illiterates. Semi literate's posts are usually 3-6 sentences long, and rarely over one post. Semi literates do use punctuation, but sometimes misspell a letter, and are commonly found fixing it with a *. Here is an example of a semi literate post: She trotted along the shore. She saw two fish nearby. She turned and leapt on them, claws unsheathed, "Hey everyone! Look at what I have!" Better to understand right? Semi literates sometimes do auto-hit but usually don't power play.

Literates: Literates are like the best of the best. Literate's posts usually last 2-3 POSTS long, rarely shorter. Literates usually never misspell, but if they do they will fix it after that post with a *. Literates use dictionary words, words that you would find in 8th grade science class. Here is an example of the same scenario, but literate: The ebon felid trod along the sandy unstable terra. Her opticals caught two trout near the shore. Turning she crouched. Springing back form solid back appendages she unsheathed her retractiles and they pierced both fishs' scales. She dragged them ashore and her words rang towards camp, "Hey everyone! Look at what I have!" Some words you probably didn't understand there. Literates never auto-hit and never power-play.

Auto Hitting: People usually never notice this. If you are in an rp fight, this is an example of auto hitting: (Wrong Way) He slashed the wolf's eye making them instantly blind. (Right Way) He attempted to slash the wolf's eye, hoping they would be blind. Get the difference?

Powerplaying: Considered one of the worst ways to rp, powerplaying is basicly making your character have unrealistic powers that the same species would never have. Here is an example: He rams the dragon so hard their spine ribs and neck all shatter! It pains me to type such an rp.

Wolf Speakers(requested by Umi and Starrk): These are people that make up/use fake words and deem themselves literate and start joining literate rps like crazy. The words they use don't make too much sense, and some mean other words that don't even mean the body part they are describing. Some literate rps do not accept Wolf-Speakers. You can be literate without using WolfSpeak. Here are a few examples of wolfspeak words, and what they 'mean' to wolfspeakers: Pillar (supposedly the leg), Dagger (The tooth/claw), Banner (The Tail I think), Orb (The eye), Radio (Who came up with this? The Ear). Those were examples of wolfspeak words, and what wolfspeakers think they mean.

[Crystal72]

Wow, those are some good pointers, Dunastar! It's good to know about this; so many power players out there these days... +floof

[inuyasha1086]

Haha, some good pointers here. ^^ One thing I like to point out here is how you didn't mention the difference between regular literate people and wolfspeak users. I am personally a literate rper, but I still don't use words like felid, appendages, auds, luminaries, or optics. Those words fall under wolfspeak and they are gramatically incorrect. Wolfspeak was created by semi-literate users who just use big words all the time to sound smart. I still use cat/feline, legs, ears, and eyes. It doesn't make me less literate, it actually makes me more literate.

[Ian592]

This is a good guide Duna O_O This increased my literacy ingame and I don't autohit anymore (at least I hope not)

[Vespian]

Beautiful guide you have created here Duna. I'm sure it'll provide to become useful to many members who seek to learn the differences when it comes to literacy. However, may I add another, much kinder term, towards the term 'wolfspeak'. I understand how everyone has a different opinion on the matter, though being a wolfspeaker myself, I ask if I can please add this as a mere post and hope I do not offend anyone in the process.

Wolfspeak: A much intricate lingo that not many players use when roleplaying due to the fact that many individuals fail to understand them. I know not by whom exactly created it, though I know that it was birthed by members who have taken their time and effort in order to study the structure of anatomy of your everyday animals considering their bone structure, muscle envelopment, and even eternal organs. However, there has been times when some wolfspeakers do tend to get a bit out of hand and use grammatically incorrect anatomy. I understand why some would be upset about such as I agree, not everyone knows the proper way to use correct wolfspeak. Becoming a wolfspeaker takes loads of studying, time, patience, and practice. However, most prefer to be mere literates instead of a wolfspeaker due to the fact once you become one, well, good luck in actually finding others who'll understand your lingo.

A short, and sweet, definition given' my honest opinion on the matter. As stated, I did not post that to offend anyone nor will I even attempt getting into an argument over this. All I ask is for those who do not even know what wolfspeak truly is to please not despise it so without knowing exactly what it is.

Er, and that concludes my post. Anyways, again, great guide Duna and you've done well in the explanations.

[inuyasha1086]

Starrk, I know you said you weren't going to get into an argument and I respect that, but let me just put my side out there as a literate user that can't stand wolfspeak.

Let me first say that I am a college student studying medicine. I know the anatomy of the body and have actually dissected a cat as part of my lab. I will actually have to do it again next semester. I'm not bragging, just saying that I really do know the anatomy of a cat very well and understand it.

I don't really care about the words being used by wolfspeakers, and actually appreciated it in the beginning when my clan's deputy introduced me to it, and I later joined a wolf pack that also used it and didn't mind it. I mind it when people are misusing it, which happens very often, using small pieces of anatomy to reference a large section of the body and being unrealistic when they do it. Also, they pick up wolfspeak words from other people without understanding the real meaning of the words and make mistakes that grate at my nerves because I DO know what exactly all of those words mean.

Let me give an example. Just last night I was roleplaying  in a battle and someone said they "grabbed the scalpula and jerked on it, dislocating it." Let me break down how that was wrong. Well, first it was an autohit, which shouldn't have happened, but in a huge battle like that, there are always a few that can be looked over as long as they are minor so I'm not going to bother with going through that. Let me get down to how the word scalpula was misused. Scalpula is the shoulder BONE, not the shoulder area or muscle. In the cat, is is small, thin, and flat. Also, cats have HUGE amounts of muscle in that area because of all of the climbing they do. (Seriously, it took us 3 days to get through it in the lab.) There is no way another cat could bite that deep in the first place (Their fangs are only long enough to make it half of the way through the muscle at most) and the bone lays in such a way that there's no way to actually grab hold of it without ripping out the spine or leg bone first. You add more words misused like that and it's an entire post of painful illiteracy.

Honestly, I would prefer semi literate to people who misuse wolfspeak. For me, hearing people refer to the head by a small bone in the skull, or referring to a leg by a single bone, or using digits to refer to the legs when your digits are your fingers and toes (which is another misuse I saw just last night)... it's just plain annoying and painful to read.

Now as I said, I'm not trying to start an argument here, I'm just trying to let us non-wolfspeak literates have a voice too. And I will say this, I only complain about wlfspeak when it is misused like the example I showed above. As long as it is used correctly I'm perfectly fine with it. I won't use it, but I won't say anything or complain either.

And Duna, I'm not criticizing your post. The tutorial is very well done and easy to understand. I'm just expressing that it would be an even better tutorial if you explained the difference between wolfspeakers and regular literates like me. I know a lot of people that don't like when the two are grouped together as one, both wolfspeakers and literates. I just happen to be one of those people.

[Vespian]

You amuse me greatly. Er, but I'll respond to you via PM so that way these dear floofs will not get entangled, aye?

[duna the killer]

K -edits-

[Sir Equius]

Nice guide here, Dunastar. I kind of agree with what Umi said. Being a "wolfspeaker" doesn't necessarily make them litereate. I'm not a fan of wolfspeak myself, and I never use it in roleplaying.

As far as categorizing the differences between semi-literate and literate, does it really matter how many sentences they type out. I think someone is literate if they use all the proper puncuations, sentence structures, and grammar, regardless of how many sentences they post. But that's just me.

[Shenidan]

These are really helpful Duna, Now I get to learn to get more literate..I haven't roleplayed much but I'll get used to it anyway, Nice guide and thanks for sharing this.