Keep It Simple, Senshi
A Bit of a Rant Concerning Spelling, Grammar, and Page Design, by Bethany Sullivan 4-21-04

Okay, so you’ve thought of a Senshi who’s way cool; got her powers, fuku, and transformation all thought out, and now you want to share her with the rest of the world. You’ve got a bit of webspace, and you’re dying to use it. So you make your webpage and then post it to your site. But nobody comes… and you’re wondering why they don’t want to see your Senshi in all her glory. So you load your page, and this comes up:
‘hi this ix my p@ge for my saolr senshei her name is slr star n shes way kwel she has a swrod n shes the daughter of queen barreln she had a dark powering her n if she uxes it she looses all her powers so sad :( n urans n neptune dont liek her cuz they think shes evil n stuff but shs rilly misundastod n she leiks hotaroo n hotarou likes her n they r friends n then EBIL attacks n she must sacrifeci her powerz to save the senshies n she diez but she comes backto life n becomz a senshia again n every1s happy agan yey! :)))))))))’
Whoa. Now I’m a patient person with a lot of free time and I can sit and sift through that and find out about your Senshi. Most people won’t. They’ll hit the ‘back’ button as soon as they hit the second or third word, and that’s why you may not be getting any hits. Now, I’m not expecting you to spell ‘onomatopoeia’ or be able to diagram a sentence, but I do expect you to be able to properly spell, capitalize words, and use simple punctuation. Now, let’s go back and clean up that mess up there, yes?
“Hi! This is my page for my Sailor Senshi, Sailor Star, and she’s way cool. She has a sword and she’s the daughter of Queen Beryl. She has a dark power in her, and if she uses it, she’ll lose all her powers. Isn’t that sad? :( Uranus and Neptune don’t like her, because they think she’s evil, but she’s really just misunderstood. She likes Hotaru, and Hotaru likes her; they’re friends. Then evil attacks and she must sacrifice her powers to save the Senshi, and then she dies, but she comes back to life and becomes a Senshi again! Everyone’s happy again, yay! :)
Now, do you see how much easier that is to read and decipher? ^_^However, we have another problem: no paragraphs. Paragraphs are nothing more than line breaks designed to make it easier for you and others to read what’s been written. Essentially, when you change speakers or subjects, use a paragraph. Like this:
“Hi! This is my page for my Sailor Senshi, Sailor Star, and she’s way cool. She has a sword and she’s the daughter of Queen Beryl. She has a dark power in her, and if she uses it, she’ll lose all her powers. Isn’t that sad? :(

Uranus and Neptune don’t like her, because they think she’s evil, but she’s really just misunderstood.

She likes Hotaru, and Hotaru likes her; they’re friends.

Then evil attacks and she must sacrifice her powers to save the Senshi, and then she dies, but she comes back to life and becomes a Senshi again! Everyone’s happy again, yay! :)
Now you have a profile that’s easy to read, and people will want to read it! And all you did was clean up the bad spelling, capitalize, and make sentences and paragraphs! See how that works?

Granted, nobody’s an expert at spelling and grammar, especially if you don’t speak English as a first language. So this is what you should do; find a beta reader to look over your work and find any errors or uncertainties in your work. This requires two things, however:
One, that you find a beta who isn’t a close friend or family, as they may not tell you exactly what needs to be fixed. A total stranger is often best.
Two, that you’re mature and open to any criticism you may receive. This means not pitching a fit when your beta tells you that you’ve misplaced an ‘i’ or can’t understand what you’ve written.

Now you’ve gotten your profile back up on your page and all’s cool, or so you may think. But while browsing, you pick up a neat little JavaScript trick and you think about how neat it would look on your page. And then you find another one, and another one, and keep piling them on. However, all those neat little tricks like constantly flashing links, counters, name popups, flashing images, background music, and so on, take aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaages to load on your page, and nobody will visit for fear that your page will make their computer crash. It’s true; I’ve seen it happen. And I have a new computer and a cable modem! Can you imagine what it does to those people still on dialup and Windows 2000?

First off, nobody really needs fifty different JavaScript applications, animated images, or background music files on their page. Whittle it down to one or two at most, preferably small ones that won’t give your visitors headaches. Counters are okay, as are a few animated images and perhaps a song playing in the background. Links that CONSTANTLY change colors are not and may even be harmful to some viewers. If you’re really not sure if you can’t live without that little flashing mouse pointer on your site, remove it, and then go back in a week and see if you miss it. If not, it’s fairly safe to say you probably don’t need it on your page at all.

And now you’ve gotten your Senshi on the web, she’s readable, and the page won’t scare anyone away! Way to go! Remember, keep it simple and clear, and you won’t have any problems! If you have any questions, do feel free to email me at AmikoSauzi@aol.com and I’ll be happy to answer them for you. ^^