Friends Don't Let Friends Write Crappy RPGamer Editorials (or "English 101 for Editorial Writers.")

by Aaron Gover

[This editorial is a cleaned-up and expanded version of something I wrote for my personal home page.]

editorial, n. An article in a publication expressing the opinion of its editors or publishers. - dictionary.com

I remember way back when RPGamer was known as SquareNet, and the editorials did not suck. Most of them were actually pretty nice, dealing with different issues in games that people were talking about. Religion in Xenogears or Final Fantasy Tactics, the Death of Aeris, all of it was gone over and discussed in a rational manner. Editorials were held to strict standards for grammar and style, and a good time was had by all.

Now fast forward about two years.

"DUDE! I LIKE FINAL FANTASY ANTHOLOGY NOW SHUT UP AND QUIT SAYING IT SUCKS, OKAY!?"

I guess you could say that the quality of the editorials has gone down. Kind of like you could say that Dresden got bombed a little in World War 2.

Most people have heard of an old postulate that claims that if you put an infinite number of monkeys on an infinite number of typewriters, they'd eventually recreate the complete works of Shakespeare. Most recent RPGamer editorials? Ten monkeys, five minutes.

I mean, the level of quality expected from a semi-professional site like RPGamer is higher than that expected from "Jim-Bobs Geocities Squaresoft Home page" (or "Vincent's Page of Happy Thoughts," for that matter.)

Now, I'm not claiming that these editorials should be written at the level of quality expected from a collegiate thesis, but they should be something that the writers can take pride in. Keeping in mind that the purpose of an editorial is to argue a point, there are some basic rules of grammar, spelling, and style that all writers should adhere to if they plan on displaying their work and not getting ridiculed:

• Proofreading: You can catch most of the mistakes you've made just by performing the simple act of proofreading your submission before you submit it. Now, before you start screaming "But I spell checked it!" (Never start a sentence with a preposition, by the way,) note that proofreading is not the same as spell checking. Proofreading is the process of reading the written work of yourself or others and searching for errors in language, style, and grammar. A good piece of advice from the author David Eddings is that you should "read your work like it was written by somebody that you don't like," in other words, read very critically. To sum it up, before you submit your editorial, proofread it at least once after spell checking it. Maybe even get a friend to proofread it for you.
• Researching: Another dying art, the researched editorial. The writer of an editorial should always have some facts to back up your position. Writing "Something I read in a magazine/message board/web site" simply isn't good enough. A writer must be more specific in providing enough information about your source that an interested read could go look at your source. A good example would be "A piece of information I read in Next Generation, Issue 54, page 35." Also, know your source! Just because something is published - especially on the Internet - doesn't guarantee its validity. Make sure you get your information from a reliable source. Getting your facts right always improves an editorial. Another related point is to not claim opinions as fact. Always make sure that when you are stating an opinion, you clearly indicate it as such.
• Logical Argumentation: First off, make sure your points flow logically. Saying something along the lines of "Final Fantasy VIII had good graphics so Squaresoft must suck!" is completely illogical statement. Not only is it, in my opinion, blatantly false and inflammatory, but the two segments of the sentence do not even agree with each other. However, this editorial is long enough as it is, so I will simply point you towards a page that will go much more in depth about critical thinking: http://www.kcmetro.cc.mo.us/longview/ctac/corenotes.htm

My final stylistic tips are simply to improve the appearance of your editorial:

1.Don't use acronyms! Spell out the names of what you're referring to.
2.If you must use acronyms, capitalize them, and make sure people understand what your acronyms refer to. For instance, using "SF2" for SaGa Frontier 2 might confuse people like me, who have been using SF2 in place of Street Fighter 2 for several years.
3.Use some basic HTML tags, like <B>, </B> for bold, <I>, </I> for italics, and <U>, </U> for underline. Bold looks a lot better than all-caps.
4.Don't insult people who disagree with you. It really, really looks bad.
5.If you're going to use a term like "Deus ex Machina," know what it means and how to use it before you do, especially if you're using a phrase from another language like Latin or French.
6.Paragraph! Break your editorial into separate paragraphs. Don't leave it all clumped up and impossible to read!
7.Make sure your editorial is written with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Don't just throw your thoughts down in any old way. Try writing an outline beforehand if you need to.

Now, I realize that I am expecting a lot from my fellow editorial writers. I know that many people will say "What the hell, if I wanted to write like that, I'd be writing for school!" I say to you, do you really want the world to see your editorial and think "Jeez, what a moron!" Most people who read your editorial will never meet you. The only way they'll know you is through your writing. Doesn't that make you want to present your best face to the world?

C'mon people, I know you can write better editorials. Proofread! Use spell check! Use a thesaurus! DON'T USE CAPSLOCK! Capitalize your acronyms! Attempt to make your editorial look like it was written by someone more intelligent than a chimp. However, if all you want to do is write simplistic, childish-looking blobs of text, you need to go to a message board or to an Internet chat somewhere, because I feel that our editorials should be better than that.