Guide to the GP Process for Writers [new writers please read!]

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The Analysis Writer's Guide to the GP Process
original thread by P Squared

What is GP?
GP, or Grammar-Prose, is the process in which analyses and articles published on Smogon are proofread. Smogon holds itself to a high standard and thus the things published onsite should avoid spelling and grammatical errors. Members of the GP team find and fix these errors, help paragraphs flow better, remove unnecessary fluff, catch formatting errors, and in general make things easier to understand! Here is an example of a typical GP check.

1. Preparing Your Analysis for GP
Once your analysis has finished going through Quality Control, it can be moved to the Grammar-Prose stage.

Please be considerate and take a few minutes to proofread your analysis by yourself before sending it to GP. We don't expect you to be a grammar expert or to memorize the Smogon GP standards, but just as the QC team should not have to correct you on basic metagame knowledge, the GP team should not have to capitalize Pokemon names for you. The below hide tag provides some common errors that can be fixed as a writer without any grammatical knowledge:

  • The word 'Pokemon' must always have a capital P. Analyses also do not use the e accent. Do not say ‘mons’.
  • Capitalization: All Pokemon names, move names, item names, ability names etc need to have capital letters. You can check the formatting they have on PS. For example, Flare Blitz not flare blitz or Flare blitz.
  • These names should always be written out, so Swords Dance not SD, and Assault Vest not AV.
  • The exact formatting of move names is also important. Notable move names to check for:
    • Stealth Rock, not Rocks. The same also applies to Sticky Web; do not say Webs or Sticky Webs.
    • U-turn, not U-Turn.
  • Type names: There are formatted as Water-types, not Water Types or water types.
  • Pokemon forme (not form) names:
    • Regional forme names: (such as Alolan/Galarian formes) are formatted as Galarian Slowking not Slowking-Galar/Slowking-G. The region name goes first; note that this differs from the PS teambuilder. Use Alolan, Galarian, Hisuian, or Paldean as the region indicator before the name.
    • Other forme names: Forme names don't include the whole word but instead just one letter to identify the forme. Therefore, Landorus-T is correct, and Landorus-Therian is not. This also differs from the PS teambuilder. Base formes (Landorus, Ogerpon etc) do not need hyphens, so it’s just Landorus not Landorus-I.

Regarding bullet-point analyses, note that everything still must be in a complete sentence! Please make sure to write out your sentences on your own before sending your analysis to GP.

2. Moving Your Analysis to the GP Stage
To move your analysis into the GP stage, you need to do a few things:
  • Make sure that the most up-to-date version of your analysis is edited into the original post of your thread and is not hidden in the replies. The GP team will check what’s in the OP.
  • Change the yellow Quality Control tag to the green Copyediting one on your thread title.
  • Make sure that [GP 0/1] is in your thread's title; you can either have Charizard [QC 2/2] [GP 0/1] or Charizard [GP 0/1]
1738824433993.png

1738824441904.png

  • Tag the GP team bot in your thread. This will put the analysis on the GP queue and ensure it gets a check - the GP team is unlikely to find it otherwise. To do this, you ned to type @ and then GP team - do not try to copy a URL. The preview for the tag may not show up, but the tag will still work if you type it as below and press post.
1738824452943.png


Do not tag the bot multiple times. You only need to tag the bot one time per analysis. This means you also do not need to tag it when your analysis is ready for a second check or when it is done. The GP team takes care of that.

You can contact the GP team with any questions after you've tagged the GP bot by VMing or PMing your favorite GP member or hopping into the GP Discord server to talk to us!

3. Implementing GP Checks
The best and most accurate way to implement a GP check is to click the Copyedit button on the GP member's post. This will quote the entire check with the formatting intact. Make sure you click the copyedit button instead of the reply one to avoid an additional quote tag.

Note that manually copy-pasting the check fails to do this; please never copy-paste GP checks. Once you have quoted the GP check, you should see something like this.
1738824465979.png


From here, your job is easy. All you have to do is:
  • Remove the deletions (typically red with a strikethrough)
  • De-format the additions (typically blue)
  • Address and then delete the comments
GP checks will include notes like (AC) or (AP), which are there to more clearly mark on punctuation changes, since they can be hard to notice. The following abbreviations are used:
  • AC / RC = add / remove comma
  • AP / RP = add / remove period
  • ASC / RSC = add / remove semicolon
  • AH / RH = add / remove hyphen
Make sure to delete these comments as well. For removed punctuation, the GPer will either remove it for you as part of the check (in which case you just delete the comment) or they may highlight the punctuation for you to delete yourself - make sure to check that the punctuation edits are implemented!

Once you're done with all this, copy-paste the entire post and edit it back into your OP. Don't forget to edit the thread title to reflect the GP stage [GP 1/1]. If you use the Reply method, this entire process shouldn't take more than a few minutes!

To de-format text, highlight the text you want to remove formatting from and click the eraser button in the top left corner (next to Bold). Do not change the text color to black.
1738824477583.png


Here is a short video (under 1 minute) that goes through this process.

Most importantly, please do not blindly implement GP checks. It is possible for a GP check to misunderstand what you are saying and accidentally change it to something incorrect. Please read and understand what changes are being made, and if you have any questions or disagreements, let them know or ask for clarification.

3a. What if there's an amcheck / AMGP on my analysis? Do I have to implement it?
Amchecks are done by Smogon users who are not part of the GP team, and therefore they do not count as an official GP check that you need to finish your analysis. You are not obligated to implement any part of an amcheck, but it is a good idea to at least read through it. Oftentimes an amcheck will make many great changes, so you shouldn't just ignore it and wait for an official one. Feel free to implement the changes you like and ignore the changes you don't like!

If you are interested in amchecking yourself, check out this thread!
 
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