I hate having to turn members away because they can't write. After all English might not be their first, or even their second, language, they might be struggling with a few things or whatever. But at the same time I feel I have a duty to my other members to keep our high standards.

So I was thinking that a good compromise would be to ask the members who can write well to sign up for a 'member angel' program in which they would take one of the members who can't write so well under their wing and be a tutor and a friend to them.

I'm wondering - good idea or bad idea?

I don't find anything wrong with this, everyone has to start somewhere and I am all for making the RPG community as a whole grow. More and more people are discovering how freaking amazing role playing is on forums and so we have to expect that we are going to get members who really want to join and put forth some effort, but also may be carrying baggage - like horrendous knowledge in the English language. When you get those members, you really have no choice but to accommodate them (and your pre-existing members) or turn them away.

In light of 'introducing them to the role playing world', I quite like this idea. Though only if this remains to be what I think it is, which is an optional thing for your current members to take up who qualify as good writers. This is certainly not something to ever be forced on anyone, even to those who you think need the guidance.

On the site I currently administer we have the Sponsor Program. It is a program where members can sign up as a Sponsee and move to improve, whether it's in posting, admininng, modding, graphics.. and a whole slew of other things.

I think programs like this could work because most people say "find a site more suited for your level" but sending them away outright isn't quite the answer as they may not even know where to look for a site that is of "their level". If they aren't up to par then giving them a way to get there is always a good way about it.

This is an interesting question, mostly because I run a board we're touting as advanced, and one of our members does not speak English as a first language. His husband, however, does, and recently joined the site himself with a character. Our French native writes adequately well but sometimes just makes minor errors in his English writing. When his husband's not around to proof, he just asks other members to note when he's made mistakes, and he'll go ahead and change them.

This member is very open to suggestions and criticism, however. If a new member isn't, I could see how it might become a problem if your site's focus is on strong writing and the like.

We have a system of mentoring in place on one of the games I am on, in order to help improve the overall quality of writing, and help players who maybe aren't the greatest writers hone their skills and become better at the craft. We have mentioned in the rules about less experienced writers being welcome, but that they'll be expected to be willing to improve and take writing advice. Once they're in game we work with them to improve posts.

I think it is a good idea. Everybody had started somewhere, and being interested to play in the game makes for a great motivation to improve. Each new player (or some older too if they need) is assigned a mentor from the staff. The suggestions for improving their style are collected by all sthe staff in the staff board, and they are communicated by the mentor in a friendly e-mail/PM. Criticism comes after praising the writer's good points.

Some people wanted to improve and succeeded, others were offended by the suggestion of help (even if it was needed) and they left. But the ones who remained and improved were more numerous.

It's been my experience that the worst writers can be turned into the best writers if they have

1. Potential
2. A willingness to do what it takes to improve
and
3. Help and support.

Of course it would always be voluntary since I wouldn't want to force anyone into anything and because volunteers tend to try harder.

I think I would still be rejecting some potential members though since the member angel program would only be offered to those people who demonstrate a desire to improve.

For example I have two new members on my site who's writing samples were rejected the first time.

The first one was rejected because her sample was only 200 words long and consisted of what I can only describe as a 'smashed together paragraph'. I have never seen fiction written so technically. There were no spelling mistakes, no grammatical errors and no width or breadth. in other words it was written properly but not well. So concise was the writing that it made not only the character seem flat but the whole scene as well. Fleshing out something like that should have been a no-brainer. Yet when I asked her to increase it to the required 500 word her reply was 'sorry everyone nmiss obviously doesn't want me here.'

If that's you attitude, then, no I don't want you here.

On the other hand the second person not only had a sample that was too short it also had several grammatical errors. This time however when I asked him to improve it he did. Not only did he make the 500 required words he managed 200 more on top of that. He improved most of his grammatical mistakes but still had several others. But he had impressed me because he had shown that he wanted to be a good writer. Myself and the another staff member talked to him and discovered that English was not his first language but he would fix anything we wanted him to. I asked him if he thought he could convince one of the other members to help him and he replied that he had a friend on the site that would. So we approved him on the condition that he continue to improve.