Saozig
Hippy
Oh, how quaint. Here I was thinking someone was going to whine about so-called thread necromancy.
Anyhow, since you are so concerned about good writing and grammar, allow me to assist you:
The space before the comma shouldn't be there. In English, we never use commas like that. Fortunately, that is easy enough to fix: just take a half-second to delete that space. Viola!
Now, look at this whole sentence. You have two complete sentences improperly joined together in one sentence. That makes it a run-on sentence and that's a writing and grammar no-no.
There are a few different ways you can fix this, depending on your writing style and personal preferences.
1. You can separate them into two distinct sentences:
The "Writing and Grammar" rating will give -5 reputation. Maybe then people will learn how to write.
2. You can use a conjunction:
The "Writing and Grammar" rating will give -5 reputation and maybe then people will learn how to write.
3. You can also try something that's a bit more formal and higher register, in terms of English writing, by using a semi-colon, which would replace the conjunction entirely. This would allow you to retain, in a written sense, the flow of ideas from the first sentence to next that might be lost when using a period:
The "Writing and Grammar" rating will give -5 reputation; maybe then people will learn how to write.
Just be sure to not add a space in between the semi-colon and the word preceding it.
I hope this helps. Personally, even though I paid my bills as an undergrad and a grad student by proofreading and copyrighting everything from doctoral dissertations to books published by the APA and AMA, I try not to engage in critiquing other people's writing online, since I have already done so much of it for a paycheck. Besides, despite my proofreading experience, I have dysgraphia, a disability similar to dyslexia, that affects how my brain processes language as I am writing or typing it, and I've been know to make some pretty bad errors myself. So I am sensitive to the fact that some people may have a disability or some other obstacle when writing online, and since I have no way of knowing to whom I'm talking most of the time, I simply employ a modicum of basic etiquette and civility and try not to needlessly waste my own time online haranguing, gaslighting or snarking others over silly typos or clumsy grammar. For someone so concerned about the issue of writing and grammar, however, I have happily made an exception.
