It's National Punctuation Day!
I didn't know it when I woke up this morning, but it's National Punctuation Day. Yep, punctuation is celebrated every year on September 24th, and I never knew until today.
My roommate sent me an e-mail about it this afternoon. It was quite a humorous e-mail, too. See, Michelle just doesn't pay as much attention to grammar and punctuation as I do. That's fine by me. Well, maybe it's not the best thing, but I definitely don't think she's an idiot or a terrible person for misspellings and misplaced commas. I just think everyone needs an editor—probably in the same way that everyone needs a counselor. The funny thing is, no one ever admits to needing either! :)
Apparently people get a bit anxious to write anything to me. On several occasions, friends have written something similar to this in their e-mails: "Don't judge my writing, okay?" In fact, my roommate wrote this in her e-mail today: "To be in the presence of an editor when you have bad spelling is similar to facing God in your sins." Ha!
Well, Michelle, I'm not judging you or anyone else. Not usually, anyway. Sometimes people act pretty hoity-toity and pretentious, though, and I must admit, I do get a kick when I notice they use "your" instead of "you're," for example.
However, I did the same thing myself just the other day and felt like such a hypocrite . . . Oy.
Anyway, Michelle also asked me what my favorite punctuation mark is. The truth is, I'm not sure; although, if we're assuming that "favorite" is just another word for "most commonly used," then my favorite punctuation mark is the ellipsis. It's sometimes a very helpful way to end a sentence that you just don't know how to end. It's also used to indicate that you omitted something from a direct quotation, which is kind of fun. The serial comma is also great to use because it can clear a lot of things up.
It's so cliche, I know, but picking a favorite punctuation mark is like picking a favorite child! They're all so important in communicating ideas clearly. I don't know if I can ever express my absolute love for letters, words, syntax, and grammar. It's kind of a religion. :)
Anyway, if you want more information on National Punctuation Day and punctuation in general, check out these articles and Web sites:
And finally, here's a link to one of my favorite blogs: The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks." (It's on my permanent blogroll, too.)
Thing I'm thankful for: people who love proper punctuation and grammar as much as me!
posted by Sara @ 2:41 PM
5 Comments:
I would love a full time editor. Someone to do the detail work. I was never good at that!
That is funny about your friends thinking that you critique their writing. When I was taking my psychology classes, my friends would always think I was analyzing them. Not even.
I love ellipses too! But I REALLY love exclamation points! I use them more than periods! You would assume I was yelling at you the whole time! It is like that Sienfield episode when Elaine's boyfriend doesn't use an exclamation point and she breaks up with him over it. Well I would be the opposite. I would use too many of them!!!!
Yeah, people always think I'm...uh...judging their doodle drawings. I'm like, "look, just because I'm an artist doesn't mean I'm always critiquing your artwork. Hmmm..." For the record, I think commas are my favorite - I probably overuse them because I like them so much.
Lastly, "To be in the presence of an editor when you have bad spelling is similar to facing God in your sins," was said by the funniest little leprechaun I've ever met.
yo dog. you're a dork, which is awesome. I just want you to know that I have silently been carrying on the fight for the serial comma throughout my adulthood. I remembered some english teacher along the way pointing it out and have since had several educated adults, people that I respected even, tell me that the comma before 'and' in a list of three or more was unnecessary. I would quietly accept the inaccuracy of their ways and after they were gone i would feel a sense of pride that my pre-and serial comma remained unscathed by their ignorant attacks on punctuation i didn't even ask them about. On a related note, it seems that sometime since my high school english days it has since become acceptable to only use one space following each sentance. Is that correct?
Hm. I don't know about that one, Taylor. I need to get to the bottom of it, though, because I've wondered that myself. ;)
Both a single space after a sentence and no serial commas are Associated Press guidelines which a vast majority of the journalism world follows. I personally always liked to use serial commas in my english papers but not in my newspaper stories. Also, it isn't my favorite but are you familiar with the interrobang? You should totally look it up.
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