Punctuate with care
Today is set aside as National Punctuation Day (though, like National Grammar Day [March 4, isn’t it?], an occasion I’m inclined to approach with some misgivings); it has been commemorated since 2004 by Jeff Rubin, the self-described Punctuation Man (!) and his wife, who, since “premiering Punctuation Playtime in September 2006 … have been as busy as commas in a Sears catalog,” and who carry the message that “careless punctuation mistakes cost time, money, and productivity”: a proposition that merits examination — and illustrated here by a sentence that will have included all 13 standard punctuation marks when it arrives at a full stop.
Comments
Bravo!
Posted by: Rawley Grau | September 24, 2008 4:23 PM
I'm going to copy and print that sentence and hang it on my wall, because it answers three of the punctuation predicaments in which I most often find myself.
Thank you.
(Yes, I'm distressed because you omitted the virgule and single quotation marks, but included the brackets. At least we agree on the interrobang.)
Posted by: Bucky | September 24, 2008 7:37 PM
A great way to use single quotes is in flower varietal names.
And I also do not regard the interrobang as standard punctuation--it's "slang punctuation."
(and the smilie is compound punctuation)
Posted by: Talley Sue Hohlfeld | September 25, 2008 10:41 AM
I took the occasion of National Punctuation Day (once I found out about it) to publicly register my support for the serial comma:
http://www.slantsixcreative.com/2008/09/24/yes-yes-and-yes-use-the-serial-comma/
Thoughts?
Posted by: neal s | September 25, 2008 11:42 AM
Jmac - seein' as how you have become my punctuation guru, could you please answer the following question.
Periods and commas used in tandem with quotation marks: do you place them logically or...uh...prescriptivistly?
(You could climb on the "use Sarah to increase your hits" bandwagon with a post about the rules governing dropping the "g" in textual representation of folksy conversation, by the way.)
Posted by: Bucky | October 9, 2008 11:55 AM