~Apparently today is National Punctuation Day. Who knew? As it turns out, I spent much of the day editing the church newsletter, and realizing again that punctuation is not a strong point for many people. Of course, I knew that, having spent much time grading first year college students' writing in my past career.
~I've always been a little bit of a grammar geek myself. I loved diagramming sentences when I was in seventh grade, like solving a puzzle. And I liked figuring out the intricacies of correctly punctuating a complex sentence. I understood that commas, not colons preceded a quote, that exclamation marks were best used in moderation, that semi-colons weren't an excuse to run just anything together. Somehow those things (mostly) stuck with me.
~My personal pet peeves? Confusing it's (it is) with its (possessive), you're (you are) with your (possessive), using 's to make things plural, and too !!!!! many !!!! exclamation marks !!!
~How about you? Do you have punctuation pet peeves?
*yes, I do have the book
4 comments:
Putting punctuation marks "outside quotations", rather than inside "where they belong." That grates, every time.
The possessive 's to pluralize IS really annoying. I also hate the use of quotations when they're not remotely appropriate.
You do know about the English Fail blog, right? I think you'd like it.
Too, many, commas. People seem to think that they belong everywhere and they really just don't. I also find that many people now use an ellipsis (...) to string random thoughts together rather than to indicate missing text...for some reason I find that annoying.
:Putting punctuation marks "outside quotations", rather than inside "where they belong."
Except that is acceptable in the UK as well as in French, Spanish. If you run across someone like me, who wasn't taught US grammar in school and then learned it in French, then it's hopeless. I have had to work backwards into English grammar from French, then Spanish.
Otherwise, you have nailed them all -- especially the overuse of apostrophes where they don't belong.
Post a Comment