Today is National Punctuation Day!
“The writer who neglects punctuation, or mispunctuates, is liable to be misunderstood…. For the want of merely a comma, it often occurs that an axiom appears a paradox, or that a sarcasm is converted into a sermonoid.”
— Edgar Allan Poe, “Marginalia,” Graham’s Magazine, Feb. 1848
I’m afraid that I can be rather liberal with punctuation and fairly inconsistent— I do love a misplaced dash— but I don’t think I’m guilty of the next, at least not too often. (Ignore the first line of this post, please.)
“Cut out all those exclamation marks. An exclamation mark is like laughing at your own jokes.”
— F. Scott Fitzgerald
And I liked this winner of last year’s haiku contest at the day’s official website.
Time to eat grandma.
Save her with a comma or
Simply savor her.—Tom Murawski
I am all over the place, lol
I love punctuation…dramatically!!!
I’m forever using exclamation marks! see what I mean? I’ve been told it shows how excited I am about something when I use them in my blog posts.
Speaking of punctuation, has anyone else noticed the trend that some authors are not using speech marks anymore. I know Cold Mountain does it and a few others I have seem I find it really hard to read.
Yeah, I hate that. I hope its a trend that passes quickly.
Hi Carol,
I tend to be a little liberal with the commas and definitely with the exclamation marks, although I have never entertained the notion that I am laughing at my own jokes.
I am not sure which is worse, an over sprinkling of punctuation, or non at all, which is what many young people seem to advocate today?
I have a problem with laughing at my own jokes!
I laugh at mine too, since nobody else does.