National Punctuation Day

[Simon]

National Punctuation Day is meant to be a celebration of the lowly comma, correctly used quotes and other proper uses of periods, semicolons and the ever-mysterious ellipsis. It's also the holiday that reminds America that "a semicolon is not a surgical procedure."

Since many of us here on this board owe part of our success (or lack of it) to our ability to construct sentences and paragraphs, I thought it would be a good idea to take a moment to remember how important punctuation can be.

Here's a often-used example of how punctuation can completely change the meaning of something you write:

Dear John:
I want a man who knows what love is all about. You are generous, kind, thoughtful. People who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me for other men. I yearn for you. I have no feelings whatsoever when we're apart. I can be forever happy--will you let me be yours?
Gloria

Dear John:
I want a man who knows what love is. All about you are generous, kind, thoughtful people, who are not like you. Admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me. For other men, I yearn. For you, I have no feelings whatsoever. When we're apart, I can be forever happy. Will you let me be?
Yours,
Gloria

Don't think punctuation is all that important? Check out this story:
Errant comma costs company $2.13 million

And a quick story about someone whose pet peeve about punctuation actually increased traffic to her website:
Blogger 'Exposes' Annoying Quote Abuse

Happy Punctuating!




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