Happy National Punctuation Day—the 11th annual of this festive event. Get out your red pens and Strunk and White and get ready to have some fun today.
This Time article claims that punctuation is changing: some would say not for the better. Among other things, says this post, the apostrophe appears to be phasing out in some circles. I think that’s a shame. One problem is that some technology autocorrects apostrophes improperly, adding them where they are not supposed to be, or removing them. Perhaps tech programmers should work with editors to catch those programming errors.
Time also says that emoticons are being used as punctuation these days. I believe that. While I try not to overuse emoticons in email or text messages, I find myself including them to ensure the reader understands my tone, especially as I kid in text and emails more than people might expect. Texting and email are changing the way we use punctuation—I think toward a more informal usage. Is that a bad thing? Yes, if you don’t know why you are using punctuation, but no, if you understand why you are using a certain punctuation form. The Huffington Post cautions against using text talk in writing. I use dashes in email much more than I do in more formal writing such as briefs because a dash imparts a more casual tone and sets off writing in a more visual way. That’s not something I generally wish to do in a brief where I’m aiming for more fluidity.
The Huffington Post further cautions against misusing commas before conjunctions when the second half of the sentence fails to contain both a subject and a verb. This type of clause is otherwise known as a dependent clause. Those of us who grew up in the 1970’s should remember the School House Rock video on conjunctions—take a look and go down memory lane. I was pleased to see just this week that at least one elementary school is teaching the FANBOYS acronym, which stands for the conjunctions in the English language (in case you want a refresher: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so).
Finally, the “official” website for National Punctuation Day discusses each punctuation form. You can even enter a contest on this site (the prompt: “What are the top ten ways proper punctuation has affected your life?”).
Hat tip to 1L Nikki Paterson for the “Let’s eat Grandpa” and Huffington Post links.