-
15948 readersIn honor of National Punctuation Day, commemorated on September 24 (you didn’t forget, did you?), here’s a directory of Web sites documenting, usually with photographs, egregious punctuation errors.
First, by the way, note that the founder of National Punctuation Day, a freelance business-newsletter writer named Jeff Rubin, sponsors a Punctuation Paragraph Contest. The only rule is
-
2158 readersThe proper response to the exclamation "All hail the Interrobang!" is "What the?!" That should be followed, of course, by an "Oh yeah, that thing…" as soon as you're reminded of what heck an interrobang is.
Original Post: All Hail the Interrobang! (What the?!)
Your eBook: Click here to download the Basic English Grammar ebook.
4064 readersYears ago, I started this blog with a pretty big mission in mind: to help you succeed.
I wanted to tell you things you didn’t know. I wanted to point you in better directions. I wanted to share lessons I’d learned the hard way so that you didn’t make the same mistakes.
I wanted to give you
-
4281 readersLet’s talk about the dos and don’ts of contractions, ’k?
(But first, this note: This punctuation mark is the same as the one used for apostrophes. However, if you use smart, or curly, quotes, your word processing program will probably incorrectly render an apostrophe not preceded by a letter — as in the last word in
2425 readersMy friend and fellow writer, Rebecca Laffar-Smith came to me this morning with a sticky grammar and usage question. I knew the answer intuitively — that I would write the words to-do list with a hyphen. So I sipped my morning coffee and began the quest for another authority who agreed.
In a Google search, first
-
4428 readersAfter thumbing through the dictionary or perusing a usage guide, you’d think that the trend in American English and, to a lesser extent, in British English is to omit hyphens from words consisting of a prefix attached to the root word. But reality begs to differ.
Mail sent from nonprofit organizations invariably features the word non-profit
1116 readersMark, who sent in this apostrophe catastrophe, thinks maybe there is only one Kentuckian with a disability.Well, if the inability to use proper punctuation counts as a disability, that one Kentuckian designed this logo. And doesn't the whole concept of Kentucky American's [sic] seem redundant?Thanks, Mark! Check out Mark's blog here.
-
2677 readersQuotation marks are signposts indicating that spoken or written words are being expressed. They have other purposes, too, but this post confines itself to this role.
Original Post: How to Punctuate Quotations
Your eBook: Click here to download the Basic English Grammar ebook.
3303 readersLast year, on this day, I received a lecture from a friend of Irish heritage. I made the mistake of wishing him a “Happy St. Patty’s Day.”
I know I can be a stickler for certain things related to spelling and grammar — and I fully admit to being in the wrong on this one.
He explained:
-
878 readerstittle: a dot or other small mark in writing or printing, used as a diacritic, punctuation, etc.