My latest piece on MEDIUM: "Punctuation: Double-Check Your Commas & Colons"

 

Questioning the Use of a Question Mark

Punctuation: Double-check Your Commas & Colons

“,LA” knows what I’m talkin’ about

Exclamation points on neon Post-its courtesy of https://pixabay.com/.

Imagine a world without punctuation. There would be run-on sentences all over the place. Not to mention a complete breakdown of en-dashes and em-dashes. People wouldn’t overuse the exclamation point in ! every ! sentence!!! Nights would run into days into months into years into centuries into millennia. Birds would never stop singing.

Life would be so chaotic that people would be wearing summer clothes in the winter and vice versa. Copy editors worldwide could go on vacation!!

Everything would be a big blur. For example, take this paragraph —

Although most people are not punctual per se I cannot imagine life without punctuation Im not kidding Is it me or what Wait what is that noise Did you hear that Oh its nothing just my cat jumping off the counter No seriously what the heck was that Name of husband was that you Could you to see if the cat wants to go out What did you say

Punctuation is vital to disambiguate the meaning of sentences, and I always remember these examples:

“I ate macaroni and cheese, and an apple for lunch.”

“I ate macaroni, and cheese, and an apple for lunch.”

What a difference a comma makes.

Or this —   

Although most people are not punctual per se I cannot imagine life without punctuation Im not kidding Is it me or what Wait what is that noise Did you hear that Oh its nothing just my cat jumping off the counter No seriously what the heck was that Name of husband was that you Could you to see if the cat wants to go out What did you say

Punctuation is vital to disambiguate the meaning of sentences, and I always remember these examples:

“I ate macaroni and cheese, and an apple for lunch.”

“I ate macaroni, and cheese, and an apple for lunch.”

What a difference a comma makes.

Or this —

“Did you do your laundry?” (Polite enough.)

“Did you do your laundry??!!!?!! (It’s starting to sound rant-ful.)

And, can we applaude Kamala Harris’s clever use of “,LA”. (Get it? “Comma, LA”?)

Stop and embrace the beauty of clarity.

Learn where to add commas, and the usage of three different brackets — — (), [], and {}.

Play around with punctuation [(.)(.)].

Become versed in the distinction of colons. (Oh, you mean there is more than ONE colon?)

Consider dropping in … an ellipsis.

Don’t be afraid, reticent, or shy to “clean up” your copy.

Make your mark.

Ready? Get set,

Go!!!!!!!!!