No Sacrifices, Just Committed!

Everyday Should Be Punctuation Day!

Posted on | September 24, 2008 |

Some may consider it a bit absurd, but as an English major I find it to be the coolest thing. The correct use of punctuation as well as grammar is often overlooked in the blogging world and far too much offline when it really matters. I don’t profess to know it all and as I hope you will become a regular reader, you may catch me using a few words out of order as well as, YES, punctuation in a manner that it was never intended to be used. Now that I have made that disclaimer, please leave your red marker in the drawer, read, and enjoy.

Jeff Rubin (founder of National Punctuation Day) and his wife Norma (a.k.a. Mr. and Mrs. Punctuation) are now into their fifth year of celebrating NPD, which even has an official dish, Punctuation Meat Loaf. “Punctuation counts. A misplaced comma can alter the meaning of a message.” This is one of the reasons that Jeff decided to create and promote the holiday and his efforts didn’t stop there. Mr. and Mrs. Punctuation take the fun to schools and make guest appearances in classrooms sharing through their program Punctuation Playtime.

I must admit that I never realized brackets [ ] were punctuation marks. I just never thought about it because I don’t use them often unless I am using them for personal work to make notes. They were neat looking symbols on my keyboard that I thought I should use for something. Instead of using them, I have been using the dash - when I should have been using brackets and using a comma , when I should have been using a dash -. Oh my goodness! What did they teach me in that school?

Grammar and punctuation are truly important. I try to not be too critical, but I cannot tell you how many times I’ve cringed while watching the news, when hearing words used incorrectly. It is just that you expect the best to be represented when their words are heard by so many people. Before leaving corporate America, I was amazed at the content of E-mails that passed through my inbox. Either the authors were “short-hand specialists” or they needed to celebrate Punctuation Day everyday. I met my husband through a personal ad (content for another blog [G-Rated, of course]) and we are married today because I was initially impressed with his use of grammar and punctuation.

Jeff has quite a few valuable resources that may be helpful with teaching punctuation to your children as well as offering a quick refresher for you. Celebrate NPD with these suggestions and laugh a little.

Note: I’m going to send Jeff a copy of this post. I hope he doesn’t mark it up too much. Red isn’t my favorite color.

Category: holidays
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