I don't know about you, but to me, this translated as:
We know our pretzels suck, okay? But maybe if you just (please!) think about how cheap our flights are, you won't mind so much? Please?
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Why You Should Learn to Use Punctuation Properly
If I had to make a list of things I'm thankful for it would probably go something like this:
#1- The saving grace of God and all of its facets
#2- Relationships with other human beings
#3- The ability as humans to think deeply
#4- Adjectives
#5- Punctuation
As far as number four goes, without adjectives language would be pathetic and human thought would be stunted tremendously. Don't believe me? Think about "Newspeak" in 1984. Yeah. Scary. But that's beside the point. This post is really about number five: punctuation.
In all honesty, punctuation is a beautiful thing. It is not only helpful but it is artistic. The way that you can manipulate the voice of your reader with, one little piece of punctuation is amazing. See? While you were reading that as soon as you hit the comma you inserted a short pause and then probably read the rest of the sentence more quickly and in a different tone of voice. That was an example of a comma splice-- which is bad, but necessary in proving my point. So punctuation controls the reader, directs the reader and can paint a more beautiful picture in the reader's mind. Not to mention, without punctuation we wouldn't have very much sentence variation and we would all get really sick of simple sentences, I guarantee it. If nothing else, punctuation provides clarity in otherwise very confusing situations.
My friend recently got a text message that said:
what can she drive?
It is only safe to assume that, rather than asking what kind of vehicle (or other object, perhaps?) her little sister could drive, he was trying to say two separate sentences:
What? Can she drive?
or:
What! Can she drive?
You know, even placing a comma, an em-dash or an ellipses would have been better than nothing.
See how helpful punctuation is?
The lack of proper punctuation can also be very helpful in literary works. For instance, in the book Play it As it Lays, Joan Didion deliberately leaves out probably close to 90% of the question marks because a big theme in the book is the fact that the main character doesn't ask questions. These little, almost barely noticeable, nuances can create deep meaning in literature. However, if punctuation isn't learned to be used properly, its improper use can not add such meaning.
So, for the sake of simple, day-to-day communication, the avoidance of awkward and potentially harmful situations, the cultivation of human thought, and the furthering of great cultural enrichment like deep and thought-provoking literature, you should learn to use proper punctuation.
#1- The saving grace of God and all of its facets
#2- Relationships with other human beings
#3- The ability as humans to think deeply
#4- Adjectives
#5- Punctuation
As far as number four goes, without adjectives language would be pathetic and human thought would be stunted tremendously. Don't believe me? Think about "Newspeak" in 1984. Yeah. Scary. But that's beside the point. This post is really about number five: punctuation.
In all honesty, punctuation is a beautiful thing. It is not only helpful but it is artistic. The way that you can manipulate the voice of your reader with, one little piece of punctuation is amazing. See? While you were reading that as soon as you hit the comma you inserted a short pause and then probably read the rest of the sentence more quickly and in a different tone of voice. That was an example of a comma splice-- which is bad, but necessary in proving my point. So punctuation controls the reader, directs the reader and can paint a more beautiful picture in the reader's mind. Not to mention, without punctuation we wouldn't have very much sentence variation and we would all get really sick of simple sentences, I guarantee it. If nothing else, punctuation provides clarity in otherwise very confusing situations.
My friend recently got a text message that said:
what can she drive?
It is only safe to assume that, rather than asking what kind of vehicle (or other object, perhaps?) her little sister could drive, he was trying to say two separate sentences:
What? Can she drive?
or:
What! Can she drive?
You know, even placing a comma, an em-dash or an ellipses would have been better than nothing.
See how helpful punctuation is?
The lack of proper punctuation can also be very helpful in literary works. For instance, in the book Play it As it Lays, Joan Didion deliberately leaves out probably close to 90% of the question marks because a big theme in the book is the fact that the main character doesn't ask questions. These little, almost barely noticeable, nuances can create deep meaning in literature. However, if punctuation isn't learned to be used properly, its improper use can not add such meaning.
So, for the sake of simple, day-to-day communication, the avoidance of awkward and potentially harmful situations, the cultivation of human thought, and the furthering of great cultural enrichment like deep and thought-provoking literature, you should learn to use proper punctuation.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)