September 24, 2011 - National Punctuation Day


(U.S.)

It's a day to comment on commas, exaggerate! with exclamation points, and smile (with... semi-satisfaction) over semi-colons. It's a day to question quotation marks and--quite possibly--quote some great questions. 

Punctuation exists to help readers understand whatever they are trying to read. The help us quickly understand ideas below the level of written or printed words. To get an idea of how much harder it might be to read if there were no such thing as punctuation, check out this paragraph:

Did you get the signature you need to go on the field trip the teacher asked Karen Yes I did Okay I need the paper to turn in with the school principal Okay Wait I cant find it Oh dear the teacher said Look again if you cant find it you wont be able to go I would hate to leave you behind Karen took everything out of her backpack and even looked through her textbooks and notebook She couldnt find the signed permission slip anywhere She was very upset She wished shed listened a little bit better her mom who was always telling her to keep track of her stuff and to be more organized


Celebrate!

Today you have a great excuse to add frosting, raisins, berries, chocolate chips, nuts, or other sweet goodness to your food – in the form of punctuation marks, of course! Make cupcakes or cookies, and decorate each with a different punctuation mark. Or how about pancakes with blueberry punctuation marks?

For dinner, make it a pepperoni punctuation pizza!

Learn or practice!

Here is a website dedicated to teaching how to use punctuation marks. 

What do you think?

With texting and speedy writing on internet-based websites such as Facebook, Google Plus, and blog comments, people are using less and less punctuation. Some people deliberately skip using apostrophes and quotation marks while texting or writing comments on Facebook because they accidentally hit “Enter” while trying to use those nearby keys or buttons. Even in more professional writing that is edited and published, such as newspaper or magazine articles and books, there is a move to streamlining text and using less punctuation.

Is this a good thing? What do you think?

Here is the website of the National Punctuation Day people.




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