SAY WHAT YOU MEAN, AND MEAN WHAT YOU SAY!

Just a misplaced comma can totally change the meaning of the statement below the picture.

I've always been a big advocate of proper punctuation.  Problems arise when one does not adequately communicate; in fact, I submit that misunderstandings can (and do) arise in the workplace when reports and memos are punctuated incorrectly.

In my English classroom, I've always taught that certain punctuation marks can be considered as traffic signs.  If not used correctly, the driver (writer) might cause an accident (misunderstanding)!


COMMA = yield sign/slow down and look ahead - it often prevents misreading (see picture above)
Example:  He wants to eat, Grandma!  The baby is ready for his milk.

SEMICOLON or PERIOD = stop sign
Example:  Yesterday, I was tired; today, I am more rested.
-OR-
The rain came down heavily.  Cars began slowing down.

COLON = look ahead to see what's coming.
Example:  Three things I enjoy doing:  reading, writing, and laughing.

Well, you get the idea.  The old adage, "Say what you mean, and mean what you say," is applicable for using punctuation--make certain that what you write actually communicates what you mean.

I Admit It . . . I'm a Grammar Nazi, Part One

As I stated in an earlier post, unnecessary grammatical errors drive me nuts.  When our youngest daughter was married, one of the newspapers where we ran her wedding article had so many typos that we were embarrassed to even send copies to friends and family!  Apparently, that small-town paper saved money on hiring copy editors or skipped the proofreading step altogether (not even bothering to use spell check). 

A few years later, I taught high school journalism, and one of my classroom exercises was to bring in copies of newspapers to give students the opportunity of proofreading some of the articles (good experience to encourage them to proofread their own articles).  I included that wedding article, and my students were amazed to find so many errors.  This exercise drove home to them the necessity of proofreading essays, reports, and yes--even newspaper articles--before turning them over for grading or publication.

Below are more of my "favorite" grammar pet peeves:

• failing to capitalize "English" (or another language) - C'mon, people!  We all know this one, so let's capitalize language names:  French, German, Italian, Spanish, etc.  Former students write to me:  "You were my favorite english teacher."  Obviously, I didn't teach them much, did I?
• Using an apostrophe with plurals - "I enjoy reading magazine's."  The apostrophe indicates possessive, not plural, with nouns.  Correct:  "I enjoy reading magazines."  Our oldest daughter used to live in rural TN, and a flea market had this hand-lettered sign out front beside the road:  "We sell doll,s, gun,s, and lot,s of other things."  Using a comma for plurals is even worse than an apostrophe!  NOTE:  Another quirk in English grammar is that an apostrope is NOT used with possessive pronouns:  hers, his, theirs, ours, etc.  NEVER write her's, their's, our's.
• Your/you're, and your's - These first two, your/you're, are not supposed to be used interchangeably.  "Your" is a possessive:  That is your book.  "You're" is a contraction of "you are":  I believe you're the person who won the contest.  As for your's, please see the previous entry.

I will post more from time to time.  I invite readers to send their grammar pet peeves by commenting below.  I'd be greatly interested in them.