Master Index of Archived Threads


Say hey! It's National Punctuation Day

metsguyinmichigan Sep 24 2010 07:26 AM

[url]http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2010/09/english_teachers_share_pet_pee.html It's a good day when I get to work Mets legends into my school stories! You guys might enjoy this one.

themetfairy Sep 24 2010 07:30 AM Re: Say hey! It's National Punctuation Day

Very nice michigan!

Edgy DC Sep 24 2010 07:32 AM Re: Say hey! It's National Punctuation Day

"english_teachers_share_pet_pee.html" Ew, I'm not clicking that story.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Sep 24 2010 07:51 AM Re: Say hey! It's National Punctuation Day

Vanden Bosch left out the part where he whupped that bitch for buying those green beans.

Ceetar Sep 24 2010 08:35 AM Re: Say hey! It's National Punctuation Day

I still don't know the proper use of comma's. silly New York education system.

Ceetar Sep 24 2010 08:36 AM Re: Say hey! It's National Punctuation Day

Ceetar wrote: I still don't know the proper use of comma's. silly New York education system. What, you're not aware that comma owns the NY education system?

Edgy DC Sep 24 2010 08:51 AM Re: Say hey! It's National Punctuation Day

Is this what a ventriloquism act looks like on an internet forum?

m.e.t.b.o.t. Sep 24 2010 08:55 AM Re: Say hey! It's National Punctuation Day

m.e.t.b.o.t. demonstrates proper internet ventriloquism form.

Ceetar Sep 24 2010 09:02 AM Re: Say hey! It's National Punctuation Day

Edgy DC wrote: Is this what a ventriloquism act looks like on an internet forum? You should see the posts I've already made disappear! The infinitives I plan to magically cut in half!

metsguyinmichigan Sep 24 2010 09:09 AM Re: Say hey! It's National Punctuation Day

I love m.e.t.b.o.t.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Sep 24 2010 09:16 AM Re: Say hey! It's National Punctuation Day

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Vanden Bosch left out the part where he whupped that bitch for buying those green beans. Making things even worse, she made air quotes around every sob and inserted weird, random pauses everywhere.

Rockin' Doc Sep 24 2010 10:34 AM Re: Say hey! It's National Punctuation Day

My understanding of proper punctuation has always been rather lacking. When in doubt, i just throw in a comma and keep going. I don't have the foggiest clue regarding the proper use of semicolons. I have been tempted to read this book in hopes that it would shed some light on the punctuation skills that eluded my grasp in high school and college.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Sep 24 2010 10:50 AM Re: Say hey! It's National Punctuation Day

The Truss book is an amusing salve to suppressed Grammar Nazi in all of us. It's worth a look. MGIM wrote: Vanden Bosch said the semicolon has become "virtually a lost cause" because so few students dare to use it. Holy rara avis; All of a sudden, I feel like the college guy who majored in Sanskrit.

Edgy DC Sep 24 2010 11:29 AM Re: Say hey! It's National Punctuation Day

What that book won't do, however, is catch you up that well on your own skills, as British punctuation standards are different and (Tress admits) lower than ours. Listen, avoid three things, and you'll make the world happy: [list][*]putting an apostrophe fbefre the s when making a word plural;[/*:m] [*]failing to put a comma before the and in a list of three or more items; and[/*:m] [*]using quotes for emphasis.*[/*:m][/list:u] If you pay attention to those three, you've joined the battle. And do join, because good punctuation is not about niggling fastidiousness. Good punctuation breeds clarity, clarity breeds understanding, and understanding breeds peace. Increase the peace. *Emphasize a word in print by italicizing it. Emphasize a handwritten word by underlining it. Avoid undelining in print.

Willets Point Sep 24 2010 11:34 AM Re: Say hey! It's National Punctuation Day

Edgy DC wrote: fbefre Spelling standards are something else entirely.

metsguyinmichigan Sep 24 2010 11:39 AM Re: Say hey! It's National Punctuation Day

The oatmeal has a really funny graphic about the use of the semi colon. [url]http://theoatmeal.com/comics/semicolon The comic about the 10 most misspelled words is really funny, too.

Ceetar Sep 24 2010 11:40 AM Re: Say hey! It's National Punctuation Day

Edgy DC wrote: What that book won't do, however, is catch you up that well on your own skills, as British punctuation standards are different and (Tress admits) lower than ours. Listen, avoid three things, and you'll make the world happy: [list][*]putting an apostrophe fbefre the s when making a word plural;[/*:m] [*]failing to put a comma before the and in a list of three or more items; and[/*:m] [*]using quotes for emphasis.*[/*:m][/list:u] If you pay attention to those three, you've joined the battle. And do join, because good punctuation is not about niggling fastidiousness. Good punctuation breeds clarity, clarity breeds understanding, and understanding breeds peace. Increase the peace. *Emphasize a word in print by italicizing it. Emphasize a handwritten word by underlining it. Avoid undelining in print. The second comma there is redundant. one, two and three. one, two, and three is an extra keystroke and adds no clarification.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Sep 24 2010 11:45 AM Re: Say hey! It's National Punctuation Day

Ah, yes, the Oxford comma. That's just, like, your opinion, man. (It's a matter of taste/stylebook. Both are proper.)

metsguyinmichigan Sep 24 2010 11:54 AM Re: Say hey! It's National Punctuation Day

Ceetar wrote: What that book won't do, however, is catch you up that well on your own skills, as British punctuation standards are different and (Tress admits) lower than ours. Listen, avoid three things, and you'll make the world happy: [list][*]putting an apostrophe fbefre the s when making a word plural;[/*:m] [*]failing to put a comma before the and in a list of three or more items; and[/*:m] [*]using quotes for emphasis.*[/*:m][/list:u] If you pay attention to those three, you've joined the battle. And do join, because good punctuation is not about niggling fastidiousness. Good punctuation breeds clarity, clarity breeds understanding, and understanding breeds peace. Increase the peace. *Emphasize a word in print by italicizing it. Emphasize a handwritten word by underlining it. Avoid undelining in print. The second comma there is redundant. one, two and three. one, two, and three is an extra keystroke and adds no clarification. The serial comma was a big debate yesterday as we discussed the story, since AP style is not to use the extra comma. I like the comma because it show there are three separate items and not two. "For dessert we had apples, strawberries and ice cream" is different than "... apples, strawberries, and ice cream."

Ceetar Sep 24 2010 12:00 PM Re: Say hey! It's National Punctuation Day

metsguyinmichigan wrote: "For dessert we had apples, strawberries and ice cream" is different than "... apples, strawberries, and ice cream." Nah, it's the same sentence. Unless you meant "For dessert we had apples, and strawberries and ice cream." You certainly wouldn't say "For dessert we had apples, strawberries." right? Particularly because the comma seems out of place in a two item list. "We ate bananas, and mangos."

metsmarathon Sep 24 2010 12:59 PM Re: Say hey! It's National Punctuation Day

i like the comma. it adds clarity. it also reads as you would speak. lets make a new sentence. "for dinner, we had meat, chicken and turkey." what did we have for dinner? are chicken and turkey part of a three item list which also includes some generalized mammalian red flesh, or are they an appositive further describing the type of meat consumed? in a three item list without the oxford comma, my brain wants to treat it as an appositive. and only after realizing that it makes no sense do i then go back and re-interpret it. if you were to speak it naturally, rattling off a three item list, do you pause after the second item and before the and? if so, you've verbally introduced the comma, and reinforced its necessity in writing. or do you only pause after the first?

Fman99 Sep 24 2010 01:01 PM Re: Say hey! It's National Punctuation Day

This thread is, retarded.

metsmarathon Sep 24 2010 01:16 PM Re: Say hey! It's National Punctuation Day

your "retarded"

Ceetar Sep 24 2010 01:22 PM Re: Say hey! It's National Punctuation Day

metsmarathon wrote: i like the comma. it adds clarity. it also reads as you would speak. lets make a new sentence. "for dinner, we had meat, chicken and turkey." what did we have for dinner? are chicken and turkey part of a three item list which also includes some generalized mammalian red flesh, or are they an appositive further describing the type of meat consumed? in a three item list without the oxford comma, my brain wants to treat it as an appositive. and only after realizing that it makes no sense do i then go back and re-interpret it. if you were to speak it naturally, rattling off a three item list, do you pause after the second item and before the and? if so, you've verbally introduced the comma, and reinforced its necessity in writing. or do you only pause after the first? I only pause after the first. I guess this makes sense on where it can add clarify, but most cases aren't like that. (also, it seems fairly obvious that meat is a lot more vague than chicken and therefore it's an appositive because it's clarifying. I have no problem with being inconsistent though, and only using it when clarity may be an issue. Then again, I rarely think about these things when i'm actually writing. My mind flings commas and apostrophes at everything.

Frayed Knot Sep 24 2010 02:41 PM Re: Say hey! It's National Punctuation Day

Some people have appositive blood but not me, mine is O positive.

seawolf17 Sep 24 2010 08:33 PM Re: Say hey! It's National Punctuation Day

I definitely give a fuck about the Oxford comma. I think it definitely needs to be there. I'm a huge spelling and grammar nerd; I use the semicolon all the time. If I have a weakness, it's my overuse of the ellipsis.

MFS62 Sep 24 2010 08:40 PM Re: Say hey! It's National Punctuation Day

seawolf17 wrote: If I have a weakness, it's my overuse of the ellipsis. Is there a 12 step program for that? Later

cooby Sep 24 2010 08:58 PM Re: Say hey! It's National Punctuation Day

I am a World Authority on the comma, and I gotta say, it has nothing, nothing at all, with pausing to take a breath. It's all about sentence structure, boys. Don't get me started on the semicolon.

cooby Sep 24 2010 09:00 PM Re: Say hey! It's National Punctuation Day

seawolf17 wrote: I definitely give a fuck about the Oxford comma. I think it definitely needs to be there. I'm a huge spelling and grammar nerd; I use the semicolon all the time. If I have a weakness, it's my overuse of the ellipsis. Oh me, too seawolf! My husband claims they don't exist; I am so happy to find you! (note the proper use of a semicolon there)

Ceetar Sep 24 2010 09:21 PM Re: Say hey! It's National Punctuation Day

one of my fantasies is to actually put down the idea i have ot paper and make a book, so this thread is rather enlightening. ellipses? don't know that one. they usually have two foci right?

DocTee Sep 24 2010 09:42 PM Re: Say hey! It's National Punctuation Day

Poor grammar makes me sic. I have a colleague who teaches in this: [url]http://www.bustedtees.com/theretheirtheyrethurr

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Sep 25 2010 08:36 AM Re: Say hey! It's National Punctuation Day

cooby wrote: I am a World Authority on the comma, and I gotta say, it has nothing, nothing at all, with pausing to take a breath. It's all about sentence structure, boys. That's how the comma got started, though, innit? The first written words were recordings of spoken words, and comma-type marks were used almost like diacritical marks-- guides to oral pronunciation?

cooby Sep 25 2010 09:19 AM Re: Say hey! It's National Punctuation Day

Quite possible :) I have a facebook friend who sat through a tenth grade punctuation class with me with a WAC sargeant of a teacher...I could ask him but his head would probably explode, ...he did NOT enjoy her class. He pondered aloud once who made all this stuff up and she ripped him a new one. Though now he claims he was baiting her, hahah

Ceetar Sep 25 2010 09:26 AM Re: Say hey! It's National Punctuation Day

cooby wrote: Quite possible :) I have a facebook friend who sat through a tenth grade punctuation class with me with a WAC sargeant of a teacher...I could ask him but his head would probably explode, ...he did NOT enjoy her class. He pondered aloud once who made all this stuff up and she ripped him a new one. Though now he claims he was baiting her, hahah The concept of learning grammar while learning to write sounds intriguing. Probably easier too. I had a crash course in grammar once with a teacher that felt it was stupid we never learned it, and the little bit gleened from foreign language.

themetfairy Sep 25 2010 09:40 AM Re: Say hey! It's National Punctuation Day

I am not a fan of the Oxford comma. But D-Dad likes to use it.