I love Grammar Girl and have been listening to her "quick and dirty tips" podcasts — and getting her newsletter, too — for over a year. It's fun! Do you have a favorite punctuation mark? Maybe you are partial to the serial comma, which can cause problems when omitted. The woods are dovely, lark and leap. . . Or perhaps you object to the ampersand, which seems an affectation, & I disdain it as a rule except when in a hurry or talking to the ghost of Robert Creeley. Some people think the semi-colon (Joyce called it the semi-colonial) is ostentatious or pretentious or just downright ugly. I don't: When used judiciously, the semicolon can be elegant.
In honor of National Punctuation Day (September 24) Grammar Girl is sponsoring a contest. Write an ode to the punctuation mark of your voice and send it to: [email protected]. "Ode" can be loosely defined. The best entries will be featured in the "tip-of-day"
e-mail newsletter, and one entry may be chosen to be the Grammar Girl
podcast on September 24. Read all about it here.
— sdh