#punctuation

And Michael Tomasello's book "Origins of Human Communication" has a sentence 261 words long that's more intelligible than many sentences one tenth its length.

Clarity hinges on structure and sense, and his line uses 11 semicolons – here, the right choice – to form a precisely executed parallelism.

#writing #punctuation #MichaelTomasello #semicolons #copyediting #syntax

There are exceptions. Halfway through Patrick deWitt's first novel "Ablutions" is a sentence 207 words long that made me want to stand and cheer.

Not to be all leave-it-to-the-pros, but you do need to have certain skills to attempt a sentence of such length and hope to keep readers firmly on track.

#writing #PatrickDeWitt #books #punctuation #WritingCommunity

Sometimes four short sentences are better than a single 140-word behemoth built with creaky semicolons and sticky tape.

#AmEditing #copyediting #punctuation #writing #semicolons

Punctuation: It matters!

Those quotation marks really don't "help."

#humor #humour #weird #signs #proofreading #punctuation

***The King's English by H. W. Fowler and F. G. Fowler**

_“Read now or download for (free!)”_

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/75439

#Read #Download #Nonfiction #Book #Ebook #Bookstodon #English #Language #Grammar #Vocabulary #Syntax #Punctuation #Linguistics #ProjectGutenberg @linguistics @bookstodon

While the Supreme Court’s politics have veered right, the court’s language has gotten surprisingly progressive. Justices now use contractions, casual language, and personal pronouns to make their opinions more accessible to the public. https://theconversation.com/us-supreme-court-is-unabashedly-liberal-in-its-writing-style-245503 #grammar #scotus #punctuation

On the first day of the new Congress, my Rep. sent an email with the subject, “Swearing In Newsletter.” I was disappointed to find that he had just omitted a hyphen.
#punctuation

Maybe I should respond to Currys pointing out the spelling and punctuation errors in their poster.

Currys are a large electrical retailer in the UK.

#punctuation #spelling

Some writers profess to love semicolons, but if they're using them in place of colons then it's not true love

#writing #semicolons #punctuation #WritingCommunity

Legibility is important. #punctuation #English #cartoons

This Hallo'ween, I'm a misplaced apostrophe

#Halloween #punctuation #spelling #writing

I'm in punctuation hell today, editing a story that in part compares the Old Farmer's Almanac and the Farmers' Almanac.

That's how the two names have been punctuated for more than 200 years.

Here's the real conundrum: "These are the two leading f_____ almanacs."

#punctuation #apostrophes #amediting

We're going back to basics with the latest #GrammarTalk post this week on Red Pens and Playwriting, and discussing apostrophes: when we use them, when we don't, and how to tell an it's from an its.

https://red-pens-and-playwriting.ghost.io/all-about-apostrophes/

#Writing #WritingCommunity #Grammar #Punctuation

Love this on use of #punctuation at work… by a ‘British person’.

#Cartoon #humour

The loaded punctuation marks of work emails https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/picture/2024/oct/11/the-loaded-punctuation-marks-of-work-emails-the-stephen-collins-cartoon

War and Peace is 587,287 words in length - 365 chapters. Surprisingly, the number of punctuation marks has not been tallied.

A passage from 'War and Peace' turned into a Visual Poem of Punctuation marks using 'just the punctuation'.

#WarAndPeace #Novel #Book #Books #LeoTolstoy #Tolstoy #Literature #Punctuation #Vispo #VisualPoem #Vispo_PunctuationMarks

Germans decry influence of English as ‘idiot’s apostrophe’ gets official approval

'Linguistic body has relaxed rules on use of apostrophe to show possession, not traditionally correct in German'

Well, that's it. Germany has entered a cultural decline it will never be able to claw its way out of.

Of course, in England we have our own version of the idiots apostrophe's...

#culture #language #German #Germany #grammar #punctuation

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/07/germany-influence-of-english-idiots-apostrophe

Germans decry influence of English as ‘idiot’s apostrophe’ gets official approval
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/07/germany-influence-of-english-idiots-apostrophe #language #punctuation #German

@troublewithwords

Thanks for offering, yes, I accept the role of Ruler of the Writing Universe.

Is technical and business writing included in my role? I have one rule that is certain to make the world a better place: punctuate bullet lists!

The bullet points in your list don't suspend the laws of nature. You still need to end each bulleted item with a comma or semicolon, or a full stop for the final item.

(Same for mathematical writing and displayed equations.)

#typography #punctuation

Yesterday was our favorite holiday — National Punctuation Day, of course! Here's a @Flipboard Storyboard from Reader's Digest featuring how to pluralize words that end in S, 12 grammar rules that have changed in the last decade, and the correct way to use colons. There's also a high-school English quiz in there. Do you know the answer to the question, what does "ductile" mean?

https://flipboard.com/@readersdigest/let-s-appreciate-proper-punctuation-j6uvrchnkrn0qq3r

#Language #Words #Punctuation #Grammar #Spelling #Culture #Lifestyle

Why do some people ask a question by saying "question" followed by asking their question? Are they all secretly Spanish and don't know how to say ¿ in English / can't find the ¿ key? #punctuation #language