Today is National Punctuation Day. To celebrate this prestigious occasion, here are my top
five punctuation pet peeves.
1. Double space: Yes, the space is a
punctuation point. Don't wear it out. There only needs to be one space after
the end of the sentence. Adding two just means a lot of frustrating corrections
on our end. And don't get me started on triple spaces…or ellipses!
2. Its vs. it's: This is an easy mistake
to make, and we're all guilty of sending out an incorrect tweet in a moment of
excitement or fury. For the record, here's
the proper usage:
Its and it's are not the same thing. It's is a contraction for
"it is" and its is a possessive pronoun meaning "belonging to
it." It's raining out = it is raining out. A simple way to remember this
rule is the fact that you don't use an apostrophe for the possessive his or
hers, so don't do it with its.
3. Misplaced semicolons: Semicolons can be used
three ways. The first is to join two
independent clauses when the second clause restates the first or when the two
clauses are of equal emphasis. The second is to connect two independent clauses
when the second clause begins with a conjunctive adverb or a transition. The
final way is to join elements of a series when individual items of the series
already include commas. Don't throw these around willy nilly. They have very
specific guidelines for use.
4. Gratuitous use of quotation marks: Use quotation marks to
designate something as ironic or novel However, using it around every other
word is annoying, difficult on your readers' eyes and has the opposite intended
effect.
5. Overuse of the exclamation point: The exclamation point has
no place in professional writing. F. Scott Fitzgerald famously said, "Cut
out all these exclamation points. An exclamation point is like laughing at your
own joke.” Heed his advice.
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