Ode to the Semicolon
by
I love the semicolon; it’s my all-time favorite punctuation mark. My love for it stems from the first author to whom I ever really found myself truly devoted, John Irving. In “The World According to Garp,” Irving sings the praises of “the good ole semicolon,” and my love for the semicolon was cinched from my first reading of “Garp” way back in college.
This past Tuesday, the New York Times heralded the semicolon. I have learned that Kurt Vonnegut abhorred the semicolon (he called semicolons “hermaphrodite transvestites,” saying that they serve no purpose: “The only reason to use one is to show you’ve been to college.”). I love Vonnegut but must attribute this loathing to his notorious pessimism. I do love his quote in the article, though (“When Hemingway killed himself he put a period at the end of his life; old age is more like a semicolon.”).
So go read this delightful NYT piece and revel in a language that gives us the semicolon. It makes me curious—what’s your favorite punctuation mark?
But Vonnegut used a semicolon in his statement—how bizarre—he must have been getting old when he said that.
Now, my favorite piece of punctuation, the em dash—you know, the one that’s longer than a regular dash—used as an alternative to parenthesis or commas.
I like my em dashes closed, with no spaces between it and the words it separates. I see too many — of these — floating around the internet and it drives me nuts.
Does “…….. ” count? Is there a word for that? I seem to do it alot when I write so it must be my fave. Although I do love the exclamation mark! To me, it’s the only punctuation mark that actually has a personality.
Ironically, I was noticing today the spanish word “Grande” on a package of toilet tissue. It has an exclamation mark before (upside down) and after the word. I love how their written language utilizes an exclamation mark at the beginning and end of a word. Isn’t that so typically hispanic? They are a wonderfully expressive people.
Pete, I thought it odd that Vonnegut used a semicolon too! And I also love the em dash, although I didn’t know that was its name!
Charlotte, the dots are called ellipses, and, yes, they count!! I like those too, and the Spanish use of some punctuation before and after a sentence. Agreed—wonderfully expressive!
I do loves me some semicolons!
Parentheses are quite nifty as well. So are apostrophes.
It’s funny because I’m not really a Suzy Sunshine-y person (I’m sure you didn’t notice), but whenever I write emails, I use a lot of exclamation points. I don’t know why, but I’m constantly re-reading emails before sending them and I end up cutting out like 3 to 4 extra exclamation points. Yes, there’s a point when they become “extra.”
HUGE Garp fan!
I love punctuation in general, but I taught 7/8th grade grammar and lit for years.
Ahhh. The World According to Garp. I did an English report on that movie in Junior High. How I did not really understand it then . . .
Favorite punctuation? Hmmmm. Maybe the em dash like Pete. I use it but incorrectly as just a dash. Pete, how do you make on a keyboard? A typewriter I know.
I was a journalism major and almost failed the required grammar class my sophmore year. So needless to say I probably use punctuation incorrectly all the time!
The semicolon is nice but personally am obsessed with the … and the (),
Next time you are on my blog, look over some past posts. You’ll see a blatant abuse of these punctuation marks in just about every post.
I would have to go with the semicolon myself as my fav. It gets points for rarity of use. When I’m writing conversation, I like the dash, as sort of an informal parenthetical cue, but I – unlike Pete – prefer the en dash. I find the longer dash a little overinflated on an aesthetic level. I prefer to float it, too, because otherwise it looks like a hyphen-see?-which I guess is the reason to use the em dash. Thanks NOLA, for giving me a chance to think about punctuation.
I abuse.. I mean ABUSE the exclamation point! Seriously, it is bad!! LOL!!
Ellipses…for sure. I don’t use them properly, but I use them a lot.
Do I have to pick one? I love the semicolon, em dash, and ellipsis; they make me feel smart–not that I’m not–but I like them anyway…
Oh easy!!!!
Yeah an easy question that my sick fogged mind can actually answer….
the ellipses…
… … …
it is my fave and I abuse it well…
Peace
Making all the funky punctuation you want is not too hard. If you are using Windows, go to ASCII-Code.com for tables of all the symbols in existence. The third table (Extended ASCII Codes) has all the fun ones.
It’s a little confusing, but just hold down the Alt key and press in the code from the first column in the table for the symbol on the number pad on the right side of your keyboard (not the numbers on the top of the keyboard) starting with a zero. Laptops may or may not have some way to emulate number pads, check with yours.
The em dash is 151. Hold down Alt, hit 0, 1, 5, 1 and the em dash appears. Charlotte’s inverted exclamation mark, “¡” is 161, a bullet, “•” is 149, etc. Different word processors have other ways to put in what they call “special characters” or “symbols” as well. In MS Word go to “Insert” and pick “Symbol” for a table to choose from. You could also go to ASCII-Code.com and copy and paste the characters if worse has come to worst.
Mac people are on your own. You’re special.
¡Have fun!
oh my goodness this is hysterical. I may reference this post in a pending post I want to do on puntucation…
I love knowing you love the semicolon
I like commas and periods. They give language rhythm.
That said…. I hate hate HATE the Oxford, “Chilton” or serial comma. For some reason, it completely destroys the rhythm of lists for me.
Oh and I forgot to say how much I LOVE Garp, the movie and the book. Esp the book….I highly recommend it as well as “Setting Free the Bears” and “The Hotel New Hampshire”. I read them years ago when I was in an Irving frenzy.
I’m a semicolon fan as well but in my writing, it usually precedes the ‘however’. And everybody knows, nothing good ever comes after ‘however’. I also tend to abuse the exclamation point in my comments–Wow! You are so clever! OMG! We are BFF 4evah! Yeah, that’s the disease you contract when you live with a 17 year old girl.