I feel dumb because my punctuation sucks?
You have excellent punctuation. As you grow, reading and writing more, your grammar skills will strengthen greatly. Just give it time and pay attention to it. You are doing great!
Please help on correct punctuation?
so you re going to morph depending on the ideas that you surround yourself with. And that s why I m such a voracious reader because I spend way more time with writers than I do even with my friends, just cause the sheer amount of time I dedicate to reading. Absolutely, and it s so true. I found that in my own life as well. And I think Tony puts it perfectly, he says that most people rise to the expectations of their peer group. They did a study and found that most people, most veterans that served in the military, that be the time they come back, a lot of them deal with PTSD and stress and depression, all kind of issues like that. Finding that the strongest point in their life or their career was actually when they were in the service. And it s because they felt a sense of purpose, a sense of camaraderie, a sense of standards. And they come back to civilian life and it s just, they just show up. There s no standards, there s no integrity, there s no value system, there s no strength being exercised. So I think that s totally, totally true. Was that a conscious effort for you to surround yourself with better people, or did it naturally start happening as your thoughts shifted into wanting to take control of your life? It wasn t in the beginning. In the beginning, I really was hanging around with people that made me feel good and they fed into the "King of Remedial Jobs" phase that I was in.
Why don't people use punctuation?
Why don't people use punctuation? A) They are lazy and think it is not require to do it because it "school-related" material. B) They are accustomed to social communication in which grammatical rules don't apply to them. It part of the social norms through friends, media and especially by text message, email, etc... C) They are generally young people (middle school, high school, and even college/university) Older people tend to do the same but not as much as the young people. But still depends on the person, really. I am sure there are more reasons but these threes is what generally are. And my only biggest rant for these people who they keep saying"I don't have time to do that, or I forgot to use the spelling check, or anything that can be fix in a SECONDS. I say it pathetic! Geez! Why? Because it is bad enough for us users to think they are uneducated, and we users do not want that, really.
People say that because I can't use punctuation, I can't be very logical either. Is this true?
As a writer and former editor/copyeditor and various other credentials, I can tell you honestly that isn’t true.Proper use of grammar and punctuation, at least in the United States, is very difficult to master, as is the language as a whole.Many people need assistance with punctuation, and some styles are different than others. For example, the punctuation used when typing (transcription) notes from a meeting, is far different than punctuation required for a term paper. On top of that, there are several different “forms” or styles of writing (so different they require manuals in order to do correctly), and if you haven’t been introduced to them, you wouldn’t know them.When I went to college (I have a degree in this), we were taught what was correct, but it was always followed with, “Unless your boss tells you otherwise…” That meant, if your boss was doing something incorrectly, it was not your place (usually) to correct him.I’m not able to be as accurate anymore do to disability, and people often want to change the punctuation of my writing, but since my writing is done “for me,” I have a specific style that doesn’t follow “rules.”I tend to break paragraphs into thoughts, but since my thoughts are often disconnected (or I have thoughts within thoughts), you’ll find all sorts of punctuation — sometimes set off by hyphens — sometimes set off by parentheses or semi-colons: such as this.My punctuation presents the thought at the time I’m writing it. However, when I’m editing for publication, the words written by others are far easier for me to shorten than my own. I had a very specific style to my editing, but since I’m not getting paid to do it (or anything else) any more, I just write without making it sound like a textbook.Today, I write as I’m thinking. Sometimes, I go back and correct something. Others try to turn it into “uniform” or “standard” writing, and I generally thank them but leave it as written.
Why don't people use punctuation on the internet?
It is a HUGE pet peeve of mine to read comments and the sentence is an entire paragraph. Do people not know how to punctuate anymore? Are they not being taught in school how to use a comma or a period? I don't understand how you can ramble on and on without a punctuation mark and expect others to understand what you are saying. Sometimes it takes a second or third look over to figure out what the person was saying and how they were saying it. What do you think? How do you feel about people not using punctuation in their comments?
I judge people based on punctuation and sentence structure. Does that make me a bad person?
No, I do the same. If I am reading an e-mail or a letter from a respectable business person, I do not feel I am asking too much for them to use spell check. I bet they wonder what all those squiggly lines are that appear on their letter. I just wish people could use proper grammar, and learn to spell. I understand that some people are still learning the english language, kudos to you. I also know that some people in here can not spell, do not have a firm grasp of grammar and cannot put a simple sentence together. It makes me sad.
How does tone affect punctuation in essays? Examples?
Punctuation dictates rhythm, which is a huge part of tone. It reflects how the words would be spoken out loud, and that can drastically change its meaning. Maybeyou'retotallyfrantic, and then you then want to stop and take a break, but you can't, because you have no time for breaks or periods, so everything is like one running thought in your head, which you could reflect with commas, because commas are short pauses, but not long enough to stop completely. Or maybe....maybe you're thinking more deeply. Yeah, deeply. Like....slow. You could use those three little dots...what do you call them?...Ellipses, I think. Lots of ellipses....because they show that you're choosing your words....exactly? No, not exactly....carefully. Yeah, that's it. Or you could put periods everywhere. That shows emphasis. Purpose. Directness. Like your super. Frigging. Pissed. And it's like that.
So, in formal writing, should a comma follow the word "so" when it begins a sentence; if so, can you provide examples?
No. In formal writing, so at the beginning of a sentence would not likely be followed by a comma.There are a couple of reasons why we wouldn’t normally see a comma-followed so in writing.Here is one reason: So followed by a comma usually indicates a discourse marker. Though we use discourse markers in both speech and writing, we don’t use the same ones in both. So is for speech. We use it as a conversation opener (So, in formal writing . . .) or a subject changer (Me: Pigs can fly. You: So, you’ve gone off your meds again . . .) or a concluding thought (So, now you know . . .) or a “resuming [of] abandoned action trajectories” (So, where were we?).Here is another reason: If you find so at the beginning of a sentence in writing, it will likely be a coordinating conjunction or an adverb. These are not normally followed by a comma.As a coordinating conjunction, so means because of that or for that reason: When scientists said that pigs could fly, we could not believe it. So we asked them for the proof. We follow the same rule for joining independent clauses (no comma after the coordinating conjunction): We could not believe it, so we asked them for the proof. Some people might tell you not to start a sentence with a coordinating conjunction. They are confused.So also has a special property as a coordinating conjunction; unlike the others, it can be frontloaded (in which case it means in order that): So they could prove that pigs can fly, scientists conducted experiments.Here’s a case where so the conjunction is followed by a comma: So, without further ado, we asked them for the proof.Here is so as a sentence-beginning adverb: So excited were we about the flying pigs, we forgot about school. And: Pigs can’t fly. So we thought.In summary . . .Speech: So, pigs can fly.Writing: In conclusion, pigs can fly.Speech: Me: We missed the bus. You: Then we’ll have to walk.Writing: We missed the bus. So we had to walk.Further reading:Discourse markers ( so, right, okay ) - English Grammar Today - Cambridge DictionaryDISCOURSE MARKERS – CONNECTORS A LIST OF DISCOURSE MARKERS WITH EXAMPLES