A while ago, I posted an email I received from a colleague about sexing up grammar so that people will use it more. I called it “Grammar is a Hussy.”
Since then we have even gotten into interrobanging. Can you imagine?!
Well, these cool kids seem to love them some semi-colons; I think that’s fantastic.
What’s your favorite punctuation mark and why? Or, for the love of Pete, show me that you know how to use a semi-colon properly. Go on; impress me!
I was prescribed Klonopin for insomnia in 2005. Seven years later, after a slow, medically supervised wean, I became cognitively impaired, and after 30 months of intense suffering, I have been resurrected - a phoenix, come from the ashes, ready to battle doctors and big Pharma, while offering empathic support to those still suffering protracted withdrawal symptoms.
A perfectionist by nature, I'm learning to find beauty in the chaos. I'm the girl with the big ideas and the big hair. And words. Always words.
renée a. schuls-jacobson 
Punctuation saves lives:
Let’s eat Grandma!
or
Let’s eat, Grandma!
LikeLike
Hi Carole! I just notified the people over at Facebook. Hopefully, they will come over here!
Imagine that I just drew a little flower on that dot.
My teachers used to hate when I did that.
LikeLike
I am a semi-colon girl; I think its because I write the way I talk; my lungs have to wait to take a breath until I’ve uttered at least three sentences!
Great post and video! Can those kids rock the semi-colon or what!?
LikeLike
I think it takes a lot of courage to sing when you are clearly going through puberty. 😉
LikeLike
Definitely! I wouldn’t be caught dead singing on video and I am way past puberty! Hahahaha!
LikeLike
Renee, have you ever heard of an earworm?! Well, consider yourself responsible for my latest one! Tonight, as I attempt to drift into peaceful slumber, that damn song is going to be in my head!
My favorite punctuation mark is the exclamation point! I’m certain that I use it more frequently than any English professor would ever allow; I’m a very excited person. I’m not as excited as the two peeps in the video and I’m certainly not “hot” for the exclamation point, despite it’s phalic apperance.
LikeLike
Speaking as an English teacher, I don’t mind a single exclamation point. It is the people who insist on telling me how excited they are!!!!!!!!!!!
Okay, okay. I get it.
After one exclamation point.
Sorry to hear about your earworm.
And that song is catchy, isn’t it? 😉
LikeLike
Oops, it’s its, not it’s! I haven’t had coffee yet! 🙂
LikeLike
My middle school students and I do semi-colon statues. Stand up. Your head is the dot. Lift your left leg off the ground, bend it at the knee, and curl it over your shin (I originally typed “shit”). That’s the bottom comma. Now stretch both your left and right arms straight out at your side; each arm is a full sentence.
And that, my dear grammar hussy, is Grammar’s Tree Pose.
And then we all fall over like dominoes…
LikeLike
I am curious; do they get it?
Did you see that. Did you see what I did there? 😉
How I integrated the semi-colon into my response…
Anyway, if that works, I’m totally stealing…I mean borrowing “Grammar’s Tree Pose.”
And taking pictures.
LikeLike
I like the em dash–
LikeLike
Why? What does it do for you?
LikeLike
Semi colons should be eliminated. Why not merely use a compound sentence or a complex sentence? The only reason they have semi colons is because of this national conspiracy of freshman English teachers that are stingy with grades is to give a student a B or C on an otherwise well written paper for semicolon; incorrectness.
LikeLike
Oh Carl, I was with you all the way to the end and then you had to insert the knife and twist.
I do think the semi-colon has its place. Especially in very long lists that come after colons. We do need them there. But sometimes the semi-colon is just pressing on the breaks gently.
Or slowing just enough to roll through a stop sign.
Not that I would ever do something like that. 😉
LikeLike
I like the * …you know… because I’m a star… No, seriously the * probably isn’t really considered a punctuation mark… is it? I actually think my favorite punctuation mark is this… I use it all the time… you know… the three periods… in… a… row… I don’t really know why… or what it’s purpose is… it’s kind of like… you know… a pause… in the sentence… what’s it called? An ellipse?!?!?
LikeLike
*singing loudly*
“Once upon a time I was falling in love
Now I’m only falling apart.
Nothing I can say,
A total *ellipse* (sic) of the heart.”
You seem to like ellipses.
A lot. 😉
LikeLike
I’m a big fan of the elusive semi-colon, as well. A punctuation mark so mysterious it used to be a question mark.
LikeLike
It’s true; the way the semi-colon functions has changed over the years. 😉
LikeLike
—I’m madly in love w/ commas, but semi colons turn my crank, too.
I’d like to marry them :)))
O, and I loooooooooooooove love love VERBS. Xxx I dream about them…
LikeLike
Kim:
Methinks you like the em dash, too.
LikeLike
I don’t favor any punctuation marks with either my head or heart, but I sure do favor exclamation marks with my use!
LikeLike
I know! You are filled with such JOY!
LikeLike
This song is amazing. I use semi-colons all the time, but I’m not sure if I’m always using them properly. I went to a hippie college, so I take all kinds of liberties with the English language, and then I go hug a tree and make a friendship bracelet for a flower and everything is okay.
LikeLike
Julie, your comment (a) made me laugh and (b) inspired me to post this video. Turns out hippieness is genetic, even if latent–I totally didn’t teach him this! 🙂
LikeLike
Omigosh! That video is fabulous!
Why don’t we all do that?
Every day?
Talk about showing love and respect for all of creation.
And Deb, please note, there are lots of exclamation points in there for you!
LikeLike
Jules! Check out Leanne’s lesson for middle schoolers above.
Her “Grammar Tree Pose” exercise shows how folks are supposed to use a semi-colon properly.
Think of it as linking two closely related sentences.
You don’t want the long, hard stop of a period. You want a rolling stop. Like a speed bump or something. Just enough to slow you down a bit.
SENTENCE; sENTENCE.
Simple as that.
LikeLike
I have an addiction to ellipsis marks – (the 3-dot method). Is there a 12-step program for that?
LikeLike
Do you think we need a 12-step program?
Because… ellipses… can… add… a lot… of…
…anticipation.
You know. 😉
LikeLike
Unlike Ironic Mom, I was unable to give up ellipses for Lent.
I love them. Use them with joyful abandon. In places I can and spots I probably shouldn’t…
Oooh, and commas. I love me some commas…
LikeLike
My mother goes crazy with the ellipses.
But then she also writes in opposite cap lock.
yOU KNOW LIKE THIS. wHEN THE FIRST LETTER IS NOT CAPITALIZED BUT EVERYTHING ELSE IS.
eXCEPT FOR sOME RANDOM LETTER HERE AND THERE.
Drives me bonkers.
Plus I always feel like I’m being yelled at. 😉
LikeLike
When I saw “sexy” and “colon” in the title I thought this post was going to go in a completely different direction. But all humor aside, I do enjoy a good semi-colon, but my own grammatical fetish has got to be the “em” dash. It’s too bad that on browser-based applications I have to settle for measly hyphen flanked by single spaces; just doesn’t do the narrative moment justice. But that’s life, I guess. Maybe the “em” dash will be WordPress’s next…great…feature.
But what about the regular colon, sans semi? Can you have two colons in the same sentence? I used to think that would be the equivalent of mixing Coke with Pepsi, or crossing the streams of your Ghostbuster proton pack; you just don’t do it. But then I saw David Foster Wallace use multiple colons in the same sentences, and although it looked strange at first I had to admit he colon-ized to great effect.
LikeLike
Mark:
So weird that you just mentioned putting TWO colons in one sentence because I did that today (albeit accidentally), and I thought: Are people even allowed to do that? I’ve never seen it done, but now I’ll have to check out how Wallace manages to pull it off.
I’ll like to feel like I could colon-ize, if necessary.
LikeLike
Pingback: The Difference Between Colons and Semi-colons « bardicblogger