August 30, 2006

  • I saw a blogring today called "Christian's For Social Justice". It's maddening. Not the "Christian" part or the "For Social Justice" part; but rather, the pathetic punctuation. I bet there's a "Christian's For Proper Punctuation" blogring somewhere out there.

    *Sigh*

    P.S. I know that some of you will be tempted to correct my usage of the period after "Christian's For Social Justice". See, there it is again. If you're American, you'd be right. You guys put everything inside quotations. Everything. And that's okay. But us Canadians (and all other English speaking nations) have different rules for when particular punctuation will go inside--or outside--the quotation mark. Ok, I'm done.

Comments (24)

  • Whoa...down tiger.

  • haha! grammar and punctuation, are things that me and you cant put up with.

  • I am a stickler for good grammar as well. 

  • calm down, get someone to rub your tummy and you repeat "wusa" several time.

  • Dear Drew,
    I'm much appreciative of this post with the exception of the post-script regarding aMERicans. Anyone who has read Strunk & White would agree with your usage of the period--that's how all of my English papers were graded in Michigan. Keep being a snob about grammar and about Canada too...when it's necessary.
    Yours truly,
    Talitha

  • "Ok, I'm done."

    HA.  You're not done, and you'll never be.  Bad punctuation will haunt you til the day you die.  I know it, and you know it.  It's just your cross to bear.

    (I almost wrote, "Its just you're cross too bare" but couldn't do it.)

  • unfortunately your P.S. reveals the pathetic relativity of punctuation in the first place. it's all man-made. this doesn't negate the truth of what you're saying, it just undercuts the fatality of it i guess.

  • you are hilarious.    when you wrote "maddening", i thought, 'oh my, what is he going to go off on.... let's see', and then it was due to the punctuation.  that is just so funny to me.  i mean, i'm not the only one!  ha ha.

    hey, thanks for the "yarmulke".... i appreciate it.  i was just going on how it sounded when adam sandler would sing his songs, but now that i have been enlightened, i am truly grateful. 

  • i hate american quotation mark rules, though i am one myself. an american, not a quotation mark or its rule. i am typing in all lower case to signify my rebellion. rise, o teeming masses, yearning for spelling with x's (connexion) and single to double rather than double to single quotes ('""', rather than "''")! i'm so badass.

  • Ahem.  Don't even try to smote me, Canadian.   

  • ithinkweshouldgetridofallpunctuationcapitalizationandspacingwhatdoyouthink

  • I think I'd call you Gertrude Stein. And then I'd slap you silly.

  • I think your students will be thrilled.

  • Guilty as charged, being Afrikaans is quite the handicap when it comes to proper grammar and spelling. If it wasn't for Microsoft Word I would be in more trouble than usual.

  • haha yeah man, spelling and grammer will haunt us all in the new age of instant electronic communication p.s panda and me don't need microsoft word, we both have an incredible spelling and grammer correcting bear.

  • I think our punctuation rules were dictated to us by the publishing industry.

  • I agree with Talitha. It probably goes back to 2nd or 3rd grade, but my experience in learning quotation mark punctuation is that sometimes they go inside other marks, sometimes they don't, depending on what the rules govern. I was shocked to hear that you think that stupid Americans put everything inside, I've never heard of such a thing.

  • Hey now! I never said Americans were stupid for what they did. I learned that Americans put the end punctuation inside quotation marks, regardless. Perhaps I learned incorrectly? But I seem to remember learning that in American school, too. Alas. It's all good

  • Perhaps over time people got lazy and started teaching it differently. The public schools in America are typically horrendous especially in cities, and there seems to be a trend towards "dumbing down" curriculum to comply with performance standards, which have become pathetically low to begin with. Which is why my child will never attend public school as long as we're still able to eat. I'd rather take the city bus across town to his parochial or otherwise private school than own a car to take him to public. I know people who's public school education was great, but that was also many years ago and the world was different. And he'll wear a uniform and he'll learn math, science (the only anatomy kids learn these days is how to put a condom on a cucumber), history, and latin. But don't get me started on a tangent or anything.

  • Thanks for doing the music at the wedding!! It was great.  Did my mom give you the card that I left with her??

  • i dont care much about grammer. but i think its good to know
    when you have to write something formal. but im pretty sure
    i learned everything goes inside the quotes. there were all those
    rules we had to follow~ especially when writing the
    bibliography. ugh.

  • you're fab.

  • du bist der mann!

  • Tee Hee Hee!

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