Allotments 4 All

 The use of the comma? Bring back the semi-colon.... :(

Ah but Lish, the semi-colon is nowt but a stronger comma and its use is definitely not frowned upon ;D

It's very handy in a speech, it gives you time to have a quick sip of water... :D

End of the day....does correct punctuation really matter? REALLY? Yep, I accept that there are sentences where a ',' or whatever can alter the meaning, but...generally? Or is it just a big yawn and irrelevance  in  modes of communication today?

i too think there should be more use of the semi colon.
that is how i describe the sexing of kittens ;D but no one knows what one looks like now :(
little girlies look like upside down exclamation marks,
little boys look like semi colons ;)
tis true!

the worst i ever saw was a classy sign for a slimming club or summat (you know the sort, painted in black gloss on a piece of cardboard and displayed at random roundabouts?)
apparently not everyone knows what an exclamation mark looks like, so the sign read;
'lose weight fastiiiiiiii
call to find out howiiiiiiii'
or very similar.
i am still laughing about it now ;D
my worst habit that i know of is using lower case permanently.
i am such a rebel :P

Days of the week, months of the year have cap's...not here in Belgium. All in lower case, boy, do I get into trouble over that one!
66 and 99 mistakes used to mean a ruler over the knuckles, these days just a quick smudge of either seems to be accepted.

I've been scared to death of adding anything to this thread because I'm bound to make some mistake's ;D, but I guess a good analogy might be with food: language is a necessary part of life and those who have an interest in it will take care to make the best use of it, as with food. There are of course, varying degrees of enthusiasm, and even obsessions, which are mostly unhelpful. While it gives satisfaction to do it right, I'm not averse to occasionally splitting an infinitive. Or to starting a sentence with a conjunction, just as I'm not too fussy which particular herd of cattle the milk came from when I make white sauce. Those with no interest in food don't die from starvation do they? I suppose what I'm trying to say is, to each their own. Just took a long time to say it.  ;D

Geoff.

Quote from: kenkew on January 26, 2007, 18:13:25

66 and 99 mistakes used to mean a ruler over the knuckles, these days just a quick smudge of either seems to be accepted.

ROFL at that.....worthy of Watershed ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

Lynne Truss's book, "Eats Shoots and Leaves" makes good humous reading about punctuation, as well as being informative.

I think rules regarding punctuation, etc.  changes and what was not accepted, say 50 years ago, is OK now.  I was taught that  using a comma when using "and", the comma should goes after!

Most of the rules I learnt about punctuation were drummed into me whilst learning to type as us girls were expected to correct the boss's errors.

Do do remember many years back my daughter came home with a notice from her school, which we had to sign.  My OH was so appalled at the bad English, he corrected it before returning it, much to the embarrassment of daughter!

Quote from: Alishka_Maxwell on January 26, 2007, 19:33:50

Quote from: kenkew on January 26, 2007, 18:13:25

66 and 99 mistakes used to mean a ruler over the knuckles, these days just a quick smudge of either seems to be accepted.

ROFL at that.....worthy of Watershed ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

Lish....Go and stand in the corner....and take this pointed hat with you! :-*

Nice one, euronerd  ;D