Happy Punctuation Day!

My sister, Kathryn, wrote on her blog today about her musician geekiness. I thought I'd continue the geek-theme by wishing you all a very happy holiday. My dad, a writer/editor/word-lover/English-major, got a phone call early this morning. My sister, Lisa, and all of her kids said in unison, "Happy National Punctuation Day, Grandpa!"

And I am left to wonder: How could I not have known about this day? My whole family rejoices in good writing. My sister-in-law, Laura, admits that she "loves a well-placed bit of punctuation." (It took me waaay too long to find that old status update on Facebook, but I had to quote it correctly!)

It should be noted that I majored in science and I really don't know the rules of writing like I should. But I don't text and I don't Twitter. Avoiding those things helps me remember that punctuation matters. When I chat online, I use capitalization and punctuation (even when my friends say things like, "i c ur bsy c-ya"). So I'm trying. I really am. I make lots of mistakes. For example, a couple of weeks ago I wrote a lengthy note on Facebook that included the word patriotical. Ha ha ha. I think it's a strange mix of patriotic and patriarchal, which are two words only a Mormon could confuse. (That's just a little joke.) Of course, we're talking about punctuation, not words. We'll discuss words a different day.

So, this smile and wink are for all of you who remember that punctuation is there to clarify the meaning of the sentence, not to show emotion. :-)  and ;-)

Read this article for some fun and let's resolve together (as suggested in the newspaper):

• I will use the apostrophe to show possession, not to pluralize a word.
• But I will not use the apostrophe to show possession in the word its.
• I will use the exclamation point sparingly.