September 24th is National Punctuation Day!

September 24, 2010

National Punctuation Day!  It’s the day to remind ourselves as we’re texting “ur” and “u” and “???” that we do need to pay attention to punctuation when we are writing emails and letters outside of our texting conversations.  It’s the “celebration of the lowly comma, correctly used quotation marks, and other proper uses of periods, semi-colons, and the ever-mysterious ellipsis” and this year is the 7th Annual National Punctuation Day. 

Wikihow has a great article on the proper use of the question mark.  (How do I use that?) here http://www.wikihow.com/Use-Question-Marks-Correctly but I am really fond of the official site myself http://www.nationalpunctuationday.com/. 

According to the official site (and since it’s official, we should probably look upon them as experts) here is the best way to celebrate National Punctuation Day…

• Sleep late.
• Take a long shower or bath.
• Go out for coffee and a bagel (or two).
• Read a newspaper and circle all of the punctuation errors you find (or think you find, but aren’t sure) with a red pen.
• Take a leisurely stroll, paying close attention to store signs with incorrectly punctuated words.
• Stop in those stores to correct the owners.
• If the owners are not there, leave notes.
• Visit a bookstore and purchase a copy of Strunk & White’s The Elements of Style.
• Look up all the words you circled.
• Congratulate yourself on becoming a better written communicator.
• Go home.
• Sit down.
• Write an error-free letter to a friend.
• Take a nap. It has been a long day.

Enjoy!