Punctuation

[GrandDesespoir]

AIBU to wonder why people make up their own personal rules for punctuation when this usually only has the effect of obfuscating what they're trying to say? (NB I'm not talking about established writers who have done this like James Joyce and e e cummings.)

I'm thinking of things like random spaces before exclamation or question marks, unnecessary capital letters, words in quotation marks when they have no need to be, and (my pet peeve) completely eshewing punctuation in favour of an ersatz stream-of-consciousness style with loosely-connected (or completely incoherent) thoughts separated by an indiscriminate number of dots.

Nobody suddenly decides they're going to start writing 1.2 when they actually mean 12, or 3 x 3 = 6 when they mean 3 + 3, so why do some people apparently think they should use punctuation differently to everybody else?

Pot....kettle.......did you see what I did there.... .... ... .. .

Eschew

Please, OP, tell us about the people who you claim to know, who deliberately use punctuation wrongly, because they think they are a bit spesh?

Anyway, tell us more about the people you know who do this, and why it is you are asking a bunch of strangers on the internet, rather than the people you actually know?

My boss does this and it makes his emails annoying to read and sometimes difficult to understand clearly. I've also seen it quite a few times on Facebook. I'm asking a bunch of strangers on the internet because I thought I might get some interesting answers (rather than being repeatedly attacked for daring to use some obscure words).

I think that's stylistic rather than hard 'n' fast rule Maid.

Whether it adds clarity to your message is another question, though.

1. Speak to your boss about it - we can't know why he does it.
2. Facebook is not known for its brilliance in English - are you certain people there are mispunctuating deliberately? What happened when you asked them why they did it?
3. You are being repeatedly attacked not for daring to use some obscure words, but for coming across as being superior and disingenuous.

Paloma and your dad is right, it is different from.

Social media is one thing, I don't expect perfection, but I would at work. I do work in publishing, though - but we are starting to get through young things who don't know correct grammar and punctuation, which is an issue. Having to argue with a young editor about the difference between definite and indefinite articles is not a conversation I expect to have at work.

Thing is, it depends why you are writing. If you are writing a job application you would be more likely to use standard punctuation. If you are posting something on the Internet I think it's quite acceptable to write how you speak. No one really talks using correct punctuation do they?

Ooh the OP used an Oxford comma, could be controversial!

I was reading an old book very recently - unsure how old, late 19th century possibly. All semicolons, question marks and an exclamation mark had a space before them; the space could be coming from somewhere official ?

@TizzyDongue I do like a nice Oxford comma!

Some of the spacing will be typesetting issues - this is why the standard amongst adult books (it's different for kids' books) is to have single quotes, not double - takes up less space, thus uses less paper (which is the biggest manufacturing cost). The US still use double quotes as standard.

Oh stop giving the OP a hard time; her word choice really wasn't obscure.

My phone puts in spaces before semi-colons, question marks and so on as it's French and I believe correct practice in the French language.

Spaces are a French thing it turns out. Those crazy French and their free and easy use of spaces.

Absolutely brilliant that you fucked up in your OP.

I use a lot of ... ,sometimes even more than 3. Because I want to. It`s that simple.

Why would you intentionally use incorrect phrasing when you are trying to berate people for incorrect use of language? You are on the Internet, so we have nothing but the words you use to go on. So right back at you.

I can't say I'm that bothered. It depends on context though.

E.g. texts/messages/forums, I really couldn't give a damn. I often write (non) sentences that start with 'but' so are actually a subordinate clause. Then again I also haven't got time to deal with people who nit pick replies for SPAG either. It gets a mental eye roll from me.

But, if it's a formal piece of writing then it should be written using appropriate conventions and follow all the rules of standard English grammar and punctuation.

Today 22:55 WaitrosePigeon

Absolutely brilliant that you fucked
up in your OP.

It's called karma. And she answered her own question by doing so

OP does have a point.
One example that I've often seen is the use of 's to denote a plural, but not consistently. There seems to me to be a peculiar school of thought that applies 's especially when the noun ends in a vowel. So you'll see radio's and televisions or ticks and flea's.
The words "Mum" and Mom" also seem to be frequently rendered plural with an alarming apostrophe, although I wonder if this is often an autocorrect error.

Maybe because life is ever so, ever so short.

Cross post with Babypassport about French punctuation.

It's not that the word usage was obscure or particularly sesquipedalian; it's just sometimes the lexicon of a post (more often than not pertaining to education) has a feel of 'try hard' about it. Overall when it doesn't read smoothly, because the word choice doesn't fit particularly well, it really does seem that certain words have been used deliberately to seem superior.

So why do some people consistently leave a space before puncuation marks? Or separate every thought/sentence with three or four dots? I've seen both of these several times - perhaps they've all copied from the same source; who knows...?

Is it not spelled punctuation anymore?

Tizzy YOU USED MY FAVOURITE WORD!!! It's bloody brilliant, isn't it?! Sorry - that was a bit off-topic. As you were!

It's because you're a rebel RebelRogue. Do you leave a space before your multi dotted ellipsis?

It is a fabulous word isn't it FenellaMaxwellsPony.