Commas ,and other punctuation

[niadainud]

I'm sure I'll get absolutely flamed ,so please rest assured that I don't stay awake at night worrying about this and it is ( semi) light-hearted) ,but why do people use commas like this ? And question marks like this ? Never mind ,,,,this ,whatever that means. And brackets ( or parentheses) like this ?

You won't see these usages in any published text ,be it a newspaper ,magazine ,novel or reference book ,so where has it come from ? Surely people's phones don't do it automatically !

Crikey ,that was almost painful.

Most europeans write like this! I worked on a book with a French lass, spent hours removing spaces so that the punctuation wasn't floating!

Maybe it is normal in their language.... I am guilty of using the same punctuation rules as in another European language I speak... And I spent many happy days with my Spanish teacher lecturing me on the necessity of using inverted exclamation and question marks....
My only pet peeve is people writing in a way I have above. Full stops exist!

Dont get me started on apostrophe's !

Surely people's phones don't do it automatically ! Sometimes they do it automatically when you select a word using predictive text. It’s a hassle to backspace to type a comma

In French we leave a space before ! and ?

My phone has a will of its own so if what I’ve written is understandable then I won’t spend time correcting it if it’s an MN post or quick informal message.

I used to lecture. A LOT of the young people on my course significantly overused commas! Not sure why or where they've learnt this from! But it seems to be a thing with the youth of today!!

I have a colleague who often leaves spaces in strange places, and generally around punctuation. She thinks through her fingers, and when she types, she finds herself naturally pausing at a punctuation point, can't remember whether she's put a space or not, so puts a space before the next thing she types. It drives me mad (because it's often on client facing documents - reports, presentations, proposals etc - and I find myself correcting it before I can sense check or properly proof read it).

I often seem to get a rogue space before a question mark when typing on my phone. If I can be bothered I remove it, but if I'm having eg a long WhatsApp chat with someone I tend not to.

I know in French it is correct to leave a space before a question mark or exclamation mark. But not in English!

Oh yes... the "stream of consciousness" style... Really annoying...

Makes me cringe. With spaces, I find that even if I select a word from predicted text then put punctuation after it automatically corrects it to have no space. So I don't know how other phones leave a space.

When they write lists,like,this,too. And use ellipses with just two full stops like this.. and not this... or more....... 😅

Let's not start with there, their and they're. Or when to use to, too and you're.

I know exactly what you mean about sense check. Poor punctuation absolutely destroys the sense and the flow for me and slows me right down.

Idiosyncratic punctuation, such as putting "inverted commas" in illogical places, is also highly irritating and makes the writer "look" a bit "deranged" imo.

People who use semi-colons when they need to use colons. I don’t know why it really annoys me!

Phones automatically do all sorts of stuff. They're a pretty poor device for inputting formal written language.
Make sure people use a proper device and pay attention to all those wiggly red and green underlines.

Phones are amazing for computer mediated communications ( CMC ) :

Fast input when your keyboard is only the width of 3 proper keys~no problem~we have predictive text

Extra spaces because you are communicating with a wider and more diverse audience ~ considered good manners , ( also helps prevent line wrapping )

Too many full stops ... so what , it conveys nuance , same as missing full stops , wouldn't want to seem rude or abrupt

Pictures to prevent mis-communication

Did I miss many ?
Yes, I missed the line wrap because I am long sighted 😜

Space before the comma instead of after bugs me too.

Me too.

It’s a hassle to backspace to type a comma

It isn't. I always correct any errors in punctuation when I'm typing.

I do not think that people are taught the correct use of commas, colons and semicolons nowadays.

I can't say I haven't lost the ability to know the correct use of a semicolon. Now I just think about someone who's had bariatric surgery!
I used to be an A* English student. Now I feel like I can't punctuate or spell as well as I used to. I blame the bloody internet. 🤣

Viz the whole of my OP...

I do on a proper keyboard but not on a phone.

Now I feel like I can't punctuate or spell as well as I used to. I blame the bloody internet.

I don't know whether it's my aging memory or the ease of checking spelling that has diminished my ability. It's bluddy annoying and sumwhat wurrying.