What the semicolon's anxious supporters fret about is the tendency of contemporary writers to use a dash instead of a semicolon and thus precipitate the end of the world. Are they being alarmist?
So the particular strengths of the colon are beginning to become clear. A colon is nearly always preceded by a complete sentence, and in its simplest usage it rather theatrically announces what is to...
Yes, you can see the bullet points here, here and here, sir; there are multiple back-slashes, of course. And that’s a forward slash. I would have to call this a frenzied attack. Did anyone hear the in...
Texting is a fundamentally sneaky form of communication, which we should despise, but it is such a boon we don't care. We are all sneaks now.
All the important roles shortly boiled down to one: remember your with other people; show some consideration.
Texting is a supremely secretive medium of communication - it's like passing a note - and this means we should be very careful what we use it for.
Inverted commas (or speech marks, or quotes) are sometimes used by fastidious writers as a kind of linguistic rubber glove, distancing them from vulgar words or clichés they are too refined to use in...
No one understands us seventh-sense people. They regard us as freaks. When we point out illiterate mistakes we are often aggressively instructed to get a life by people who, interestingly, display no...
We have a language that is full of ambiguities; we have a way of expressing ourselves that is often complex and elusive, poetic and modulated; all our thoughts can be rendered with absolute clarity if...
Truly good manners are invisible: they ease the way for others, without drawing attention to themselves. It is no accident that the word punctilious (attentive to formality or etiquette) comes from th...
The rule is: don’t use commas like a stupid person. I mean it.
What I have always liked about Brighton is its impersonality. Since the 18th century, people have come, used the place and gone home again.
While we look in horror at a badly punctuated sign, the world carries on around us, blind to our plight. We are like the little boy in who can see dead people, except that we can see dead punctuation...
Clicking on send has its limitations as a system of subtle communication. Which is why, of course, people use so many dashes and italics and capitals (I AM joking!) to compensate. That's why they came...
Punctuation marks are the traffic signals of language: they tell us to slow down, notice this, take a detour, and stop.
My favorite thing in the world is a quiz show, 'University Challenge,' so you can see what kind of sad person I am.
A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.Why? asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly...
To those who care about punctuation, a sentence such as Thank God its Friday (without the apostrophe) rouses feelings not only of despair but of violence. The confusion of the possessive its (no apost...
Some may say that the British are obsessed with class difference and that knowing your apostrophes is a way of belittling the uneducated. To which accusation, I say (mainly), 'Pah!' How can it be a ma...
We read privately, mentally listening to the author's voice and translating the writer's thoughts. The book remains static and fixed; the reader journeys through it.