“I came to the semi-colon late, and, like many people, I fret before using it in anything other than lists.”
—Ian Jack (former editor of Granta), for The Guardian.
The Oatmeal, a veritable website for well-illustrated humor and occasional literary commentary (see The Oatmeal’s explanation of Twilight here), now coaxes us all to use the little mark a little more with an essential guide to semicolon punctuation.
If, after reading the strip, we really were to type the phrase “The ice cream truck man drove by my house today. He had big hairy knuckles,” we could pause for a moment before remembering The Oatmeal’s wisdom, shout “EUREKA!” then backspace and insert a semicolon.
Vonnegut stated that using a semicolon only proves you went to college. But at least we could have that. I have gone to college, Vonnegut, and I am graduating soon.
For more, see The Oatmeal’s illustrated guide to the apostrophe, as well as frequently misspelled words.
via Laughing Squid
Tags: college, humor, punctuation
Leave a comment