Comments on: How to Use Punctuation Correctly

By: Aminul Islam Sajib

Aminul Islam Sajib — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 08:13:20 +0000

I’m still confused where to use semicolon and where not to use. :-/

By: Bang Kritikus

Bang Kritikus — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 11:01:12 +0000

Thanks Mr. Daniel

By: jairy

jairy — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 09:28:06 +0000

now i know how to use the correct uses of punctuation and now i knwing that the panctuation mark has many different

By: Rehuel

Rehuel — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 10:06:30 +0000

I’m not sure how close you should keep this “tutorial”. As soon as I find something disputable, I lose trust in something that is supposed to be an authority (or at least it pretends to be.

About the colon the writer says: “Use only after a noun.” And then gives the following example:
The professor has given me three options: to retake…

Is he/she saying that I can/should not use a colon if the sentence was something like “The professor has given me three options to think about: to retake…”

I’m not sure how much to trust this how-to, but I’ll try to find out.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 21:53:41 +0000

I would add that if you want to make sure you get your punctuation correct then be aware of your audience.

If your audience is outside the US then many of the rules will differ; for example, in British English punctuation is not placed inside quotations as a rule but placed according to context.

By: George

George — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 01:02:20 +0000

I just wanted to chime back in. While I am not happy with my grammar, that’s because I tend to be a bit hard on myself sometimes. My wife said my grammar is actually pretty good (so did Daniel).

I have visited blogs where the grammar and punctuation were so bad, I just couldn’t read it. I think the occasional grammar mistake, and the occasional mispelling is ok.

But doooing someething; like – thisss… just, make’s thing’s — to difficult too reed@!

By: Bes

Bes — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 21:49:23 +0000

If one cannot reread their posts because they feel bored reading their own posts repeatedly, one thing to do is to take a long break and come back to read the post. After a while, you will probably read the post as if it was a bit new and not something that is still completely fresh on your mind. That will allow you to look at it and focus on the way the message is conveyed instead of on the idea.

I know a few blogs where the bloggers have the most wonderful ideas, but they either write fast or somehow forget to edit things, and the punctuation and other grammar mistakes grab more attention than the idea of the post itself, unless the post itself was written to demonstrate mistakes in posts. 🙂

By: Daniel

Daniel — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 09:48:25 +0000

Staska, I had already seen that research, and also find it interesting.

The fact that people can understand what you write even if you don’t write it perfectly does not mean you should not aim for having a very clear and correct writing style, in my opinion.

Sure I can understand when someone has a lot of typos and gramma mistakes on his blog, but I will perceive that blog more as a “personal gig” than as something professional like TechCrunch.

By: George

George — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 20:45:15 +0000

I am pretty sure I made a grammar mistake on the last post I wrote on my blog. I should have been more clear in my comment.

I was just kidding in my first comment, except that my mom was an English teacher. The only funny thing about that is she taught the guy who played Mater in the movie Cars (Larry the Cable Guy or Dan Whitney as we called him in school).

By: Dawud Miracle

Dawud Miracle — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 20:01:58 +0000

Nice post, Daniel. Thanks for adding this. I actually didn’t know the different uses between a dash and a hyphen. But it makes sense that there would be different uses.

By: Edward Wolf

Edward Wolf — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 19:31:49 +0000

Very useful post. It never hurts to be refreshed on the basics.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 19:26:32 +0000

George, looks like you made them to reinforce your point!

When I read your blog I hardly notice grammar mistakes, nothing major I guess then.

By: George

George — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 19:20:21 +0000

Also, I was fairly sure I made some grammar mistakes in my last post. I just didn’t care.

Maybe, I should care…

By: George

George — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 19:16:17 +0000

I, have very; poor grammar: sometimes I have my… wife fix it; but i PROBABLY should learn grammar better.

My mom was an english Teacher growing up and I kind of rebelled against learning : proper grammar because of that.

However, I now realize that I love’ writing? So, i should take the time to learn proper grammar It;s kind of funny timing: since my wife – and I were discussing this very thing last. night.

Thanks – Daniel,

By: Mike Panic

Mike Panic — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 18:32:10 +0000

I still screw some of it up, thankfully F7 (spell check) in Word saves most of it.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 17:00:27 +0000

Yeah, one thing that people tend to do is to use commans on the wrong places. They either overuse it or don’t use it at all :).

By: Peter

Peter — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 16:02:58 +0000

Whoops. I need to clean up my use of punctuation. Good post. Thank you

By: Beth

Beth — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 15:53:02 +0000

If only all college students knew this stuff…sigh.

By: Lilly

Lilly — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 15:23:11 +0000

It is very important especially if you’re running a business. When you’re a business owner, or on the staff and you have poor grammar, spelling or representation of yourself. You’re essentially saying your boss is an idiot for hiring an idiot and why should you even bother working or buying from him if he cant even hire someone with a basic understanding of the english language.

By: Amanda

Amanda — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 15:21:46 +0000

Thats why I have my friend Amy edit my posts since no matter how many times I look at something I know what it is meant to say so I’ll mush it together and read what its suppose to say where she has an objective view.