Friday, March 1, 2013

Punc--EEK!

Let's face it: punctuation is geeky. Nerdy even. But without it all our sentences would run together we wouldnt understand each other I mean itd be a big mess wouldnt it

You don't know how hard it was for me to write that last bit! My point is, punctuation serves a purpose, just as traffic lights do. Punc keeps the traffic from tangling up, tells us when to take a mental breath, and indicates emotion.

Entire tomes have been written on punctuation. My personal fave is Eats, Shoots, and Leaves by Lynne Truss, but there are plenty of others. I'm not going to join the crowd, but from time to time I'm going to offer some simple primers. Yes, you can still leave the complicated stuff to your editor, and no, I won't get into the serial comma. Still, your editor will love you if you get the complicated stuff right, and the serial comma is fun to argue about.

Today I offer a primer on punctuating basic dialogue. Let's start with a simple declarative sentence.

"I'm hungry," said Mary. Note the double quotes, the comma before the end quote, and the lower case s in said. Okay so far? Let's try another.

"I'm hungry," said Mary. "When is supper?"  In this instance, note that we keep the period after Mary and use opening quotes before When. That's because the two bits of dialogue are separate sentences. Also note that the question mark is inside the end quote. So far, so good.

"I'm hungry!" said Mary. Everything is the same as in the first example, except that we've used an exclamation point instead of a comma. ALERT: grammar check programs will often insist that the s of said should be capitalized. They are wrong. They often insist the same following a question mark ("When is supper?" said Mary.),  and they are still wrong.

That wasn't so bad, was it? Next week we'll try splitting a sentence and see how that gets punctuated.

No homework, but you get points if you can explain the reference in the title.





 

13 comments:

  1. Thanks for the great lesson Nikki! I have a problem as you said with serial commas. I don't understand when to use them or when I am over using them. My editor at MS kept taking them out and I kept putting them back. Karen Ann

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    1. Hey Karen,I'm glad you stopped in. At their simplest, serial commas are based on house rules. Some publishers prefer "red, white and blue" while others insist on "red, white, and blue." For more complex situations, I use the comma when it clarifies the text, and leave it out if the text is clear without it.

      I'll get to comma usage eventually. For now, just rely on your editor!

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  2. Serials commas, ugh. Some people use them; some don't. I have to keep a style book for each periodical I edit. Although there are rules, as you point out, a lot of punctuation is stylistic, personal and debatable. If I had my drothers, I'd say as long as it reads smoothly and is understandable, it's fine. Ciao.

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    1. Hi Julie!
      True, there is plenty of latitude for personal style in punc. I use more commas than other writers I know. The thing is, the rules form the basis for style. If, we all, went around inserting,commas where we like,like, it wouldn't read smoothly and make sense.

      But let's not argue about that. I like you too much to fight over a comma!

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  3. Fun to read this, Nikki. As a longtime English teacher, I always go crazy with students writing "Go away," He said--with the capital H. Someone should correct the grammar-check program on Word!
    Thanks for all this! Nicely said.

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    1. Totally agree, Nancy. If Sister Mary Mary were still alive, she'd take her ruler to that programmer.

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  5. Hi, Nikki. Love the post. As you know, my editor extraordinaire, I get the serial commas and the use of commas in dialogue. I'm awaiting anxiously the post on the use of commas with compound sentences and conjunctions. Back to edits. Later, Rita

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    1. Oh, we'll get to that eventually, Rita. Right now I'm working through the permutations of dialogue punc, because unlike you, many folks seem utterly befuddled by it.

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    2. Hi Nikki, enjoyed your post.

      Jan

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  6. Looking forward to all your helpful posts, Nikki!

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    1. Thanks, Romy. Feel free to send me questions--I'll get to them eventually.

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  7. Nikki, kept me informed of when you have mmore of these. Thanks.
    Linda

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