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        riddles >> easy >> Punctuation Exercise
        
(Message started by: THUDandBLUNDER on May 8^th, 2005, 5:53pm)

Title: Punctuation Exercise
Post by THUDandBLUNDER on May 8^th, 2005, 5:53pm

dear jack i want a man who knows what love is all about you are generous kind thoughtful people who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior you have ruined me for other men i yearn for you i have no feelings whatsoever when we are apart i can be forever happy will you let me be yours jill

Title: Re: Punctuation Exercise
Post by Speaker on May 8^th, 2005, 7:21pm

Here is the unhappy truth
[hideb]Dear Jack
I want a man who knows what love is. All about you, are generous, kind, thoughtful people who are not like you. Admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me. For other men, I yearn. For you, I have no feelings whatsoever. When we are apart I can be forever happy. Will you let me be?
Yours Jill
[/hideb]
Here is the happy, but slightly wonky, version
[hideb]
Dear Jack
I want a man who knows what love is all about. You are generous. Kind thoughtful people, who are not like you, admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me for other men. I yearn for you. I have no feelings whatsoever when we are apart. I can be forever happy. Will you let me be yours?
Jill[/hideb]

Title: Re: Punctuation Exercise
Post by towr on May 9^th, 2005, 2:09am

For the happy version, I'd have chosen the following lines differently
[hide]You are generous, kind, thoughtful. People, who are not like you, admit to being useless and inferior. [/hide]
I think it makes slightly more sense

Title: Re: Punctuation Exercise
Post by SMQ on May 9^th, 2005, 6:29am

Towr, I don't think you need [hide]the commas around "who are not like you"[/hide]; the clause acts as a simple adjective, not an appositive.

--SMQ

Title: Re: Punctuation Exercise
Post by towr on May 9^th, 2005, 6:48am

Actually, I just forgot to remove them. Score another point for copy-paste for making me look stupid :P

Title: Re: Punctuation Exercise
Post by rmsgrey on May 9^th, 2005, 9:17am

So I'm just wondering whether I should bother fetching one of the several copiesof "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" we have lying around to check the canonical versions. From memory, Towr is closer.

Title: Re: Punctuation Exercise
Post by Speaker on May 9^th, 2005, 11:29pm

I agree towr, that is better.
Regarding commas, I guess I can agree with that. I always put commas around clauses, probably too much. Something I have heard recently is that there is a trend to use commas less. Has anybody else heard of this?

It might not be a recent trend, I remember reading an essay about it that mentions something like, "that comma is to allow them time to stand after finishing their meal." This was the reason for having a comma where the editor thought it was not necessary.

Title: Re: Punctuation Exercise
Post by towr on May 10^th, 2005, 1:50am

on 05/09/05 at 23:29:18, Speaker wrote:

Regarding commas, I guess I can agree with that. I always put commas around clauses, probably too much. Something I have heard recently is that there is a trend to use commas less. Has anybody else heard of this?

Well, if we go by what we can see on most of the internet, there is a distinct trend to not use any punctuation or capitalization, or even attempts to spell properly. ;D

Oh, something interesting I noticed while using Konqueror (a linux browser) it has build in spell-check! Of course that still doesn't help any with punctuation.

Title: Re: Punctuation Exercise
Post by Speaker on May 10^th, 2005, 1:57am

It's true that grammar and punctuation are ignored in many areas on the Internet. But, we have new punctuation to replace them; the smiley. Not the best trade off, but it does seem to be a kind of evolution.