Shmoolikipod
Stranger to the Light
Electric kettle man has won the gameshow. Justice in the world!
I like it too, but, if one of them has to go... It's biggest purpose is being a middle step between a comma and a colon, and you can get by just fine using those instead. It's useful, it's also pointless.Man, the semicolon is one of my favorite punctuation marks; it is nothing but useful, yet never given its proper dues.
It's useful; it's also pointless.
I really like this idea, I looked it up and someone proposed this already. I will say that when I'm writing I'll often do something like this:One more thing... Question marks/exclamation marks with commas at the bottom. Who in the world decided that I need an awkward period-length pause just because I used a question word 20 words ago, that makes no sense to me. The comma in the last sentence is exactly where I'd put my question mark comma hybrid. I purposefully use a lot of commas to intend a certain tone, and whenever I write a question in that tone, I need to choose between keeping my flow, and announcing the question? And using an unholy abomination like "?," ? Fuck that!
...the question mark indicating tone but the lowercase B representing that the sentence isn't over.It could also be even weaker than a comma depending on your perspective, I guess? but I don't really agree with that.
I do that too, very rarely, but it feels like once the question mark is there, the damage is already done......the question mark indicating tone but the lowercase B representing that the sentence isn't over.
I know I share this sentiment and I'm sure we're not alone in this. I've seen people write that they don't like using capital letters because they are "intimidating". That's a synonym for "I want to keep it casual", as far as I'm concerned. I don't know anything about the history of the semicolon, but I wouldn't be surprised if it, too, is a victim of this thinking, and it just died earlier for being less vital...Also for what it's worth, I rarely use the semicolon online (I could've used it when I said "I really like this idea;") because I feel like it's a bit too formal. Its best use IMO is in actual writing where you're expecting a far less casual tone.
Yeah absolutely. I mean if you had to choose the 'least important' punctuation mark, the semicolon is pretty much the obvious choice. You can pretty easily leave it out of your writing because it only has two main uses: joining two sentences with related ideas into one, and clarifying a list that uses commas within the list items themselves.I know I share this sentiment and I'm sure we're not alone in this. I've seen people write that they don't like using capital letters because they are "intimidating". That's a synonym for "I want to keep it casual", as far as I'm concerned. I don't know anything about the history of the semicolon, but I wouldn't be surprised if it, too, is a victim of this thinking, and it just died earlier for being less vital...
Didn't know about this, I'll have a read!Also I will say that the semicolon's role as a symbol for self-harm/suicide survivors is really cool. My partner got it as his second tattoo and it looks dope (now assimilated into a larger leg piece).